It's time for Adyen to take a brand stand

Tulips, funny hats, Stroopwafels.

Though memorable and endearing, those are likely the last things that Adyen wants to portray about its business. Yet pubs from FT to Bloomberg to PYMNTS keep mucking-up who and what Adyen is, even with a very nifty IPO under its belt. Some banally say that Adyen is a Dutch payments company while others add European. After that the hodge-podge of descriptors run in a tizzy of directions and to nowhere in particular: "payments platform," "financial technology company," "a processor of payments," and so on. Scroll through Adyen's own press releases these last few years and it's fair to say they're also searching for what describes Adyen best.

Does it matter?

Nation or place branding and conveying the gist, that Adyen does something or the other with payments, is a huge score and not something to overly downplay. Plus, we get it, you can easily fall in love with the flexibility of saying that you are all things to everyone. Adyen is a platform, after all. But Adyen is also hoping to be something still bigger, notwithstanding its listing in Amsterdam, and better understood. Here the lack of a defined business brand in the eyes of their press and others will only contain Adyen's value and valuation over time. In choosing a clearer identity, Adyen will bring forth more ideal customers and commercial prospects and less distractions.

Adyen doesn't have too far to look. They already call themselves "the payments platform of choice for many of the world's leading companies." I'd suggest they use this ambitious goal to fill their brand identity gaps. While you may not truly own your brand (your stakeholders do), you sure can and should steward it. There's no time like the present; after all, the name Adyen is Surinamese for "start over again."

*In 2014, I represented Adyen and helped to position the company. It's  been wonderful watching their meteoric rise.