Emotional Branding for Startups: How to Win Hearts, Not Just Markets
- Jörn Menninger
- 1 day ago
- 19 min read
🚀 Management Summary
This post unpacks emotional branding for startups, drawn from Jakob Trpin’s insights on Startuprad.io. Learn why logos and slogans aren’t enough, how human-to-human (H2H) connections build trust, and how to scale authenticity in fast-growing startups. Ideal for founders, executives, and investors looking to create brands people feel—not just see.
📚 Table of Contents
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📝 What is Emotional Branding and Why Does It Matter for Startups?
Emotional branding connects your startup to customers on a deep psychological level, making them feel trust and loyalty before they ever see your metrics or pitch deck.
📝 Featured Snippet Optimized Answer: Emotional branding helps startups build authentic, human-centered connections with customers by appealing to emotions rather than rational decision-making. It drives trust and long-term loyalty, especially in the DACH startup ecosystem.
❓ Why Do Startups Fail at Branding Early On?
Most founders focus on tech, product, or go-to-market strategies, neglecting emotional storytelling. This leads to:
Generic branding
Weak emotional resonance
Missed investor confidence in pitch rooms
Instead, early storytelling aligned with emotional branding principles can differentiate your startup.
🤝 H2H Branding: Moving Beyond B2B and B2C
Jakob Trpin champions H2H (Human-to-Human) branding:
“Think about how you’d pitch your product to your brother, not a faceless consumer segment.”
People Also Ask:
What is human-to-human (H2H) marketing?
Can startups use emotional branding without big budgets?
👥 Internal vs. External Branding: Why Your Team Comes First
Your team must live the brand. Internal misalignment creates external noise. Startups with strong internal branding outperform because:
Teams communicate authentically
Customer service embodies the brand
External branding efforts scale more naturally
People Also Ask:
Why is internal branding important for startups?
How does internal branding affect customer experience?
🔥 How Can Startups Stay Authentic as They Scale?
Scaling shouldn’t mean diluting your story. Jakob advises:
✅ Stay consistent with your core story✅ Avoid chasing every marketing trend✅ Keep emotional connection at the heart of your strategy
Pro Tip: “A brand isn’t about adding more—it’s about staying true to your why.”
🧵 Further Reading
🌐 Authoritative External Links
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📝 About the Author
Jörn “Joe” Menninger is the founder and host of Startuprad.io — one of Europe’s top startup podcasts. Joe's work is featured in Forbes, Tech.eu, and more. He brings 15+ years of expertise in consulting, strategy, and startup scouting.
✅ FAQs
What is emotional branding in startups?
Emotional branding appeals to customer emotions, creating trust and loyalty beyond metrics.
Why do startups fail at branding?
Founders often neglect storytelling and emotional connection, focusing only on product.
How can startups do branding with no budget?
Focus on authentic storytelling and internal team alignment rather than expensive visuals.
What’s the difference between B2B, B2C, and H2H branding?
B2B/B2C target markets; H2H focuses on human emotional connections for all relationships.
How does internal branding affect startup success?
It ensures teams live the brand, making external efforts more authentic and effective.
Can emotional branding help with investor trust?
Yes, investors often feel brand trust before analyzing metrics, aiding funding rounds.
Is emotional branding important in the DACH startup scene?
Absolutely. German, Austrian, and Swiss consumers value authentic, emotional connections.
How can startups stay authentic while scaling?
Stick to core values, avoid trend-chasing, and focus on consistent storytelling.
What are examples of successful emotional branding?
Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign turned products into a cultural movement.
Does emotional branding apply to tech startups?
Yes, it humanizes complex tech products, improving adoption and loyalty.
Give us Feedback!
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The Host & Guest
The host in this interview is Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. And guest is Jakob Trpin, branding specialist and Founder of Yesyesandtwo . Reach out to them:
📅 Automated Transcript
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:00:00]:
How the brand is felt, how we feel as me part of like consumer group, how do we feel? How do we see brands? For example, if the message does not come to us and we cannot adjust process them, we will not like react to the brand. We will not react to the loudness, rather like how we feel.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:00:30]:
Welcome to Star Startuprad IO, your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with news, interviews and live events. Hello and welcome everybody. This is Joe from Startuprad IO, your startup podcast and YouTube blog from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Today I have Jacob with me. What if your startup's most powerful growth engine isn't your tech pitch deck or GTM strategy, but how your brand makes people feel? On today's startup Rate IO we sit together down with Jacob Turpin. Turpin, is that pronounced right? 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. Jacob is the founder of Creative Brand Agency yes, yes and 2. His work has directly or indirectly influenced a range of international brands including Audi, Belvis, Chocolate, the European Commission, Fight World chess, Husqvar motorcycles, ICOs, KTM, Loki, Marvel, Mattel Notepad, Pernod Ricard, Red Bull, Rima Cars, Salzburger Land, Sebastian Professional, United Colors of Benetton and many more.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:02:05]:
Jacob 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 a significant role in a startup success, why it matters, and how we're connecting to brands in today's world. With over 18 years of experience in branding, marketing, advertising and design, Jacobs 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 H human to human. We unpack the emotional language that customers feel but can't describe how to brand authentically from day one even with no budget. What do startup teams often get wrong about culture, storytelling and the story behind their own product or mission? Why Investor feel Brands before you fund your round, if 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. Jacob, that was quite long intro. Welcome to celebrate.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:03:47]:
Thank you again for giving me this opportunity. Thank you for a really nice introduction. I felt like a prima donna somehow.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:04:01]:
Jacob, you believe startups don't win by just being louder, but by being felt in every aspect. What led you to this perspective?
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:04:12]:
Absolutely. That's good question that I was trying to reach out, trying to understand through my journey of educational and experimental how brands are extroverted create intra volatile message that we try to position as a brand wants to hits the emotional tones. When the brand hits the emotional tones, we are rather talking about how the brand is making us feel rather like what is loud? Because I do believe that loud does not coming from having just like colors, logo types and different messages painted on the wall or in the cities, but rather like how we feel about the brand. And by that I think that I came to a conclusion that it's more important for us consumers than brands and we feel the brands rather like that they're allowed.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:05:09]:
So 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. You talk about invisible language, invisible branding here. Can you unpack what it means for early stage founders?
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:05:30]:
When it comes to invisible languages we usually perceived 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. Then we have the most necessary component like for success, like to be trust to be trusted from like consumers, as like partners, communication always. And the third one, the third part of the invisible brand is definitely human to human direction because it's coming more from biological aspect, how 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. So I would say that emotional part, trust and human to human interaction, these are the core of foundation of the invisible branding.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:06:39]:
So you talk about what you feel when you see, when you experience branding. I was wondering the first mistake, what, what's the branding trap every startup falls.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:06:54]:
Into early on I would definitely say that the first trap that many of startups dive in is they are all the best in what they do. They are all the best how they are polarizing and creating the product, the service they would like to push on the market. And then at some point they neglect the brand aspect, they neglect to the storytelling, they neglect how convey the message, the product, the service that they would like to position on the market, actually deliver to the consumer, to the end users. And this is something that it's as a startups they could Start not just working on the logo type, but rather like to starting with the storytelling to be authentically different from the other brands. And this would help them in order like to be a little bit different and not fall into this trap.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:08:01]:
You talked about in the past. Internal first, how does internal branding drive external impact? And the other way around.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:08:16]:
As we talk about internal branding, it's always what team do we have around us, what kind of people and who are helping us to develop the branding, to push the branding out. And internal branding, it's the most important. Because if internal branding our team does not feel the brand does not live with the brand, external branding will hardly to survive in the market. Why? Because we will have to push so much effort into build the internal branding. While we will do this, we will neglect the the most important part because our competitors will already step further and to be better and better to work on external branding. And they will be able to understand the consumers better, they will be able to reach the consumer betters. So by this, if we don't have the right team, if you don't have the right homage team, how we communicate that we believe in the product that we have. External branding will be will hard to survive.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:09:28]:
Because external part is just extended hand of internal.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:09:38]:
Age to age, human to human philosophy. You reject the classical categories of B2B and B2C. Actually that also makes sense for me. Instead say it's all H to H, human to human. I have to smile thinking about that, thinking about the involvement of AI in the future. But anyways, what does this right now exactly look like?
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:10:07]:
H2H B2C. It's just another categorization. B2C business to consumers, business to business. But on the other side, behind those names are actually like human human beings who are actually feeling, who are feeling how we communicate, how we, how we propose something, how we offer, what kind of solutions do we have. So rather like to think, oh, this brand or this product goes out to certain consumers. Think about human to human, how it would be when you try to push the product to your family or to your brother, you talk to him as a person, as I as someone who actually would feel something about. Because again, in all aspects we are wired by biology from biologically spectrum. We are emotional creatures.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:11:06]:
And again like being emotional being human to human, we build trust, we build understanding. And slowly we can build something meaningful in terms of having like our group of consumers that actually believe in us in a brand.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:11:25]:
And now a very interesting aspect for me before we go into short ad break will Be for me, how do you see AI working on this in the future? Meaning from H to H to H to A, I to H.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:11:49]:
That's a nice question. And of course there will be like so many benefits. But on the other hand we will still missing the humor intersection interfering. Because in the end it's not just about the emotion which AI can still not like reach them or like to give you the perfect answer, but rather like to to be understood, to be felt like the warmest of people. You know, like when someone looks into your eyes and say like, okay, I understand you, like I have you. And by this AI is like a fantastic tool that will help like even the branding will like escalate. But in terms of we are not there yet, that would be replacing this human to human connection because sometimes we might also do a mistake to leave some aspects too far away from us.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:12:57]:
Guys, we'll be back after a very short ad break. Jacob, you're doing much better. Guys, welcome back. Thank you for sticking with us. This is Joe talking to Jacob about screw forgetting B2B branding, B2C branding. It's all human to human, even though we're not really sure yet how the AI will get involved into that. Let's talk a little bit about the investor lens here. What does emotional branding mean for an from an investor's perspective and how do they usually react to it? How does it show up in the pitch rooms?
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:13:43]:
Also in this matter, I do believe that investors as they are just like humans on the other spectrum with whom we are communicate, they are looking for a brand, product, service which are trustworthy. Meaning that like the first front battle that they come across to is the person that who is representing the brand, who is representing the company. And investors are also keen to understand them, where they are coming from, how they are wired. Because in the end, like financially support is important and based on trust and how the trust is connected to the CEO, to the inventor, to the startup and what kind of product do or they want to position out. So I believe that like emotional branding, when it comes to these certain matters, it's also about the trust. The trust is the first like fence that it has to be crossed into order to reach hands and say like, hey, I trust you, I know that you will deliver, I know that you will do good. So I have trust in you that you will be able to pull and to do what you said. What is your pitch desk?
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:15:03]:
I see. I was wondering because we usually our audience is more in the serious C stage, meaning companies of 500 plus employees thinking about doing M and A, that that's really something big there. And I was wondering this scale dissonance as startups grow, how can their brand stay authentic and what does it mean emotionally for the team and their audiences?
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:15:42]:
This is the one big of a challenge because somehow we live in a huge fast paced world based market that we would always like to position something new. But in the branding is just the opposite. When the brand escalates, when the startup like grows, they usually neglect one important thing. They do not need to change their story, they do not need to add more elements to the brand. But rather like keep them simple, keep them as it was at the beginning. Because that will also lead to authenticity. Like how authentic they are. Because authentic comes like not to be a copycat, but rather like I will go my own line, I will do my own visual presentation, I will have like my own branding, I will have like my, my stories.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:16:32]:
When it comes to brands and startups are growing, usually they neglect to the fact that they need to, to stay authentic, to stay authentic by saying the same story as they did like at the beginning. Because otherwise they are just getting too much noise. When they are adding new components because of the marketing trends, because of the marketing speed, when they're adding new components as like new slogan, new keywords, new words, new messages, everything start just like to blur away which is not authentic anymore because it's far from what they've been at the beginning.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:17:18]:
So should they stick with what they've been in the beginning or should they start to adapt to the new reality? Most, most people will, will listen to this. I have to give them some commentary. He really had to think and look up in.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:17:42]:
You know, it's, it's like you have to be flexible enough to stay authentically the same as you were at the beginning. Because for example, I will give you like really good example. Like be authentic. Like when you slide through the media I see like, like I will give you like a really analogy which is of, of from the branding but has a good meaning. When you see a person who is doing something in the gym, you see how well built he is. You will not you say like I would like to be that person, but you are not becoming that person right away. So this means that like if you are adapting too much on the trends on the current setting on the market, you will also lose your path from who you were and how you would like to communicate your brand. Because brand is not like you need to change.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:18:34]:
You need to always constantly adding something the Brand is also stay consistent, be present, be yourself, be authentic. And that's how you will build the trust. And trust is an emotional thing which comes from biological aspect. And we are basically all wired emotionally. I mean we have like 5, 7 basic emotions. Then we have like 25, 27 like the rough one and 100 plus emotion components which are adding. So we are not like reasonable creature, we are like emotional. So the trust is like one thing that it's like again human to human communication.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:19:13]:
And again like to go a little bit deeper to the question you asked how to stay authentic or should the brand change to the current trends or to the current settings, I would say yes. They need to be flexible enough, but not too much because they will lose their own personality.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:19:35]:
If I would wrap up. No, no, we're not at the end would I wrap up? Have to wrap up everything you said in one sentence, guys, you're doing marketing for people and not Vulcans.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:19:50]:
To wrap up would be definitely the brand.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:19:53]:
What happens when startups external brand is stronger than its internal one. And how do consumers resonate with that?
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:20:01]:
Resonates? Consumers resonates with external branding by trust, by believing in branding. It's one amazing study among many of them. Humanizing brands. Humanizing brands that the same brain area activates as we would talk to a close person. So meaning that external brand, external branding consumers are also feeling betrayed at some point if external branding is not orchestrated good or internal branding is not like polished good. So meaning when consumers come across to several brands or like communication points, they might feel rejected, they might felt insulted or they might felt also like betrayal because the brand did not fulfill one of their needs. This could be like when they reached customer service and they had to wait for like half an hour or like the customer service person was a little bit rude because that's a human too on the other hand, and he had like a bad day and he replied really, I don't know, too emotional. And the consumer felt like betrayal because the brand did not fulfill one of the needs.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:21:31]:
And external brand thing is one of the crucial point when it comes to communication. Because everything is based on trust. And when the trust is there, we are emotionally open to accept new things, to accept the brand, to be part of the brand. But when something does not go along, of course we pull back a little bit, we are not interested anymore. Or in the worst case scenario we go to other brands. But this everything could be prevented if at the beginning startups would pour much more time into it to to build this warmth through Human communication consume.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:22:26]:
You have been talking about biological branding activating certain areas of the brain, certain regions, how branding activates brain regions and what's happening from the biological aspects. What should founders learn from this?
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:22:49]:
When. When we dissect like brains, we put them into four levels. One is like spinal cord and is hind brain, midbrain, forebrain. And forebrain is like 80% of capacity that we have. And in forebrain we have also the limbic system which operates emotionally. So we have the hippocampus which is part of and in our limbic system which is in the middle of the brain works for memory, emotion. This fellow is like in the shape of seahorse and we have it like on both sides. So we, we store the memories like with emotion there.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:23:36]:
How we feel about brand, how we see and when we talk about biological aspects, we are always wired that the final decision comes from emotional part because that is how we react to certain messages or to brand or like what the brand wants to say or even to communication or like interaction between humans and biological part for startups is it's good and founders should take one message out of that. Would be good to be emotional in terms how we position the brand, how we position the messages, how we talk about the messages, how we talk about storytelling. Emotions are not always the bad things. If they use the right thing, the brand will grow because again everything leads to trust.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:24:44]:
We're getting close to the end. We're not talking a little bit about branding for movements. What is is the difference between a typical startup, a product led brand and a movement led one?
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:25:01]:
I would definitely say that movement is above everything because people are reacting, people are like emotionally. And if I can give you like an example, movement, like one example that majority of us know and we can resonate is like when the night campaign start, just do it. That was the movement. That was not just the product, that was not just the brand. That was not just something that happened, but rather like the whole movement because just do it triggered like different population to start actually doing something, to go to the gym, to have new job, to find new partner, to start a family. And that was the movement grew. And the beauty of this is that the brand still stick with this slogan because it's again built on trust. And movement is something that startups can start at the beginning of the journey because they don't talk just about the product, about the service that they are trying to provide position on the market, but rather like this product or this service will help you to live your life better or at least to have more emotional part components to it which is which is beyond just having a product or selling a product or like offering the product.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:26:38]:
We getting to last question of interview here a little bit reflections during the closing what's one belief about branding you wish every founder knew from day one.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:26:54]:
1 believe that definitely to work more on human to humor on invisible branding to have more human connection less less words, less, less tags but rather like brand can be extremely impactful if there's a true connection if there's something meaningful and how to reach the consumers.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:27:27]:
Actually awesome closing words and keep in mind guys, you're not doing branding for robots or Vulcans. Just realized a lot of people who don't know Star Trek wouldn't know what a Vulcan is. Mr. Spock Emotionless, you're making marketing for people humans and you should touch them at an emotional place. Would that be about right?
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:27:53]:
Jacob I I would agree 100%. We are talking about human beings. We are talking about people and in this area this is the fantastic opportunity because I know that startups, I know all the CEOs investors have a fantastic products that are worth to see the the daylight and sometimes the PT is because they don't know how to reach the consumers with an awesome product or they are using the wrong words or they are using the wrong aspects and this could be done internally in the team. Be authentic and talk humans. That's how the beliefs start.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:28:44]:
Talk to humans I think. Very, very good last sentence. Jacob, thank you very much. Was a pleasure having you as guest.
Jakob Trpin | Branding Specialist & Founder | Yesyesandtwo - Agency [00:28:53]:
Thank you very much. Was really nice to talk with you and I wish you all the best. Thank you.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:28:58]:
Thank you. Same here. Bye bye. That's all folks. Find more news, streams, events and interviews@www.startuprad.IO. remember, Sharing is caring.
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