How To Plan Your Brand: 25 Questions Every Start-Up Should Ask Themselves

Introduction: Planning Before Branding—Why Start-Ups Need a Brand Plan

Before you start designing a logo, building a website or launching your first campaign, you need to pause and ask some deeper questions. What’s your business really about? Why should anyone care? And what makes you genuinely different?

For many start-up founders, the idea of “brand strategy” can feel a bit overwhelming. It sounds technical, formal—maybe even a bit corporate. But it doesn't have to be. In fact, I prefer to think of it as your brand plan. It’s really just a way of having a structured conversation with yourself about what you want your brand to represent.

What excites you about your business? What do you want people to feel when they see your name, hear your message, or buy your product? Once you’ve got clarity on those questions, everything else flows far more naturally.

Here are some of the most important questions you should be asking at the start of your brand journey.

Want more insights? Download my free ebook, ‘A Pocket Guide to Brand Strategy’ here.

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1. Defining Your Internal Brand: What’s Driving You?

You’ve probably heard that customers don’t just buy what you do—they buy into why you do it. Your brand needs a purpose. Something bigger than just turning a profit.

Sometimes, you need to dig deep to uncover this, but once you do, it becomes the fuel behind everything else—your tone, your visuals, your messaging.

Questions to consider:

- Why does this business exist (beyond making money)?
- What values will guide the way you do things?
- What’s important to you?
- Is there a personal story that explains why you started this in the first place?

From here, you can start to build three foundational statements: your Positioning Statement, your Mission, and your Vision.

Your positioning statement is simply, “We do X for Y.” But it can go deeper. Who exactly are you for? What problem are you solving? What space do you want to occupy?

Your mission is your day-to-day driver—what you do for people right now. Your vision is the bigger picture: the change you want to see in the world because of your brand.

Let’s take TED Talks as an example:
- Mission: Spread ideas.
- Vision: We believe in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world.

2. Understanding Your Audience: Who Are You Talking To?

Your brand needs to resonate with someone. That means identifying the right audience and building a detailed picture of them.

Ask yourself:

- Who is your ideal customer?
- What problems do they have that you solve?
- Where do they hang out—online and offline?
- What do you want them to feel when they come across your brand?
- What sort of personality do they have?

This process of mapping out both the demographics (age, location, etc.) and psychographics (attitudes, values, behaviours) of your audience helps you make better decisions across the board—from visuals to messaging.

Nike, for instance, knew their ideal customer long before they picked a logo or coined “Just Do It.” That understanding drove every decision they made from there.

3. Analysing Your Competitors: How Will You Stand Out?

Looking at your competitors isn’t about copying what they’re doing—it’s about identifying opportunities to do things differently.

Explore questions like:

- How do your competitors present themselves?
- Are there any patterns or clichés in your industry?
- What are others doing well that you admire?
- What gaps can you see that you could fill?

It’s not just about visuals, either. Your brand name, your tone of voice, and the kind of content you share all contribute to how you stand out.

4. Distinction vs. Differentiation: Why Should People Choose You?

Now that you’ve got a clearer view of the competitive landscape, it’s time to dig into two related but very different branding principles: differentiation and distinctiveness.

Differentiation is all about what you do differently. It refers to the tangible attributes of your product or service that offer something others don’t. This could be a feature, a process, a price point, or even a specific benefit you deliver. For example:

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- A bakery that only uses heritage grains and mills its own flour.
- An accounting firm that works exclusively with creatives and freelancers.
- A tech repair business that offers a three-hour turnaround as standard.

These are things that set you apart based on what you do.

Distinctiveness, on the other hand, is about being recognisable. It’s how you look, sound and feel to people. Even if your offer is similar to someone else’s, you can still own your space through brand assets—name, tone of voice, colours, design style and more. For example:

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- A plumbing business with a playful, unexpected brand name and a van wrap that turns heads.
- A legal consultancy with a clean, editorial visual identity that feels more like a fashion brand than a firm of solicitors.
- A coffee brand that uses bold, irreverent tone of voice and hand-drawn graphics to stand out on the shelf.

Distinctiveness makes you easier to recall. Differentiation gives people reasons to choose you. Ideally, you want both working together—but in crowded markets, distinctiveness becomes crucial. That’s why it’s so important to leverage your brand assets—your name, visual identity, and tone of voice—to carve out space in people’s minds.

Even in sectors where everyone seems to blend together—like accountancy firms, property services, or consultants—a distinctively chosen name, tone of voice or bold design choice can be the thing that stops someone scrolling. It doesn't matter how crowded the space is—clarity and character still cut through.

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5. Developing Your Brand Personality: If Your Brand Were a Person…

This is where things start to get more human.

Your brand should feel like it has a personality—one that connects with your audience on a gut level. Whether you use archetypes or just good old-fashioned gut instinct, it’s about giving your brand a voice, attitude and emotional resonance.

Consider:

- What traits best describe how your brand should come across?
- What sort of emotional response are you aiming for?
- What other brands have a vibe you’d love to capture (in your own way)?

Three ice cream brands might sell similar products, but one might be playful, another elegant, and a third might lead with health-conscious values. Personality shapes perception.

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6. Crafting Your Brand’s Verbal Identity: Naming and Tone

With your brand’s personality taking shape, it’s time to think about how it speaks.

Your verbal identity includes:

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- Your brand name — ideally crafted after some strategy work. A good name carries meaning and appeal.
- A tagline — optional, but great for clarity or memorability.
- Your tonal values — the core principles that shape how your brand talks in writing.

Think of these as tools to reinforce your distinctiveness. A well-chosen name or a smart, memorable line can stick with people long after they’ve scrolled past.

Need help on this? I’ve put together a detailed guide on naming over at my website.

7. Bringing It All To Life: Your Visual Identity

Once the strategy is sorted, then—and only then—is it time to make things look good.

Your brand identity is where your strategic thinking becomes visible.

Ask yourself:

- Which colours reflect your personality and connect with your audience?
- Which fonts feel right for the tone you’ve established?
- What kind of imagery—photos, illustrations, textures—will you use?
- How can you sidestep the same-old visual clichés in your space?

Moodboards are a brilliant starting point here. They’ll help you translate concepts and emotions into something tangible that a designer (or you!) can run with.

Final Thoughts: Start With Clarity, Build With Purpose

Building a brand isn’t about trends or quick wins—it’s about long-term resonance.

By taking the time to answer these questions and build a brand plan, you’ll give yourself a serious head start. The design, the name, the copy—they’ll all come together much more easily when you’ve done the groundwork.

Need help building your brand from scratch? Book a Discovery Call with me today to discuss building your brand with intention.

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