How to create a Sustainable Brand that stands out in Berlin’s Entrepreneurship Scene
As a sustainable startup, it's essential that you set yourself apart from the competition.
This is especially important in a city like Berlin, where sustainable enterprises pop up faster than radishes.
In order to do this, it's vital to focus on your branding. Here are five tips for creating a sustainable brand that stands out in the Berlin entrepreneurship scene:
Define how you’ll stand apart from the competition
Define your Blue Ocean Strategy
Identify the core need or pain you’re healing
Find one unique thing that nobody else can boast about
Don't be boring!
Make sure your brand's message and visuals are always consistent
Communicate your impact clearly
Be creative!
1. Define how you’ll stand apart from the competition
Define your Blue Ocean Strategy
When starting a sustainable brand, it's important to define your blue ocean strategy. This means that you need to find a way to stand apart from the competition and serve a unique market. This can be done by finding an untapped market or by redefining how your industry works.
What is a blue ocean strategy?
A blue ocean strategy is a business approach that focuses on finding new markets and ways of doing business in order to create uncontested market space. This can be done by redefining how an industry works or by finding new markets that have yet to be tapped.
You must first find your niche, and then define how your product or service will be unique to that niche. This will help you avoid direct competitors (think: sharks and bloodbath).
Every business serves one of three main pain points:
Health, Wealth, and Relationships.
When it comes to health, you might address the customer's own health, or the health of their family, their pet, their garden, etc.
Wealth is straightforward: are you selling products or services that will help your customers make money?
Finally, relationships can refer to romantic or familial relationships, their relationship with nature, or their relationship with themselves.
Define which pain point you are addressing, and how you will phrase it so that the pain relief is easy to understand. The way you make the pain go away should be unique, and different from what anyone else is doing.
Another way to think about it is to find one unique thing that nobody else can boast about.
Your product or service can be different because it's:
Made of ________
Makes an impact in__________
Comes from _________
Comes with ___________
Arrives as _________
Uses _________
... Or simply because it's accompanied by your witty personality.
The world is your oyster, choose the differentiation you want. But once you do, double down.
By finding a blue ocean strategy for your startup, you will be able to stand out from the competition in Berlin's competitive scene and set yourself up for success.
2. Don't be boring! Ever. Seriously.
Another important factor when creating a sustainable brand is to make sure it stands out from the crowd. This means that your visuals need to be creative and engaging, and your message needs to be clear and memorable.
When's the last time a boring, bland, plain brand caught your sight and made you keep thinking about it days later?
I know. Never.
So how can you expect your audience to be thinking about you days later if you're boring as well?
Your visuals should reflect your values as a business and attract the right people to you. Try using bold colours, interesting fonts, and creative imagery that stands out from the competition. Additionally, make sure that what you're saying speaks directly to your target audience.
By avoiding boring visuals and messaging, your brand will feel more engaging and professional to potential customers.
3. Make sure your brand's message and visuals are always consistent
Once you have established a unique personality, voice, and identity for your sustainable business, it's important to keep your branding consistent across all platforms. Always. This means that when people see something related to your business, they should easily be able to recognize it as yours.
A few ways to stay consistent are:
Create a messaging filter and always stick to it. Which words / sentences should the brand use? What would the brand never say? Which emojis (if any) does the brand use? Which ones should be avoided?
Create a full visual guide that relates to images. Which kinds of photos or videos should be shared? Which kinds should be avoided? Is there a special filter? (The filter is a pro tip, go ahead and steal it).
Get a full brand guidelines document from your visual identity designer. This should include:
Rules of how the logo may be used
Colour palette (with colour codes for print and web)
Font selections and examples of how to use them
Several real-life application examples.
If you work with a pro, you’ll get detailed insights into how to remain consistent, such as “functional elements” and “emotional elements” - when to use each, how to combine them, etc.
Let’s bring it all together:
By keeping everything consistent, people will associate your business with your message, visuals, and values. At. A. Glance.
You need to appear consistently and repetitively in the eyes of your audience, or you’ll be trashed behind your competition faster than you can blink.
Pssst… Shameless self, promo here: if you need help creating any of these assets, we’re just one click away ;)
4. Communicate your impact clearly
Clear communication is key when creating a sustainable brand in a competitive environment.
You want to make sure that people understand:
Who you are
What you do
And why it's important
Make sure to use simple language that anyone can understand and always be transparent about what you do and why.
The best way to do this is by telling impactful stories about the impact you cause (full storytelling blog coming soon!)
Additionally, be sure to communicate the value of your business and what it can offer that is unique or better than other businesses in your industry.
Remember that impact can be measured along 3 lines:
People
Planet
Profit
You might be having an impact in more than one, so brainstorm how your message can be tailored to communicate your impact along these 3 bottom lines.
Communicating your impact is key, because people only buy things they understand. In fact, they can only like things they understand.
5. Be creative!
Finally, it's important to be creative when creating a sustainable brand in Berlin. This means thinking outside the box and finding ways to stand out from the competition.
Creativity in this case can take many forms - from guerilla marketing tactics, to unique communication or delivery strategies.
Collaborating with other sustainable startups can be a great way to get creative ideas flowing and come up with something truly unique that will help your business stand apart. Additionally, you can look for inspiration in other industries and find ways to apply those ideas to your own.
Only by being creative, you will be able to set yourself apart from the competition and create a brand that is truly unique.
TL;DR
Standing out as a sustainable brand in Berlin is no easy feat.
If you want to stand a chance, you need to make absolutely sure you’re standing out from the competition. You can do that by:
Defining your Blue Ocean Strategy
Identifying the core need or pain you’re healing
Finding one unique thing that nobody else can boast about
But being different is not enough. You must make sure that your brand is loud, visible, clear, and never boring. Communicating your impact clearly is vital to be able to position your brand and make a difference, since people only buy what they understand.
I hope this guide has inspired you to make changes to your brand strategy and awareness tactics.
Oh! And before you go - branding’s more fun with a team.
We work with sustainable and impactful businesses to position their brands and stand out from the crowds.
So, you know - we’re just one click away :)
Toodles,
Mapa
