In our mission to become the leading (and might we add, the only one at the moment) brand accelerator in Malaysia, we launched Sprout to address the areas of branding and marketing for early stage startup founders as a platform to give back to the ever-growing startup community. Since Bawatana came to be in 2018, we have witnessed time and time again the shortcomings of startups in tackling their big ‘why’ which we feel is an absolutely crucial component in determining the success of their brand. As a team made up of individuals who have come from backgrounds in various facets of the creative industry, we couldn’t just stand by and watch. We simply felt the need to lend a hand and push through our agenda and thinking, which we’re glad to say has been slowly paying off.

It took us a couple weeks to get this together, but we’ve finally picked the top seven most interesting and insightful lessons we learned from Sprout 2020.

1. Don’t underestimate the importance of finding your brand purpose

Creative gurus Sa’ad Hussein and Edmund Choe said that “Before your product goes out to market, you need to build your brand first. A product without a logo or a brand is just another product that can be easily white-labelled.” Define who you are as a brand first. An important and often overlooked starting point for startups is to work on your Brand Canvas Model - a one-page guide that encompasses 10 key pillars of your brand which serves as your north star. The power of this toolkit is that it allows brands to remain consistent in one’s approach when it comes to product development, marketing and communications to name a few.

Hear more from Sa’ad and Edmund on the importance of branding from the get-go and the Brand Canvas Model in their session titled Actually kan, what is your story.

2. Think about how your product fits and enhances your target customer’s life

As Steve Jobs once said “People don’t buy products, they buy better versions of themselves”. A perspective that startups can think about when developing a product is to think about how they can enable their customers to become a ‘hero’ instead of merely positioning their product as the hero. As product innovator and designer Sam Chua said, “A powerful way to build a successful product is to first understand your customer’s world and reality. Learn to listen and observe their behaviour in their native habitat.” In more traditional methods such as focus groups which are an artificial environment, people will often say what they think you want to hear instead of what is actually true.

Listen in on Sam’s session titled “Don’t be the hero; be the set”.

3. Think big, start small and scale fast

As the personal mantra of punk rock startup founder Bryan Loo of highly-recognised F&B brands, most notably Tealive, this has served the award-winning entrepreneur well throughout his journey on building his portfolio of businesses. One of his most recent success stories include the creation of Tealive’s My Bubble Tea Kit which was spurred on when the Covid19 pandemic hit. This eventually led to Tealive ramping up its ecommerce business which is now a big revenue-maker for the holding group. For startups, it’s important to have a vision of where you want to be, be realistic in your own capacity by starting small and once you find that tipping point, scale as fast as you can. Take comfort in uncertainty and remain flexible.

Listen to the fireside chat between our very own Bawatana partner, Sa’ad Hussein and Bryan here.

4. Don’t think that the glass ceiling is higher than it really is

Being a female founder presents its own sets of challenges including not being taken seriously, difficulty in getting capital (in a report by Crunchbase, only 3% of venture dollars went towards female-founded companies in 2019) and the inevitable biological clock. Despite this, Amy Zheng, founder of local snack brand Amazin’ Graze is a firm believer in not letting the concept of glass ceilings have more power than it should. It’s important for women to build a more resilient mindset and not think that there are more obstacles out there. Remember to turn your blinders on to the prejudice - everyone one of us who does this will make it easier for the next person.

Hear Amy’s amazin’ entrepreneurship story here.

5. Consider PR as a key branding activity

According to communications maven Rengeeta Rendava of communications agency Mad Hat Asia and lifestyle newswire Kepohchi, the four key reasons that are paramount for startups to consider embarking in PR are credibility, stakeholder visibility, thought leadership and authority, and establish connection. Take a minute to think about why PR is a key consideration and what you look to achieve out of doing it (and no, this doesn’t always mean to make money). This will help shape your brand messaging and target audience.

Find out more on how PR can help you here.

6. Identify your niche

To achieve product-market fit, figure out who your customer is in order to identify your niche. In our conversation with digital marketer Xin-Ci Chin, Head of Marketing at Storehub, “Flesh out your customer avatar and customer profile including their wants, needs and mindsets. Doing this will help you to figure out how you want to market, what you want to sell, how you want to price your products and what channels do you want to use. Without first undertaking this exercise, you’d be spraying and praying, hoping something sticks.”

Listen to the full conversation here.

7. Consider agencies as an extension of your startup

Once you’re financially ready to take on an agency, remember that the relationship is a two-way channel. Oftentimes, many brands think of agencies as a “vendor” which is a detrimental mindset to enter into. Creative mind Chan Woei Hern said “Taking risks. Standing out. Innovation. Creativity. Tight deadlines. Late nights. Coffee and other bad habits. Sound familiar? Agencies and startups have more in common than you think. Think of agencies and startups as a community of collaborators.”

To learn more, check out his 6 tips on what startup founders should know before talking to agencies here.

To catch up on all the Sprout 2020 sessions, click here.

We’d like to close out with a big thanks to all the amazing people who partook in our first-ever edition of Sprout. For more information and updates on the upcoming Sprout series, sign up for our newsletter here.