Should You Re-Brand Your Startup Before Launching? Only If This Trait Applies to Your Business

ByBilly Alsman

Jun 5, 2022 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Brief solution: I did.

Prolonged remedy: Any person who has a model, id, persona or item that has evolved absent from its genesis ought to consider it.

We created the Grapevine AI brand name for the reason that we thought we ended up strictly B2B, advertising with the regular Business SaaS leading-down strategy, a la Salesforce. Focus on CEOs, CROs, directors of sales, and so forth., pursue for a longer period income cycles, but need to have a single shopper with 3,000 salespeople. As an alternative of promoting to 3,000 salespeople all with unique wants of what our product really should do subsequent.

Immediately after conversing with 500-additionally salespeople and interviewing above 1,200 people across client-dealing with positions, we desired the means to also sell bottom-up to the particular person customer. And then scale upwards as a result of merchandise-led advancement. However, the 1 matter we read regularly was that Grapevine AI lacked personality and character and instilled minimal believe in or intrigue.

Similar: 5 Powerful Pre-Launch Strategies for Your Subsequent eCommerce Manufacturer


I began to question the viability of our brand’s ability to link with our opportunity buyers

This was shocking, to say the least, as I beloved the name Grapevine. The origin story was serious, relatable and showcased how I did not have the time or capacity to talk to my wife’s faculty close friend for her new husband’s, aunt’s or 2nd husband’s identify. In other phrases, I had no notion how to tap into the grapevine, nor did I have enough commitment to navigate by means of it.

So I named it Grapevine AI and set out on a mission to develop the to start with AI that makes use of voice to make sure I never experienced to go by means of the grapevine ever yet again. A own assistant that would allow me to capture all the specifics I realized I needed to make improved associations. Technologies that would make certain I could remember them anywhere in the world and at a moment’s detect.

Simply because we were being altering our revenue method to go soon after personal buyers and scaling upwards through businesses, we set out to build a additional nuanced model. A brand name we could personify. We wanted some thing that captured the nostalgia of being connected to simpler occasions. When you realized absolutely everyone about you and you understood them nicely. One thing to overcome the impending social disaster we’re going through, the place we accumulate connections across social media platforms. Where by you know every person but you know no one. So we arrived up with Riley, and we’re positioned to avert this.

Linked: Leading 10 Motives to Rebrand Your Enterprise (Infographic)

Besides standing for Romance Insights and Language Extraction, Riley is a gender-neutral title that will successfully embody our product’s technology. At the exact same time, presenting a quirky, persona-crammed experienced romantic relationship-building experience. Also, we imagine developing an assistant that will empower our network to live the Lifetime of Riley — an existence marked by luxury and carefree attitudes.

We started the transition by strategically identifying what we preferred the brand name to talk. Our brand system required to convey the next humanistic characteristics: trusting, clever, quirky, exceptional, welcoming, nominal, joyful and edgy. We made a colour palette that conveyed a smooth, superior-stop, specialist nevertheless approachable solution.

So, we also desired a new name. And in this working day and time with urls and constrained open up-space of names, it was a substantial job to arrive up with a new name, to say the minimum. We formulated a short checklist of about 75 names about a few dedicated naming sessions. We whittled these 75 down to two dozen by executing some basic trademark lookups and frequently asking our workforce what resonated ideal with them. We are the brand name, and the manufacturer encompasses who we are and what we’re creating. So it was vital to hold the whole group involved. Right before extensive we had been evaluating every thing to the exact five or 6 names. We made the decision to carry out a survey among our early supporters. Those people on our waitlist, and people who had minor to no consciousness of our products. If you want a template of the study, experience free to attain out to me. Just after 250 responses, we experienced our name. Riley. And we cherished it.

Our emblem is multi-purpose but summary. Individuals see what they want to see: a helpful robot smiling at you, Tom Cruise carrying aviators, a smiley deal with, and many others. We get in touch with our emblem the mates, and appear at it as a bird’s-eye watch of two people embracing every single other. The logo is right related to our customized treatment method of the identify Riley. Both of those illustrate becoming related to every other, filling the gaps and a round, relocating ahead movement. This implies that associations are by no means-ending journeys that you take collectively with Riley.

I considered rebranding at this sort of an early phase would be a headache and often wondered why startups would at any time pivot in this kind of a way. But just after our method, landing on a name we enjoy, a brand that has already been described as a likely billion-dollar manufacturer, we are self-assured this training gives us the legs to stand (and operate) into our brand’s potential. I now see the necessity of the soreness we went as a result of. And, I am so joyful we had the opportunity to do this pre-launch. I will reiterate one thing a friend of mine at the time instructed me: if there is any doubt, there’s no doubt. In other words, if you believe you have to have to make a change, a improve should really be built.

Linked: What’s In A Title: 5 Issues To Think about When Rebranding A …

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