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Develop a Brand Name

Module 010 | How to Choose a Great Brand

Name

If you need to choose a great brand name for your product, service or business,
start by considering the importance of the name in your branding efforts.

Your name is an extension of your brand, and it can reinforce the value you
provide or distance you from it. When you are developing a name for a
business, a product or a service, you have a number of options:

 Use the founder or inventor’s name (Hewlett-Packard)

 Describe what you do (Southwest Airlines)
 Describe an experience or image (Sprint)
 Take a word out of context (Apple)
 Make up a word (Google)

Objectives:

1. Develop a Brand Name.

2. Understand the importance of the name in your branding efforts

How to Build a Winning Brand

Of all the startup brands, Starbucks still represents the gold standard.
Starbucks made the mundane act of buying a cup of coffee into an experience.
It did so by creating a memorable brand: a unique name and a memorable logo
that made coffee not just coffee, but a welcoming, comfortable place to go and
be seen.
The Starbucks brand created a culture. Here is a look at how yours can do the
same.
Step 1: Craft your image
Creating a brand perception requires intrusion. You are trying to position
yourself with people who do not want to change their purchasing decisions.
Your brand must be powerful enough to force them out of their routines.
It all starts with a name. With enough frequency of the message, any name can
become memorable. That could be a name that explains, like Jiffy Lube or
Toys"R"Us. Maybe it is a made-up word or obscure reference, but one with the
power to create a lasting emotional connection (think Starbucks again).
Obscure brand names are unique from their competition and often become
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among the most memorable. It could also be a family name, which implies the
person behind the brand name has a credibility to be in this business, a pride
of workmanship and a moral standard.
Your logo is just as important as your name. The logo is the first visceral
connection the consumer makes with the brand. It triggers the brand
perception. The first measure of a logo is that it answers questions: Who are
you? What do you do? What is in it for me?
There are other practical considerations in logo design:
 It must reproduce well in various sizes and media.
 It should reflect the sensibilities of the target audience.
 Its intention and message should be perfectly clear.
 It should be easily and uniquely recognizable.
At its best, a logo should convey an emotional connection as well as
personality. The cleverness in a conceptual logo should get a reaction--an
"aha!" --while conveying what you do and capturing the personality of your
business.
Step 2: Get Known
Branding happens in the minds of consumers. The promises behind the brand
create its appeal, but getting the word out is still what brings in the customers.
Traditional media exposure--advertising, promotion, trade shows, direct
marketing, events, directories and even search-engine marketing--costs
money, and most startups do not have much. Social media is a great equalizer
for the cash-strapped entrepreneur. Here are some fundamental guidelines for
building your brand online effectively using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube,
blogs and other social media outlets:
 Listen, do not just talk. The days of saying anything that comes to
mind or reporting what you are having for dinner are over. Hear the
conversation first, and then participate.
 Ask, do not tell. The goal is developing an exchange. Force your
opinion and you will end conversations before they begin.
 Be real, and have a story. Behave in the character of the brand. Give
the character depth and be genuine.
 Be interesting, and give. Add to the conversation by offering up
whatever knowledge you have.
 Be interested, and respond. Hear a person's need, and then share
expertise in a personal way that is motivated other than to help.
 Have a payoff, and say thank you. Reward your followers with
something special and exclusive. Appreciate them for following your
brand and letting you into their world.
Step 3: Know What the Customer Wants
In launching a business with limited funding, the potential for successfully
establishing a brand is far too often based on the zeal of the entrepreneur's
belief in the disruptiveness of the unique business idea rather than market
intelligence. That does not usually work.
To increase your brand's chances for success, you need to know five things:
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 How strong is the perception of your brand and what would make it
stronger?
 What is the true level of consumer satisfaction for competitor brands?
 Will your brand introduce emotional connections with consumers who
do not currently exist in the market segment?
 What percent of the market will consider change because of the
disruptiveness of your product?
 How much awareness can you gain for the brand?
The answers to those five questions will determine your chances for
successfully branding your product. There are various methods for conducting
consumer research, like focus groups and e-mail surveys that determine what
would make a consumer recommend your brand to a friend. If cost is a
crippling concern, you must at least go out into the market, observe consumer
behavior over a relevant period and keep tallies of each type of consumer
behavior.
To succeed, you need to know what is the true perception of your brand, how
many people hate it, how many it appeals to strongly enough that they would
advocate for it and how that acceptance stacks up against the competition. The
most successful companies pick a competitive position from which they know
their brands can win.
Brand Win: Go Daddy
Branding experts groan every time they see a Go Daddy Girl in a tight white
tank top appear on their TV screens, which happens between 500 and 900
times a week on cable. The company's edgy branding strategy has little to do
with the very unsexy business of domain registration and website hosting, and
Go Daddy acknowledges that its suggestive marketing alienates part of its
potential customer base.
However, it is hard to argue with the results. In 2005, the company had 16
percent of the new domain name market. After Go Daddy aired its first Super
Bowl commercial that year spoofing Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction in
the previous Super Bowl, its share jumped to 25 percent within weeks. Six
years later, Go Daddy owns more than 50 percent of the market of new domain
names, and the company is a household name--even if a big chunk of people
still does not know exactly what it does.
"It sounds so simple, but if something works, I keep doing it, and when it
doesn't work, I stop," says Bob Parsons, Go Daddy's founder and CEO, and the
brains behind the brand strategy. "The edgier the brand is, the better it works.
The point is to keep it fun."

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In reality, though, Go Daddy's branding--including the unusual name and the
child-like logo of a man with sunglasses and a star on his head--is classic
advertising. It creates curiosity and promotes name recognition, something
most tech services have never done well. But what really defines the
company's success is what customers discover once they are enticed to learn
more.
"None of this stuff with branding is going to work if you can't deliver," says
Parsons, noting that of the 3,000 people on the payroll, 1,800 work in customer
service. "We provide the best service of anyone in the world. We even call
customers to thank them for $10 purchases."
Go Daddy has tried other advertising routes, including one appealing to busy
moms and another touting its U.S.-based call centers. Neither pushed people
to the site like the edgier Go Daddy Girl commercials, which this year feature
NASCAR's Danica Patrick and fitness guru Jillian Michaels. Parsons says when
the provocative advertising stops working, he will try something different.
Until then, his girls will keep teasing NFL fans and late-night cable watchers.
"We've taken domains and websites, which is about as exciting as a cup of
sawdust," Parsons says, "and made people pay attention."
Brand Fail: Fit Fuel
In 2006, major magazines were featuring Sean Kelly and Luke Burgis as two of
America's entrepreneurial wunderkinds. The duo's business, Fit Fuel, was on
the fast track to becoming the next big online retailer. However, by 2009, the
next big brand in fitness was no longer even a brand. Somewhere between the
accolades and fast growth, the company lost its way, and a big piece of the
downfall was bad branding.
Fit Fuel was conceived as a service to help vending machine companies stock
their slots with healthy choices instead of chips and soda. Soon after launch,
Kelly and Burgis realized the majority of their customers were no other
businesses, but regular Joes looking for good prices on PowerBars and trail
mix. They ran with it, reshaping the company into a fitness product e-tailer.
Growth was exponential, bringing in $5 million per year at its height, and in
2007 they moved to a giant warehouse in Las Vegas and jumped from five
employees to 20.
That ramp-up proved to be the downfall. Fit Fuel was shifting from selling
nutrition products to stocking all things fitness, including books, exercise
equipment, apparel and sexual enhancement products. "We were like the
Amazon.com of fitness," Burgis says. "But people were confused about who we
were, and we didn't have capital. We couldn't survive a price war."
In 2008, Sean Kelly left Fit Fuel to focus on the healthy vending machine
concept, and Burgis was left to figure out the company's direction. He started
modeling his business on shoe e-tailer Zappos, thinking a hip; service-oriented
company culture could define his brand. Burgis renegotiated his contracts so
they could offer two-day shipping. Customer service was impeccable.
Nevertheless, it did not resonate with shoppers.
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"It was what I wanted the company to be, not what customers wanted," he
says. "We put our marketing energy into the wrong things, and we were
carrying way too many products."
By mid-2009, after failed takeover negotiations with Zappos the year before,
Burgis declared bankruptcy, and Fit Fuel was shuttered. Nevertheless, the
experience did not go to waste. Now at his new venture ActivPrayer, a
company that trains coaches to run Christian-focused group fitness classes,
Burgis is very keen on what his customers want, and the brand lines up with
his strengths.
"Customers are very interested in who we are and in how we do business,"
Burgis says. "At Fit Fuel, they just wanted their product in a reasonable amount
of time. They didn't care if I was a good guy or not."
Image Is Everything--For Everyone
Small-business branding expert Maria Ross, founder of Seattle-based branding
and marketing consultancy Red Slice and author of Branding Basics for Small
Business: How to Create an Irresistible Brand on Any Budget, offers her take
on brand strategies for the up-and-coming. --Interview by Jason Daley
Why does a plumber need a brand? Isn't that for companies like Coke?
That actually stems from the misconception about what brand means. It is
your impression, your reputation--it is the mindshare you occupy in a
customer or client's mind. Do they file you under high-end, expensive luxury
brands? Do they file you under cheap and convenient? It does not matter what
size company you have. Branding is about the impression that will best help
you reach your goals and serve your audience.
I just sell stuff. How do I figure out what my brand should be?
Determining your brand is a combination of things. What can you authentically
deliver? You cannot go out and say you are innovative and high-tech if that is
not what you deliver. Who is your target audience? That is one where small
businesses fall down. Pinpoint who your audience is and figure out what will
appeal to that audience. You also need to look at your competitors and decide
where you want to fit. Do you want to zag when they zig? Maybe there is an
opportunity to stand out.
How do I communicate brand?
Brand is every single customer touch point you have, from your voicemail
message to how you pack a bag if you are a retail shop, to how your store is
laid out, the colors that you use, the imagery you project, the quality of your
staff and how they treat customers. It is a lot more than just posters and
advertising.

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 That all sounds good in theory. Give us an example.
One of my clients is Alinga Bodywork, a small massage and energy work
practice. It was a typical story: She designed a website quickly herself and put
up a logo. She wanted to charge a little bit of a premium for her services, but it
did not attract the right people. That template website-in-a-box does not
communicate that. We worked through what made her unique and what
benefits she offers--what she can claim that other people cannot. She saw an
uptick in her business, and she was able to move into a larger space and grow
her practice.
What else can brand do?
I know a soda company that used its brand strategy as a litmus test, and turned
Wal-Mart down when they came calling because they thought it would tarnish
their brand. They will be collaborating with Target, which is closer to their
brand strategy. Questions like who to collaborate with, where to distribute,
whom to hire--brand strategy can serve as a guide for all of those decisions.

Naming Key Concepts and Steps

Before you choose a brand name

Since your name is an extension of your brand, it is important to develop your
brand strategy before you start the naming process.

Do you need to hire someone?

With a good process and strategy, you can probably develop a good name on
your own. However, you may not have the resources or desire to handle the
project internally. While it is no guarantee that a firm or consultant will
develop a better name, they may do it more quickly and objectively.
There are a number of factors to consider, including
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 The stakes: if you are investing a lot of money into launching a new
product to a major market with established competition, the stakes are
high.
 Your confidence in your team’s creative firepower or objectivity.
 The amount of time and energy you have to devote to the project.
 Whether you can afford to bring in an outside resource.
Develop a strategy to choose a great brand name
 Determine what your name needs to accomplish.
 Decide how it will work with existing product or service names (if
applicable).
 Determine what kind of name to develop – descriptive, invented,
founder’s name, etc.
 Develop objective criteria to evaluate the names you generate.
Generate plenty of potential names
If you are competing beyond your local area, you may find that many of your
potential names (or URLs) are already taken, so you will need to create a long
list. Invite a variety of people to a brainstorming session. Plan it well, and
capture every idea for further evaluation.
Evaluate the list against your criteria
Your goal is to objectively find the name that meets your criteria, so be careful
about asking friends and family whether they “like” a name. For example, a
name that raises eyebrows may do so because it is different – and it may be
the most memorable and powerful one in the bunch.
Test your name
Make sure it:
 Sounds good over the phone (for example, when a sales rep calls a
prospect)
 Won’t be constantly mispronounced or misspelled, which defeats the
purpose of a name
 Isn’t confusing
 Conveys what you need it to convey
 Has a URL that works with it
Protect your brand name
It is important to protect your name to the appropriate degree. If you choose
a name that infringes on another company’s copyright, you could receive a
cease-and-desist letter and have to go to court and/or change your name after
months or even years of use.

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 By protecting your name, you also gain the ability to prevent future
competitors from using it.
After Naming
After you choose your great brand name, you can create your logo and
corporate identity, and then begin creating the messages to use throughout
your sales materials and marketing efforts.

Glossary
Brand: A name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes an
organization or product from its rivals in the eyes of the customer.
Reputation: The beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or
something.
References
1. How to Choose a Great Brand Name;
http://www.marketingmo.com/creative-brand-development/how-to-
choose-a-great-brand-name/; June 5, 2017
2. How to Build a Winning Brand;
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219314; June 5, 2017

Online Instructional Video:

1. How to Name Your Business;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxeosIPTq8c; June 5, 2017