Branding early stage media technology startups

This research examined how early stage media technology startups can use branding in the digital environment to innovate their business models and strategically position themselves in their markets. Operating in a global and extensively disruptive industry new tech ventures find it difficult to acquire strong strategic position and sustain a competitive advantage purely on their technological basis. Young tech companies have to innovate their business models from a customer-centric approach and find new ways to increase their competitiveness. Building brand online allows young tech startups to create additional value and establish immutable differentiation which leads to a strong strategic position. This research examined business models of ten prosperous media technology startups through a branding perspective by conducting comparative case studies. The comparison of the cases revealed several significant findings. Early stage media tech companies should innovate their business models through a brand differentiation perspective working towards establishing an online brand presence and customer engagement accompanied with innovate use of technologies for their branding purposes. The following business model elements should be considered as important by startups: brand identity, brand extensions, web-analytics, onboarding experience, personalization, customer engagement, customer service, social media and websites. Tech startups can address those elements by creating coherent brand identity, using brand endorsing strategy, providing interactive onboarding experience on their websites, producing branded content for social media channels, organizing contest and giveaways on social media, using web-analytics and behavior tracking systems, as well as automation marketing services and real-time online support tools for greater relational personalization. The findings indicate the rising role of customers in the media tech industry which implies that startups seeking strategic positioning should place greater importance on brand differentiation and focus on additional areas that can generate value for customers online.