Can branding make or break your business?

Did you know that for every five startups that are still around, more than double have failed due to lack of branding?

And this isn’t just startups. Businesses of all sizes that lack powerful, consistent branding are in danger of losing customers because brand identity is more important than we sometimes realize. Branding really can make or break a company, but working with branding agencies could run anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000 depending on what you want.

Zebrand, an automated branding service that started in Japan, aims to solve this problem by offering smaller businesses an easy, quick and inexpensive way to brand their business.

Founder Ryo Kikuchi started Zebrand after majoring in graphic design and digital marketing. His friends wanted to start an agency, but being a smaller company, it was hard for them to find branding they could afford. That’s when he got the idea for Zebrand.

According to Kikuchi, brand identity encompasses culture creation, mission and values, team-building components, the overall tone of a company, symbolism and imagery, the typeface/typography and fonts you use, and of course, the logo.

Zebrand uses an artificial intelligence (A.I.) algorithm—built on the backs of close to 25,000 other brand identities that have been developed, collected and crunched into the company’s A.I. branding machine—to create logos and brand assets based on a personalized quiz. The quiz asks about your personality, the line of work you’re in, what your company’s missions and values are, etc. It’s completely free and takes only five minutes to complete.

The resulting brand kit includes color schemes, lots of creative imagery, brand phrasing, typeface, logo ideas and marketing assets.

“Being able to visualize your brand is important, but you also need consistency and a solid mission statement,” Kikuchi says. “Brand identity creates a culture that’s not just external but internal, used as a guideline for employees. It informs the team of your mission and reminds you to be true to who you are.”

In addition, branding can help create trust in your business and improve your recognition, as explained in this article by Mediaspace Solutions. It’s critical for marketing materials, and your mission can even motivate employees inside your company and attract new talent from outside. In some cases, it can even bring in new revenue.

Zebrand understand the importance of all of this, and it has big plans for the future. “Right now, brand identity is a mostly two-dimensional proposition,” Kikuchi says. “We plan to take our A.I. a massive step further in the near future, focusing on using our ever-evolving algorithm to create 3D and 4D brand identity experiences for businesses.”

To try Zebrand for free, visit zebranding.com.