How To Craft Your Startup's Brand Identity w/ Aman Kler | Ella's Kitchen

00:00
Aman Kler
Brand identity is such an important piece. I think how you go on brand who you are, how consumers resonate with you. It needs to be always like at heartbeat, I think taking that time up front and then sometimes it might feel like there's so much going on and tight. I would just say take that time to step back and look at how do you want to be sick now? I mean, five years time, Because I think it's getting that tight and the energy up front will be so important.

00:29
Anshika Arora
Today we're talking all about how you can define and refine your brand identity to resonate with your audiences. We discuss why your brand identity is so crucial, how you can build it to remain consistent through personnel changes, and how it ultimately increases trust with your audience. We're so honoured to have Aman Kler on the podcast who is the global Senior Brand Manager at Ella's Kitchen. She has a wealth of experience across numerous industries, from FMCG to entertainment, and has helped grow new brands as well as scale existing ones to new mites. I'm Anshika, the founder of Eternity, a CRM designed for businesses operating in the wedding and events industry. And I'm so excited to be hosting the BAE Lab podcast today. Let's get into it. Thank you so much, Aman, for joining us on today's episode of the BAE Lab podcast.

01:16
Anshika Arora
I'm so excited to have you here and talk all things brand identity. So let's just get into it. What is a brand identity? For any startup founder or business owner watching, what do they really need to think of when they think brand identity?

01:29
Aman Kler
So brand identity is your brand image. It's how you want to be perceived by customers, businesses, but also the world around you. And this is beyond just the logo, it's emotional, but also visual elements that you see. So it's almost like own personality. Like you have your way you speak, how you look, your values, that your purpose that makes you. And that's your idea. Exactly the same brand as well.

01:54
Anshika Arora
I love how you said personality there because it really then mirrors and resonates to how you would want people to be talking about you, perhaps when you're not in the room, that's very similar to how your brand comes across, right?

02:07
Aman Kler
Yeah, exactly. And if I said to you, for instance, a brand that is really has a golden arches instantly, what brand comes to mind?

02:13
Anshika Arora
Absolutely, McDonald's, we all know it.

02:15
Aman Kler
And that is a great example of a brand that worldwide, because it's got that same identity across every market. It just shows how consistency is so important. That kind of identity is so important as a brand. You know who they are, you know what your guests doing. And that same tone of voice across everything that you see them up with.

02:33
Anshika Arora
Absolutely. And I know so many business owners watching and founders aspire to be the next McDonald's where you can really have that brand identity in place. But a lot of us are still in our early stages and I think sometimes it's a bit harder to define your brand identity. So why would you say it's really important for founders to actually prioritise that in and amongst everything else at the early stages and how would they really sustain it and grow it?

02:56
Aman Kler
Yeah. So for me, brand it's the starter, it's foundations who you are as a brand, because almost getting it right will help you in the long run. And to give you an example, where I am right now, it all started as a spot up back in 2006, whereas I had genuine desire to his stores for the future generation. Healthy food that was tasty, fun and cool and actually choreton. Now, in terms of our assets of kind of fruit and veggies, how we speak is awesome that we live in now. And it hasn't evolved slightly, but it hasn't changed. And again it. And I think with startups especially, it's so important because such rich and meaningful stories and their why.

03:41
Aman Kler
And I think that should be part of like your brand identity when you're starting up to differentiate who you are so the consumers audiences recognise you as well.

03:51
Anshika Arora
Yeah, I think we're seeing a lot of that online now as well. That authenticity needs to be a really large part of brand identity and it's a switch that I've definitely seen, and I'm sure you have, where we've gone from a certain tone of voice, which is a bit more professional, to now being more friendly, being more human. Sometimes you have a lot of emojis. I think now we're also moving into the more kind of jokey and jovial side of things. What kind of advice would you give to a startup which needs to change their brand identity? Because naturally the business is also pivoting and so whilst their values may stay the same, the audience might change ever so slightly or their pricing and their consumer might change. So how would you say startups should manage that side of things.

04:33
Aman Kler
Biggest consistency and I think taking that time upfront to find who you are, like what are the values, why you're doing what you're doing, and that's almost your essence of how you start thinking about your brand identity and there's so many different layers to it, but I think that needs to be the fundamental of. Like, how.

04:52
Anshika Arora
Yeah. And are there any particular aspects that startups should prioritise? For example? So I know you've mentioned there, it's the logo, it's the tone of voice, it's the appearance and the colours, but is there anything which should be prioritised earlier on and ones that potentially can come a little bit later down the line? I know you're saying they're all the foundation, but obviously for startup founders, there's so many things you need to be doing. So if you had to put it on a spectrum.

05:17
Aman Kler
So there's three key things. One would be your brand purpose, second your brand last bit. And your third would be your kind of brand tonal piece. They are all interlinked and I'll kind of go into each one in terms of what it looks like, how it. How it is. And I guess fundamentally, if I was to prioritise, it would be starting with visual assets, having one distance logo, but then have two to three physical assets. So again, it's that consistency. So wherever you do turn up, you recognise this brand. So to give an example, your brand passion, everyone knows, is your why? Why a fundamental. It's such an important piece and it's your purpose. And so that was obviously your brand identity stem from, because it is. I always call it heartbeat, living and breathing across everything that you do.

06:10
Aman Kler
Your second is your brand. It can also be called brand codes or this would include logo, colour palette. So for instance, I said, like Tiffany's Blue, you instantly recognise that colour. I said characters. You almost kind of recognise the character Tony Pony the Tiger from Busties. So you've got different elements, colour, characters. I needed a few visual assets, whether.

06:38
Anshika Arora
Support to you are as a brand.

06:39
Aman Kler
Or lss fruit and veggies, images of little ones. So again, what leaps that. What is it you see it, you know, it's this brand. And it could be type energy as well. There's like certain fonts that you use, like Coca Cola of the font that you recognise anywhere. But also not packaging. That also counts as one of the assets. And again, I think of Selfridges big kind of yellow bag.

07:06
Anshika Arora
Yeah.

07:07
Aman Kler
You know, that recognised plant, which I set motion as well. And then thirdly, your tone of voice. How do you sound? How do you want to come across? Is it fun, is it playful, is it inspiring? How do you link them all through?

07:21
Anshika Arora
Yeah.

07:22
Aman Kler
And again, I start with visual aspects and you can layer on.

07:27
Anshika Arora
Yeah, I think everything you said is so interesting and I kept relating it down to the kind of content that I'm consuming in the new brands that I'm seeing as well as existing ones. And I think there's this big thing that we've already touched upon around authenticity. But equally in the world of social media, we also live in a trend generation where there's so many things that are constantly changing. So one that always comes to mind for me is Duolingo, because Duolingo and how they appear on their social media and their brand voice and brand identity. Some could say it really doesn't link to a language app at all. Like if you looked at it, you had no idea. But obviously you've seen that stark increase in.

08:04
Anshika Arora
In their actual usage and their numbers and their business growth off the back of a brand identity, which perhaps doesn't tie back into their values very well or their story directly. Definitely their values, but you can't really tell their story. And that same with perhaps Curry's PC world, which we've seen going viral. So how would you say brands can be fun and playful and how important is it to balance the brand identity and authenticity side of things with market trends and that growth side of things in the marketing?

08:32
Aman Kler
It's really funny. Yeah. Because that's actually an example I use.

08:35
Anshika Arora
Yeah.

08:37
Aman Kler
I think how their behaviours and their values, playful being fine and actually all zealing to those trends, but they're very selected in terms of what trends they do and don't lean into. So if it kind of leans into that and they can add what they stand for as a brand, it works. And I think that's where even for startups, it's the only back end. Your values and what you stand for as a brand. Not all trends resonate and they work for you either. It needs to be what's true to you as a brand. So it's about how you want to show up, what you want to represent as well. So being clear on that up front will really help and be selective. Like, use your value. And I think it's such an important part of the brand.

09:19
Aman Kler
Use your values to guide you to which ones and then using them to jump on certain conversations feel really strong.

09:26
Aman Kler
It's a brand, whether it's about sustainability, about.

09:31
Anshika Arora
I think it's almost how can you put your point of view and then your why again?

09:38
Anshika Arora
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's so important and I think where we've both touched upon Duolingo, we obviously love that as an example. They've obviously evolved A lot over time. The way that their social media started. They did used to talk a lot more about the language app side of things. And now. Now they are, like you said in that playful way, doing what resonates with them and their audience. Now, what advice would you give to startups and in terms of what triggers a brand refresh or an identity refresh. So whether that be you're actually rebranding things like your logos, your colour palette, that's one side of it.

10:10
Anshika Arora
But it could be that you're keeping all of that the same and you're realising do you know what we actually want to be more authentic and go down the storytelling route or actually we want to be more inspiring founder content. How would you say brands can navigate that?

10:23
Aman Kler
Yeah. So there are a few different elements that might trigger this. I mean there's quite a bit. I'll go the first one could be your business need. Like actually has that changed Almost example I will use oatly. Oatly drink their business change because initially when they started up it was all about the people that had intolerances to query and actually they decided they wanted to keep to the border in terms the audience, what they stood for. So they did a in terms of how they turn up to actually make it more mainstream and make it more mainstream. So that was an example change. So that's deep through the second would be shifting your target audience and everything else to start from there is what is your audience used? Are you looking for you to abort? Actually your idea might not resonate with them.

11:18
Aman Kler
It might be kind of quite niche get out easy. For example where it did it was so niche and that's why you had to change what you were trying to do pressures. And again you're changing it in keeping your essence about who you are because again you don't want to keep changing left and right depending on you can competitors. But it might be is do you stand out or everyone loves same colour. How stand out? How do you feel? Self distinctiveness. How do you like who you are, what you stand for as your brand and then your vision. I get to you naturally something it does change. It might get dated who we are now 10 years ago a lot changed and we spoke about quite very on. But again it might tweak how you make those changes in your identity.

12:10
Aman Kler
Whether it's the assets add to your assets. But I guess the fundamental thing would be your essence of why you did those. Can you keep that one thing consistent then it's at least just recognisable and then the startups is you're a new brand, you're really kind of to make those connections and actually your quantity changes as you evolve. They don't recognise you, they're starting from scratch or free time.

12:39
Amardeep Parmar
Hello. Hello. Quick introduction to let you know a bit more about BAE HQ. We're the community for high growth Asian heritage entrepreneurs, operators and investors in the UK. You can join us totally free at thebaehq.com/join.  There you'll get our CEO structure in your inbox every week, which is content, events and opportunities. You can also get access to our free startup fundamentals course by joining. Let's get back to the show.

13:12
Anshika Arora
Absolutely. And I think that's the tricky thing that startups face because like you said, they are pivoting. They're always changing. They may even have team and personnel changes. So the way that one person is interpreting the brand voice or for example how a caption should read on social media is very different to a second one. And I've seen some businesses use that to an advantage and really clearly differentiate oh, this is our Gen Z social media manager versus our old millennial one. And I think it's really important as startups to show up authentically in a way that can kind of push things forward and still be seen as dravio and getting the messaging across. But I know that I've touched briefly upon employee and personnel changes which are really common in startups.

13:56
Anshika Arora
What kind of tools and systems do you recommend for startups who are naturally going to go through those different shifts and you don't really want key person risk with one social media manager who is only with you for say two months and then moved on. But now your entire brand tone of voice is in the dark.

14:10
Aman Kler
My that I still use now is prime guidelines. It is so whenever we have any meaning meetings where I am now is were always have guidance and that's like a really comprehensive document that includes who you are as a brand, your story, your values, your assets, how you talk and tone of voice. Because again some so easy your own department to live and breathe there. You actually want it to radiate everything that you do to your sales team, to your supply. So we always brand emotion and it is taken through that sort of consistency across different teams but also for me other markets as well. So when you start up scale, especially if you go internationally market again you want to keep that of who you are, how you turn up as well.

15:03
Aman Kler
That was something I remember when on you didn't have and it knew so hard because you're constantly trying to sign is it consistent? Am I the same brand? And you hate so many different vestiges. You almost lost February and that's why it's important. Yeah, for me it's the brand guideline by viable I constantly turning to and sharing with different teams and it has really helped us to kind of drive our awareness, drive kind of recognition of who we are more concerned.

15:31
Anshika Arora
Amazing. Love that. And what are some of the most common mistakes that you see startups making when it comes to defining their brand identity?

15:39
Aman Kler
I would say it's so whether it's using different assets, different colour palettes, different messages especially that seems to be a big different message on different channels. And again, when you think about the consumer, we see on average 4 to 10,000 plans a day and you know the messages. So if you're kind of all of that, we're not going to stand out. So keeping who are you trying to land consistent in terms of look and feel, but your message as well. So in terms of look and feel, also your tone of voice, you may need to shift depending on the channel, but there needs to be I call it the ruddy the red thread like you plus everything. So if one element taken away, you know what it stands, what you're trying to say, what I'm trying to learn.

16:30
Anshika Arora
Yeah.

16:33
Aman Kler
And then the for me, for your target audience is super clear. The whole audience get who you are. It resonates with them. And again I think starts we're so passionate about what we're doing in our own products, we lose the wider of is it what they. When they need their one.

16:58
Anshika Arora
Yeah, absolutely. And so what is one piece of advice that you would give to startups who are actually confused and like you said, they are being inconsistent just because they're not really sure what their brand identity is. So what advice would you give to them to actually start from scratch and define and refine that brand identity?

17:15
Aman Kler
I would just start with your why. And I know a few times but I think it's tricks of how you start. So what with your why and everything I've had from there. But then I would also lay around that, talk to other teams, around your other stakeholders because sometimes start you're so invested in your own rather what you want it to say and do. But it might along that journey to take people on that journey, get their input, get their thoughts because that will really help you shape how to end up. But it also like going, oh, I didn't think of that. Not what you think I think that will really just help shape. Shape your brand and it's getting a foundation. Get that right will help you and then you can build on that.

17:58
Anshika Arora
Amazing. Thank you so much. I've definitely learned a lot and I'm sure anyone listening has as well as with the BAE podcasts, we always have the same few questions that we ask any guests which are sometimes more hard to answer than any of the others. So starting off with who are three British Asians that are doing incredible pieces of work that you think the audience should check out?

18:19
Aman Kler
I do find this trying to find something in my industry that I see but outside it that stood out for me I think super inspiring. First a an amazing woman called Deep Bajwa, she is now who's done a lot of work in terms of luxury the luxury and a consultant she's really consult but it's so kind of niche but it's an amazing opportunity. But her passion and her energy is something for me that really shines through and I know side hustles. I think it's just how she turns up is just amazing. And my comparison is someone I've grown up with is a gentleman called Baljit Rihal, who's done so much people diverse sports industry, a lot of events in terms of including founded the Asian Football Awards years ago.

19:16
Aman Kler
But it's all about helping it change and to really celebrate our Asian talent and drive those meaningful changes in the industry. So he's been amazing. The third one for me would be a company called  yhangry who just recently discovered and I think being a foodie is something I absolutely was like I need to find out more about them. And it was set up by two amazing women called Siddhi and Heinin and it was all about having chefs come to your home cook for you. Restaurant, stock, food. And it's just something that I think is absolutely amazing and it's amazing seeing their growth. They were on track then recently and they just where they're at now and help scaling their business. The one that I'm following quite closely.

19:57
Anshika Arora
Amazing. Thank you so much. And how can people find out more about you?

20:01
Aman Kler
I would say finding LinkedIn, K L E R and so you can find me there and connect.

20:09
Anshika Arora
Amazing. And what can our audience do to help you?

20:12
Aman Kler
I would say reach out to me if there are any key events where you want someone to talk and that's something that for me I really want to help inspire the community from a marketing point of view. So yeah please do reach out to key industry events where bring my experience and I can reach.

20:29
Anshika Arora
Amazing. Any final words from you?

20:31
Aman Kler
I would brand identity such an important piece. I think it kind of who you are as how you go on in the long run, who you are, how consumers resonate with you. It needs to be almost like at heartbeat. So I think taking that time up front, I think sometimes it might feel like there's so much going on time. I would just go take that time and step back and look at how do you want to be seen now? I mean five years time. I think it's getting that time and the energy up front will be so important.

21:02
Amardeep Parmar
Thank you for watching. Don't forget to subscribe. See you next time. 

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