Brand Makeovers: Andrew Witkin Of StickerYou On The 5 Things You Should Do To Upgrade and Re-Energize Your Brand and Image
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Align with trends — More people have shifted careers and become entrepreneurs, specifically online sellers, than ever before.
As part of our series about “Brand Makeovers” I had the pleasure to interview Andrew Witkin.
Andrew has always had a passion for business and branding. He founded StickerYou in 2008 after an inspiring trip to California where he noticed the important role that stickers played in LA life.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
With a background in managing business units dependent on innovative brand management, marketing, online customer acquisition, SEO and more, you start to get an idea on how to build a business. I think a call-to-action to bring these ideas to life is the start of any entrepreneurial journey.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing or branding mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Our logo went from being really crappy to really cool. Since StickerYou is all about design and die-cut, when we first had the idea for our logo, we had an internal designer work on it. None of us were graphic designers, so we were happy to get anything. But it looked poor, warped somehow. Of course, Google still indexes it today.
A logo that looks warped says the company might be a little warped. So, we had a guy from a design agency rework what we had and now we love our logo.
The lesson I learned is don’t settle for less than great. Some people say, don’t settle for anything but the very, very best, but I think you can go crazy doing that. When it’s something fundamental, don’t rush, get a variety of inputs, and get it right. Or in our case, just the one right input: our one graphic designer. For something as big as your logo, you may want to broaden that. And don’t commit to something subpar, because our old logo still exists on Google. If what you’re doing is going to have a digital trace, get it to a level where it won’t haunt you if you iterate.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Is there a takeaway or lesson that others can learn from that?
We weren’t profitable for a long time, but the key ingredients and magic were there. Our website reflected our instincts and our macro research into what the market wanted: A creative, youth-oriented ability to make stickers with some really cool Photoshop features. Once we got real customers buying from our site, we realized small businesses and nonprofits already had the images they wanted. They wanted a fast, in-and-out experience, but we were giving them this Willy Wonka creative world to go through.
Once we identified better with our real audience and their feedback, could see them navigating our website, and get real time responses on what they were seeking, it really defined the company. When we updated the website in 2012 with a wholesale change to the user experience, it started to really take off.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
When we updated the website, we changed the editor that allowed you to create stickers, so people could get in and out much faster and more easily. We’ve changed the editor experience, and the tools: location, mobile friendliness, et cetera. The die-cut algorithms are being upgraded for the first time in ten years. They’re mostly making modest changes, but ones that we see would make a little difference to people over and over. If you add those little changes up, you get a happier customer experience.
This year is more about the nucleus than the mitochondria and all the stuff around it. Even with modest changes, we get thousands of people a day in that area of the website. Improving each of their experiences just a little bit has a big impact.
What advice would you give to other marketers to thrive and avoid burnout?
The problem with digital marketing right now is there are so many things to experiment with to get decent trends and results. It’s almost like a candy store: too many decisions. The hardest thing is giving people the roadmap of what to focus on, and what to skip. Those skippable areas might be intellectually interesting, and may even produce some interesting results, but they’re not fundamental to the company’s growth. We hire curious people who like to experiment, but with so much available to you, you become distracted.
To avoid burnout, focus on two or three key things at a time. Don’t take on extra tasks, because usually when you really need some free time for yourself, you’ll be stuck.
The biggest thing is to focus only on what matters to the company: helping people realize they can balance their life a little better. They can go all-in on what they really want to do well, but otherwise have more flex time for things that come up, and are not bogged down.
Ok, let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
In terms of the online funnel for acquiring customers, brand marketing is at the very top of the funnel. If a user doesn’t even know they need you, or doesn’t have a specific need, brand marketing can be very effective by covering a much broader domain.
99.9% of people’s orders really matter to them, whether it be labels for their homemade honey or pasta sauce, a business or nonprofit ordering their logo, or some kid buying “Vote Pedro” stickers to get elected. So our brand message is: make what matters stick.
Brand marketing doesn’t have to solve an immediate problem, just position us in their minds for when they have a need.
Deeper down the funnel, when somebody has a more specific need, is where the product starts to really matter. They have to decide, “do I actually want some custom stickers?” Product marketing is more tailored to solving that problem.
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
Branding helps businesses become more appealing to people on a different level than marketing and advertising. It shows there is more to the brand than what is on the surface, which helps a brand’s target audience feel more of an emotional connection to the business.
Let’s now talk about rebranding. What are a few reasons why a company would consider rebranding?
You come up with your brand at a time and place in society, and it may make sense at the time. But the world has changed post COVID — people’s values and behavior are different. All of a sudden, a company has a huge opportunity to switch how to service their customers, and that may cause them to rethink their brand.
When the opportunity has gotten so much bigger, or the product fit has shifted to something else, or other ways the company has grown significantly, they may want to shift their brand. Mass market food companies have now moved away from fun foods like cereals to healthier products, for example. When a company’s positioning doesn’t map up well to changing markets, they have a fundamental decision on whether to rebrand.
Are there downsides of rebranding? Are there companies that you would advise against doing a “Brand Makeover”? Why?
The cost is huge. Your brand is the highest end of the funnel, and now you want people to see your company as something different. It’s expensive from a media perspective to spread the word. Internally you have to change all your communications collateral, all your physical branding in the office. It’s a lot of work. I don’t think anyone does it lightly. But unless you’re sure it’s not a temporary change in the market, you have to accept the costs.
Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. Can you share 5 strategies that a company can do to upgrade and re-energize their brand and image”? Please tell us a story or an example for each.
- In person events
- Digitizing with user-friendly tech like QR codes — the pandemic forced the world to digitize
- Open up to new audiences — There is a wave of new consumers under 30 that brands need to reach. These Gen Z’ers have a different mentality and enjoy a different aesthetic, and brands that pivoted visually in their marketing have added a new generation of legacy customers. A perfect example is Hugo Boss, that divided their brand by customer segment based on the new “Hugo” and “Boss” brands.
- Align with trends — More people have shifted careers and become entrepreneurs, specifically online sellers, than ever before.
- Emotion-driven connection plays an important part in brand personification
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job doing a “Brand Makeover”. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
There are several examples of companies who had a logo, and then a qualifier with a certain type of product, who have realized, “we’re much broader than just this original product.” So they minimize to highlight the brand over the product. Starbucks eventually just went with their logo. More and more companies have simplified their branding, because they look at what they do on a broader spectrum, and have learned they don’t want to be defined by just a specific physical product.
Apple used to be Apple Computer, then just Apple, and now they don’t even have their name in their logo. Or Meta. More and more people are saying Meta instead of Facebook. In part because the Metaverse has become a big part of conversation. Instagram and WhatsApp are big parts of that whole company. The Facebook component has lost subscribers in the last few years, so they don’t want that platform to define the company anymore. They’ve broadened who they service and what they are, and have changed their name to reflect that expansion.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I try to hold myself to my own philosophy, and if more people can do that, that’s great. Post-COVID, I think we value people with positive energy, not those who suck the life out of everyone with a negative approach to the world. You can accomplish the most by being positive, and as a bonus it feels the best and other people like it more. Positivity attracts people.
What can I do to engage each moment in a positive way? If I walk into a store and I see somebody I don’t know, I’ll smile. It’s the most I can do in that moment with that person. A lot of people think of their life in a mathematical, agenda-focused way. So I would encourage others to avoid that and develop a positive moral philosophy. To me, it’s just trying to uphold to the golden rule, and not just when it’s convenient. Build your life around a set of userful values, not a set of goals.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
This might not be a lesson but more of a philosophy:
‘Enjoy the next great experience that lies beneath the skies.’ I try and apply that philosophy to every day, every new adventure, risk, and approach to life. Just enjoy it fully and be present. It sustains the dream.
How can our readers follow you online?
https://www.instagram.com/stickeryou/
https://www.facebook.com/stickeryou
But the best way to stay updated is through the website — https://www.stickeryou.com/
Thank you so much for these excellent insights! We wish you continued success in your work.
Brand Makeovers: Andrew Witkin Of StickerYou On The 5 Things You Should Do To Upgrade and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
