Let’s talk about a company that has been around for over a century. They are, by almost every metric, the most recognizable brand on the planet. Every country knows them. Every demographic uses them. They are the undisputed leader of their industry.
Last year, they spent $5 billion on advertising and brand building. More than almost any other company in the world.
If you’re already Number One. If the entire world already knows your name. Why on earth are you still one of the top three spenders in global advertising?
The answer is uncomfortable for most founders and startup CEOs. Building a brand isn’t a project you finish, it is something you do to stay relevant – all the time.
Here’s the typical Founder scenario. A company builds a fantastic piece of software or a revolutionary physical product, and they funnel every single cent into R&D. They believe that if the product is good enough, the world will beat a path to their door.
They’re wrong.
The company I mentioned above is Coca-Cola. And here is the “brutal” reality: for decades, in blind taste tests, customers ranked their product second best. Yet, they remained the global leader. Why? Because while a good product gets you in the door, the brand wins the championship.
Coca-Cola doesn’t sell brown carbonated water; they sell “happiness,” “refreshment,” and “legacy.” That costs $5 billion a year to maintain.
But, investing in a brand is painful. It’s brutal on the balance sheet because, unlike a direct performance campaign, you don’t see that money come back next month. You see it 10 years from now when a customer chooses you instinctively over a cheaper, “better” competitor.
The truth is if you aren’t comfortable with the relentless, expensive, and long-term cost of brand building, you should probably aim lower. The majority of founders, CEOs and CFOs are not comfortable with it. The few who are? They’re the ones who are successful. And as we know, the majority of startups fail – and this is key reason why it is rarely the product (well unless the product is a scam).
There are no shortcuts here. The brands that survive are the ones that never stop reminding their target audience that they exist.
If you are building a company and you want success:
- Invest heavily in your brand and accept that it is the rent you pay for mindshare.
- Accept obscurity.
There is no “Option 3” where your product is so good that marketing becomes unnecessary. Even the king of the mountain is still spending $5 billion a year just to keep the crown polished.
If you want to see success, stop treating your brand like an after-thought and start treating it like your most expensive, and most valuable, asset. At the end of the day, people can copy your features. They can’t copy your brand position.
