Marketing: How to Name and Brand Your Products

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    Sections of This Topic Include

    Basic Guidelines for Naming and Branding
    How to Create a Powerful Marketing Message
    Additional Perspectives on Naming and Branding

    Also, consider
    Related Library Topics

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    Basic Guidelines for Naming and Branding

    © Copyright Carter McNamara,
    MBA, PhD

    Naming Your Organization or Product

    To effectively promote your product, you must have a concise, yet meaningful
    description of the product. This can be much more complicated than merely picking
    a name. There are consultancies built around helping organizations to name or
    brand their products and services. You have to be sure that you’re not using
    a name that is already trademarked or servicemarked. You should not have a name
    that closely resembles an already established name in your area, or customers
    will confuse your services with those referred to by the other name — or, the
    organization with the other name may choose to sue you. You need a name that
    makes sense locally, but if you grow, the name will still be understood elsewhere.
    The name you choose for your product will be around for a long time and can
    have a substantial impact on how your products are perceived. Therefore, seriously
    consider some basic forms of market research to glean impressions of different
    names. For example, convene several focus groups to glean their reactions to
    various names. Have survey cards that clients can complete to suggest names.

    Branding Your Organization or Product

    To effectively promote your organization or product, you need to continue to
    establish its strong reputation and personality, or brand, for it. To understand
    what a brand is, think of some very common company names, the logos they use,
    the slogans it uses, the standard colors of the logos, and the types of values
    that it tries to convey in its advertising. All of those together accomplish
    the company’s brand — so the name is really part of the overall brand. There
    can be a brand for an organization and for each of its products. Similar to
    naming an organization or product, the brand should be unique.

    That’s why it’s useful to develop the name and brand during the same activity
    — an activity that should include researching what other companies are using,
    what stakeholders (or distinct types of groups) do you want to influence, and what
    you want each group to think about you. As with other aspects of the marketing
    analysis, the choice of the research methods you choose to use depends on your
    skill level, the resources that you have available, what you can afford and
    how much time do you have?

    1. You need a name that conveys the nature of the service and, ideally, your
    unique value proposition — your unique value proposition is a concise description
    of your product or service, how it is unique, and why people should buy from
    you, rather than from your competitors.

    2. You need a name and brand that makes sense locally but will still be understood
    if the program extends elsewhere. The name you choose will be around for a long
    time and can have a substantial impact on how your services are perceived.

    3. You have to be sure that you are not using a name that is already trademarked
    or service marked. You might verify this by:
    a) Looking in the Yellow Pages of your local telephone directory.
    b) Calling the appropriate governmental office (for example, contact the Secretary

    of State’s office in the USA or contact the appropriate provincial office
    in
    Canada) to see if similar names are registered.
    c) Looking in any online databases of registered and applied-for names (for

    example, see the website of the federal Patents and Trademark Offices at
    http://www.uspto.gov/ in the USA)

    4. You should not have a name that closely resembles an already established
    name in your geographic area or service field because clients will confuse your
    services with those referred to by the other name. The organization with the
    other name may even choose to sue you.

    5. Should you use a different name for each target market? Note that you can
    likely benefit a great deal from hiring a marketing consultant to help you design
    and build your marketing materials so they effectively convey the personality,
    or brand, of your program and the overall organization. The consultant can help
    you with the selection and design of:

    • Name
    • Colors
    • Logo (text and image)
    • Business cards
    • Labels
    • Envelopes
    • Web pages

    How to Create a Powerful Marketing Message

    © Copyright Lisa
    Chapman

    We are all over-messaged in this harried world – absolutely bombarded
    with thousands of messages every single day. So how can your business stand
    out?

    To be successful, your company’s marketing must be creatively distinctive.
    That’s what it takes to:

    • Capture the attention of your target audience, and
    • Deliver a clear and memorable message.

    Your marketing must be laser-focused. It cannot be everything to everybody.
    What should your marketing message achieve?

    • Image & Branding
    • Recognition, Credibility & Trust
    • Call to Action

    Business Branding Basics

    Your company is only as powerful as your BRAND. A company’s brand, like
    an individual’s personality is unique – and should clearly convey
    the culture of your organization.

    In a nutshell, effective branding takes:

    • Strategizing about who your company is,
    • Aligning your brand with your company’s core values,
    • Creating an image and advertising that is distinctive, &
    • Integrating all media into an effective and memorable brand message.

    These are the basics of business branding. The most successful brands maintain
    a consistent voice – in the media, on the web, and in person.

    What is a Brand Strategy?

    Brand strategy is the who, what, why, where, and how of branding. A well-crafted
    brand strategy:

    • Captures your company’s personality
    • Creates messaging that resonates with prospects
    • Establishes your company’s competitive advantage
    • Converts prospects’ interest into revenue

    A good marketing firm with experience in your competitive niche can listen
    to key employees (and even customers) to craft a message that clearly and succinctly
    speaks to your target audience. It’s an important investment in your entire
    marketing effort – and will make your future advertising expenditures
    powerful.

    For a great example of a rebranding campaign that achieved these objectives,
    consider Financial Marketing Solutions’ creative work for FirstBank. These
    concepts can be applied to any business in any industry.

    Additional Perspectives on Naming and Branding

    Definitions
    Behind Business Name Jargon

    Building
    a (Nearly) Million-Dollar Brand on a Startup Budget

    4
    Ways to Block Brand Competition

    Rethinking
    the Idea of the Brand

    Night of the Living Dead Brands
    Marketing
    Case Study — Social Media Rebranding

    How to Trademark a Brand Name
    Naming a New Business
    How Changes in Perception Impact Your Brand
    Branding: How Crisis Impacts Your Brand
    Branding
    for Easy Promotion

    How to Create the Perfect Elevator Pitch
    How to Maintain Brand Consistency Across Product
    Lines

    The Importance of a Good Success Story
    The One Thing You Must Get Right When Building
    a Brand

    How to Take a Local Brand National
    Rebranding on the Internet
    More Business Name Help
    How to Name a Business
    What Is Your Brand Against?
    Create
    a Brand Advocacy Program

    Understanding Brand Loyalty
    To Brand or Not to Brand…A Silly Question

    Also, consider

    Basic
    Methods to Get Customer Feedback

    Some
    Major Sources of Market Research Information

    Also, consider
    “Naming Your Website”


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