#18 Brand & Product Building Don't Compete With Each Other!
Branding plays a key role in every kind of business. Laura Busche's passion for marketing and brand strategy started in 2008. Since then she focused a lot on working and learning everything about brands until 2013 when she published her amazing book "Lean Branding" as part of the Lean Series from O'Reilly.
Laura consulted Alex and Christian for almost one hour about building up the Product Bakery brand and community. She shared how to use a storyboard to define the brand values and target audience.
Follow & Connect with Laura:
Website: https://laurabusche.com/
Linkedin: @laurabusche
Twitter: @laurabusche
Laura’s book: Lean Branding
Episode Minutes
Table of content
0:28 - Episode Summary
0:59 - Intro Laura Busche & her book launch
6:35 - How to brand a product podcast (live coaching by Laura)
8:55 - Lean branding strategies
10:30- The brand storyboard
17:15 - How to identify organic growth channels & strategies
23:25 - Driving branding & storytelling in organizations
28:25 - Value proposition vs. brand recognition (brand messaging)
35:25 - Laura’s brand strategy for her own book
39:25 - Thoughts on Google’s rebranding (icon redesign)
44:35 - 3 Tips from Laura if you launch a new brand/brand-heavy product
48:50 - Debrief Christan & Alex
How is life as a book publisher?
Laura: The life of a writer comes with many challenges that are often similar to the ones you find in other creative careers. For example, if we look at designers, independently if they are product designers, graphic designers, or artists, in all creative roles you will experience some of the struggles that writers have to face on a daily basis. It's that eternal fight between the space you need to be creative, like open, divergent, time periods where you can just dream up or imagine your next piece, and the diligence and discipline that you need to have your thoughts converge on paper or screen. It's that constant balance you need to find.
How was the feedback after you launched your first Branding Book?
Laura: I was fortunate enough to publish lean branding at a time when social networks were very active and when there wasn't the level of animosity or verbal violence that you're seeing now.
I think the environment was more neutral and appreciative. People didn't react as strongly as they would now. I think the algorithms have taken us down a path of extremes and of polarization. You either love it with all your heart or you hate it to the point where you want to cancel it. And it's not healthy for both creators or consumers as it can lead us in very disappointing directions.
So I was fortunate enough that things were a little calmer back then. I did get feedback from readers and I did read every single comment. People shared their comments with me. They did it via email or left reviews on Amazon and directly on my publisher's website, which back then was still selling the books online on their site. I think they're now selling exclusively through Amazon. So things have changed.
I am very fortunate to have had very supportive readers from the start. People who really care about the discipline and they want to see it evolve.
How would you consult founders to get started and build up a strong brand that gets recognized?
… tune in for the full live consulting session 🎧
