It’s incredibly common for start-ups and scale-ups to undervalue their brand, focusing instead solely on the product they’re selling. This is all well and good, but it will only get you so far. Every business reaches a point where the strategies and activities they deployed to build traction and drive repeatable business stop working as effectively.

Climate change didn’t happen yesterday. Like winter, it’s been coming. We caused it and we know how to stop it. We just haven’t...yet. Let’s hope COP26 finds an unexpected breakthrough in global solidarity.

I heard Paddy Loughman from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change sum up our situation in the phrase “climate change is the new context for everything”. And he’s right.

It’s easy to apportion blame, a lot easier than pointing the finger at yourself. So I decided to start there and ask myself the question - am I the problem?

When it comes to brand development, start-up logic goes something like this: ‘If the product is strong enough – and we know ours is – the brand will take care of itself.’ Unfortunately, that’s flawed thinking. When founders understand the fact that building a brand is crucial in order to grow at scale, it’s usually a little late: sales have already plateaued.

Here are the top seven brand development trip hazards and how to avoid them.

Expanding beyond early adopters to a wider pool of prospective B2B customers means building awareness beyond your existing network. Take a look at how we’ve approached this stage in our own journey with our first ever Firehaus brand campaign.

We’re thrilled to announce Firehaus has scooped the Company Shop Group account amongst a trio of new business wins as we continue to help organisations gear up for significant growth.

Vittoria has launched its first YouTube advertising campaign to raise awareness of the brand in one of its key growth sectors – mountain biking.

How important is having a clear and compelling brand when you’re looking to scale your business? Organisations at this critical stage of growth often downplay the role brand plays. Here are the top 10 mistakes we’ve seen in action when it comes to brand-building.

At our launch we made a commitment to support an organisation every year with pro bono work and a percentage of our profits. So Return Fire is our programme of support for NFPs or social enterprises that are doing good for the greater good. Read all about what we’ve been up to over our first 2 years.

Sproos! is on a mission – to become America’s go-to brand for millennial renters when they move, renovate, and eventually become homeowners. And we’re chuffed to be helping them.

This little film was the only promotion for the L’Eroica 2021 cotton tubular tyre. Launched at 6 pm on Friday 30th July it was sold out by 7 pm.

We help USA Cycling and Vittoria celebrate their partnership. Supporting all levels of cycling – from grassroots to the Olympics teams.

Leading a business through its scale-up phase of accelerated growth comes with a new set of challenges. Switching focus from product to brand to reach new audiences is a priority. But founders need to ignite their newly honed brand with their growing team of employees too if they want their scale-up to rise to the top.

Any startup finds itself on a steep learning curve in its first couple of years of existence.

For Firehaus, 14 months of our first 2 years have been lived through the pandemic. It’s made the process of answering and addressing these questions trickier, but even more essential.

How you use data could be as distinct to your brand as your visual identity.

Brand Data if you like.

Our promo film pitches Vittoria at the cutting edge of MTB with the striking new visual style. Featured on giant screens at events around the world and across digital channels.

In the previous post, Ian covered critical parts of developing your brand from the inside out. Why you exist. Who you are. What your plan is. All incredibly important parts of defining your brand. But, all about you.

We were invited by SETsquared, the world’s No1 University Business Incubator, to run a workshop for 15 startups on the principles underpinning the creation of a brand.

Here’s a summary of From a Great Product to a Great Brand – Episode 1.

Our eye-catching campaign Invisible Protector for the innovative new Airliner product created a tension between what’s seen and what isn’t. Produced in association with Vittoria, Yanzi Creative and the EF Nippo team, we delivered a series of Hero, Hub and Help assets for digital media, building on The Ride Ahead brand idea.

Is purpose an indulgence business can scarce afford faced with the more immediate challenges brought about in the wake of Covid? To answer that we surely have to first define what we mean by purpose in the first place. Here’s why the way we think about purpose is worth unpicking.

As the business world begins a journey to whatever normal is, one thing is for sure – it won’t require everyone in the office all the time.

During the past year, one lesson has crystallized for me. In or out of office, creativity requires clarity. In fact, there are nine conditions for creativity – but overall it dies without clarity.