🔹 Summary Learn why emotional branding—not logos or slogans—is your startup's strongest growth engine. Jakob Trpin reveals how to build trust and win investors with human-to-human marketing.
🔹 What You'll Learn
Discover emotional branding strategies that build loyal customer bases.
Learn why startups fail at branding and how to avoid common mistakes.
Understand human-to-human (H2H) marketing and its DACH startup relevance.
Avoid the trap of internal misalignment sabotaging external branding.
Master storytelling techniques that win over investors pre-pitch.
See how emotional trust drives retention in scale-ups.
Explore why branding is crucial for startups in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
🔹 Guest Authority Frame
Jakob Trpin, Founder & Branding Specialist at Yesyesandtwo, shares 18+ years of expertise in emotional branding. His work spans global brands like Red Bull, Audi, and Marvel. Learn his human-to-human branding secrets that turn startups into movements.
🔹 Timestamped Chapters
00:00 - Why Emotional Branding Beats Loud Marketing
02:15 - The Invisible Language of Brands Explained
06:40 - Common Startup Branding Mistakes
10:20 - Human-to-Human (H2H): Beyond B2B/B2C
14:45 - Internal Branding: Building Culture That Resonates
18:30 - Investors Feel Your Brand Before Metrics
23:00 – Scaling Authentically: Avoid Brand Dilution
27:00 – Closing Insights + Emotional Branding Playbook
✉️ Work with us: partnerships@startuprad.io
🎧 Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/startupradio
📰 Blog write-up: https://www.startuprad.io/post/emotional-branding-for-startups-how-to-win-hearts-not-just-markets
💬 Feedback: https://forms.gle/Qp53eVuc9P1RMqWj8
💼 Follow Jörn: LinkedIn
#EmotionalBranding #StartupBranding #HumanToHumanMarketing #DACHStartups #VentureCapital #BrandingTips #TechStartups #Scaleups #InvisibleBranding #H2HMarketing #Startupradio #StartupradIo
This episode explores emotional branding as a startup growth strategy. Jakob Trpin explains how founders can build trust, connect human-to-human, and maintain authenticity while scaling in the DACH startup scene.
🔹 FAQs
Q: What is emotional branding for startups?
A: It's a strategy that creates emotional connections with customers to build trust and loyalty beyond metrics.
Q: Why do startups fail at branding?
A: They focus on logos and slogans, neglecting storytelling and emotional alignment.
Q: What is H2H marketing?
A: Human-to-human marketing focuses on personal connections across B2B/B2C silos.
🇩🇪 This episode shows why emotional branding is crucial for startups. Jakob Trpin explains how founders build trust and scale authentically.
🔹 What You'll Learn
Discover emotional branding strategies that build loyal customer bases.
Learn why startups fail at branding and how to avoid common mistakes.
Understand human-to-human (H2H) marketing and its DACH startup relevance.
Avoid the trap of internal misalignment sabotaging external branding.
Master storytelling techniques that win over investors pre-pitch.
See how emotional trust drives retention in scale-ups.
Explore why branding is crucial for startups in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
🔹 Guest Authority Frame
Jakob Trpin, Founder & Branding Specialist at Yesyesandtwo, shares 18+ years of expertise in emotional branding. His work spans global brands like Red Bull, Audi, and Marvel. Learn his human-to-human branding secrets that turn startups into movements.
🔹 Timestamped Chapters
00:00 - Why Emotional Branding Beats Loud Marketing
02:15 - The Invisible Language of Brands Explained
06:40 - Common Startup Branding Mistakes
10:20 - Human-to-Human (H2H): Beyond B2B/B2C
14:45 - Internal Branding: Building Culture That Resonates
18:30 - Investors Feel Your Brand Before Metrics
23:00 – Scaling Authentically: Avoid Brand Dilution
27:00 – Closing Insights + Emotional Branding Playbook
✉️ Work with us: partnerships@startuprad.io
🎧 Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/startupradio
📰 Blog write-up: https://www.startuprad.io/post/emotional-branding-for-startups-how-to-win-hearts-not-just-markets
💬 Feedback: https://forms.gle/Qp53eVuc9P1RMqWj8
💼 Follow Jörn: LinkedIn
#EmotionalBranding #StartupBranding #HumanToHumanMarketing #DACHStartups #VentureCapital #BrandingTips #TechStartups #Scaleups #InvisibleBranding #H2HMarketing #Startupradio #StartupradIo
This episode explores emotional branding as a startup growth strategy. Jakob Trpin explains how founders can build trust, connect human-to-human, and maintain authenticity while scaling in the DACH startup scene.
🔹 FAQs
Q: What is emotional branding for startups?
A: It's a strategy that creates emotional connections with customers to build trust and loyalty beyond metrics.
Q: Why do startups fail at branding?
A: They focus on logos and slogans, neglecting storytelling and emotional alignment.
Q: What is H2H marketing?
A: Human-to-human marketing focuses on personal connections across B2B/B2C silos.
🇩🇪 This episode shows why emotional branding is crucial for startups. Jakob Trpin explains how founders build trust and scale authentically.
Kategorie
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TechnikTranskript
00:00How the brand is felt, how we feel as me, part of like a consumer group, how do we feel, how do we see brands?
00:09For example, if the message does not come to us and we cannot adjust process them, we will not like react to the brand.
00:20We will not react to the loudness, rather like how we feel.
00:30Welcome to StartupRed.io, your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with news, interviews and live events.
00:45Hello and welcome everybody. This is Joe from StartupRed.io, your startup podcast and YouTube blog from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
00:53Today, I have Jacob with me. What if your startup's most powerful growth engine isn't your tech, pitch tech or GTM strategy, but how your brand makes people feel?
01:09On today's StartupRed.io, we sit together down with Jacob Tirpitz, a serious mind who enjoys exploring new brand shapes, the way we connect from advertising design to marketing and what truly defines the essence of lasting, meaningful branding.
01:30Jacob is the founder of creative brand agency, Yes, Yes and Two.
01:35His work has directly or indirectly influenced a range of international brands, including Audi, Belvoir's Chocolate, the European Commission, Fight World Chess, Husqvarna Motorcycles, Icos, KTM, Loki, Marvel, Mattel, Noteback, Pernod Ricard, Red Bull, Remark Cars, Salzburger Land, Sebastian Professional, United Colors of Benetton and many more.
02:05Jacob isn't here to talk about logos, design or slogans, he's here to offer a fresh perspective on how the often overlooked biology and psychology behind branding can quietly play a significant role in a startup success, why it matters and how we're connecting to brands in today's world.
02:25With over 18 years of experience in branding, marketing, advertising and design, Jacob brings a deep understanding of why branding matters, how subconscious brands signal, build trust long before the metrics do and why the smartest founders today are shifting from B2B or B2C to H2H, human to human.
02:50We unpack the emotional language that customers feel but can't describe, how to brand authentically from day one, even with no budget.
03:02What do startups, what do startup teams often get wrong about culture, storytelling and the story behind their own product or mission?
03:11Why investors feel brands before you fund year round?
03:17If you found a CEO, investor or simply somebody building something meaningful, this episode will help you understand why brands matter from day one before your pitch deck or presentation and offer fresh perspective on how to build a more cohesive brand for stronger long-term success.
03:38Jacob, that was quite a long intro.
03:44Welcome to StartupRate.io.
03:45Thank you again for giving me this opportunity.
03:49Thank you for a really nice introduction.
03:51I felt like a prima donna somehow.
03:53Jacob, you believe startups don't win by just being louder, but by being felt in every aspect.
04:07What led you to this perspective?
04:10Absolutely.
04:11That's a good question that I was trying to reach out, trying to understand through my journey of educational and experimental how brands are extrovertly create introvertal message that we try to position as a brand wants to hit the emotional tones.
04:36When the brand hits the emotional tones, we are rather talking about how the brand is making us feel rather like what is loud.
04:45Because I do believe that loud does not coming from having just like colors, logotypes and different messages painted on the wall or in the cities, but rather like how we feel about the brand.
04:56And by that, I think that I came to a conclusion that it's more important for us consumers than brands.
05:05And we feel the brands rather like that they're allowed.
05:08So basically, you go back to the theory that most of what we say is not in words, but it's in the feeling of how we convey the message.
05:20You talk about invisible language, invisible branding here.
05:25Can you unpack what it means for early stage founders?
05:29When it comes to invisible languages, we usually perceive in branding in terms what we can track or what we cannot deal on a daily basis, meaning that brands are more powered by emotional stage, which our brain biological part is also working in this aspect.
05:53Then we have the most necessary component, like for success, like to be trusted, to be trusted from like consumers as like partners, communication ways.
06:05And the third one, the third part of the invisible brand is definitely human to human direction, because it's coming more from biological aspect.
06:16How we are operating through the day, how we are communicating, how we are perceiving the messages and how we actually understand the brands and what the brands are trying to understand.
06:28So I would say that emotional part, trust and human to human direction, these are the core of foundational, the invisible brand.
06:37So you talk about what you feel when you see, when you experience branding.
06:46I was wondering, the first mistake, what's the branding trap every startup falls into early on?
06:55I would definitely say that the first trap that many of startups dive in is they are all the best in what they do.
07:08They are all the best how they are polarizing and creating the product, the service they would like to push on the market.
07:17And then at some point they neglect the brand aspect, they neglect the storytelling, they neglect how conveyed the message, the product, the service that they would like to position on the market actually delivered to the consumer, to the end users.
07:36And this is something that it's, as a startups, they could start not just working on the logotype, but rather like to starting with the storytelling, to be authentically different from the other brands.
07:52And this would help them in order like to be a little bit different and not fall into this trap.
07:59So you talked about in the past internal first, how does internal branding drive external impact and the other way around?
08:15As we talk about internal branding, it's always what team do we have around us?
08:22What kind of people and who are helping us to develop the branding, to push the branding out?
08:31And internal branding, it's the most important because if internal branding, our team does not fill the brand, does not live with the brand.
08:41External branding will hardly to survive in the market.
08:45Why?
08:46Because we will have to push so much effort into building internal branding.
08:51While we will do this, we will neglect the most important part because our competitors will already step further and to be better and better to work on external branding.
09:05And they will be able to understand the consumers better, they will be able to reach the consumer better.
09:12So by this, if we don't have the right team, if we don't have the right homogen team, how we communicate that we believe in the product that we have, external branding will be hard to survive because external part is just extended hand of internal.
09:34All right.
09:35Mm hmm.
09:36Mm hmm.
09:37Mm hmm.
09:38Mm hmm.
09:39Mm hmm.
09:40Mm hmm.
09:41Mm hmm.
09:42Mm hmm.
09:43Age to age, human to human philosophy.
09:44You reject the classical categories of B2B and B2C.
09:45Actually, that also makes sense for me.
09:47Instead, say it's all age to age, human to human.
09:51Um.
09:52I have to smile thinking about that.
09:56I'm thinking about the involvement of AI in the future.
09:59eye in the future. But anyways, what does this right now exactly look like?
10:07H2H, B2C, it's just another categorization. B2C, business to consumers, business to business.
10:15But on the other side, behind those names are actually like human beings who are actually
10:23feeling, who are feeling how we communicate, how we propose something, how we offer, what
10:31kind of solutions do we have. So rather like to think, oh, this brand or this product goes
10:37out to certain consumers. Think about human to human, how it would be when you try to push
10:46the product to your family or to your brother. You talk to him as a person, as someone who
10:51actually would feel something about. Because again, in all aspects, we are wired by biology.
11:00From biologically spectrum, we are emotional creatures. And again, like being emotional,
11:10being human to human, we build trust, we build understanding and slowly we can build something
11:16meaningful in terms of having like our group of consumers that actually believe in us in
11:23a brand.
11:25And now a very interesting aspect for me before we go into short ad break would be for me.
11:32How do you see AI working on this in the future, meaning from age to age to age to AI to age?
11:48Well, that's a nice question. And of course, there will be like so many benefits. But on the other hand, we
11:59will still missing the humor intersection interfering because in the end, it's not just about the emotion,
12:07which AI can still not like reach them or like to give you the perfect answer, but rather like to be
12:14understood, to be felt like the warmest of people, you know, like when someone looks into your eyes and
12:20say like, okay, I understand you like I have you. And by this AI is like a fantastic tool that will help
12:28like even the branding will like escalate. But in terms of we are not there yet that would be replacing
12:38this human to human connection because sometimes we might also do a mistake to leave some aspects to
12:50this human connection. So far away from us.
12:57Guys, we'll be back after a very short ad break. Jacob, you're doing much better.
13:09Guys, welcome back. Thank you for sticking with us. This is Joe talking to Jacob about screw,
13:16forgetting B2B branding, B2C branding. It's all human to human, even though we are not really sure yet
13:24how the AI will get involved into that. Let's talk a little bit about the investor lines here.
13:29What does emotional branding mean from an investor's perspective and how do they usually react to it?
13:38How does it show up in the pitch rooms? Also in this matters, I do believe that investors,
13:47as they are just like humans on the other spectrum with whom we are communicate, they are looking for
13:53a brand, product, service, which are trustworthy, meaning that like the first front battle that they
14:01come across to is the person that who is representing the brand, who is representing the company and
14:08investors are also keen to understand them, where they are coming from, how they are wired. Because
14:16in the end, like financially support is important and based on trust and how the trust is connected
14:23to the CEO, to the inventor, to the startup and what kind of product do they want to position out.
14:33So I believe that like emotional branding, when it comes to these certain matters,
14:40it's also about the trust. The trust is the first like fence that it has to be crossed in order to
14:47reach hands and say like, Hey, I trust you. I know that you will deliver. I know that you will do good.
14:52So I have trust in you that you will be able to pull and to do what you said, what is your pitch desk.
15:03I see. I was wondering because usually our audience is more in the Series C stage, meaning
15:14companies of 500 plus employees thinking about doing M&A, that that's really something
15:22big there. Um, and I was wondering this scale dissonance as startups grow, how can their brand
15:32stay authentic? And what does it mean emotionally for the team and their audiences?
15:42This is the one big of a challenge because somehow we live in a huge, fast,
15:49world-based market that we would always like to position something new, but in the branding is just
15:55the opposite. When the brand escalates, when the startup like grows, they usually neglect one important
16:04thing. They do not need to change their story. They do not need to add more elements to the brand,
16:09but rather like keep them simple, keep them as it was at the beginning, because that will also lead to
16:15authenticity, like how authentic they are, because authentic comes like not to be a copycat, but
16:22rather like I will go my own line. I will do my own visual presentation. I will have like my own branding.
16:29I will have like my, my stories. Um, when it comes that brands and startups are growing, usually they
16:39neglect to the fact that they need to stay authentic, to stay the same, to stay, to stay authentic by saying
16:47the same story as they did like at the beginning, because otherwise they are just getting too much
16:54noise when they are adding new components because of the marketing pranks, because of the marketing
17:00speed. When they're adding new components as like new slogan, new keywords, new
17:05words, new messages, everything starts just like to blur away, which is not authentic anymore because
17:14it's far from what they've been at the beginning. So should they stick with what they've been in the
17:23beginning or should they start to adapt to the new reality? Um, most, most people will, will, uh, listen to this.
17:35I have to give them some commentary. He really had to think and look up in the air. Hmm.
17:42Well, it's, it's like you have to be flexible enough to stay authentically the same as you were at the
17:50beginning. Because for example, I will give you like really good example, like be authentic. Like
17:56when you slide through the media, I see like, like I will give you like a really analogy, which is off
18:02from the branding, but has a good meaning. When you see a person who is doing something in the gym,
18:09you see how well built he is. You will not, you say like, I would like to be that person, but you are not
18:15becoming that person right away. So this means that like, if you are adapting too much on the trends,
18:20on the current setting, on the market, you will also lose your path from who you were and how you
18:28would like to communicate your brand. Because brand is not like you need to change. You need to always
18:35constantly adding something. The brand is also stay consistent, be present, be yourself, be authentic.
18:43And that's how you will build the trust. And trust is an emotional thing, which comes from biological
18:49aspect. And we are basically all wired emotionally. I mean, we have like five, seven basic emotions,
18:56then we have like 25, 27, like the rough one and 100 plus emotional components, which are adding. So
19:04we are not like a reasonable creature, we are like emotional. So the trust is like one thing that it's
19:09like, again, human to human communication, communication. And again, like to go a little
19:15bit deeper to the question you asked, how to stay authentic? Or should we should the brand change to
19:24the current trends or to the current settings? I would say yes, they need to be flexible enough,
19:29but not too much because they will lose their own personality.
19:36If I would wrap up. No, no, we're not at the end. Would I wrap up? Have to wrap up everything you
19:44said in one sentence? Guys, you're doing marketing for people are not and not Vulcans.
19:50To wrap up would be definitely the brand.
19:53What happens when a startup's external brand is stronger than its internal one? And how do
19:59consumers resonate with that? Consumers resonate with external branding by trust, by believing in
20:10branding. It's one amazing study among many of them, humanizing brands, humanizing brands,
20:21brands that the same brain area activates as we would talk to a close person. So meaning that external
20:32brands, external branding, consumers are also feeling betrayed at some point if external branding is not
20:43orchestrated good or internal branding is not like polished good. So meaning when consumers
20:51come across to several brands are like communication points, they might feel rejected. They might feel
21:00insulted or they might felt also like betrayal because the brand did not fulfill one of their needs.
21:07This could be like when they reached to customer service and they had to wait for like half an hour or
21:14like the customer service person was a little bit rude because that's a human tool on the other hand.
21:20And he had like a bad day and he replied really, I don't know, too emotional. And the consumer felt like
21:28betrayal because the brand did not fulfill one of the needs. And external branding is one of the crucial
21:37points when it comes to communication because everything is based on trust. And when the trust is there,
21:47we are emotionally open to accept new things, to accept the brand, to be part of the brand. But when
21:55something does not go along, of course, we pull back a little bit, we are not interested anymore. Or in the worst
22:02case scenario, we go to other brands. But this, everything could be prevented if at the beginning,
22:13startups would pour much more time into it to, to build this world through human communication consume.
22:26You have been talking about biological branding, activating certain areas of the brain, certain
22:33regions, how branding activates brain regions, and what's happening from the biological aspects.
22:42What should founders learn from this?
22:49When, when we dissect like brains, we put them into four levels. One is like spinal cord, then it's
22:58hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain. And forebrain is like 80% of capacity that we have. And in forebrain,
23:07we have also the limbic system, which operates emotionally. So we have the hippocampus, which is
23:19part of, and in our limbic system, which is in the middle of the brain, works for memory, emotion.
23:26This fellow is like in the shape of seahorse. And we have it like on both sides. So we, we store the
23:33memories like with emotion there, how we feel about brand, how we see. And when we talk about biological
23:41aspects, we are always wired that the final decision comes from emotional part, because that is how we
23:52react to certain messages or to brand or like what the brand wants to say, or even to communication or like
23:59interaction between humans. And biological part for startups is, it's good. And founders should take
24:12one message out of that would be good to be emotional in terms how we position the brand, how we position
24:24the messages, how we talk about the messages, how we talk about storytelling. Emotions are not always the
24:31bad things. If they are used the right thing, the brand will grow because again, everything leads to trust.
24:43Um, we're getting close to the end, we're not talking a little bit about branding for movements. What is the
24:51difference between a typical startup, a product led brand, and a movement led one?
25:02I would definitely say that movement is above everything, because people are reacting, people are like
25:10emotionally. And if I can give you like an example, movement, like one example that majority of us know,
25:19and we can resonate is like when the Nike campaign start, just do it. That was the movement. That was
25:26not just the product. That was not just the brand. That was not just something that happened, but rather
25:32like the whole movement because just do it triggered like different population to start actually doing
25:40something, to go to the gym, to have new job, to find new partner, to start a family. And that was the
25:48movement group. And the beauty of this is that the brand still stick with this slogan because it's again,
25:56built on trust. And movement is something that startups can start at the beginning of the journey.
26:07Because they don't talk just about the product, about the service that they are trying to position
26:12on the market, but rather like this product or this service will help you to live your life better,
26:20or at least to have more emotional components to it, which is beyond just having a product or selling
26:32a product or like offering the product. We're getting to the last question of an interview here,
26:42a little bit reflections during the closing. What's one belief about branding you wish every founder knew
26:51from day one? One believes it's definitely to work more on human to humor on invisible
27:02branding to have more human connection, less, less words, less, less text, but rather like
27:16brand can be extremely impactful. If there's a true connection, if there's something meaningful
27:23and how to reach the consumers.
27:25actually awesome closing words. And keep in mind guys, you're not doing branding for robots or Vulcans.
27:35I just realized a lot of people who don't know, Star Trek wouldn't know what a Vulcan is.
27:41Mr. Spark, emotional, you're making marketing for people, humans, and he should touch them at an emotional
27:51Would that be about right, Jacob?
27:53I would agree 100%.
27:57We are talking about human beings.
28:00We are talking about people.
28:02And in this area, this is the fantastic opportunity
28:05because I know that startups, I know all the CEOs, investors,
28:10have fantastic products that are worth to see the daylight.
28:15And sometimes the pit is because they don't know how to reach the consumers.
28:20They don't know how to reach the consumers with an awesome product
28:24or they are using the wrong words or they are using the wrong aspects.
28:31This could be done internally in the team, be authentic and talk to humans.
28:41That's how the belief starts.
28:44Talk to humans.
28:46That's a very good last sentence.
28:49Jacob, thank you very much.
28:51It was a pleasure having you as a guest.
28:53Thank you very much.
28:54It was really nice to talk with you and I wish you all the best.
28:58Same here.
28:59Bye-bye.
29:00That's all folks.
29:01Find more news, streams, events, and interviews at www.startuprad.io.
29:13Remember, sharing is caring.
29:29you
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