The Importance of Brand Building and Product Market Fit for Startups

Product market fit is when you successfully identify your target customer and provide them with the right product. It’s an important part of launching a new product or service and is often the number one goal for startups or early-stage companies. It’s an evolving process and as your brand grows, so will your understanding of your customer profile and the problem you are solving.

It makes sense that achieving product market fit is key to the success of a new business. It means there’s a demand in the market for what you’re selling, and that people will be willing to pay for it. Without this, you’re not going to make sales, hence you’re not going to succeed. However whilst we strongly believe product market fit is important and should be a priority, we also believe brand building also needs to be a priority and should not take a back seat.

Time and time again we see startups launch into marketing and want to understand who their customers are and what they think about their product. But what they forget to do is invest in the brand from the get-go. 

We see small companies invest in developing their products or services, and obsessing over finding product fit, but as a result, they ignore building their brand. This means that while they’re focusing on testing new features or adding new solutions and pushing these out to the market, they’re failing to do other important things like researching and defining their target audience, prioritising their customers and building their brand identity. 

What they fail to recognise is that a brand is the perception your customers have of your company and that it’s just so important in how your business connects with people. It’s what represents you, and it’s how people are going to remember you or identify you from your competitors. Without a solid brand identity, it’s tricky to connect with your audience. And connecting with your auduience is one of the most important things when achieving product market fit. They go hand in hand. 

A good brand strategy will also help promote your key differences that you’re working so hard on developing. It will help you articulate the new features and solutions you’ve created, so that you can communicate this clearly with your target audience. This means that all the effort, time and resources you’ve invested in creating your product is less likely to go unnoticed.

Another advantage of investing in brand is that it helps people remember you when they need to solve a problem. This means more people are likely to try your product or service when they have a particular need (circling right back to product market fit!). So even if you have achieved product market fit, in the end, it’s your brand that is going to result in people trying your product. 

Something we’ve seen startups do is invest in paid advertising campaigns so they can test, learn and observe how different audiences respond to different messages. This is great, but again, strong branding should not be ignored in this case. If your messages are confusing, or your communication looks different across channels, you’re going to confuse your audience and they’ll less likely convert or take action.

You can still identify your brand presence while testing and evolving your messages, in fact, your brand can continue to evolve over time. But keep it well-structured and coherent so your marketing efforts have the chance to work and your budget can spend more efficiently. 

Finally, building your brand is going to help you gain customer loyalty. Not only does this mean your customers will re-purchase, but it also means you’re going to form relationships with customers so that you can have two-way interactions with them. This is how you’re going to collect feedback on your product or service, which is the easiest way to evolve your product to achieve perfect product market fit. 

Are you a startup that’s not prioritising product market fit and building your brand? We’re here to help.  Visit our website at www.rumblr.com.au, or drop us a line: hello@rumblr.com.au