Why Branding Is Even More Crucial for Growth Hacking

With the emergence of so many start-ups – around 130 thousand per day across the world, in fact –the competition to find and gain traction is truly high. It’s no wonder that the phenomenon of growth hacking has been employed so frequently in today’s business world. Driven to achieve growth and success, start-ups and even established companies tend to overlook the importance of brand identity, a cornerstone of their very existence.
 

Tons of Touch Points

According to Weinberg and Mares, there are more than 19 traction channels that exist for brands to build growth momentum, and each of them is a general category, such as “social media” and “offline ads”. Imagine the myriad of specific avenues growth hackers can explore and experiment with! While testing on multiple channels can be fun and even fulfilling, the fact remains that there are just too many to cover them all.
 
For every platform that is used, another brand touchpoint is created. Every touchpoint serves as a window through which the target audience perceives and interacts with the brand. It goes without saying, then, that the brand has to be identifiable in order to first garner awareness. If it manages to establish a sizeable following, the brand would benefit from being kept constant, or similar to its original form. This is where brand consistency becomes crucial in the growth stages of a company. Unfortunately, growth hacking has made it more difficult to keep one clear, cohesive brand identity across a multitude of platforms and touchpoints.
 

Impact of Brand Identity

In the first place, knowing your brand purpose and value proposition is crucial to sustained survival for young companies. The most successful brands tend to not only solve their audiences’ pain points well or create significant value for them, but also concisely communicate this to them. This brand promise helms the brand identity. With this kind of branding, the target audience’s interest is piqued by what the company has to offer; from there, they are attracted to interact with the products and eventually become customers or spread the word. While delivering on the promise is another issue altogether, brand identity is the key starting point. More importantly, a purpose-driven brand identity serves as a lighthouse for the company to constantly return to, regardless of any new campaigns, transitions and perhaps even strategy overhauls.
 

 

Achieving Brand Consistency Amidst Growth

In order to keep a brand consistent, many choose to implement a set of formal brand guidelines. Putting all one’s logo versions and colour combinations into a PDF file and storing it in some wide-access folder is all too common nowadays. But rather than just having a visual guide chucked away in some file system, companies should ensure that the branding extends beyond customer-facing areas of their business. While it sounds like a lofty accomplishment that is easier said than done, it doesn’t hurt to start somewhere and work towards it. And wouldn’t the easiest starting point be from within? This is where smaller companies and start-ups have the advantage here. Immersing their own offices, documents and interactions in a way that reflects or supports the value they stand for would already make a significant difference. Employees and management who thoroughly understand the business purpose will be better positioned to envision the branding in a similar fashion.
 
At the same time, because growth is a process and not just an outcome, it is inevitable that a brand evolves and refines itself along the way. That doesn’t mean, however, that all semblances of brand consistency should be dropped to achieve growth. It simply implies that there should be a shift in direction, or change of strategy in execution. Unless the existing brand has been a complete flop and would have no benefit living on (in which case, even growth hacking would not save the situation), the purpose-driven brand identity remains the core of all growth initiatives.
 

 
Growth hacking should be grounded in a deep resonance of one’s brand identity; it is not an exercise in repackaging. As we chase after a wider customer base and larger sales numbers, the question we should be asking isn’t, “How do we brand ourselves to stimulate growth?” but rather, “How can our brand identity stimulate growth?”
 
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