What can branding bring in blockchain projects?
"In general, branding is about creating and maintaining trust, it means keeping promises. The best and most successful brands They are completely coherent. Every aspect of what they do and what they are reinforces everything else." Wolf Ollins
The constant emergence of new projects based on blockchain and the consequent need to position itself within the blockchains ecosystem is a milestone that is more relevant to the territory of brands.
How can branding help cryptocurrencies? One of the possible answers is to help empower them to show what they really are, to show their essence. Because in the end it is not they who define themselves, but the people who interact with them, and talk about them.
A universe made up of wallets, exchanges, ICOs, events and consolidated platforms that interact in a sector still to be developed, and in many cases without regularizing. Their orbits pass with the relativity of their time, immediacy. As if it were a space race, the teams try to create the most effective whitepaper, meet the established deadlines of the roadmap or get the best alliances in the market. Without a doubt, the battle is served on the Internet of value.
And it is that in the era of immediacy, the image and the synthesis of the messages are a fundamental part to reach the stakeholders (public of interest). For this reason, they try to give coherence to their points of contact, in some cases better than in others, but above all by betting on the connection with users through social networks, the real playing field. Telegram, Slack, Twitter, Reddit, Bitcointalk, Medium and a long etcetera are the places where the public is located, and possibly that is where the real key point lies to show why the project and how the brand is able to express it.
But let's go with some practical examples, which already seem from another century, since, as I said, the time in the blockchain panorama is different from the rest, everything happens much faster. We almost no longer remember Antshares, the Chinese Ethereum. It was the original and open source project of the Asian country.
With its intelligent asset platform, formed with a combination of smart contracts and digital assets, it had a token with a value around $ 9.60 in June 2017.
The little blue atomic ant seems to be not aligned with the company's purposes, especially when competing with the sobriety and seriousness of its main rival:
Ethereum Therefore, they implemented a complete rebranding (brand change or identity redesign) that started from the naming itself (name creation). NEO was chosen, and by extension this affected his entire identity. A shift towards internationalization in favor of security and trust to better capture your target audience. It is here that the Chinese company gives us a clear example that something, even if it works, if it does not count or contribute what we want to be, it is better to change and bet on what we really want to become.
Right now NEO occupies the 12th position in Coinmarketcap, with a value of $ 124. Six months in which not only the brand has been the protagonist of this growth, but everything that surrounds the project, from its roadmap to the new launches of its platform. What position would he be in if he hadn't risked changing Antshares?
Another case, more recent and different, is that of Waves. The decentralized trading and crowdfunding platform of Russian origin has chosen to optimize and synthesize its entire identity. Something that has polished in a masterful way, leading to what is really important and that constitutes its differential value: the usability of its platform. A development, in beta, which shows from the first contact an exquisiteness to bring blockchain technology to people, as its claim: "Blockchain for the people".
Its great success is such that many of us do not remember the previous image, there is no need for waves in a symbol, so that the Waves logo suggests the fluidity and transparency of moving water. Was a change necessary? An evolution? Well, it seems that yes. It is essential if the project is maturing, you want to give the user new sensations and be relevant to him. Waves was already an interesting project and with a philosophy that has been positioning it in a more competitive environment. Now everything is not done, and new goals and challenges will have to be set, but it is undoubtedly demonstrating professionalism in everything it does, and not only in the aesthetic part. Here is a strategic work that starts from the inside of the company to the outside.
In the next few days we have seen how two other projects have evolved their identity, with the aforementioned strategies. Raiblocks with its new version projected in Nano and Siacoin with a thorough restyling. Also in the coming days it is planned that Lisk also change his identity.
The project is interesting and provides services that must be explained in a way that is more consistent with your brand, so we hope you know how to apply this rebranding in the best possible way. Will they work as well as the previous projects? Will they know how to capture the true essence of each project? Will they be able to bring their communication closer to an increasingly saturated audience of information?
Without a doubt, we are immersed in moments of change, and it is exciting to see how these new projects, these new brands, interact. As these are technologies that focus on people, users must be placed at the center of this universe. Making it easy, accessible and reliable will be some of the most important vectors, so that the technology of these updated sectors will be increasingly connected with current and future society.