During last week’s ‘Global Entrepreneurship Week’, I was lucky enough to be invited by StartMeUp Ryerson and Enactus Ryerson to speak at their Training Tracks program during a session on “Building Your Brand”.

Because the theme of this year’s ‘Global Entrepreneurship Week’ was social entrepreneurship, I took a more social approach to my presentation on building a brand than I usually would, hoping to illustrate the quirks and complexities of building a startup brand as a social entrepreneur.

For those unable to attend, here’s my presentation:

So what is unique about building a social brand?

I did a lot of thinking about that concept in the run up to my presentation, and I came to a simple conclusion: not much.

Fundamentally, a brand is a brand. There are brands that connect with people and communicate their purpose and there are brands that don’t.

Ultimately, your brand is the space you rent in your customers mind (and I say rent instead of own because when it comes to your customers, you never own anything. Taking your position in your customers’ mind for granted is the fastest way to irrelevancy). Regardless of the nature of a startup or growing business, the principles of brand building are relatively consistent. Starting with careful customer analysis, the brand building experience should culminate in the creation of consistent and meaningful experiences at every customer touchpoint (using each of your marketing and sales tactics).

But, don’t get me wrong, there are a few elements of brand building in which social entrepreneurs need to pay special attention. Because in a world in which 53% of consumers cite a brands ‘social purpose’ as the most important factor in a purchase decision when price and quality are the same, your brand and your purpose matters more than ever.

Here’s three important areas that social entrepreneurs need to place greater emphasis on when building a social brand:

1. Passion

By nature, every entrepreneur is passionate about what they do. However, social entrepreneurs are passionate in a different type of way – they’re passionate about using their businesses to realize positive social change for a cause that matters to them.

Accordingly, social entrepreneurs represent their companies’ brands in deeper ways than other entrepreneurs. It’s important to integrate this element into your every aspect of your brand. You’re your brand’s best ambassador, so you need to act like it at all times.

Think Craig Kielburger vs. Mark Zuckerberg. Blake Mycoskie vs. Phil Knight. Or Muhammad Yunus vs. Warren Buffet. All are dedicated and intensively passionate entrepreneurs who have built great companies, but you probably look at Kielburger, Mycoskie, and Yunus in very different lights from Zuckerberg, Knight or Buffet. The importance of this comes back into play with the third point below.

2. People

Great brands always come from great cultures. As a startup, your team may be small but that’s no excuse for a lack of passion and involvement. As said by Bill Taylor in an article in HBR, success is “about caring more than other companies — about customers, about colleagues, about how the organization conducts itself in a world with endless opportunities to cut corners and compromise on values.”

Ensuring your entire team ‘lives the brand’ is a must. TOMS Shoes is a great example of this idea in practice.

3. Trust & Authenticity

Building trust with prospects and customers is a must for every business. But a social brand that lacks either won’t last long. If you’ve heard of the Kids Wish Network, you’ll know what I mean. Likewise, you may have read about Sketchers’ BOBS shoes debacle, their blatant attempt to knockoff TOMS and ‘be a more social brand’.

Ultimately, if you do one thing right as a social entrepreneur, it has to be building trust and authenticity with your target market. My favourite example of this, despite not about a startup per se, is Ray Anderson’s work at global carpet manufacturing giant Interface to restructure the organization around his goal of “Mission Zero”. The way that Interface has conducted this shift, with exposure at each of its customer touchpoints, leaves no question about its true commitment to its cause.

Thanks again to StartMeUp Ryerson and Enactus Ryerson for inviting me to speak. Both of these student-run organizations are terrific resources for entrepreneurs that are dedicated to providing them with the education, funding, and resources they need to help turn ideas into reality.

If you’re interested in learning more about the challenges and opportunities of building a brand as a social entrepreneur, feel free to reach out to us.

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