The Three Decisions That Define a Startup Brand

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How Jennifer Anniston’s LolaVie brand grew sales 40% with CTV ads

For its first CTV campaign, Jennifer Aniston’s DTC haircare brand LolaVie had a few non-negotiables. The campaign had to be simple. It had to demonstrate measurable impact. And it had to be full-funnel.

LolaVie used Roku Ads Manager to test and optimize creatives — reaching millions of potential customers at all stages of their purchase journeys. Roku Ads Manager helped the brand convey LolaVie’s playful voice while helping drive omnichannel sales across both ecommerce and retail touchpoints.

The campaign included an Action Ad overlay that let viewers shop directly from their TVs by clicking OK on their Roku remote. This guided them to the website to buy LolaVie products.

Discover how Roku Ads Manager helped LolaVie drive big sales and customer growth with self-serve TV ads.

The DTC beauty category is crowded. To break through, Jennifer Anniston’s brand LolaVie, worked with Roku Ads Manager to easily set up, test, and optimize CTV ad creatives. The campaign helped drive a big lift in sales and customer growth, helping LolaVie break through in the crowded beauty category.

Learn more.

As Simple as 1-2-3

Founders often think brand is built slowly…

…through many steps that build on each other over time after the company has launched.

Logo first.
Website next.
Messaging later.

But in reality, most startup brands are shaped much earlier and by far fewer decisions than people realize.

Three, to be precise.

Before the color palette. Before the typography. Before the marketing campaigns. A startup brand is largely determined by three foundational choices.

Get these right and everything else compounds.
Get them wrong and even great marketing struggles to create identity.

1. Who the Brand Is For

Every strong brand begins with a clear audience.

Not “teams.”
Not “businesses.”
Not “modern companies.”

Someone specific.

Early-stage founders often hesitate here. Narrowing the audience can feel like shrinking the opportunity. In reality, it sharpens the signal.

When Calendly gained traction, it didn’t try to position itself as generic productivity software for every worker. Its early messaging spoke directly to professionals who were constantly scheduling meetings—salespeople, recruiters, consultants, and operators whose calendars were already overloaded.

That focus shaped the product experience and the messaging. It also made the value instantly recognizable to the people who needed it most.

Specific audiences create recognizable brands.
Generic audiences create polite ones.

The market remembers brands that feel designed for someone.

2. What the Brand Promises to Fix

Once the audience is clear, the next decision is about the problem.

Your product doesn’t solve every problem.
Pick the one you want to be known for solving.

Strong startup brands rarely lead with capability. They lead with relief.

Consider Headway, the mental health platform. Instead of describing scheduling features or therapist directories, its messaging focuses on a specific outcome: helping people find a great therapist who takes their insurance.

That outcome resonates because it reflects a real frustration people already feel.

A brand promise works best when it feels like the obvious answer to an existing pain.

3. How the Brand Behaves

The final decision is about tone and posture.

Is the brand authoritative or conversational?
Technical or accessible?
Playful or serious?

Tone is not decoration. It is a signal about how the company sees itself and the world around it.

Look at Duolingo. Language learning tools existed long before it arrived. What changed was the brand’s personality. Its humor, mascot-driven storytelling, and playful voice turned a traditionally academic category into something cultural.

Tone shapes perception faster than most founders expect.

People form opinions about credibility, warmth, and intelligence within seconds.

Why These Three Decisions Matter

Together, these choices create the brand’s center of gravity.

Audience defines who feels invited.
Problem defines why the brand matters.
Tone defines how the brand feels.

Every other brand element flows from those decisions.

The homepage structure.
The product experience.
The marketing channels.
The hiring philosophy.

When the foundation is clear, brand expression becomes consistent almost automatically.

When the foundation is fuzzy, every new initiative feels like a reinvention.

A Simple Test

Try writing one sentence that captures all three elements:

“We help [specific audience] solve [specific problem] in a way that feels [distinctive tone or approach].”

If that sentence feels vague, your brand probably will too.

Here’s an example of this sentence framework applied to a real world brand—smart ring maker Oura:

We help health-conscious individuals understand their sleep and recovery in a way that feels scientific yet effortless.

See how that works? Clarity at the foundation simplifies everything that follows.

Final Thought

Startups often treat brand as something that emerges over time.

In reality, it emerges from a few early decisions that get repeated consistently.

Who you serve.
What you fix.
How you show up.

Those three choices quietly define the entire brand.

Everything else is execution.

Best,

Edwin