Not all babies are beautiful.

Love can be blind. Try telling new parents or start-up founders that their baby is ugly and be prepared to grab your coat. Throughout life we’re all guilty of wearing rose-tinted spectacles as we stand in our glasshouse, weighing-up a polished stone in our hand. We have to pause from time to time be objective. 

That’s what we did earlier this Summer, recognising that our existing branding for Mission Ventures was not truly reflecting us, our values or the work we do. 

The challenge we faced was simple: Who are we talking to? We build challenger brands, acting as a bridging point between fast-moving, dynamic entrepreneurs running food start-ups and the much larger institutions and food groups hungry for innovation. When you exist because these two communities are so different from one another, you can go round in circles trying to figure out how to address your audience.

So, we put ourselves through our own MissionMap process to drill down into who we are, what we represent and how we express our brand to the world. From this we agreed that our purpose is to “deliver positive impact through entrepreneurship” by “investing, creating and partnering to build better food and drink brands”. 

Using our design brief, the team at BuxtonThreeTwo came up with a brighter colour palette and a new logo, revitalising and sharpening our positioning. The new motif incorporates a stylised compass rose, symbolising the directional work we execute with founders on their journeys. It also represents our guidance for corporate and impact investors looking to back the best brands. We like it, we hope you do too.

Branding is hard. Most founders will go through an overhaul within the first 12-18 months from launch. You need time in the field to gauge what’s working.

In my own case, we worked with one of the leading design agencies on the packs for Plum Baby, our superfood brand for infants, only to discover the special colour they’d devised looked washed out under supermarket lighting. The following year we refreshed the brand with a small husband and wife agency(for a fraction of the cost). We achieved a much stronger stand-out which pretty much lasted the five year journey to exit.

Whatever your “baby” might be, try to be objective. Seek honest opinions from those beyond friends and family, from people who aren’t invested in your relationship. Don’t be the restaurateur who believes all his diners when they say their meal was “fine”.

By Paddy Willis - Mission Ventures, CEO