Entrepreneurship 1: Types of Businesses and Mission Statements

Types of Businesses and Mission Statements

Entrepreneurship 1

This lesson will help you earn points in the Business Plan section of the rubric.

In this lesson, you will...

  • Learn about different types of businesses
  • Choose which type of business yours will be
  • Write a mission statement for your business

Key Terms

  • Business - any organization or person that is doing something in exchange for money or another good
  • Profit - money made from operating a business
  • Nonprofit - a company that has a goal other than making money
  • Social Enterprise - a business that focuses on doing something beyond making a profit, like helping solve a social issue
  • For-Profit - a company that has the goal to make money
  • Mission Statement - a formal summary of the values of a company, organization, or individual

What is a Business?

What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘business’? You might think of a local farm stand, a grocery store, a bank, or a big technology company like Facebook or WhatsApp. A business is any organization or person that is doing something in exchange for money or another good. Businesses can make, buy, or sell goods (like a company that makes cars), or they can provide services (such as a mobile phone service company).

To run a business, you don’t need a storefront, a lot of employees, or even a physical product to sell. You don’t have to be an adults up to start your own business! There are plenty of young people who have started their own businesses. For example, Maddie Bradshaw started her business at the age of 10. She took bottle caps and turned them into jewelry. She realized that the best person to understand what young people like and want to buy is another young person!

Different Types of Businesses

Usually we think of a business as a way to make money,  but businesses can have other goals besides making money. These can be social goals, such as helping feed hungry people, or providing students with a better education. They can also be business goals such as creating eco-friendly products or providing customers with the best product possible. All business have one thing in common; they need to have some way to bring in money so that they can continue to operate. In this section, you will learn about three types of businesses: for-profits, non-profits, and social enterprises.

For-profit

Make Money

For profit businesses focus on earning a profit by selling goods or services. They can also have goals, such as creating the best products possible or having great customer service.


Examples:

  • Apple - Apple is a major seller of phones, computers, software and more. Their goal is to design the best computers and phones in the world.
  • McDonalds - Mcdonald’s is one of the world’s largest food corporations. Their goal is to be their customers' favorite place and way to eat and drink.

Social Enterprise 

Make Money & Do Good  

Social enterprises focus on doing something beyond making a profit, like helping solve a social issue. They use some of the profit they make to accomplish this goal.


Examples:

  • TOMS -  TOMS is a clothing company. For every one pair of shoes that a customer buys, they donate a pair to someone in need. Their goal is to help people in need.
  • Every Table - A healthy restaurant that has multiple locations. Some are in richer neighborhoods and some are in poor neighborhoods. The food in richer neighborhoods is sold at a higher price, and the money made from these sales is used to sell food for much cheaper in the poorer neighborhoods. Their goal is to provide healthy food to people who live in neighborhoods without a lot of healthy options.

Nonprofit

Do Good

Nonprofits exist to help solve a problem or contribute to a cause. They do not have the goal of making money.

 


Examples:

  • UNICEF -UNICEF provides resources communities who in urgent need, such as after a major natural disaster or a war.
  • Technovation Girls - Technovation Girls helps girls around the world develop the skills to become technology and entrepreneurship leaders. Technovation Girls is able to keep operating through individual donations and various grants.

Here is each type of business explained by a food cart.

For-profit Food Cart

You start your food cart with the main goal of making money by selling delicious food to people. You spend the money you earn on yourself and on improving your business and food quality.

Social Enterprise Food Cart

You start a food cart with the main goal of raising awareness of hunger in your community. For every three meals you sell, you give one meal to a person in need. You spend some of the money you earn on improving your business and food quality, some of it on yourself, and some of it on providing meals for the hungry.

Nonprofit Food Cart

You start a food cart with the main goal to provide healthy food to people who can’t afford it.  You decide to have a class every night that teaches families how to cook healthy food. You provide the ingredients and let them take all the food they make home to eat for dinner. You get a donation from a local bank to run your program. With this donation, you run your food cart to provide food to those in need.

Social enterprise is a relatively new category for companies, so don’t worry if you’re a little confused. For simplicity, think of social enterprise as being in between for-profit and non-profit business. It is up to the business to decide how far they want to lean to either side.

Watch this video to learn more about social enterprises:

Mission Statement

As you develop your business during Technovation Girls, you might realize that your company falls somewhere between for-profit and nonprofit. That is completely okay. Your company will have the goal of solving the problem that you identify, but you will also want to generate revenue (money) so that you can keep the business running or scale it up (grow its size and impact). One thing that will help you stay true to the original goal of your business is to always stay close to your company’s mission statement.

A mission statement is a formal summary of the values of a company, organization, or individual. Mission statements help companies determine what is important and what is not, and clearly state who will be served and how. A mission statement is usually a short and simple sentence that outlines what the organization’s purpose is and how it accomplishes that.

In this lesson, you will create a mission statement for your business with your team and share it with your mentor. Your mission statement can change as your company grows but remember that this is the “heart” of your business. Try to stay true to this statement.

Tip: If you are stuck, look at some other organizations tackling hard challenges. Look at their mission statements and see what you can learn:

For-Profit Example:

Nike: ”To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” The legendary University of Oregon track and field coach, and Nike co-founder, Bill Bowerman said, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.”

Social Enterprise Example:

Kiva: “Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. We celebrate and support people looking to create a better future for themselves, their families and their communities.”

Nonprofit Example:

Amnesty International: “Our vision is of a world in which every person – regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity – enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and other internationally recognized human rights standards.”

Activity: Decide on a Type of Business

Now that you are more familiar with different types of businesses, it is time to start thinking about the business you want to build with your team.With your team, choose one type of business that you would like to be, for-profit, social enterprise or nonprofit.

To help you decide, discuss the following questions with your team.

  • What type of business do you want yours to be? (for-profit, nonprofit, or social enterprise)
  • What do you want to accomplish by opening your business?
  • What are some of the goals of your business?
  • How do you think you can sustain (keep it running) your business?

You don’t need to have the answers to all these questions today but it is important to keep thinking of these as you build your business plan. You can always change the type of business as you further develop your app and business plan!

Activity: Create your Mission Statement

With your team, you will develop a mission statement. A mission statement should be 2-3 sentences long and should describe the goals of your company. Here are some questions that will help guide your mission statement:

  • What do we do?
  • How do we do it?
  • Whom do we do it for?
  • What value are we bringing?

Reflection

  • Why do you think there are different types of businesses?
  • What do you think advantages of different types of business are?
  • What type of business do you think will be best in solving the community problem you are trying to tackle?

Additional Resources 

 

Non-profit Logistics

There are not always clear lines between for-profits and nonprofits, but there might be different tax responsibilities depending on how the business is structured and restrictions on how it can spend the money earned. In most countries, all businesses need to pay a tax to the government. The amount of tax they have to pay is greatly impacted by what type of business it is.

For example, in the United States, if you are a nonprofit, you do not have to pay as many taxes, and those who donate to you can get a tax break as well. However, it is not enough to just say you are a nonprofit or a social enterprise. You will need to follow rules and prove that you are following them. Each country’s law and rules are different. It is out of the scope of this competition to check and follow these rules but they are something that you should keep in mind when starting a business outside of Technovation Girls!

Entrepreneurship 5: Create a Logo

Logos

Entrepreneurship 5

This optional lesson will help you learn about creating logos to help with branding your product.

In this lesson, you will…

  • Create a logo for your business

Key Terms

  • Logo  - A symbol that represents a company

Logos

Now that you’ve chosen colors and fonts for your brand, it’s time to start creating your logo! A logo is a symbol that represents a company. A company’s logo aims to capture its goals, purpose, and personality all into a simple mixture of symbols and words. Take a look at some of these examples:

Apple

Creative, Futuristic, Innovative

Coca-cola

Sweet, Familiar

FedExFast, Speedy

Instagram

Creative, Interactive, Happy

TwitterInteractive, Fun, Sharing

AirBnBHome, Comforting, Reliable

When you are designing your logo you can think of these three major categories.

 

Type Example Technovation Team Example
Word Mark

YAP! (You are Pretty) by team Tech Girls 1, 2021

Symbol or Icon

Cultive app by team Cultive, 2021

Combination

Fibronot by Team Fibronot, 2021

Now, think about each of the logos above, and any examples that come to mind that aren’t shown. Which are best for displaying as a social media profile image? Which are best for displaying on a poster? Which are most immediately recognizable? What do you think makes them successful (or not)?

Process for creating a logo

It may seem daunting to start brainstorming a logo from scratch, but if you follow these steps it will be much easier!

Step 1: Inspiration

Gather some images that you think represent the problem you are trying to solve. Think about your target audience, the environment that is affected, and the solution you are proposing. Think about  the words you chose in the ‘We Are & We Are Not’ activity and gather some pictures that represent the values of your company. You can also include images of other companies and their logos. Look at pictures on the internet as well as in books, magazines and anything else you have around you! You can also create a collage with your team.  Here is an example of an inspiration collage.

Step 2: Sketching

Each member of your team should draw quick sketches in pen or pencil of what the logo might look like.  Try to make the sketches as quickly as possible, without pausing to think. Don’t worry about feeling silly or making things too perfect. Each sketch should only take you a few minutes. Don’t cross anything out even if you don’t like it! Someone else on your team might like it, or it could inspire them to draw something else. Just draw and see what happens!

You should create sketches that are black and white. It’s important to draw these sketches by hand before moving to the computer. After 15 - 30 minutes you and your teammates should have a large collection of sketches.

Step 3:  Explore Different Ideas

With your team, look over the sketches. Draw a red check mark next to five sketches your team likes the most. Choose sketches that are promising, or have qualities that could even be combined to create a stronger logo. Now you will take each one of these sketches further by drawing more variations of it to see how it would look in different ways.

Step 4: Decide on one Idea

Now with your team, choose one idea that you like the most. Try drawing this idea out in different ways. If you want to incorporate digital drawing tools, you can do that now. Remember to keep everything in black and white and not to add color yet. Keep these qualities of good logos in mind:

    • Your logo should look good on a phone screen when it is really small
    • Your logo should also look good close up

Step 5: Decide on your Logo

Narrow your exploration down to one logo that you like the best. Practice drawing this logo either by hand or digitally until you get it just right.

Step 6: Experiment with Words

If you want to include words in your logo, experiment with word placement now. Of course, if your logo already has words in it, you can skip this step. Remember to test out the typefaces that you chose in the last marketing lesson.

Step 7: Add Color

Now that you have a logo that you like in black and white, try adding variations of the color scheme that you chose in the last marketing lesson.  Play with different ways to add the color to your logo or text.

Step 8: Finalize your Logo

You can now finalize your design with your team! Choose one or two colored variations of your logo. Create both a larger logo and a smaller logo. You will use the larger one for things like your business plan or the title screen of your app. You can use the smaller one for things like a business card, or an icon at the top of your app or AI project.

Activity: Create a Logo

Are you ready? Follow the steps above to create your own logo with your team. 

What You Will Need:

  • Note cards or scratch paper cut up. If you’re working virtually, try using collaborative software, like Google Docs or IdeaBoardz.
  • Pens or markers
  • Colored pencils or crayons

What You Will Do:

Following the steps above, create your logo for your app or AI project! Ask your mentor to help keep you on track. You can complete these steps in an hour, or you can create your logo over many days. It is up to you!

Reflection

Show your logo to someone in your target audience. Ask them what it makes them think of. 

  • Does their answer make sense with your brand? If it doesn’t, what changes could you make to have your logo align more with the goals of your company?

 

 

 

Additional Resources

Logo Design Tool

Here's a fun online logo design tool that you can use to create a digital version of your logo.

Entrepreneurship 4: Typefaces

Typefaces

Entrepreneurship 4

This optional lesson will help you learn about typefaces to help with branding your product.

In this lesson, you will…

  • Learn about different typefaces
  • Choose a typeface to represent your brand

Key Terms

  • Typeface – the style of type
  • Font - a particular size and style of a typeface
  • Serifs - a slight projection finishing off a stroke of a letter
  • Serif Typeface - typefaces that have serifs
  • Sans-Serif Typeface - typeface without serifs

Typefaces

Just like colors, typefaces can help establish your brand’s visual identity. A typeface is the style of type. The examples we give apply most directly to typeface with Latin character sets (character sets for writing in English, Spanish, French, etc.), but some of the basic principles may be useful for non-latin languages (Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, etc.).

You might have heard of the word font before. Font is another word that is commonly used to refer typefaces. The difference is that a font is a particular size and style of a typeface . For example, Times New Roman is a typeface, but Times New Roman 12pt italic is a font.

Every typeface has a personality and historic meaning/context that people recognize and associate with it, even if they aren’t aware of it. In this lesson, you will learn about some basic typefaces to help you choose one. The two major categories of typefaces are serif and sans-serif. 

 

These red marks on these letters are called serifs, and typefaces that have them are called serif typefaces. It’s fun to think of those extra marks as being little feet!

Typefaces that don’t have serifs are called sans-serifs.

Serif Typefaces

Serif typefaces have extra little marks at the end of them. Serif typefaces give a feeling of history, and often authority or formality because the very first printed letters were a type of serif called blackletter! If you choose a serif typeface, you can expect it to carry some of this history with it, and a feeling of wisdom and age.

Take a look through the typefaces you have on your computer. Can you spot any typefaces that have serifs?


Times New Roman


Bodoni


Georgia

Sans-Serif Typefaces

Sans-serif typefaces are a much more recent family. They represent youth and a new way of thinking. They were first developed to meet the needs of modern advertising and readability at a variety of sizes and distances. Examples:


Futura


Arial


Helvetica

Activity: Choose a Typeface(s)

Now, get ready to choose a typeface (or two)!  Here are some steps to help you pick out the best typefaces for your brand with your team.

1. First, identify a typeface that expresses your brand’s identity. Try to also test a few by typing the name of your business using them. List a few typefaces that feel right for your brand and target audience. Try not to let your personal favorites influence your choice.

2. Now, test the typeface you chose for readability. Test typefaces in the words you want to at different sizes to make sure they are readable. Are there any that are hard to read in large sizes from a distance? Rule these out. Find the one typeface that works best. This will be your display type, used for headers and/or the logotype.

3. Now, search for a highly readable typeface for body text, or large sections of type. You’ll want to be very careful in selecting a body text that complements your display text as typefaces can clash just like colors can! Here are a few quick tips: 

      1. Serifs can often be paired with sans-serifs successfully. Think of these as the type version of complementary colors—opposites attract!
      2. Contrast is good! Avoid pairing typefaces that look too similar.
      3. Imagine the “voice” that the typeface speaks with, just like you did with the display typeface. Does it complement your brand and the display typeface?
      4. Consider readability. A typeface chosen for body text has to be readable at small sizes in paragraph form. Test this just like you did for the display typeface.
      5. Test the typeface next to your display typeface, just as you think it will be shown in your app.

 

Need some help? Here are a few great resources:

  • Canva Font Combinations is an easy way to test typeface pairs
  • Google Fonts a great resource for hundreds of free typefaces! We highly recommend using Google fonts as they are free to use anywhere. Other typefaces may have restrictions.

Reflection

  • How can you use the typefaces and color scheme you picked in the development of your app, pitch video and other submission materials? 
  • Now that you have the typefaces and the color scheme that you will use for your brand, you are ready to create your logo! Take a peek at Entrepreneurship Lesson 5 to learn about making a logo.

Additional Resources  - Applying in App Inventor

Custom typefaces can be tricky to add in App Inventor. Right now, App Inventor gives you a choice of three typefaces, a serif, a sans-serif, and monospaced. If you leave the typeface as “default’ it will be the sans-serif. An easy way to use a custom typeface is to upload a picture of your text in the typeface you want. This works best for headlines and titles.

For large amounts of small text it will be easier to pick one of App Inventor’s presets. If you find yourself in this situation, test which App Inventor preset looks best with your headline and logo.

For example, we took a screenshot of “Heading” in our display typeface, Eagle Book, and then uploaded it in a horizontal arrangement next to our logo. We adjusted the height and width of the horizontal arrangement until it looked how we wanted. We then choose the default serif typeface to go along with our title.

↑ This text is an image,
which we placed into the app ↓

 

Keep in mind that by making your text an image and not using a label, you can’t change what it says unless you change the image.

Applying in Thunkable

In Thunkable, there are more options for different fonts or typefaces. You can choose  from a variety of Fonts in the dropdown in the Properties pane for a given component.

Entrepreneurship 3: Colors Schemes

Color Schemes

Entrepreneurship 3

This optional lesson will help you learn about color schemes to help with branding your product.

In this lesson, you will…

  • Choose a color scheme to represent and reflect your brand

Key Terms

  • Color Scheme – a combination of colors that are used together

Color

You’ve already come up with a business name and have a sense of what your business’s personality is. In this lesson, you will pick some colors to further build the personality of your brand. Did you know that colors have emotions associated with them and can make people feel a certain way? Here are some color preferences. Since these associations vary in different countries or cultures, you should look them up to see what they mean for your target audience. 

RED Passionate, Aggressive, Important, Revolution
ORANGE Playful, Energetic, Cheap, Vibrancy
YELLOW Happy, Friendly, Warning, Wisdom
GREEN Natural, Stable, Prosperous, Honesty
BLUE Serene, Trustworthy, Inviting, Loyalty
PURPLE Luxurious, Mysterious, Romantic, Inspiration
BROWN Earthy, Sturdy, Rustic
BLACK Powerful, Sophisticated, Edgy, Formality
WHITE Clean, Virtuous, Healthy, Innocence
GRAY Neutral, Formal, Gloomy, Modesty

Use your understanding of your brand’s personality, and what you know about which emotions and qualities your target audience typically associates with colors to make this choice.

Color Scheme

Colors tend to work best when they have friends! To start, let's get a better understanding of how colors work together. You've likely seen a color wheel before, like this:

 

This color wheel includes 3 rows of colors. They are:

  • Hues, which are colors that have names like red, blue, green, orange, etc. These are found in the "middle row" of the color wheel.
  • Tints (hue + white) are found in the outermost row of the color wheel.
  • Shades (hue + black) are found in the innermost row of the color wheel.

As you can see, even after you've chosen a brand color, you can choose a variation of that color—whether it's a fully saturated hue (no tint or shade), is mixed with another color (such as orange-red), or is a tint or shade!

This choice can enhance how well your chosen color expresses your brand's qualities. For example, a highly saturated orange hue might indicate excitement and adventure. If the orange hue is actually yellow-orange, then it will give a lighthearted, happy feeling. However, if you choose a shade of this same yellow-orange, it could look murky or even give a feeling of illness! A tint of the same yellow-orange will look bright and airy.

Here are some ways colors are often matched:

Complementary color combinations pair a color with its exact opposite on the color wheel. These can be the most vibrant color combinations, especially if both colors are fully saturated. These can be overwhelming when used in large doses, but in small amounts, they can bring attention to things that you want to stand out.

comp2x

Split-Complementary color combinations are similar to complementary color schemes, except that one of the colors is replaced by the two adjacent to it on either side. This reduces the tension that can be present in complementary color schemes, while still having a lot of contrast.

slip-comp2x

Analogous color combinations are colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel. These combinations help give a sense of serenity and calm. However, when using these you’ll need to be sure to create enough contrast so that your brand visuals are easy to read.

analogous2x

Triadic color combinations are made of 3 colors that are equally spaced on the color wheel. Even if you use tints or shades, these color combinations can be very bold and energetic.

triadic2x

Activity: Choose a Color

With your team, identify a color that best represents your brand’s personality. For example, if you want your target audience to identify your product as being exciting and new, you might choose orange as the color that best represents your brand.  Recall the words you chose to describe your brand from the ‘We Are and We Are Not’ activity in the last marketing lesson.

Activity: Pick a Color Scheme

Now you have a color. Congratulations! Don’t start making all of your visual materials yet, though. With your teammates, choose a color scheme. Use the color that you chose in the last activity as your primary color, from which all other colors will be chosen on the color wheel. Here are a few resources that can help make choosing colors easy: 

If you're making a mobile app, don’t worry about choosing a color that isn’t available in the presets in App Inventor or Thunkable. There will be instructions below on how to add new colors.

Tip: Stuck? Start with a photo! Find or take a photograph of something that helps identify your brand. It could be a location, an object, or anything else! This blog post has great examples!

Reflection

Now that you have selected a color scheme, you can use it in your app, logo and business plan (if you’re in the senior division).  In the next marking lesson, you will choose a typeface for your brand, and after that you will create your logo.

Additional Resources

Custom Colors in App Inventor

Don’t worry if the colors you choose aren’t in App Inventor’s presets. Here’s how to make a new color in App Inventor: Make Custom Colors in App Inventor and how to Make Custom Colors in Thunkable.

To make new colors in App Inventor and Thunkable, you’ll need to know the RGB value of the color. You may already have this value from the color scheme tools above, but if you don’t, use this tool to find out the RGB values of your colors: RGB Color Finder. If you want to learn more about RGB values, visit the section below. It is helpful to save the colors you choose as variables so you can use them throughout your app! Here’s an example of how to do that!

App Inventor

Thunkable

RGB Values of Colors

If someone told you that a color is “light blue green”, you would have an idea of the color they are talking about. However, computers can’t understand this, so they rely on something called RGB values to know what a color is.

An RGB value uses three numbers to describe a color to a computer. The first number tells the computer how intense the reds are, the second tells how intense the greens are, and the third how intense the blues are. The numbers can be anywhere between 0 and 225. Here are some examples:

Black

(0,0,0)

White

(255,255,255)

Gray

(128,128,128)

Red

(255,0,0)

Lime

(0,255,0)

Blue

(0,0,255)

Yellow

(255,255,0)

Purple

(128,0,128)

Teal

(0,128,128)

Green

(0,128,0)

Navy

(0,0,128)

Maroon

(128,0,0)

Color Psychology Video

Check out this video to learn about color psychology.

Entrepreneurship 2: Create a Brand

Create a Brand

Entrepreneurship 2

This optional lesson will help you learn more about branding your product and naming your business for your business plan.

In this lesson, you will learn how to…

  • Learn about marketing and branding
  • Create a name and identity for your business

Key Terms and Concepts

  • Marketing – is trying to convince people to use your app or product
  • Brand – what people think about your business and app or product
  • Customers – the people who you want to use your product

Brands

After you create your app or AI invention and your business, how will you convince people to use your product? Marketing is trying to convince people to use your product.

Before you start marketing your product, you’ll want to create a brand for business. Your brand is the identity of your business, It is what people think about when the hear the name of your business or your product. If your product was a person, their brand would be their personality. It’s “who” your product/company is.

Thought Exercise

Think about some of companies you already know. Can you remember their logos? What do they sell? What is their motto or slogan? What is the feeling you get when you think about their business?

The Nike logo is one of the world’s most well-known brands. It represents speed, motion and ultimately, athletic excellence and performance. By getting successful and famous athletes to wear their products with their logos on them, Nike develops an attitude that says, if you want to be athletic, Nike will help you get there. And their famous slogan “Just do it” reinforces that idea. Here are some more examples of brands, their slogans, and what those slogans make us think about their brand.

Nike

Just Do It

Athletic, Powerful, Strong

Apple

Think Different

Creative, Futuristic, Innovative

 

Disney

The Happiest Place on Earth

Entertaining, Fun, Inventive

Create Your Brand

To get started on your own brand, you’ll want to refer to your market research from ideation 7. You want to get to know your target audience really well. These are the people you want to sell to; your customers. This will help you focus on building a brand that really appeals to them, and makes them want to buy your product. Try answering the following questions to start getting a sense of your brand.

  • Customer Benefits: What problem are you trying to solve for customers? Think about why would someone buy this product.
  • Target Customers: Who are they? Be as specific as possible, try breaking it down into two parts:
    • What are their characteristics?
      • For example: age, gender, location, ethnicity, language, education, religion, income level, etc.
    • What are their personalities, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles?
      • For example: health conscious, busy, highly organized, family oriented, environmentally conscious, social, homebody, nerdy, etc.
  • Brand Personality: If your brand was a person, who would it be? Try to match your company to a famous person you know. It sounds silly but it will help define what your business is about.
    • For example, Nike identifies as a talented athlete so you might think of their personality being similar to Usain Bolt or Simone Biles.

"A person has a soul. A product has a brand."

Jennifer Kinon, Designer and Cofounder of OCD

Business Names

In this lesson, you will also name your business.  A name does not have to exactly say what a business does, but can become catchy and memorable over time, as a business and its brand becomes well known. In the beginning, the words Apple, Google, and Coca-Cola were just words or made up phrases. But they became well known over time, as people interacted with their brands more and more. They can even be acronyms, last names, or a combination of words, such as BMW, which stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke.

Remember, the name of your business does not have to be the same as your app or invention name, although they can share a name if you prefer. You choose how to name your business and your product! For example, Apple has several different products like MacBook and iPhone that still have an Apple brand. On the other hand, there are companies that have the same name as the product, like Coca-Cola.

Activity: We Are & We Are Not

This activity can be facilitated by a mentor or educator.

What You’ll Need:

  • Note cards or scratch paper cut into small pieces. If you’re working virtually, try using collaborative software, like Google Docs or IdeaBoardz.
  • Pens or markers

 

What You’ll Do:

  • Distribute 10-15 note cards to each team member.
  • Ask each team member to write down a descriptive word or short phrase for your company on each card.
  • As a team, start organizing all the cards into 3 categories: We Are, We Are Not, and Not Applicable. Keep in mind, these words should describe how you want to be perceived by the customer.
  • Narrow down the We Are and We Are Not categories down to 4-7 cards.
  • Finalize your cards. Make sure the whole team agrees with the organization. If not, discuss and come to a conclusion as a group.

The We Are & We Are Not activity will help you figure out the main characteristics that best describe your brand.

With your team, write down adjectives on cards or pieces of paper that you think describe your brand and the way you want to be seen by your customers. 

After, you will divide those cards into 3 piles: We Are, We Are Not, and Not Applicable. By the end you’ll want to have just a few adjectives that describe your brand in the We Are pile.

Now you’ve got the most important words for your brand. It’s time to apply it to your business! You can use these words as a guide for building your brand. These descriptions can be expressed through many aspects of your brand, including the name of your business and the name of your product. 

They can also come in handy when you are developing your visuals, too! If your company adjectives are “young” and “fun”, you might want to use a lot of different bright colors, whereas if you company was “serious” and “professional” your might use simple, sophisticated colors instead. As you build your brand throughout this module and the competition, ask yourself if these are consistent with the adjectives you came up with in this activity.

 

Inspired by Brand Deck

Activity: Name your Business

Brainstorm a list of potential business names with your team! Use your creative brainpower, or use a naming generator. Naming generators can help by adding in the words you want to feature, and creating a lot of different options. Keep in mind, you’ll want to refer back to the adjectives you decided on for the ‘We Are & We Are Not’ activity, which will help guide your conversations and help you determine what name would fit your company best.

After you’ve narrowed down your list of potential names to less than 5 or fewer, try asking your target customers, friends, or anyone who might come across your business or app. It can help to get a lot of people’s impressions on your name, so you can see which name is the most appealing and makes the most sense to people.  You should also review your competitor research from Ideation 7 to make sure that none of your competitors have the same name.

Once you’ve narrowed it down even further, it’s time to pick just one! Make sure you and your team all agree upon the final name.

Reflection

  • How will you include branding into your pitch video? Branding is an important part of marketing your idea to others
  • [Senior Teams] Begin considering how you’d like to integrate your branding into your 5-10 page business plan - this marketing will help convince the judges that your product is a great solution
  • Now that you’ve created a name and an identity for your business, the next step is to develop a visual identity. In the next marketing lessons, you’ll start developing color scheme and logo visuals!

Additional Resources: Positioning Statement

Here are some words introduced in this section

  • Positioning statement – is a short description of your customer and how you want to be seen by the customer
  • Point of differentiation – is how you are different from your competitors
  • Frame of reference – is where you business belongs with respect to the marketplace
  • Customers – the people who you want to buy your product

Now that you have a better sense of what your brand is, you can start working on your positioning statement. A positioning statement is a concise description of your customer as well as a compelling picture of how you want your customer to perceive your brand. When done well, this will dictate how your branding, logos, and even customer service will be accomplished. This should not be confused with a mission statement, which is broader and describes what an organization hopes to solve or achieve.

Your positioning statement will cover 4 main parts:

Great Brand Positioning Statement Examples

So what does a great brand positioning statement look like? It can take many forms, and many lengths, but it should always encompass the four elements listed above. Take a look at the following positioning statements for well-known brands. As you can see, certain elements are subtle or implied, but it’s important to notice how well-thought out each one is.

  • Volvo: For upscale American families, Volvo is the family automobile that offers maximum safety.
  • Home Depot: The hardware department store for do-it-yourselfers.
  • Zipcar: To urban-dwelling, educated techno-savvy customers, when you use Zipcar car-sharing service instead of owning a car, you save money while reducing your carbon footprint.

 

Template for Writing a Positioning Statement

Now it’s time to write your positioning statement up! Here’s a template  for writing a positioning statement:

For [Target Customer], the [Business Name] is the [Point of Differentiation] among all [Frame of Reference] because [Reason to Believe].

  • The point of differentiation (POD) describes how your brand or product benefits customers in ways that set you apart from your competitors.
  • The frame of reference (FOR) is the segment or category in which your company competes.
  • The reason to believe is just what it says. This is a statement providing compelling evidence and reasons why customers in your target market can have confidence in your differentiation claims.

The wording of your positioning statement doesn’t have to match this template exactly, but to be effective, it must contain the five main components in brackets above. If you get stuck or just need some help, you can take a look at this generator that can help you write it up. Once you’ve written it up, you can also ask your mentor for feedback, or do this activity individually and give each other feedback as a team.