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Featured: Branding as business growth – Four formative decisions by Entrepreneur of the Year winner

Ben Garfinkel

Our client Fluxwerx Illumination is on a steep upward trajectory. They’ve just won Ernst & Young’s 2016 Emerging Technologies Entrepreneur of the Year. That’s on top of winning a coveted Red Dot design award, followed closely by the planned sale of the company for $85 million—all only five years from inception.

Along with our congratulations, we asked Fluxwerx President Tim Berman to look back and share the top four critical decisions he (and his team) made at the outset of their business:

1. Have ‘laser-guided’ positioning. Our goal was to be mainstream and purely innovative. To get there, our solutions needed to meet today’s needs and budgets, but not be achievable with the old (fluorescent) technology. If our solution could have been replicated using anything other than LED, we scrapped the idea. If our solutions were too expensive for the mainstream, we scrapped the idea.
2. Look local first. Developing a locally-sourced, made-to-order business allowed us to focus all company resources and capital on product innovation, product development and marketing, instead of production and manufacturing.
3. Disrupt, don’t destruct. At a time when many companies were trying to find ways around the traditional lighting industry sales channel, we chose to embrace it by removing any resistance to working within it. In doing so, we were able to leverage its strength.
4. Build a brand. We took the time to find the right partner to help us create a strong, consistent brand identity. This meant aligning our identity with our overall vision. Our brand promises for our products (quality, innovation, design and value) would be seen through the filter of our logo, website and other sales materials.

“When looking for a company to assist us with bringing our vision to reality, it was important to find a company that understood the business-to-business nature of our channel and sales process. Industrial Brand led us through creative strategy sessions that resulted in our vision and beliefs translating into clear brand messaging and a strong identity—one that I credit for helping us reach our most ambitious goals.”
—Tim Berman, President Fluxwerx Illumination

Starting a company, and keeping one at the top of its game takes vision, planning and prioritizing precious resources. If you need help increasing certainty and building brand strength, let’s talk.