Brand Naming – 5 Tips

The name is the brand trigger. When it is said or read or thought, all the impressions, experiences and promises of the brand are brought to mind.

Creating a new brand name, whether is a new company or a new product line, is an opportunity to take a deep breath, take stock of who you are and where you’re headed, figure out what new things you need to add to the marketing mix, and what baggage you may be ready to leave behind.

The following key attributes should be present in every company name:

Position the company/product within the markets it serves.
Attract customers and prospects, usually by stating a benefit, specific or implied.
Be memorable
Be easily pronounced
Have positive verbal associations and connotations.
Be unique, not at all like competitor names.
Be protectable.

Next is a list with some five things to be considered when you start naming a new company, product or service:

1. Determine How Important the Name Really Is

Having a clever name isn’t always important. Many companies thrive in industries that are based on government contracts, bidding wars, business friendships, etc., and their name is often just a unique identifier to be placed on legal paperwork.

For most companies, however, their name can be an integral part of their marketing process. A clever, memorable name can make a potential client think about the company for a few extra moments, which may be all you need to get the edge on your competitors.

2. Stand Out…

The most common mistake made when naming a new business endeavor is to make it sound like the others in that industry. This is based on anxiety about whether the new business will be taken seriously. In reality, it’s critical that you stand apart from your competition, and that you look to your competitors as examples of what to avoid.

There are literally 30 or 40 wireless companies called Mobile-something — Mobileum, Mobilocity, MobileOne. Make a rule and don’t pick a name with ‘mobile’ in it, if you name a wireless company.

3. …but don’t get carried away.

A name that doesn’t mean anything, or it has no depth won’t work ussualy. A name should connect with something already in the collective subconscious. Don’t forget, you’re trying to make an emotional connection.

4. Test your tolerance for going ‘out of the box.’

If you’re looking for something unusual, usually when it comes down to it, the obstacle is always fear. Make sure that the fears aren’t based on what happens to brands out in the world. It’s like Banana Republic. People don’t see the name and think, ‘Whoa, an ugly racial slur — I’m not going to shop there.’ It’s all contextual.”

5. Don’t involve too many people

Most corporations have no problem delegating marketing and advertising issues to the marketing department, but when naming is involved, especially naming the company itself or key products, suddenly everyone wants to have a say in the process, and it can quickly become politically and emotionally charged. Therefore, it is essential that you keep the number of people involved in a naming project to a minimum, that they have real authority, and that they all understand the ideas outlined above.

Posted on November 3, 2005 by Daniel 1

Chinese Brands Going Global

While many companies outside of China contemplate the riches to be made, they must be aware of the increasing competition originating from that country into global markets.

This is the caption phrase of a recently released Interbrand white paper on The Strategy for Chinese Brands.

This paper, the first in a series of two, examines this “Chinese Brand Strategy,” current perception issues, lessons from the best global brands, and the impact of leading Chinese brands. A second paper will examine Chinese what brands must do to be globally successful and how entrenched players must respond to the increasing competition.

Many Chinese brands, says the study, are quickly embracing practices common for the best global brands:

Recognition

Well-performing brands enjoy strong awareness among consumers and opinion leaders. These brands lead their industry or industries. This type of recognition represents the nexus of perception and reality, enabling brands to rapidly establish credibility in new markets.

Consistency

These brands achieve a high degree of consistency in visual, verbal, sonic and tactile identity across geographies. They deliver a consistent customer experience worldwide, often supported by an integrated global marketing effort.

Emotion

A brand is not a brand unless it competes along emotional dimensions. It must symbolize a promis that people believe can be delivered and one they desire to be part of. Through emotion, brands can achieve the loyalty of consumers by tapping into human values and aspirations that cut across cultural differences.

Uniqueness

Great brands represent great ideas. These brands express a unique position to all internal and external audiences. They effectively use all elements in the communications mix to position within and across international markets.

Adaptability

Global brands must respect local needs, wants and tastes. These brands adapt to the local marketplace while fulfilling a global mission.

Management

The organization’s senior leadership must champion the brand, ideally with the CEO leading the initiative. A leader’s continual articulation of the brand philosophy and the brand’s view of the world is meant to give the business strategy a recognizable face. The commitment is crucial, allowing for a unique positioning that transcends local idiosyncrasies and appeals to a universal aspect of human nature and experience.

Get the full report from Bnet

Posted on November 1, 2005 by Daniel

Destination Branding

Although the concept of branding has been applied extensively to products and services, tourism destination branding is a relatively recent phenomenon. In particular, destination branding remains narrowly defined to many practitioners in destination management organizations and is not well represented neither in branding or the tourism literature.

Communities, cities, and states all compete in the world of everything — commerce, tax bases, cultural riches, hometown intellects, the creative class, and happy folks using it all. It’s the fuel to keep geographic areas going and growing.

It also brews healthy combat zones, the seduction of buyers to destinations. For business or pleasure, the game is called branding. As in, regional branding.

For decades, this practice has existed, but more recently it’s become in business vogue — and a powerful economic advantage.

As people and companies decide where to plop down their roots and cash, just like with any other buying decision, they need to feel the emotional connection to their needs and the earned trust to reduce their fears.

Destination branding is about:

clearly defining a purpose
distinct
consistently communicating a persona
delivering on a promise

Here is an interesting reading material on the subject from the online edition of Business Week magazine giving an overview on How States Project a Come-Hither Look, listing some of the strategies US states approached the subject, from logos, slogans, flags all the way to the licence plates.

Posted on November 1, 2005 by Daniel

Extending and Stretching Your Brand

Brand extension is “the application of a brand beyond its initial range of products, or outside of its category. This becomes possible when the brand image and attributes have contributed to a perception with the consumer/user where the brand and not the product is the decision driver”.

Brands exist for the long-term. They establish trust in consumers’ minds. They are a company’s most valuable assets and they should be treated very carefully. Every change to the brand should be viewed in terms of its long-term impact on consumers.

Marketers have long recognised that strong brand names that deliver higher sales and profits (i.e. those that have brand equity) have the potential to work their magic on other products.

The two options for doing this are usually called “brand extension” and “brand stretching”.

Brand extension

Brand extension refers to the use of a successful brand name to launch a new or modified product in a same broad market.

A successful brand helps a company enter new product categories more easily.

For example, Fairy (owned by Unilever) was extended from a washing up liquid brand to become a washing powder brand too.

The Lucozade brand has undergone a very successful brand extension from children’s health drink to an energy drink and sports drink.

Brand stretching

Brand stretching refers to the use of an established brand name for products in unrelated markets.

For example the move by Yamaha (originally a Japanese manufacturer of motorbikes) into branded hi-fi equipment, pianos and sports equipment.

When done successfully, brand extension can have several advantages:

Distributors may perceive there is less risk with a new product if it carries a familiar brand name. If a new food product carries the Heinz brand, it is likely that customers will buy it
Customers will associate the quality of the established brand name with the new product. They will be more likely to trust the new product.
The new product will attract quicker customer awareness and willingness to trial or sample the product
Promotional launch costs (particularly advertising) are likely to be substantially lower.

Read more on the subject, from Amazon.com:

Brand Extensions: Keys to success in international marketing

Brand Stretch: Why 1 in 2 extensions fail, and how to beat the odds: A brandgym workout

Posted on November 1, 2005 by Daniel

Top 25 Branding Blogs – According to Technorati

Following the example of Media Orchart blog which compiled a list of top 25 blogs tagged Public Relations in Technorati blog search engine, I did the same, getting a list of top 25 linked blogs tagged with branding.

Before the list itself, is worth mentioning that the list is problematic, in terms of there might be some blogs that are not exclusively discussing branding subjects (it all depends on the blog authors tagging their blogs with the term) on one hand or some others that are more visible branding blogs that are not present in the top (as their authors never signed up with technorati), on the other hand.

All in all, it is an interesting list of blogs, if you’re looking for more information or resources on the matter.
1. gapingvoid
2. Johnnie Moore’s Weblog
3. Thinking by Peter Davidson
4. The Social Customer Manifesto
5. Media Culpa
6. everyhuman
7. Influx
8. superchefblog
9. Piaras Kelly PR
10. IF
11. Advertising/Design Goodness
12. Emergence Marketing
13. Brand Infection
14. Cherryflava
15. 360east
16. brandXpress Blog
17. Jane Genova: Speechwriter Ghostwriter
18. Media Orchard
19. Jefte.net
20. Marketing Usabile
21. Shotgun Marketing Blog
22. Casual Fridays
23. My Name is Kate
24. The Brand Builder Blog
25 Day Care For Your Brain

Posted on October 26, 2005 by Daniel

More on Brand Loyalty

I had here earlier an article on brand loyalty and why brand loyalty is the ultimate goal a company sets for a branded product, on main reasons why brand loyalty is important and some action-steps to take in order to turn repeatead customers into brand-loyal customers.

Meanwhile I just find an interesting post on The Diva Marketing Blog, on the subject, which quoting Don Schultz, professor at Northwestern University and president of Agora Inc, lists several reasons why consumers are brand loyal, even though I would call them repeated customers in these cases:

The product is the only one available – such as in a monopoly marketplace situation
Consumer inertia – repetitive consumer behavior and the path of least resistance
Indifference – all available brands are considered alike, cost the same, are a commodity product
Customer satisfaction – customer believes there is good price/value relationship and the product or service is consistent over time
Brands are a badge of honor or identifier – customers want to be affiliated with the brand. Those reasons may range from ego to self confidence to being a member of a special group. Harley-Davdison is a great example. How many other brands do you know of where customers actually have a brand logo tattooed on their bodies?

My view is that brand loyalty doesn’t exist for many products and services, and is declining for those who have a modicum of it, because the marketing organization and the brand are not loyal to the customer. Brand loyalty is a reciprocal process, with both buyer and seller getting what they want.

The article is ending up with a question to consider if you have, or are thinking about developing a loyalty program:

Can you keep your promises? And what happens when you can’t?

Well I totally agree with that, with the the mention that branding is making promises and keeping them in the first place, and this question has its place before even starting your business or branding campaign.

Read full Brand Loyalty is a Two Way Street article.

Tag: Brand Loyalty

Posted on October 26, 2005 by Daniel

Brands and Blogs

The New York Times has an article on the emergence of blogs dedicated to the discussion of individual brands

As the number of blogs has grown, more consumers are keeping Web diaries dedicated exclusively to their favorite brands. While most of them are written without the consent of the companies that own the brands, some companies are starting to pay attention to blogs, using them as a kind of informal network of consumer opinion.

For these bloggers, intertwining their personal stories and commentaries gives them a stake in defining the brand’s image while linking them with fans of similar mind across the country.

They feel like they own the brand, that it’s theirs, Jackie Huba, author of the book Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force said of the bloggers. They feel they’re doing the world a service, she said.

For readers, these blogs, help them make decisions about what to buy. And according to a survey released this spring by Yankelovich, a marketing firm based in Chapel Hill, N.C., a third of all consumers would prefer to receive product information from friends and specialists rather than from advertising.

The brand blogs also give consumers information that companies do not necessarily publicize on their Web sites.

Steve Rubel, of New York, whose blog Micro Persuasion, follows the impact of blogs on public relations, argues that companies should embrace the in-depth customer feedback the blogs offer.

It’s a 24/7 focus group that’s transparent and out in the open,[…] the opportunity here is for companies to find their brand ambassadors.

Read the full NYTimes article: Brand Blogs Capture the Attention of Some Companies

Posted on October 25, 2005 by Daniel

5 Benefits of Branding

Almost every business has a trading name, from the smallest market trader to the largest multi-national corporation. Only a minority of those businesses however, have what could be classed as a brand.

Branding is the process of creating distinctive and durable perceptions in the minds of consumers. A brand is a persistent, unique business identity intertwined with associations of personality, quality, origin, liking and more.

Although most people associate brands with big companies, the smallest of enterprises can use branding techniques with great rewards.

Recognition and Loyalty

The main benefit of branding is that customers are much more likely to remember your business. A strong brand name and logo/image helps to keep your company image in the mind of your potential customers.

If your business sells products that are often bought on impulse, a customer recognising your brand could mean the difference between no-sale and a sale. Even if the customer was not aware that you sell a particular product, if they trust your brand, they are likely to trust you with unfamiliar products. If a customer is happy with your products or services, a brand helps to build customer loyalty across your business.

Image of Size

A strong brand will project an image of a large and established business to your potential customers. People usually associate branding with larger businesses that have the money to spend on advertising and promotion. If you can create effective branding, then it can make your business appear to be much bigger than it really is.

An image of size and establishment can be especially important when a customer wants reassurance that you will still be around in a few years time.

Image of Quality

A strong brand projects an image of quality in your business, many people see the brand as a part of a product or service that helps to show its quality and value.

It is commonly said that if you show a person two identical products, only one of which is branded; they will almost always believe the branded item is higher quality.

If you can create effective branding, then over time the image of quality in your business will usually go up. Of course, branding cannot replace good quality, and bad publicity will damage a brand (and your businesses image), especially if it continues over a long period of time.

Image of Experience and Reliability

A strong brand creates an image of an established business that has been around for long enough to become well known. A branded business is more likely to be seen as experienced in their products or services, and will generally be seen as more reliable and trustworthy than an unbranded business.

Most people will believe that a business would be hesitant to put their brand name on something that was of poor quality.

Multiple Products

If your business has a strong brand, it allows you to link together several different products or ranges. You can put your brand name on every product or service you sell, meaning that customers for one product will be more likely to buy another product from you.

Branding, Online Ad’s Goal

PointRoll Inc., a leader in rich media technology and service, today announced the results of its first annual survey of creative online advertising professionals. Respondents from leading agencies worldwide detailed market trends, challenges and opportunities, illustrating a significant shift in the goals and measurement of online ads.

Key findings of the survey include:

Branding is the most important consideration for online ads, with 70 percent of respondents identifying it as the “most important” or “second most important” goal.
Interaction rate is the most important measurement of rich media performance. 53 percent of participants indicated that the best way to judge an ad is to measure the percent of users that interact with the unit.
Video is gaining ground. 79 percent of those surveyed have included video when creating rich media ads, which PointRoll’s metrics demonstrate boosts time-on-brand +16% versus the overall PointRoll average. 53 percent of participants think video should be 15 seconds or less, and many noted an increase in video created specifically for online use.

Tag: Online Advertising

Posted on October 21, 2005 by Daniel

5 Components of a Brand Promise

Brands are so much a part of our lives that we forget how much we depend on them. We use brands as shorthand to make our trips to the grocery store easier; we use brands to reassure us about our purchasing decisions; we even use brands to define ourselves in society.

A brand is a promise. A kept promise. With a brand, you set customer expectations. When someone buys your product or service, they count on those expectations to be fulfilled.

The components of your brand promise are based on:

Consistency of experience.

This is the absolute critical component in building a brand. Whether I go into a McDonald’s in Boise or Beijing, I expect my french fries to taste the same, and I expect to see those golden arches.

Consistent look-and-feel.

At the most basic level, to build a brand you must develop a strong brand image. You know you are in a Starbucks even if you don’t see the name over the door. Consistent look-and-feel extends to your logo, colors, typefaces, decor, employee clothing, and more.

Consistent quality.

It’s not enough to deliver a consistent experience to your customer. The experience must also be of a certain level of quality. McDonald’s french fries don’t have to be the best french fries in the world, but they have to be good french fries and they have to be fresh every time.

Distinct competitive position.

A brand must stand for something and differentiate you from the competition. Three strong brands of superstores have very different competitive positions: Wal-Mart, low prices; Target, hip discount. These positions make it easy for a consumer to choose the brand that suits them.

Repeated exposure.

To remember your brand, customers must hear it or see it over and over. Of course, building brand awareness takes money, and that’s a challenge if you are a small company. The key is to clearly and narrowly define your target market. Then, make sure those potential customers see you many times by repeatedly advertising in the same publications and attending the same networking events.

Posted on October 21, 2005 by Daniel