How to Launch a Brand: Your Step-By-Step Guide to Crafting a Brand from Positioning to Naming and Brand Identity

by Fabian Geyrhalter

This book will guide you through the steps necessary to build a brand from the ground up. Most entrepreneurs, even seasoned brand managers, launch first and then work on slowly transforming the new offering into a brand. A logical progression, I would agree. After all, how can you possibly launch as a brand if you don't have any customers or marketing outreach and--obviously, since you just launched a new offering--you have no legacy or advocates?

The simple answer is by design. Design relates to the systematic process you have to adhere to, which is likely the primary reason you are holding this book in your hands. In addition though, design truly holds the key to the success of your new brand. It will set your offering apart to look, feel, and sound like a brand at the time of launch, as opposed to something that might or might not have the power to eventually turn into a brand. This book will teach you how to launch your brand by design.

In this book I share expert insights based on two decades of professional experience transforming new product and service ventures from ideation phases to tangible brand realities. Each of the key phases of preparing for a brand launch are broken down into practical guidelines designed to help you make the right branding decisions along the way.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Design

122 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2020

About the author

FABIAN GEYRHALTER is a renowned brand strategist, the founder and Principal of FINIEN, a Los Angeles-based consultancy specializing in brand transformations, and a partner at Chameleon Collective. He has deep expertise in guiding organizations through their brand transformations and has been sought out by companies such as Marriott, Warner Brothers, Match, Honeywell, Kaplan, and Randstad. His thoughts on branding have appeared in publications like Inc., Forbes, Entrepreneur, and The Washington Post, and his creative direction has won over 50 international awards. A frequent speaker and mentor to entrepreneurs worldwide, he is a “Global 100” mentor at the Founder Institute, and all four of his books on branding have turned into Amazon Bestsellers. His newest book is “The Brand Therapy Book 2.” Born in Vienna, Austria, he lives and works out of Greater Los Angeles and is a graduate of ArtCenter College of Design.

Reviews

[Paris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabian’s book How To Launch a Brand is a quick and easy read that is filled with gold. It is something you will reference.

I run a strategy and design agency and in the past few months I have read over 30 books on branding and design, and this book tops the list.
Brand strategy can be a confusing topic, however Fabian manages to deliver a crystal clear explanation on the topic, while also adding a ready-to-use, step-by-step process for creating it.

[Aakash Suri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good book from Fabian. If you're an entrepreneur or are brand savvy this book can be your go-to book to help you establish a thought process or a foundation for your new brand idea.

[Andre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear to the point concise. The Author has even spent time on summarising the chapters. My go to when carrying out strategy with clients. My bible. My only complaint is I wish i had bought the hard copy as it would undoubtedly be covered in foot notes. Just a personal thing.

[Federica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Basic

It's a copy and paste of different books on branding. It doesn't really show a useful process to build a brand. Very fluffy

[Sofia Correia de sousa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again. Amazing. Branding is so so so important!

[Marcus Tiplea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely useful and specific book on branding. Fabian took the time to go into plenty of detail when explaining the different facets of the brand-creation process. A must read for any designer or entrepreneur.

[David Kuria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a identity designer for close to 13yrs, and I have never come across a book that helps you think holistically about a brand like this book, I am almost done and I am regretting listening(audiobook) to it this fast.

[Dani Rada · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think is a pretty good book as a starting point. Is easy to read, visual, and the author talks a little bit of each element of the whole picture of branding. After reading this book, you can have an idea of what a brand actually is and the areas that you have to cover for building a strong brand.

I would have liked to see more information about how to practice what he was talking about or which are methods that I have to learn more about to get to those points.

I think this book is a good fit for marketers and designers. As a specialist in a niche, I think is important to understand the whole picture and how your niche communicates with others from this domain. Also, I think is a good book for managers because it's easy to pass through it and it helps them to understand the importance of a brand manager in a company.
Being the second general branding book that I read, I think it helped me to complete the map of branding and to go a little bit more in detail.

Top 3 quotes:
"People don't care about you until they know you care about them."
"To reach your specific audience, you need to understand them and how to communicate so they will listen."
"Visual expression often reveals the unspoken intentions behind corporate strategy."

[Grégory · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know I've read two books from Fabian over the weekend, but they're just that good. Picking up books by artists or technicians usually result in 10% takeaways, and 90% useless information-or worse, self praise. Fabian manages to flip this rule around: I find taking notes hard because his points are so straight to the, ahem, point that there's little to summarise about each idea. The remaining anecdotal 10% manage to prove useful too. Sure you might not make notes out of them, but they illustrate the point and that's that. I'd recommend to anyone looking into branding as a business, or launching a venture in need of a compelling brand positioning.

[Nate Jordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect refresher as I'm presently going through this process . . . again. For the budding entrepreneur new to the game or a serial entrepreneur taking another turn at bat, this will get you focused on strategy. Nice layout. Quick Read.

[david velilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esperaba más...

Muy genérico y básico, si no estás en marketing es un buen primer pantallazo. Pero si estás en el rubro y buscabas algo práctico (paso a paso) para el armado de la arquitectura de marca de tu empresa, no es el libro.

[Katharine Miele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Followed the process to the T to relaunch an existing brand. Great real world examples to help us explain to non-marketing stake holders to understand the process and decision making. All of the info was useful and none of it felt superfluous or overly wordy.

[Nezhdat Dzhefer · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is nothing special about this book I would say. Unless you were living under a rock the past decade or you just don't question anything on your own maybe you will find it interesting and useful.

[Rico Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. I just wish there were more examples and how to's on how to run a brand strategy workshop, but I suppose that's where he makes his money :)

[Felipe Lizarzaburu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originalidad regular.

[Ahmad Badghaish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clear to the point. Short and summarized.

[Raime · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid overview and a good refresher….but also, I could have written this book.

[Av · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick and concise book about branding. I dives deep into some major points on creating a brand within your new venture. The content was good for what's their, but it definitely left you wanting more - which I guess is why their consultancy exists.

[Cgensheer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good comprehensive, and practical

Really enjoyed this book. Incredible practical and thorough and any business would find it helpful in thinking of all the elements relating to their branding.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fabian Geyrhalter’s “How to Launch a Brand” is a solid introduction for non-branding professionals to the branding process—from strategy, to naming, identity design, and the creation of marketing collateral. This would have been a four-star book had it not been for the undisciplined use of terminology in the identity design chapter, and a five-star book had it offered just a bit more depth.

[D.J. Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction

Detailed, accessible, actionable. If you're new to branding or need a book to recommend to someone who is, look no further. A quick read that yields plenty of homework!

[Santiago Zuluaga Gaviria · Rating 3 out of 5]

La verdad el libro es demasiado basico, si da unas guias interesantes, pero cada que habla de algo que ofrece valor se queda en la superficie.

Algo me queda y de ahí el puntaje que propongo, sin embargo hay otros recursos que ofrecen mucho más. Diría que su mejor atributo es lo corto.

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Must Read

I love the way Geyrhalter separated the book into easy-to-digest sections within chapters.

I appreciate that this book provides actionable steps and case study examples.

[Nicola De Filippo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction to Brand problems

[LK Das · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise book on everything branding targeted for people who are new to this. It gives an overview or a 30k feet view of launching a brand.