Brand as a business tool – Why branding shouldn’t be an afterthought

In our nine years of doing this, and in the years we all spent before FutureKings at agencies large and small, brand as ‘last on the list’ is what we see most. Many businesses, in particular start-ups and scale-ups, treat branding as something to be done after everything else, a decorative flourish added just before launch.

This tendency to rush branding, treating it as a secondary concern rather than a foundational business tool, can have significant consequences. But is this issue confined to smaller businesses, or does it extend to larger organisations as well?

The Start-Up Mentality: Speed Over Substance

For many start-ups, the priority is getting a product or service to market as quickly as possible.

Funding rounds, product development, and hiring key talent take centre stage, while branding is often seen as ‘nice to have’ rather than essential. When the moment comes to finally think about branding, it’s often just before launch. And it’s approached as a surface-level exercise: a logo, a colour palette, maybe a tagline. Job done.

Except it isn’t. Because all those deeper, strategic elements of brand — positioning, personality, tone of voice, key messaging — get overlooked or rushed. This leads to inconsistency and a weaker foundation for growth. It’s no coincidence that the start-ups that succeed recognise the importance of branding early and invest precious time and budget in the process.

Do larger, established companies do it better?

It’s easy to assume that established businesses, with greater resources and marketing teams, take branding more seriously. This can be the case, but often branding can still be treated as an afterthought. Brand refreshes frequently occur in response to crises or declining sales, rather than as part of a proactive strategy to keep the brand relevant to a changing world. Some large organisations also underestimate the role of brand consistency when launching new products or entering new markets, treating branding as a box-ticking exercise rather than a strategic tool for engagement and distinctiveness.

The consequences of rushing branding

Regardless of company size, treating branding as an afterthought can lead to a number of issues highlighted below.

• Lack of clarity: without a clear brand strategy, messaging becomes inconsistent, confusing customers and investors alike.
• Lack of alignment: the very process of going through a branding programme can help to align the team internally, so everyone is clear about the objectives of the brand.
• No distinctiveness: a rushed brand often results in generic positioning that fails to stand out in the market.
• Costly corrections: refreshing the brand due to poor initial branding decisions is far more expensive than getting it right from the start.
• Weaker emotional connection: customers form stronger relationships with brands that feel intentional, authentic, and well-developed.

A Better Approach: Branding as a Business Tool

To avoid these pitfalls, businesses big and small, new and established, must consider branding a core part of their business strategy.

A strong brand is not just an identity; it’s your business strategy brought to life. It’s a foundation for customer trust, employee engagement and long-term success. Treating branding as a strategic priority rather than an afterthought ensures that companies launch and communicate with clarity, confidence and a competitive edge.

Using brand as a business tool at business life-stages

The answer is that branding should never stop. It’s a tool that should be used differently as your business grows.

At FutureKings we’ve designed brand programmes to suit different business life-stages, meaning everything we do is focussed on the business goals, at that point in time. And these can vary dramatically from start-up through to SME and through to larger enterprises.

Our programme for start-ups, the Minimum Viable Brand Programme (MVB for short) is designed to support founders while they work on their MVP and early funding rounds. The process is strategic, often involving aligning founders to a single vision, and always focusses on exploring the 3 Cs of Customer, Company and Competitors to build insight. The outputs of this programme are lean, and everything a start-up needs, and nothing it doesn’t. For example, investor decks/sites and UX/UI toolkits for MVPs. No need here for detailed brand guidelines, we simply set the principles in motion and then look to build on them as the business grows.

Our programme for scale-ups, the Organise for Growth Programme (OFG for short) is based on the same principles — giving scaling founders everything they need to align teams, drive growth, ensure consistency, launch new products and deliver the corporate strategy. The list varies by client, but the critical point is that every pound is spent in the right place with a single goal, to deliver growth.

In summary

Branding isn’t just ‘what a company looks like’. Brand is how it thinks, speaks, and connects with its audiences, both internal and external.

While some businesses recognise its value early on, many fall into the trap of treating branding as a late-stage activity. Rushing the process might seem convenient in the short term, but the businesses that take branding seriously from the outset set themselves up for sustained success.

Whatever your business life-stage, investing in branding early isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity.

#trusttheprocess