5 Common Pitfalls in Brand Building among Southeast Asian Startups and How to Avoid Them

Building a brand is challenging yet rewarding for any startup, especially in Southeast Asia, where markets are diverse and cultural nuances are more complex. Drawing insights from Monita, our fractional CMO with a forte in brand building, product marketing and organisational development, here are 5 common missteps in brand building that startups often encounter and strategies to sidestep them.

Pitfall #1: Trading off Fundamentals for Speed

Startups often overlook foundational brand-building principles in the rush to gain traction. But these fundamentals, such as understanding your target market, remain constant regardless of evolving tools, industry dynamics, new trends, and execution approaches. Knowing your audience goes beyond hypothetical profiling and requires empathy to really understand their buying behaviours and decision-making journey. This helps shape your marketing mix and product offerings. However, many startups view consumer research as an obstacle rather than a key component for success. Even with ample data, it is often under-analysed which leads to personal assumptions about the target market or personal experiences from close circles working on the brand, which may ultimately misrepresent the actual market needs.

How to Avoid

Start with research; any consumer research is better than none, even on a limited budget. One way is to engage with potential customers through interviews, informal surveys, or observations to gather real insights. There are also other creative research methods you can use that fit your current budget. Always remember that investing in accurately identifying your target market is far less costly than targeting the wrong audience and having to pivot later. 

Pitfall #2: Committing to Creatives without a Clear Brand Strategy

Another common pitfall is jumping into creative campaigns without a clear brand strategy. While initial excitement might drive early engagement, lack of consistency in messaging can lead to confusion about the brand’s purpose and value proposition. This misalignment can cause issues later which make it even harder to correct.  

How to avoid

Develop a solid brand strategy before handing the reins to creative teams. Your brand strategy should guide and inform creative execution to ensure alignment and consistency. 

Pitfall #3: Inconsistent Execution Driven by Short-Term Focus

Startups often struggle to choose between long-term brand building and short-term profitability, and sometimes abandon campaigns prematurely as they are discouraged by an initial lack of results. This impatience for short-term outcomes disrupts consistency in messaging and weakens long-term brand identity.

How to Avoid

Identify your primary objective: is it long-term brand building or short-term growth? For sustainable brand building, set aside a dedicated budget and focus on gradual growth metrics that go beyond immediate returns, separate from performance marketing and demand generation. While performance marketing and demand generation tactics can yield quick results, they are best suited as complements to your overarching brand strategy rather than as a replacement for building brand equity.

Pitfall #4: Separating Brand Storytelling from Product Marketing

Early-stage startups sometimes fall into the trap of abstract storytelling without clearly communicating their product’s benefits. They may imitate established brands that use abstract messaging to reinforce their brand positioning, yet these brands already have a solid customer base familiar with their offerings. Instead, startups should look at how these brands communicated in their early days, not their later, well-established campaigns. Context is crucial when drawing on these references.

How to Avoid

Craft a compelling story that resonates emotionally, but ensure the product’s core value proposition is always clear. Rather than overshadowing the “what” with the “why”, aim for a balanced message that highlights both effectively.

Pitfall #5: Limiting Brand Strategy to Marketing Messages

Limiting brand strategy to marketing messages is suboptimal, as it often results in a brand that does not resonate across all touchpoints and also encourages company staff’s personal preferences to override strategic alignment.

How to Avoid

A comprehensive brand strategy is more than just a communications guideline; it should influence every aspect of your startup, from customer experience and product innovation to employer branding and company culture. Involve cross-functional stakeholders in developing, stress-testing and implementing your brand strategy blueprint so it becomes impactful, actionable, and a single source of truth to mitigate subjective views and preferences, rather than just a well-written document.

About Monita

Monita is a marketing leader with 15 years of experience across multinational FMCG, advertising, and tech companies of varying growth stages such as DANA, Gojek and Tokopedia. She has strong expertise in brand building, product marketing, and organisational development. Her experience extends from building new systems and processes to perfecting mature ones, grooming an agile team of 5 to leading a division of 50, managing local in-market execution to regional coordination, and creating the simplest tactical campaigns that make headlines to developing long-term strategies for sustainable brand growth.