Joe Bezdek discusses brands at Founder Institute mentor session

Joe Bezdek, cofounder of FatPencil and DivX, gave a presentation on branding for Chicago Founder Institute.  My major takeaways from the talk are:

1.  The #1 danger is that people will forget you in 5 minutes.
Someone must remember you in order to decide if they care about you.  For first time entrepreneurs, this extends to how you talk about your idea to other people.  Many people I talk to are nervous about about telling anyone their idea.  My response is "you are lucky if anyone actually listens to you when you are talking about your new startup."

2.  Brand = emotional attachment to you or your product.
The experience of drinking wine is not equal to the physical product of wine.  MRI's show that your brain reacts differently when drinking the same wine if told it costs more.  Your brand changes how someone feels about using your product.

In other words, a better brand will allow you to succeed even if the actual product is inferior.  Match.com nailed the brand in dating during the 90's.  My product One-and-Only.com (already the name is a problem with the dashes) was larger by a factor of 2 in terms of traffic and revenue.  They sold for the same amount even though we beat them on most other fronts.  Not paying attention to brand cost me approximately $50 million.

3. Avoid the zone of "Meh".  Take whatever you think some customers won't like and play it up.  One easy way to define your brand is by emphasizing who shouldn't like it.  By definition those that relate to the opposite will be attracted.  One example he gave was a restaurant with a sign saying "Nothing you eat or drink here is good for you."

4.  Different not Better.  Details can establish a vibe about your product.  Especially for startups, details can be free and make your product feel better.  An example is the "I'm feeling lucky" button on Google search.  Didn't cost very much but establishes an emotion.

Resources mentioned:  The Brand Gap, Zag, and A New Brand World.  I will be checking out these books and passing on good ideas.