How to name and brand a business correctly and fruitfully
How to name and brand a business correctly and fruitfully
In most jurisdictions, it is a legal requirement for all businesses to have a name. When you have chosen an appropriate structure for your business, it is necessary to give the company a unique name and other identifying marks like a logo. Naming a company starts branding, as naming something amounts to branding. A business name, brand and branding are aspects that form the identity of every business. Below are brief explanations of what a company name, a brand, and the term branding are.
Name
A name is a unique identity or title of a company like Toyota Motor Corporation. A name gives a company a separate identity from that of the owner. A title is the business's identity and is, therefore, an important marketing tool. If possible, a name should, where appropriate, portray what the company does. It is better when customers can guess what the company does from its name because this knowledge can attract them to go there and interact with the company without doing more research. Burger King, for example, tells you right away that it is the king of burgers. There can be circumstances or reasons when a name should not suggest what the company does. For example, a company may not want a name that indicates its business for security or legal purposes or to enigma the company to arouse curiosity on the part of the customers.
A good name can create first impression benefits and open doors. A bad name can close doors. A good name should have the following characteristics:
- A name should project the product's promises, qualities, benefits and the job it will do for the customer. When a business name is said, read, or thought about, it should bring to mind all the positive impressions, experiences, and guarantees the company provides through its products. The positive impressions come from connecting the name with the benefits or the job the product will do for the customer during marketing.
- For a name to be successful, it should be creative and catchy and project a degree of seriousness and class.
- It should also fit the company's products or service lines.
- A business name is used every day in print and conversation. Therefore, the title should be memorable, unique, short, and easy to spell, remember, and pronounce, such as Google. The name Lomax or Jambojet is easy to say, write and brand.
- It should be extendable. Remember, you may need to tweak the name to fit a web domain URL at one point.
- It should be easily convertible into foreign languages, and after conversion, it should not portray negative connotations in those languages.
- It should be capable of legal protection and registration.
- It should suggest a product or service category- for example, Daily News or Newsweek.
Formation of a business, whether a sole proprietorship, partnership or company, starts with registering a name and other identification details. Registration is necessary so that no other firm can use the same name. Registration of a business name and company formation is a straightforward exercise that involves simple steps outlined in each country's business and company laws, regulations and guidelines. If your business idea is exclusive, original and unique, you must protect it from being used by anyone other than you by registering a patent.
A complete identity of a company should include the following marks, signs and information:
- The name.
- Logo and brand name or symbol: This is a name, symbol, or sign that can appear on packages of all products of the business together with the name of the manufacturer of the product, the logo of the company, in addition to a symbol like an orange, tomato or pepper image depicting the nature of the product in the package.
- Colour schemes: Font (letter styles) and background colour schemes form the identity.
- Tagline: These short and catchy words placed beneath the logo or the name portray a philosophy or a promise. A central bank, which has a mandate of keeping inflation in check, might have a tagline like- protecting the value of your money.
- Contacts: These include mailing and physical address, telephone, email, a website domain, and social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.).
- A company should have tax and other identification numbers to register the business for statutory collections and levies.
- A Bank account.
You will need some of the details above to register a company name.
A brand
A brand is a unique identity, like a name and other identifying marks, and usually has a positive reputation in the eyes of consumers. A brand is typically the name of a company's product. To continue the above example, Toyota Motor Corporation is the name of the company that makes cars, and Toyota's type of car produced by Toyota Motor Corporation is a brand. A company can have only one unique name but several product brands. Toyota company, for example, has many brands like Toyota Premio, Prado, Landcruiser, etc. The word brand has other connotations also. When people say this is a branded product, they mean a well-known, well-liked product that works well and is durable. A brand product could also mean a product made from its original ingredients instead of an imitation or a generic. Sometimes, the product's brand name can also be the company's—for example, Michelin Company and Michelin Tires or Nike Inc. and Nike shoes.
A brand can acquire a positive reputation where people come to trust and want to buy it over other similar products. The factors that give a product a positive reputation are features and benefits. Features include design, specified functionality, range of models, brand name, performance, reliability, quality, consistency, colour, smell, touch and feel, safety, packaging, appeal, availability, delivery, payment terms and methods. The benefits of a product include saving time and money, reducing worry, getting rid of a problem or doing a job, enhancing status, offering after-sale service, ease of use, portability, durability, etc. Other benefits include acquiring wealth, power, influence, fame, relationships, knowledge and information, security and defence, entertainment and pleasurable experiences. People often buy the feelings they get from owning a product in addition to its features and benefits. A likeable brand name also enhances the image and likability of a brand and even the company.
Over time, customer satisfaction from owning and using a product gives the product what people call a brand status. The Google Browser is an example of a product with brand status. Because of the strong brand, internet browsers call the activity googling even when using other browsers like Bing. The positive reputation of a product can rub on the company, such that the product and the company become synonymous. You mention the product, and the company's name comes to mind or vice versa.
Branding
Branding is creating a character and different features for the business and its products, burning or stamping these on the products, and engaging in marketing activities to popularize the company and its products. You then describe it against comparable products or services by extolling its superior qualities and benefits or what unique problems the product will solve in the market. When marketing a product, you must explain and connect these features to the benefits the components will give the customer. Whereas features may appeal to buyers, customers buy the product benefits or the job the product will do for them. Branding involves creating a product with helpful, unique features and benefits and extolling these when performing marketing activities and connecting the benefits to the product's brand name. People often buy the feelings they get from owning a product. So you should, when marketing your product, identify the emotions surrounding your goods and services and sell those feelings to the customers.
Branding can be in two phases: creating the identity and promoting (projecting) it to the potential customer. Creating an identity can be a one-off exercise, but promoting the brand is continuous. Let us now look at the two phases of branding.
1. Creating an identity
An identity is a unique name and marks like a logo and a tagline that distinguish the company from another. To create a unique and attractive identity, consider all the details described above when forming the company and later when you want to reform it. Although a logo is optional, it is integral to a company's name and merits a paragraph or two to explain it.
Logo
In addition to the company's name, it is helpful to have a logo and combine the name and logo to become either the logo or the title. A logo is a sign or combination of characters to form a symbol or emblem which customers can associate with a company and its product or service. It is primarily an extension of the name, and the business's name can be part of the logo. The logo, name and background colours should form one image to give the company a unique identity. The logo, name and the chosen background colours usually go together. This image of the logo, name, and background colours should be displayed together when using the business logo and name.
Look at how reputable companies display their logo, name, and colours. For example, Burger King and McDonald's of USA or Diamond Trust Bank of Kenya combine the names, logos, and background colours. Burger King's logo incorporates the company's name, design, letters, and background colours. A company must have a name, but having a logo is optional. However, the logo's presence creates consumer awareness and the identity of the enterprise's products or services. Maintaining the consistency of the product's quality and performance makes customers see the logo as a sign of quality, trust, and reliability. To create and keep this image, the logo's colours and shape and the business' name should be consistent wherever they appear.
For a logo to be an effective marketing tool, it should convey and represent a promise of something good behind it. These can be product features and benefits that include quality, reliability, consistency, durability, credibility, professionalism, and competitiveness in price or a combination of some or all of these. Relevant authorities must register the logo and the company's name for your exclusive use, and it is best if you register the name and the logo together.
2. Projecting the identity
Later on, once the business is operating, it will be necessary to promote its identity as a marketing strategy. This phase involves performing marketing activities that establish a connection in the eyes of the consumers between a thing that identifies the product, such as a logo, the business's name, or the product's name and the product's benefits that consumers have come to appreciate. The first projection action is to reflect all the above identity marks on all stationery. The symbols include letterheads, quotation forms, invoices, credit notes, delivery notes, receipts, application forms, envelopes, complimentary slips, writing note pads, packaging materials, and business (calling) cards.
Other forms of identity projecting include uniforms, dress codes, displays, marketing materials, signs, and strategic places and surfaces around the premises, including walls, furniture, fittings, equipment, tools, etc. All the prints in stationery documents and other items must be consistent in font, colour, and design. Documents should carry the same business colours, signage, slogans and logo. The second part of the projection is to perform marketing activities aimed at bringing awareness to create a connection between the business's identity and its products and the features and benefits of the products so that consumers can associate the company's identity with the benefits of its products. This association would create lasting trust.
Branding aims to create a unique identity for the business beyond the name and connect that identity and the product's benefits in consumers' minds. Name, logos, and other trademarks establish the identity of the product. Quality, performance, durability, consistency of quality and performance, prestige, image, saving time and money, boosting social status, solving a problem, providing entertainment, reducing worry, etc., are benefits that give a product reputation and brand status. Consumers should connect these two aspects, i.e., the product's identity and advantages. This marketing trick creates differentiation and enduring confidence among customers.
These are excerpts from the book How To Start & Run Your Own Business in Amazon/Nuria Bookstore.