A community doesn't need to be formed on digital platforms or physical spaces. Community is built from creating unity around shared values. The brand should be infused throughout the experience. Find ways to create community and a feeling of inclusion. Target people who share a set of needs or preferences or are at the same stage in their lives.

Effective branding is about creating connections

Leading brands are capable of forming deep emotional connections because they stand for something people care about. Founders should consider the brand before day one. It is not an afterthought but forms the core of your culture from the start. This way, your brand will always portray its fundamental purpose and guide any difficult decisions. When determining your brand:<ul><li>Identify who the brand is for.</li><li>Identify the key problem</li><li>Identify the answer to the key problem via the brand.</li></ul>

Consider the brand's purpose before you launch

Brand differentiation needs to be purposeful.When your goal is to transform a category or create a new one, you need to consider what you can stand for that no one else is but that people care about. <ul><li>Brand thinking: What are you selling? (a mattress or sleep?)</li><li>Brand equity: The love people have for the brand because it is shown to delight them.</li><li>To drive obsession, it is critical to differentiate in product and brand.</li></ul>

Redefine expectations

Long ago, a great user experience design was enough to give an edge. If something was easy to use or functioned well, it was enough to get people excited.
Now, your brand is far more important. Branding in the traditional sense is not enough. Branding is not a logo, your name, or a tagline. To build a winning brand today, you have to start with your customer and the issue you're solving for them.

How modern marketing works

When you launch a new product, think about what the brand does and how it makes people feel. People love brands that stand for a clear emotional idea that is bigger than the product's benefits. Connect the product to a meaningful story to create a strong bond. The emotional idea should be backed up with a practical function. Start with the problem you're solving:<ul><li>Define the idea a brand stands for.</li><li>Define how it should make people feel.</li><li>Then think about tonality, design, and language.</li></ul>

Promote the emotional

A brand serves as connective tissue. A successful brand realises that to create meaningful and lasting relationships, they need to tap into people's sense of self. Branding is about creating a shared identity with your customers. Customers want brands that align with their values and uphold their identity.

Tap into people's sense of self

The cofounder and chief branding officer of Red Antler, the branding and marketing company for startups and new ventures, explains how hot new brands like Casper, Allbirds, Sweetgreen, and Everlane build devoted fan followings right out of the gate. We're in the midst of a startup revolution, with new brands popping up every day, taking over our Instagram feeds and vying for our affection. Every category is up for grabs, and traditional brands are seeing their businesses erode as hundreds of small companies encroach on their territory, each hoping to become the next runaway success. But it's not enough to have a great idea, or a cool logo. Emily Heyward founded Red Antler, the Brooklyn based brand and marketing company, to help entrepreneurs embed brand as a driver of business success from the beginning. In Obsessed, Heyward outlines the new principles of what it takes to build and launch a brand that has people queuing up to buy it on opening day. She takes you behind the scenes of the creation of some of today's hottest new brands, showing you: - How Casper was able to upend the mattress industry by building a beloved brand where none had existed before - How the dating app Hinge won a fanatical user base and great word-of-mouth with the promise that the app was "designed to be deleted" - Why luggage startup Away, now valued at $1.4 billion, could build their brand around love of travel by launching with just one product--a hard-shell carry-on suitcase--rather than a whole range of luggage offerings. Whether you're starting a new business, launching a new product line, or looking to refresh a brand for a new generation of customers, Obsessed shows you why the old rules of brand-building no longer apply, and what really works for today's customers.

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The 2020 Porchlight Marketing & Sales Book of the Year The cofounder and chief branding officer of Red Antler, the branding and marketing company for startups and new ventures, explains how hot new brands like Casper, Allbirds, Sweetgreen, and Everlane build devoted fan followings right out of the gate. We're in the midst of a startup revolution, with new brands popping up every day, taking over our Instagram feeds and vying for our affection. Every category is up for grabs, and traditional brands are seeing their businesses erode as hundreds of small companies encroach on their territory, each hoping to become the next runaway success. But it's not enough to have a great idea, or a cool logo. Emily Heyward founded Red Antler, the Brooklyn based brand and marketing company, to help entrepreneurs embed brand as a driver of business success from the beginning. In Obsessed, Heyward outlines the new principles of what it takes to build and launch a brand that has people queuing up to buy it on opening day. She takes you behind the scenes of the creation of some of today's hottest new brands, showing you:   •  How Casper was able to upend the mattress industry by building a beloved brand where none had existed before   •  How the dating app Hinge won a fanatical user base and great word-of-mouth with the promise that the app was "designed to be deleted"   •  Why luggage startup Away, now valued at $1.4 billion, could build their brand around love of travel by launching with just one product--a hard-shell carry-on suitcase--rather than a whole range of luggage offerings. Whether you're starting a new business, launching a new product line, or looking to refresh a brand for a new generation of customers, Obsessed shows you why the old rules of brand-building no longer apply, and what really works for today's customers.

Emily Heyward is the Co-founder and Chief Brand Officer at Red Antler, the leading brand company for startups and new ventures. Emily works closely with founders to develop purposeful, strategic visions for their startups and has led branding efforts for top companies such as Casper, Allbirds, Brandless, and Prose. After beginning her career inadvertising, she started Red Antler along with her co-founders to directly apply consumer insights and brand positioning to launching and growing new and beloved businesses. In 2018, Red Antler made Fast Company’s list of Most Innovative Companies in Marketing and Advertising and was dubbed the “cult brand whisperer”.

Emily was named among the Most Important Entrepreneurs of the Decade by Inc. Magazine, and has also been recognized as a Top Female Founder by Inc. and one of Entrepreneur's Most Powerful Women of 2019. As a brand strategy expert, Emily is frequently interviewed by the press, with commentary appearing in Forbes, Bloomberg, Inc., Fast Company and Adweek. She’s also been a featured speaker at TechCrunch Disrupt, 99U, and the Fast Company Innovation Festival. Her first book, Obsessed, will be published by Portfolio, a division of Penguin Randomhouse, on June 9, 2020.

Emily graduated Magna Cum laude from Harvard University, where she studied postmodern theory and consumer culture. Born and raised in New York, she currently lives in Carroll Gardens with her wife, son, and Brussels Griffon Sprout.

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