I've built brands for a living — both at Margle Media, where we build brands for clients like Petco, Post, and Qdoba, and at GAS Studio, where every venture in the portfolio needs its own distinct identity. Between those two worlds, I've had the chance to study what makes a brand stick and what makes it forgettable.
Here's the uncomfortable truth about how to build a memorable brand: most branding advice is backwards. It starts with logos and colors. It should start with meaning.
Brand Positioning Comes Before Everything Visual
The single most common branding mistake I see — in startups, in small businesses, even in established companies hiring agencies — is jumping to visual identity before defining brand positioning.
"We need a new logo." "We need to refresh our colors." "We need a better website design."
Maybe. But a new logo on a brand with unclear positioning is just a prettier version of confusing. Your visual identity should express something. If you don't know what that something is, no amount of design talent will make your brand memorable.
Brand positioning answers three questions: Who are you for? What do you stand for? Why should anyone care?
At GAS Studio, every venture starts here. Before Sundream had a color palette, it had a positioning: nature-inspired, joy-spreading creative products for people who want to carry a piece of wonder with them. Before Giveable had a logo, it had a positioning: charitable giving, reimagined — making generosity feel as satisfying as traditional gift-giving.
The positioning drives the visual decisions, not the other way around. This is brand identity tips at the most fundamental level — and it's the tip most people skip.
The Three Elements of Memorable Brands
After building brands across dozens of industries at Margle, I've noticed that memorable brands share three qualities. Not visual qualities — experiential qualities.
Clarity. You know what they do and why they exist within seconds. No jargon, no clever wordplay that requires interpretation, no mission statements written by committee. Purpose-driven brands have a natural advantage here because purpose provides built-in clarity.
Think about the brands you remember. "Doing good, at scale." "Spreading joy, one sticker at a time." "Charitable giving, reimagined." Each one tells you what the venture is about in a single line. That's not accidental — it's the output of clear brand positioning.
Consistency. Memorable brands show up the same way everywhere. Same voice, same visual language, same values — whether you encounter them on Instagram, their website, their packaging, or their customer support. Inconsistency creates cognitive dissonance, and cognitive dissonance kills recall.
At GAS Studio, we maintain branding strategy consistency across the portfolio by using shared design systems, voice guidelines, and content frameworks that ensure every venture feels like part of a family even though they're distinct brands.
Point of view. This is the one most brands lack. They're competent. They're professional. They're completely indistinguishable from their competitors. A memorable brand has an opinion — about its industry, about its values, about how things should be done.
Our point of view at GAS Studio is clear: purpose isn't charity, it's strategy. Systems should do the repetitive work so humans can do the meaningful work. Slowing down is more productive than speeding up. Agree or disagree, you know where we stand. And that's what makes a brand memorable — not the logo, but the stance.
Brand Building for Startups: Practical Steps
If you're building a new brand — especially brand building for startups with limited resources — here's the sequence I recommend based on what we do at both Margle and GAS Studio.
Step 1: Define your positioning. Who is this for, what do you stand for, and what makes you different? Write it in plain language. If you can't explain it to a friend over coffee, it's not clear enough.
Step 2: Find your voice. How does your brand talk? Formal or casual? Authoritative or approachable? Serious or playful? Write down three adjectives that describe how your brand should feel to someone encountering it. Then write sample sentences in that voice.
For GAS Studio, the voice is: confident, direct, purposeful. Never corporate. Never hustle-culture. "Builder who reads widely" energy. That's specific enough to guide every piece of content — from this Journal to our social media to the copy on our website.
Step 3: Create a minimal visual system. Now — only now — design the visual identity. You need fewer elements than you think. Start with a logo, a color palette (3-4 colors), a primary typeface, and a few basic layout patterns. That's enough to be consistent across your website, social media, and basic marketing materials.
The temptation is to over-design. Resist it. A simple brand identity tips system that you use consistently beats an elaborate one that you apply inconsistently. Sundream's visual identity is remarkably simple — warm colors, clean type, nature imagery. It works because it's applied the same way everywhere.
Step 4: Apply it everywhere, immediately. Don't create a brand book that lives in a drawer. Apply the brand to your website, your email signature, your social profiles, your packaging, and your communications right away. Consistency only works if it's actual.
Step 5: Evolve, don't reinvent. Your brand will change as your business grows. That's healthy. But evolution is different from revolution. If you rebrand every year, you're erasing whatever recognition you've built. Make incremental improvements. Keep the core.
The Brand Building Mistakes I See Most Often
From agency work at Margle:
Designing for yourself instead of your audience. Your brand isn't for you — it's for the people you're trying to reach. The colors you love might not resonate with your market. The tone you prefer might not connect with your audience. Branding strategy decisions should be based on audience insight, not personal preference.
Copying competitors. If your brand looks like everyone else in your category, you won't stand out. Study competitors to understand conventions, then deliberately differentiate. The goal is to be the brand that's not like the others — that's how to build a memorable brand in a crowded space.
Neglecting verbal identity. Most founders spend 90% of their branding energy on visual elements and 10% on how the brand sounds. But people encounter your words — on your website, in your emails, on social media — far more often than they see your logo. Your verbal identity (voice, tone, messaging) is at least as important as your visual identity.
Thinking branding is a one-time project. A brand is a living thing. It needs ongoing attention — not constant reinvention, but consistent nurturing. The companies that build strong brands treat branding as a continuous practice, not a project with a start and end date.
Brand as Competitive Advantage
In a world where AI makes it easy to produce competent content and run adequate campaigns, brand is your moat. It's the thing that can't be replicated by a competitor with access to the same tools and the same data.
Your positioning, your voice, your values, your point of view — these are uniquely yours. They're the output of your specific experience, beliefs, and vision. No algorithm can generate them. No competitor can copy them without looking inauthentic.
That's why how to build a memorable brand isn't just a marketing question. It's a business strategy question. Your brand is the reason someone chooses you over the alternative that's technically equivalent. It's the reason people become advocates, not just customers. It's the reason your business endures.
Build it with the same intention you bring to your product. It deserves it.
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