Questions to Ask When Branding a Company
These are the questions to ask when branding a company from scratch, for a founder working it out alone and for the designer or strategist running brand discovery with one. They follow the order the conversation should take: what the company is for, who the customer is, how it differs from competitors, the name and voice, where the brand has to work, and how the decisions get made. All of it comes before a logo is drawn, and each question has a note on what a good or a worrying answer sounds like, or what to do with it.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The company
What does the company do, in one sentence a stranger would understand?
Why ask it
Have each founder write the sentence alone, then compare; a sole founder can try theirs on someone outside the business and ask them to say it back. If the versions differ, or need a second sentence to explain the first, settle that before anyone discusses names or colors.
Why does this company exist, beyond making money?
Why ask it
A useful answer names a change for a particular group of people, such as renters who can finally get a repair done in a day. If what comes back could hang on any office wall, ask what annoyed the founder enough to start. The irritation is usually closer to the truth than the mission statement.
What problem are you solving, and how do people cope with it today?
Why ask it
The second half is the test. If people cope well enough with a spreadsheet, a neighbor or doing nothing, the brand has to argue against comfort, which is a harder job than arguing against a rival. A founder who cannot say how people manage now has probably not watched them do it.
What are the company's values, and how would a customer notice each one?
Why ask it
Integrity, quality and innovation appear on so many lists that they separate nobody. For each value ask what a customer would see or get because of it: a phone answered by a person, a price printed on the homepage. Cross out any value that produces nothing visible, since it will not shape the brand.
What does the company stand against?
Why ask it
An enemy sharpens a brand faster than a list of virtues: hidden fees, jargon, waste, being kept on hold. Look for something the customer already resents. Be wary if the answer is a named competitor, because a brand built on one rival has nothing to say once that rival changes.
What can you promise every customer, every time?
Why ask it
A promise worth building a brand on is one the business can keep in its worst week: delivered by Friday, a reply within a day, no charge that was not quoted. Ask what a customer gets when it is broken. If nobody can say, it is a hope, and the brand should not lean on it yet.
Why are you the people to build this?
Why ask it
Twenty years in the trade, a personal run-in with the problem, or an unusual skill can each become the most believable line in the brand. When the honest answer is 'we saw a gap', leave the founders out of the story and let the product carry it.
What will the company never do, even when a customer asks?
Why ask it
Refusals show character more clearly than promises do. A bakery that will not sell day-old bread, or a consultancy that will not take two clients in one field, has said something a customer can repeat. If nothing comes to mind, come back to it after the competitor questions.
What might you sell in five years that you do not sell today?
Why ask it
If the founders expect to move from candles into homeware, or from one city to several, build the brand around what stays the same, because a name or a personality fitted tightly to the first product gets awkward once the range widens. If they cannot say, keep it broad and keep the product out of the name.
What do you want to be known for, if it can only be one thing?
Why ask it
Expect a list of five. Push until a single thing is left, then set it beside the values and the enemy from earlier: if the three pull in different directions, there is more deciding to do before anyone designs anything.
The customer
Who exactly is this for? Describe one person you could go and meet.
Why ask it
'Women 25 to 45' is a census row, not a customer. Ask for a person with a job, a weekday and a reason to care, ideally someone the founder has spoken to. When the description sounds exactly like the founder, say so and ask whether there are enough people like that to build a company on.
Who is this company not for?
Why ask it
This one usually gets a pause, because turning anyone away feels like losing sales. A brand for everyone ends up with a voice so careful that nobody hears it, so ask for one named group they are content to lose, such as bargain hunters or large corporations.
How many likely customers have you spoken to so far, and what surprised you?
Why ask it
A surprise is the sign that listening happened. If the count is none, pause the branding for a week and hold five conversations, because the rest of this section is otherwise a guess. A strategist running the session can offer to sit in on them.
What is happening in the customer's day at the moment they need you?
Why ask it
Someone booking a locksmith at midnight and someone browsing sofas on a Sunday want different things from a brand: one wants calm and speed, the other wants to enjoy looking. Get the scene in detail, including what device is in their hand. The tone should suit that moment more than the founder's mood.
What does the customer have to believe before they will buy?
Why ask it
List the beliefs in order: that the problem matters, that this kind of product fixes it, that this company can be relied on. Whichever belief is weakest today is where the brand has to work hardest. For a company nobody has heard of, it is often the last one.
How do you want a customer to feel when they have finished dealing with you?
Why ask it
Relieved, clever, looked after, a bit spoiled: each points to a different personality and a different way of writing. Ask for one feeling, not three, then ask what in the business would produce it. 'Looked after' needs someone who picks up the phone.
What words do customers use for this problem, as opposed to the words you use?
Why ask it
The company says 'asset management' where the customer says 'keeping track of our stuff'. Collect the customer's phrases from emails, reviews of rival products and forum posts, and write them down exactly. They are raw material for the name, the tagline and every heading.
Is the person who pays the same as the person who uses it?
Why ask it
A children's product is chosen by a parent, and software is often bought by a manager for a team. When the two differ, decide which of them the brand speaks to first. Trying to charm both at full volume tends to give a brand that is too playful for the buyer and too stiff for the user.
How much does the customer already know about this kind of product?
Why ask it
When the category is familiar, as with coffee or accounting, the brand's job is to say why this one. When it is new, the brand first has to explain what the thing is, and a clever name or abstract tagline gets in the way. Decide which case applies before judging any name.
What would a customer be a little proud to tell a friend about choosing you?
Why ask it
People pass on brands that say something flattering about themselves: that they found it early, paid less, or backed a local maker. Whatever the answer is, make it easy to repeat in a sentence. If nothing comes, the brand may be relying on advertising alone to spread.
Competitors
Who else could the customer choose, including doing nothing?
Why ask it
Write down the direct rivals, then the substitutes: a freelancer, a spreadsheet, a relative who helps for free, putting it off. 'We have no competition' usually means the substitutes were left out. Whichever option most likely customers are using today is what the brand is really up against.
What makes you different, in a way a customer could check for themselves?
Why ask it
Better service and higher quality are claims every rival makes and no buyer can verify beforehand. Look for something checkable: a fixed price, a 24-hour turnaround, one ingredient, a founder who answers the phone. If nothing passes, the difference may have to be built into the business first, and it is better to learn that now.
What does everyone in your category look and sound like?
Why ask it
Put ten rival homepages or packs side by side and the habits appear: the same blue, the same stock photo, the same three promises. Each convention is a choice to follow or break. Following says 'we are a proper one of these' and breaking says 'we are not like them', so pick deliberately.
Which competitor do you respect, and what have they got right?
Why ask it
'None of them' means nobody has looked closely. A real answer shows the standard customers already expect, and often what the founder privately wants the brand to resemble, so ask what they would still do differently in that rival's place.
When would a competitor be the better choice for someone?
Why ask it
Being able to say 'if you need it tomorrow, go to them' marks the edge of the promise, and it gives the sales conversation an honest line. A team that will not concede anything probably has not pinned down its difference yet.
Are you the cheaper choice, the better one, or the different one?
Why ask it
Price position decides a great deal of what follows, from the weight of the paper to how many exclamation marks are allowed. Premium looks at budget prices, or the reverse, can read to a customer as a warning. Have them pick one and say what picking it costs them.
What kind of business do you call yourselves: a shop, a studio, an agency, a service?
Why ask it
Customers file a company under that noun and compare prices within it. 'Agency' and 'studio' set different expectations of size and cost, as do 'clinic' and 'practice'. Try the word aloud in 'I found this great ...' and hear whether it fits.
What could a competitor copy within a year, and what could they not?
Why ask it
Features and prices can be matched quickly, so a brand resting on them needs redoing every time a rival catches up. A point of view, a founder's history, a community or a way of treating people is slower to imitate. Put the weight of the brand on the slow things.
Can you say who it is for, what they need, what kind of company you are and how you differ, all in one sentence?
Why ask it
This is the usual positioning statement, and it belongs at the end of the section because each slot is an answer already given. Write it on a board and let the group argue over the slots that stay empty. If the finished sentence would be just as true with a rival's name in it, go back to the difference.
Name and voice
Do you have a name yet, and how firmly is it decided?
Why ask it
'Decided' ranges from a printed sign to a working title one founder dislikes, so ask what would make them change it. If the name is open, naming is its own piece of work and belongs after the positioning, since a name is easier to judge once everyone agrees what it has to say.
Can people say the name aloud, spell it after hearing it once, and find it when they search?
Why ask it
Try it on someone outside the company: say the name, have them type it, and see what comes up. Creative spellings tend to go wrong at the keyboard and everyday dictionary words in the results. A name that has to be spelled out on every phone call will be spelled out for as long as the company exists.
Has anyone checked that the name is free to use: the web address, the social handles and the trademark registers?
Why ask it
The web address and handles take minutes to check. Whether a name can be registered, or might infringe someone else's mark, depends on the country and the class of goods, so ask a trademark attorney how clearance works where you plan to trade. Hold off on printing anything until that answer is back.
If the company walked into a room as a person, who would it be?
Why ask it
Ask for age, clothes, how they greet people and what they would never say. The exercise sounds silly and works, because people who cannot describe a brand can describe a person. Where two founders picture different people, get both descriptions on the table and find what they share.
Pick three words for the brand's personality. What does each one rule out?
Why ask it
A trait only helps when it excludes something. 'Friendly' that rules out nothing is decoration, while 'plain-spoken, so no jargon and no hype' is a rule a writer can follow. Drop any word that every competitor would also choose.
When the company writes, who is talking: a friend, an expert, a coach, a neighbor?
Why ask it
Choosing a role works better than choosing adjectives, since everyone knows how a good coach talks. Check it against the customer's moment from earlier: someone anxious usually wants the expert, and a hobbyist a fellow enthusiast.
How would the company tell a customer that their order is going to be late?
Why ask it
Write the message there and then, in two or three sentences. Voice is easy to agree on in the abstract and shows itself only in an actual line, especially an unwelcome one. If the draft sounds like any company's apology, the personality words are not doing any work yet.
Are there words or phrases that should never appear in anything you publish?
Why ask it
A banned list is the quickest style guide there is: no 'solutions', no 'journey', no exclamation marks, never 'users'. It also brings out strong feelings that the adjective exercise missed. Keep it and hand it to whoever writes the website.
Which brands outside your industry feel like relatives of yours?
Why ask it
Looking outside the field stops the conversation turning into 'like our competitor, but nicer'. Ask what exactly is being admired, whether the restraint, the humor or the way the packaging opens, so that what gets borrowed is a quality and never a look.
Is the founder part of the brand, or should the company stand without a face?
Why ask it
A founder-led brand can feel warmer and earn belief sooner, and it ties the company to one person's time, reputation and willingness to be photographed. Ask how they would feel doing that for ten years, and what happens if they sell or step back.
Do you need a tagline, and what would it say that the name cannot?
Why ask it
A descriptive name, such as a trade plus a town, rarely needs one. An invented name often does, to tell a stranger what the company is. Draft the plain version first, the one that simply says what you do, and only then see whether a cleverer line beats it.
Where it works
Where does a customer first come across you: a shelf, a search result, a recommendation, a feed?
Why ask it
Each first meeting leans on a different part of the brand. In a search result the name and one line of text do everything, on a shelf it is the pack, and in a recommendation it is whether a friend can remember and pronounce the name. Spend the effort where that first meeting happens.
Where will the company trade: one town, one country, or across several languages?
Why ask it
A local firm can lean on its place, with the town in the name or a regional turn of phrase. A brand meant to cross borders needs a name people there can say and that means nothing unfortunate, so have a native speaker of each language you expect to sell in say it aloud and react. Plan for the widest reach you seriously intend, not the widest you can imagine.
What has to exist on launch day, and what can wait six months?
Why ask it
Trying to brand everything at once is how a new company runs out of money or patience halfway. Sort the list into what a customer will touch in the first month and what is nice to have, and ask which date is fixed and who fixed it.
What already exists that the brand has to live with: a web address, a sign, packaging on order, a logo a friend drew?
Why ask it
List everything that has been bought, printed or promised, and mark each item as fixed, changeable at a cost, or free to drop. The awkward one is often the logo a friend or relative made. Decide who will have that conversation before the designer starts, not after.
Where does the brand have to work with no visuals at all?
Why ask it
Phone calls, podcasts, plain-text emails, a line on a bank statement and a friend's recommendation carry no logo and no color, so there the brand is the name and the way things are worded. It is the practical case for settling the name and voice before the look.
Who besides customers has to take the brand seriously?
Why ask it
Investors, job candidates, retailers, suppliers and landlords all meet the brand, and some of them matter more in year one than customers do. A playful identity that delights buyers can make a bank hesitate. Name the two audiences that matter most and check the personality against both.
Will everything sit under one brand, or will products get names of their own?
Why ask it
One name for everything is usually cheaper to build and easier to remember. Separate product names earn their keep when the products serve very different people or might be sold off one day. A new company that cannot answer should start with one and write down what would justify a second.
Who will be making things with the brand day to day, and with what tools?
Why ask it
A founder building social posts in a template app needs a simple kit: a couple of typefaces, a few colors, clear examples. A company with an in-house designer can carry something richer. Tell the designer who those people are, because a system too elaborate for them tends to be quietly abandoned.
Deciding
When the founders disagree about the brand, who breaks the tie?
Why ask it
Settle it before there is anything to disagree about. Brand work often stalls when two partners like different options and neither has the last word. A named decider, or an agreed test such as asking ten customers, keeps the project moving.
How will you judge the work when you see it: by taste, or against what was agreed here?
Why ask it
Without an agreed yardstick every review turns into 'I just don't love it'. Turn the answers from this session into a one-page brief and judge each proposal against it line by line. Taste still counts, but as the casting vote and not the only one.
What is the budget for the brand, and which part would you protect if it were cut in half?
Why ask it
Even a rough figure tells a designer what kind of project this is and saves both sides a wasted proposal. The second half shows priorities. When money is short it is usually sounder to keep the thinking and the name and go modest on the visuals, since a look can be upgraded later and a name is costly to change.
What could you test with real customers before committing?
Why ask it
Names, taglines and a one-line description are cheap to test: show two versions to a handful of likely buyers and ask what they think the company does. You are checking understanding, not taking a vote on which they like. If the meaning lands wrong, change it while it is still only words.
A year after launch, what would tell you the brand is working?
Why ask it
Choose signs you can see without a research budget: customers repeating your one-line description back to you, inquiries coming from the people you described and not the ones you ruled out, fewer conversations that open with price. Write two or three down now. Otherwise the brand gets judged on whether the founders still like the logo.
What would have to change in the business for you to revisit the brand?
Why ask it
Naming the triggers now, such as a new audience, a second product line or a move into another market, guards against both needless redesigns and stubbornness later. Boredom is not a trigger: the people who look at a brand every day tire of it far sooner than customers who see it now and then.
How to run brand discovery for a new company
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the session
Get the deciders in one room
Everyone who can veto the brand should answer these together, at least for The company and Competitors. A co-founder who misses the session is likely to reopen the decisions when the first designs arrive. If someone cannot attend, send them the questions and collect their answers in writing beforehand.
Send the factual questions ahead
Whether the name is decided, who the rivals are, what already exists, where the company will trade and what is needed for launch can all be answered by email. Keep the meeting for the questions that need an argument: what the company stands against, who it is not for, what makes it different.
Bring evidence, not opinions
Print or screenshot ten competitors' homepages or packaging. Gather a few customer emails, reviews of rival products, or notes from conversations with likely buyers. A session held with real material on the table produces sharper answers than one held from memory.
If you are a founder doing this alone
Write your answers down instead of thinking them, then leave them for two days and read them as a stranger would. Better still, have someone who does not know the business ask you the questions aloud and tell you which answers they did not follow. Those are the ones to rewrite.
Allow more than one sitting
The list is too long for a single meeting and the later groups depend on the earlier ones. A workable split is The company, The customer and Competitors in a first session, then Name and voice, Where it works and Deciding in a second, with time between for anyone to talk to customers.
Running the conversation
Keep to the order
The groups run from purpose to customer to competitors, and only then to name, voice and where the brand shows up. Each one settles something the next relies on: a personality cannot be chosen before the customer is clear, and a name cannot be judged before the positioning is. When the talk jumps ahead to colors or logos, note the idea and steer back.
Have people write before they speak
For the one-sentence description, the three personality words and the one thing to be known for, give everyone a minute to write alone. Otherwise the first or most senior voice sets the answer and the rest agree. The differences between the slips of paper are the most useful thing the session produces.
Ask for the example
Abstract answers such as 'we value transparency' or 'our voice is approachable' feel like progress and decide nothing. Follow each with 'what would that look like on the website?' or 'write me the sentence'. An answer that cannot produce an example is not finished.
Record the answers in their own words
Take down the phrases people actually use, including the offhand ones. A founder's throwaway line about why they started is often better copy than anything written afterwards. Tidy the notes later, and keep an untidied version.
Mark what is known and what is guessed
Next to each answer about customers, note whether it came from talking to them or from the founders' assumption. A new company will have plenty of guesses, and that is fine as long as they are labeled. The guesses are the list of things to check before money is spent on design.
Turning the answers into a brief
Boil it down to one page
Write up what the company does, who it is for and not for, what it stands against, the promise, the checkable difference, the personality words with what each rules out, the voice, the banned words and the places the brand must work. If it runs past a page, something has not been decided yet.
Get it agreed before design starts
Have every decider read the page and say yes to it, in writing if the project is a paid one. The page is then the yardstick for every name, tagline and visual that follows. Changing it later is allowed, but it should be a deliberate act and not a side effect of disliking a logo.
Test the words first
Show the one-sentence description and the name to a few likely customers and ask them to say back what the company does. Fixing a misunderstanding at this stage costs an afternoon. Fixing it after the packaging is printed costs a great deal more.
Hand over the brief, not a mood
Whoever designs the identity should receive the page, the competitor sheet and the list of where the brand appears, along with who will be using it day to day. A designer given only 'modern but warm' has to guess at everything this session worked out.
Mistakes to avoid
Starting with the logo
A logo is the most visible part of a brand and the least able to fix an unclear one. Drawn before these questions are answered, it gets judged on taste alone, and it may well need redrawing once the company works out what it is.
Answering on the customer's behalf
A founder is not always a typical buyer of the product, even one who started the company to fix a problem of their own. Wherever an answer under The customer begins with 'I think they', treat it as a guess to check, and go and ask a few of them.
Settling for agreeable adjectives
Professional, friendly, innovative and trusted describe nearly every company's wish for itself. If the personality words would fit a competitor equally well, the session has not done its job. Go back to what the company stands against and what it refuses to do.
Borrowing the category leader's clothes
Looking like the biggest name in the field feels safe, and it makes a newcomer read as the lesser version of something familiar. Use the leader to learn what customers expect, then decide where to differ on purpose.
Treating legal checks as a formality
Rules on business names and trademarks differ from one country to the next, and sometimes by state or region. Ask a qualified adviser how it works where the company will trade before a name is announced or printed.