> You establish brand by making happy customers. That first requires a sale.
In some cases, that may be right, but in general branding begins the first time someone interacts with your product (or even your industry). If I notice your business name on Google SERPS, I am engaging with your brand.
I didn't really use NewRelic for 2 years after I first heard of it, but I did keep seeing them and speaking to them at events, reading blog posts, etc. Eventually, I signed up and paid for the product. What convinced me to do that was the branding work they did before I became a customer.
Even for freemium products, the business builds a brand to encourage people to invest the effort into signing up. Even government services (e.g. in the UK - the BBC, the NHS) do branding work.
Branding doesn't start at the point the customer enters their credit card.
In some cases, that may be right, but in general branding begins the first time someone interacts with your product (or even your industry). If I notice your business name on Google SERPS, I am engaging with your brand.
I didn't really use NewRelic for 2 years after I first heard of it, but I did keep seeing them and speaking to them at events, reading blog posts, etc. Eventually, I signed up and paid for the product. What convinced me to do that was the branding work they did before I became a customer.
Even for freemium products, the business builds a brand to encourage people to invest the effort into signing up. Even government services (e.g. in the UK - the BBC, the NHS) do branding work.
Branding doesn't start at the point the customer enters their credit card.
Lovemarks is a good read on branding - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lovemarks-Effect-Winning-Consumer-Re...