I would say it's the other way around. For all my products I first started building a brand (albeit passively by just posting blogs and on social media) and only after noticing interest/visitors/following/requests/emails/dm's I started thinking about making products (mostly books, but I also offered services in the past) I could sell to this audience and other interested people.
I would find it really hard to first build and then later working on the branding.
I would say it's the other way around. For all my products I first started building a brand (albeit passively by just posting blogs and on social media) and only after noticing interest/visitors/following/requests/emails/dm's I started thinking about making products (mostly books, but I also offered services in the past) I could sell to this audience and other interested people.
I would find it really hard to first build and then later working on the branding.
Not really sure if this answers your question.
It sure does does help getting a feeling of what others think of it. And it totally makes sense in the starting phase of a product.