Startup Branding Process - Upstage Brand System Building Part. 2
2022/11/03⏱ 5mins -
Geun-Kyo Kim (Comm. Director)
Haley (Content Communication)
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Startup managers who want to start branding for the first time
Business/marketers interested in branding
Anyone who wants to know about branding
Those who want to gain business insights
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We share the process and results of the early ai startup upstage branding. Get business insights through upstage vivid branding experiences.
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✔️ Journey to create and brand a brand
✔️ Brand Personality Survey
✔️ Find the upstage brand archetype
✔️ The sprint process to establish a benchmark for branding
✔️ Upstage brand system establishment result
How did early startups do branding? Following the review of why startups need branding in the last Brand System Building Part.1, in this content, we would like to introduce the process and results of AI startup Upstage renewing its brand system.
The Journey to Create and Brand a Brand
Before the full-scale brand system renewal project, we asked ourselves a question again. What is a brand and why is branding necessary?
Brand: The image that customers perceive of a company, product, or service.
Branding: the process of recognizing the brand in the direction we want in the mind of the customer
Upstage must define and move a brand so that customers can ideally recognize “Upstage” and “Upstage AI Pack” before the first product, “Upstage AI Pack” , a no-code/low-code solution, enters the market. I thought to do it. This is because logo design, product packaging, website, marketing, and all activities are upstage branding.
Before that, there is the most important thing. It is to form a consensus with the members of the organization and share the direction so that customers can recognize the brand in the direction we want in the target market. To do that, we had to start with the definition of upstage. The marketing team and the BX team formed a TF team for branding and conducted a survey to reflect the brand image and values of internal stars in branding.
Brand Personality Survey
The method of deriving the results of the Upstage Brand Personality Survey, in which more than 80% of the stars participated, was to create the most appropriate wording for the upstage by grouping similar submissions together and creating a keyword for each group one by one.
Q1. The opponent 'Upstage' I met on a blind date, what is his personality I met? (What we think of upstage-likeness)
When asked what kind of character Upstage is, more stars than expected came up with keywords such as consideration, kindness, and kindness. When dealing with people, I was able to confirm that the point we want to emphasize rather than smartness and leadership is tolerance and warmth that can 'make a better world' .
Upstage Brand Personality: Sincerity, Trust, and Smartness
Q2. I, an employee of Company A, tell my colleagues that “this company is really OOO” after meeting with Upstage employees. What would you have said? (Brand image to be recognized by external customers)
In the second question, we were able to get an answer on how we want to be remembered by others in public places such as business, in addition to private places where we need to show ourselves a little more like a blind date. Words such as 'professionalism', 'best skill', and 'trust' had a high percentage of mentions.
Upstage professional image that you want to be reflected on the outside
Q3. WHEN INTRODUCING UPSTAGE, WHAT KEYWORDS OR SENTENCES WOULD YOU LIKE TO INCLUDE?
Many stars chose AI leaders and experts as keywords for upstage. In addition, through several interviews and workshops internally with the marketing team, the following directions were summarized. Combining our view from the inside and the expectations our customers have of upstage, if we express our current state and what we should aim for in one sentence, “I can solve my tasks/tasks efficiently and conveniently/with all my heart through AI/ The best team of experts to improve.”
Upstage's brand image and direction
Upstage Branding Process (1)
Finding the upstage brand archetype
After organizing keywords that can express us internally and externally through the Brand Personality Survey, the second step for branding was to use the brand archetype. Brand archetype is a method of researching the image that emerges and what kind of person can be expressed if the brand is personified .
In the past, consumers made purchase decisions based on factors such as price, quality, and service satisfaction, but now the brand's history, philosophy, and image have a greater influence on their purchase, so I thought it was important to define the brand archetype.
Brand archetype example
“Creator” was the type that got the highest voter turnout in the Warrior Star interview to find the upstage brand archetype.
<업스테이지 브랜드 아키타입 전사 인터뷰 결과>
1위: Creator(창작자) / 64.5%
2위: Magician(마법사) / 35.5%
공동 3위: Hero(영웅), Sage(세이지) / 각 29%
“Creators don't follow the laws of nature, they want to make the world a better place , using tools as they please . Creator brands influence their creativity by selling the possibilities of the world to their customers.”
Through the preceding processes, the following results were derived with the voices of upstage internal members who want to benefit the world with AI. We struggled to choose keywords that felt more intuitive than in the previous step, and we were able to pick Harmony, Barrierless, and Frontier as keywords upstage.
Upstage Branding Process (2)
Since even a single word has the power to express the brand, I came up with the final result through the process of modifying and refining keywords while pondering how to express the upstage identity both internally and externally.
Upstage Branding Process (3)
The sprint process to establish a benchmark for branding
Over the course of three months, through various internal and external interviews, surveys, and competitor research, we fiercely built an upstage-only brand system. And now I'm trying to take one last step further. One Step More, it was to set a reference point for the results that have been drawn so far. For this, it was necessary to check the background and criteria of the keywords once again.
However, due to limited time and resources, an effective methodology was needed above all to get the desired answer. Therefore, in order to find answers to important problems, we set out on a journey to find our own answers ( upstage-likeness ) based on the “sprint” method in which we had a heated discussion with our team members in a short period of time to derive ideas and determine the answers.
Based on the basic rules of sprint: proper team formation, sufficient discussion with all members and selection of final decision makers, and thorough scheduling using timers, we have selected only what we need from the various methodologies of sprint.
Step 1: What, How, and Why (15 minutes)
'What, How, Why' is a method based on Simon Sinek's 'Golden Circle' . The premise is simple.
You need to know why you are doing business, and you have to be able to say it. When a company has strong motives and those motives shine, customers buy products. It is not difficult to find examples that prove this. (ex. Nike, Apple, Airbnb, etc.)
Using Simon Sinek's 'Golden Circle'
[WHAT] Q. WHAT IS YOUR COMPANY DOING?
Express the most important business in the next five years in one sentence.
➞ Results: We create 'AI products' that anyone can use easily.
[HOW] Q. HOW ARE YOU DOING IT?
What's the secret? Describe the technology and contact points that differentiate it from competitors.
➞ Results: Solve customer problems through easy-to-apply AI.
[WHY] Q. WHY DO YOU THINK SO?
It defines the core reason for our company to exist, its timeless values. Even if it pivots, launches a new product, or enters a new market, the Why does not change.
➞ Results: Making the world better with AI. (Making AI Beneficial)
All the stars who joined Upstage shared the mission and vision above, so it didn't take long to come up with these answers. Empathy for the mission of Making AI Beneficial and the belief that it can be realized with Easy-to-apply AI was a step in which I was able to feel once again the fact that it is a great strength for clear branding.
Step 2: Personality Slider (30 minutes)
In the next step, I wrote down two different characteristics, and moved the sliders in consideration of our company's personality, identity, and image. We compared the results of 6 participants to determine the average point and defined the following five brand personality types.
Upstage Brand Personality Slider
[ Elite / Mass Appeal]
➞ Elite : Upstage is a B2B company rather than a company that targets the general public, so it has the character of doing business for a more specialized Focused Target.
[ Serious / Playful]
➞ Serious : Similar to the character above (Elite), Upstage appeals to customers with professionalism and seriousness. Our services and external communication activities must be reliable results. I thought that companies closer to Playful were closer to targeting Mass Public.
[ Rebel / Conventional]
➞ Rebel : Upstage is not afraid of new tasks and adventures. Rather than follow the existing customs and regulations, we lead the market with our own. “I pave a path that no one has ever taken. We are close to Rebel, who are familiar with slogans such as “putting customers on the world stage”.
[ Friend / Authority]
➞ Friend : This part was the most troublesome part. However, in order for us to make the world better with AI and to extend the benefits of AI to more places, we need a sense of authority, but more importantly, we decided that it is to break down barriers so that they can become more familiar with us. . As a B2B company, we decided to take a step closer to Friend, at the point where we can operate our business based on expertise and clarity, but also embrace diversity with a broader mind.
[ Mature,Classic / Young,Innovative]
➞ Young, Innovative : Upstage is creating a culture based on trust, autonomy, and sharing. Challenge and creativity are the driving force behind upstage growth. He has the young personality to learn something from tradition, but to stick to it and make bold decisions if it gets in the way of innovation.
Step 3: Reference point matrix
Upstage Branding Baseline Matrix
To begin the baseline matrix methodology in step 3, first draw a 2X2 matrix. And on the X-axis, it is divided into “Classic” and “Modern” according to whether the traditional industrial model is inherited, and on the Y-axis, “Expressive (without restriction of expression)” to set a reference point for our tone and manner. and “Reserved (refinement and refinement of expression)” were set as reference points. The result of collecting the results of the sprint participants and designating the point closest to the upstage is as shown in the image above.
Upstage presents an innovative business model that creates new value by breaking away from the traditional industrial model. This is also a feature that appears consistently in images upstage. Nevertheless, as a leader in the AI market, we did not overlook the fact that we are trust -based information communicators and service providers. So we concluded that our tone and manners should be thoroughly calculated and, through elaboration , a consistent voice and story should be delivered to the public and customers.
Step 4: Reframe your core values
Upstage Core Value Reconstruction Process
Through all the above results, in the last step 4, we were able to have time to think about the previously established core values once again.
[Parts considered when changing the core value]
1. Placement order
Although 'Genuine' and 'Harmony' were placed as the first core values through the brand image survey, 'Smart' and 'Frontier' , which mean that we do not settle for being at the forefront of the AI industry, are placed as the top priority values we want to emphasize. edited
2. Upstage-like
To express upstage-ness more visually and verbally Based on the images that come to mind when upstaged in an interview with upstage stars, 'Rocket' 'Space Exploration' 'MacGyver' 'Solid ground' 'Horizontal' Images such as 'towards' are also melted into the core value.
3. Reflect Sprint Decisions
The keywords such as Rebel, Young&Innovative, and Modern, selected most dramatically from the sprint results, are reflected in determining the core value.
Upstage brand system establishment result
Upstage 's brand system , which was established after a long journey, consists of a total of 4 stages. They are all organic and exist to achieve the ultimate goal, the mission.
Way : The attitude an upstage star should have. Corresponds to Upstage Work Ethics and Mindset
Core Value : A principle for achieving mission and vision and a promise with customers
Vision : The ideal goal for the brand. It is also a mission that must be completed to complete the mission.
Mission: Why a brand should exist and a brand philosophy and value that will not change over time
Upstage is about to launch the Upstage AI Pack , an all-in-one AI solution customized for customers in the second half of this year. We hope that our mission to make the world more beneficial with AI through the tight branding work done since the beginning of the year can reach many people, and I hope that this content will be a good insight for those who are thinking about branding for a startup. In the following series, we will share with you our rebranding experience from a brand design perspective .
Episode composition
📌 Part. 1 Reasons why startups need branding
📌 Part. 2 Start-up branding process
📌 Part. 3 Rebranding, about countless invisible works that have been done so far
Are you curious about Upstage’s products?
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Under the mission of 'Making AI beneificial', Upstage is developing AI products such as OCR Pack and Recommendation Pack to create a better world with AI. Check the Upstage website for more information.
