Brand Identity is of paramount importance for organizations today. Due to the advancement of technology, faster innovation, growing competition and more demanding consumers, managing a brand is becoming more and more complex. Entrepreneurs in Startups and SMEs need to have a clear branding strategy: a narrative that defines the company’s vision, inspires employees and others, and remains relevant through changes. This is hard since the branding concept has been researched from many different perspectives, which makes it foggy.
This paper aims to present an ontology that uncovers the key concepts of startup and SME brand identity, in order not only to bring some semantical clarity to the topic but also to lay the foundation for the development of a co-design tool to collaboratively inquire on brand identity in startups and SMEs.