Living Entrepreneurship Blog / Babson Entrepreneurs

Invest Right Away in a Branding Strategy

The following post is from Emily Levy ’16, founder of PICCPerfect, a spring 2016 hatchery business. 

Emily Levy '16, Founder of PICCPerfect

Emily Levy ’16, Founder of PICCPerfect

Like most first time entrepreneurs, I thought my team and I could do everything ourselves.

My team and I wanted to save money and we did all of the marketing and graphics in house or in the Babson eco-system to save money. I wish we just spent the money and time up front to work with a branding strategist so that all of our colors, messaging, logo, and website were consistent and reflecting of the company we want to become.

We had a slew of different people do our logo, copy, website, and social media.  Now, as a CEO with a year of experience under her belt, it makes me feel all over the place and it can seem homespun to our customers, and that is not what we want.

We now feel that PICCPerfect is a too limiting company name and we are in the process of rebranding to have PICCPerfect remain the product name and have an overarching company name that will allow us to grow into other stylish and functional medical accessories. However, we have already built up name recognition and press in the past year.  For the past few months we have been working with a branding strategist to help us do an overhaul.

This is now more expensive that if we had invested the money up front because we will have to work on a brand transition in the coming future. We are focusing on coming up with an umbrella company name that will allow us to grow in the future. We also feel that our colors and font are too feminine, and all types of people have PICC lines, so we are going towards a feel that reflects that of a brand like Fuck Cancer. We want to be fun, cheeky, and we want people to know as they go through treatment, they deserve dignity too.

My advise to all new business owners and students with business ideas is to invest the time and money in a branding now to avoid the costs and consequences in the future.