If you’re working for a startup or are a startup founder, the term minimum viable product (MVP) is probably very familiar to you. And I am sure many sleepless nights were spent thinking about it. But what about your brand and the experience your customers have with your product, how many hours or team brainstorms have you spent on those topics?! If the answer is not that many, this article is for you.
Before talking about a minimum viable brand experience coined as you’ve guessed after the MVP, let’s spend some time on user experience, brand experience and minimal viable brand. It’s important to understand what they mean and how they should be used.
The term user experience (UX) was coined by Don Norman in 1993 while he was at Apple. Nowadays, Norman is the director of The Design Lab at University of California, San Diego. He is also known for his books on design, such as “The Design of Everyday Things”. Don Norman defines UX as “everything that touches upon your experience with a product.”
In comparison with user experience, brand experience is focused on the user even before they become a customer. It’s about the sensations, feelings, and behavioral responses customers experience when exposed to brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand’s design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments.
Minimum viable brand (MVB) is a term which is more and more used by startups and VCs. MVB is not just branding as some might argue. MVB refers to your mission, understanding your users, your product and your brand personality.
What is a Minimum Viable Brand Experience
Minimum viable brand experience on the other hand focuses entirely on your customers. In order “to shift their behaviour from consideration to purchase, as a brand, you need to ensure you’ve created a minimum brand experience for your category”, Bogdana Butnar – Senior Manager / Experience Strategy, Accenture Interactive and digital strategist argues.
If you want to know what are the first steps in building a minimum viable brand experience for your startup, check out the full article published on Eu-Startups.com. For those of you who want to dive deeper into these concepts, here are some books and articles which can help:
- The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
- Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits by Debbie Millman
- Startups need a Minimum Viable Brand by Denise Lee Yohn
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