Startup Brand Stories Must Compete with Major Players
The early days of a start-up are exciting times. What’s better than being in at the start of a tech revolution? But as recent articles in Forbes, Tech.co and The Next Scoop have pointed out, young companies face many marketing challenges. For example:
Raising capital
Juggling product development with making sales
Appealing to vertical markets
Recruitment of talent
Scaling-up in response to demand
Creating effective video content is a sure way to drive success. Three common reasons to create brand and product films early on are:
Finding investment
It may be that the young venture needs to attract capital, or go to market before being fully funded. Film is the most powerful medium to present big ideas, but in the early days resources are going to be tight. To achieve maximum impact with limited budgets requires communicating the excitement of a new company with the premium feel of a big player.
Articulating the idea
The venture may need to attract vendors, or develop a B2B offering before moving to a consumer facing strategy. (Recruiting talent can also be a problem in the early days). Explaining the idea and mission of a new company can be challenging. No matter how ground-breaking the idea, technology advances can often sound dry or complex on the page. Through use of graphics and interactivity, video does the job better.
Expanding into new markets
It may be that the venture is growing and taking first steps into vertical markets. Developing brand and product stories that will create noise in these specialist markets will require new thinking. Telling stories from users and customers on the ground is a persuasive technique. Vertical sectors often need to see a testimonial from real businesses, solving real challenges in their own industry in order to buy into a new, sometimes disruptive way of doing things.
Too often, young companies think they don’t have the resources to make great film content. But with clever creative and use of limited resources, there’s no reason why a start-up’s brand stories can’t compete with those of established companies.
Kontent are expert storytellers for start-up and challenger businesses. We’re based in the heart of the Bay Area, the world’s innovation powerhouse. Our client list scales from exciting young ventures to established giants such as Salesforce, Microsoft, and Intel. We’ve helped turn small players into big ones, and the big players into some of the biggest on the planet.
If you want to tell the world about your new idea, talk to Kontent.
Written by Marc Heal