Hi! I’m Emily Brackett, founder of Branding Compass. I developed Branding Compass after running an award-winning branding firm, Visible Logic, for more than 15 years.
I wanted to create a tool to help business owners understand branding and get a strong start to their branding, even if they only had a small budget. After years of working with startup founders and business owners, I realized that too many of them were confused and overwhelmed by branding. They knew it was important to build a strong a brand, but they often made poor decisions. I saw too many business owners rush into designing a logo or their website without being able to communicate a clear vision for their brand. They skipped over the foundational work of writing a Unique Value Proposition and being able to articulate what’s truly special about their product or service.
Branding Compass follows the same type of branding process we use with our own branding clients. It walks you through the same types of questions that an expert would ask you. It will help you define who your target customer is, understand how you are different and better than your competition, and identify your truly unique benefits. Then, you will receive recommendations that are built off of my two decades of design and marketing experience.
With your Branding Compass report in hand, you’ll be able to speak and write clearly about the benefits of your product or service to your ideal customer. You’ll get recommendations on the best colors, fonts and visuals for your branding and marketing. Use this information yourself, or turn your report over to your logo or website designer to get better results.
I encourage you to give it a try. You can walk through the entire workbook and gain so much clarity about your brand, all for free. Then, for as little as $99 you can get your personalized report.
Branding Compass News
May 2021
Branding Compass releases major upgrade
The latest version of Branding Compass has officially launched. This new version includes several upgrades, including a complete overhaul of the user interface and experience. This new release allows users to complete a more streamlined version of the online workbook, which will provide the essential branding recommendations, or they can choose to complete a more in-depth workbook that provides deeper insights and expanded recommendations. Along with other updates and optimizations, the latest Branding Compass delivers better branding recommendations and marketing guidance than ever before.
February 2020
Branding Compass receives $25k investment
Branding Compass has received a $25,000 grant from the Maine Technology Institute, an organization that supports and invests in innovative Maine companies. This is the most recent award from MTI, which has invested in Branding Compass several times throughout the years. With this grant, Branding Compass is focusing on product development and digital marketing initiatives.
November 2019
Emily Brackett: Expert on rebranding
Emily Brackett, founder or Branding Compass, is quoted several times in the November 2019 issue of Inc. magazine giving advice on how to successfully rebrand a startup and small business.
October 2019
Press Release: Branding Compass launches logo design service
Branding Compass, a web-based app that helps small businesses and startups with their branding, is now offering professionally designed wordmark logos for as little as $249. While many online logo design companies have little understanding of a customer’s business or brand, Branding Compass’ logo design service includes a robust and comprehensive brand discovery process. This ensures that each logo accurately reflects the user’s business and best attracts their ideal customer.
Qualified affiliates can earn 25% for every customer referral. Whether your a blogger, business coach, podcaster or marketing professional, you know that many small business owners struggle to define their branding. While you help your clients, you can earn money!
Press Release: Online tool provides expert branding with instant turnaround
Branding Compass joins tools like SquareSpace and MailChimp in giving small businesses more control of their marketing. Branding Compass, a web-based branding app for small businesses, has announced the launch of their fully-automated branding process. By guiding users through an insightful and self-reflective discovery process, Branding Compass instantly provides an auto-generated Unique Value Proposition and a 15+ page report that includes a Brand Alignment chart, an Ideal Customer profile and recommendations for words colors, fonts and visuals.
Founder Emily Brackett Presents at Mass Innovation Nights
Watch Branding Compass founder Emily Brackett present at Mass Innovation Nights 112 at District Hall in Boston. Emily joined several other SaaS and software product innovators to speak to local entrepreneurs and educate them about Branding Compass. Started in 2009, Mass Innovation Nights has hosted product developers who’ve collectively launched over 1,000 products, created over 600 jobs and raised $2.1 billion in funding.
Awarded $5000 TechStart Grant from Maine Technology Institute
Maine Technology Institute TechStart Grants help Maine-based startups close the funding gap that often prevents technologies and innovations from making the transition from the development phase to commercialization. Branding Compass’ TechStart Grant helped fund customer discovery research that provided clarity on our most likely customers and how they articulated their problem and solution.
October 2017
Awarded $25,000 Seed Grant from Maine Technology Institute
Branding Compass was awarded a $25,000 Seed Grant from the Maine Technology Institute, an industry-led, publicly-funded nonprofit that helps diversify and grow Maine’s economy. Based on its potential to grow and accelerate revenue and attract additional funding, Branding Compass received financing from MTI to fund a prototype that would automatically assemble branding reports based on user inputs as well as enhancing our workbook prototype.
June 2017
Founder Emily Brackett Pitches at Top Gun Finals
Designed to help people grow their business to achieve long term success, Top Gun is a business accelerator and competition run by the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs. With four locations across Maine, Top Gun attracts the state’s most talented startups, and Visible Logic was one of the companies chosen out of the Portland region to compete at the finals for a $10,000 award.
Wins Top Gun Portland Pitch Off to Go to State Final
From Maine Startups Insider — “And then there were eight. After a series of regional pitch events held this week, eight companies that participated in the Top Gun startup accelerator emerged as finalists and will compete June 7 for a $10,000 cash prize. Top Gun, the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development’s five-month startup accelerator program, included 32 companies this year spread across four regional cohorts: Portland, Bangor, Lewiston and Rockland.”
Awarded $5000 TechStart Grant from Maine Technology Institute
Branding Compass was awarded its first TechStart Grant from the Maine Technology Institute, an organization that supports Maine’s innovation economy. The grant will help fund market research to discover who finds Branding Compass valuable, what stage of business development/growth they are in and what drives their need for a brand or value proposition. With this information, Branding Compass hopes to identify their most likely customers and segments and determine the application’s potential value to each segment.
January 2017
Accepted into Top Gun 2017 Class
From Maine Startups Insider — “Top Gun, a program of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development designed to help entrepreneurs ramp up their businesses, announced today that 38 startups it’s accepted into the 2017 class. The 2017 class will be largest in the accelerator program’s eight-year history. That’s due largely to the addition of a fourth regional class. When the program began in 2009, it was based solely in Portland, which limited the accessibility for entrepreneurs in other parts of the state. Since then the program has added locations in Bangor and in Rockland. This is the first year a class will convene in Lewiston/Auburn.”