What is that?

It recently dawned on us that many business start ups are cornered into coming up with a name.

In our previous blog WHEN A CHILD IS BORN, BRAND IT[1], we emphasized the need to brand your product before you launch it into the market. However, this does not warrant the speedy development of random names and images just to come up with an identity.

A brand name is a key component of your identity; in fact your visual and verbal identities are the only interactions that you have with your potential clientele. Your name serves as the flute that charms your first time clients into making that purchase.

We are all familiar with the story of Rumpelstiltskin. In this tale, Rumpelstiltskin - a magical character- helps a poor girl turn straw into gold. He in turn asks for the poor girl’s (who is now queen) child as repayment for the services offered. The child is to be taken away after three days if the queen did not guess the magical creature’s name.                                         

 

Some of the many start ups that we have come across are as crazily branded as Rumpelstiltskin. At least Rumpelstiltskin’s name and brand called for a short ugly looking character!

 He might have been able to turn dried up grass straw into gold but we cannot seem to shake off that ugly name. Our gold spinning business names should reflect exactly that. In the story Rumpelstiltskin was responsible for all the gold but the king only saw the queen and not the small ugly magical creature.

If the cost of branding is expensive, what then of the cost of rebranding? Double: the amount of time, energy and money spent on creating a brand. In this current market, a brand niche is too valuable an asset to be wasted away just because of a hastily designed ‘brand name’.

Anyone can come up with a catchy name, but not all catchy names need to label a business.

 At Brand on Brands we take pride in our naming services. Give us a call and we will be happy to help you create the ideal identity for your business.

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[1]  http://brandonbrands.blogspot.com/2011/10/when-child-is-bornbrand-it.html.

I believe in Evolution.

Just like Charles Darwin, I believe in evolution!

The word evolution is a noun that defines any process of formation or growth development.

The evolution of man must and has to be one of the most debated philosophies in history. In summary, this theory i states that the entire universe through chemical changes has come to change over a period of billions of years.

Although there are changes, there some things that remain the same. In the case of man, the four limbs are none issues; the use of the limbs has evolved through the Darwinian theory and as their use became more complex so did the posture, brain and physical structure.

Now the evolution of man might be a tough sell, especially with the talk of billions of years so let me fast forward to the twenty first century where we have evolution taking place every so often.

Brands all over the world are continuously changing and now more than ever are at higher and greater speeds than before. The consumer’s loyalty in this Century lay thin and they do not think twice before moving on to the next best thing in the market.

 Many startups have been forced to evolve to stay relevant in their markets; some have adapted and grown to be universal super brands while others are currently staring at the inevitable slow and painful death of what once was.

Google is a good example of an evolving brand.

A relatively new company (formed in 1998) Google has through the years evolved into a way of life. The super search engine has changed the world and made googling a word and habit that most people understand.

From Android phones, email accounts, personal planners, chat rooms and GPRS, Google has done it all. This tech company has infiltrated diverse markets and has left an impact plus left former monopolies in these fields trembling and restrategizing to keep up. These diverse markets would be the use of the limbs.

The four limbs of Google have been and will always be their search engine. From a research project Larry Page and Sergey Brin have changed how we look at the world of information, the Google search engine is a true testament to evolution. 

Source; www.mappio.com

Just like the evolution of man and his disposable thumb,your brand has to evolve or risk finding its self staring into the abyss of brand limbo my advise to you “be the Google of your industry.”and position your brand to succeed, believe in evolution!.

                     

What's in a NAME?

What’s in a name? The million dollar question

“That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”*

*The characters Juliet in Shake Speare’s Play Romeo and Juliet

Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet and fell in love in Shakespeare’s lyrical tale of “star-cross’s” lovers. They are doomed from the start as members of two warring families.

In this play, Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention, and that she loves the person who is called “Montague”, not the Montague name and not the Montague family. Romeo, out of his passion for Juliet, rejects his family name and vows, as Juliet asks, to “deny (his) father” and instead be “new baptized” as Juliet’s lover. This one short line encapsulates the central struggle and tragedy of the play.

So many companies have fallen victim to the same tragedy that befell the two lovers in this epic s play . As dramatic as it sounds a name is worth more than the letters that make it up. In Shakespeare’s play, it meant a forsaken love between Romeo and Juliet – in our world it means the difference between success and failure.

The branding world is full of tales of good products that had a short shelf life and tragic death in their market place because of poor names, BRAND NAMES to be precise. A good brand name acts as a silent brand positioning agent, the name Montague in Romeo’s case was his positioning agent and in his case he was on the wrong spectrum of Juliet’s family.

Romeo, young, rich and from a good family was the perfect man for Juliet but his family name made him an enemy of Juliet’s family, some one who evoked  anger, rage and great disgust amongst the family. Romeo the brand could not be sold.

oddee.com

I stumbled upon this cola drink bottled in Ghana; this soft drink could have been the next big thing! Ghana is an English speaking country and you would not expect something like this to go unnoticed.

The name ‘ Pee Cola’ is enough to warrant a laugh and nothing more, a five minute conversation after the mention of the brand name will be an added advantage, random photos posted on the internet is the best thing that could happen to ‘Pee Cola’ and a mention on a blog would be God sent.

All these have happened to this brand and I am certain that all the above have not been enough to drive up sales. The sole purpose of getting into business is to generate sales; a name like pee cola is the “Montague” of an international market and a tragic death to the name will be welcome in the world of living brands.

When a child is born,Brand it!

Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in my life.

For countless months I have been fighting this urge to finally sit down and put my thoughts on to a piece of paper,in this case a screen.
 This battle has been going on for a while now, until I heard something rather interesting,”you will never know until you try“. This might sound cliche’ but have you ever thought about it? Really taken your time to think about what these simple seven words can do or the kind of potential they unlock when you actually act on them?

Now  history is a good reference point of  the people who actually decided to try.
Most of the milestones that we have in all aspects of life can be attributed to the men and women who decided to step up and try out their wildest dreams..

Edmund McIlhennyis little know to many and yet most of us have the sole creation of this man staring at us every time we take a meal.Mcllhennyis the genius behind the Tabasco sauce and like many inventors of his time Mcllhenny started out small.His sauce was distributed by foot to close relatives and friends.The sauce was packaged in reused cologne bottles and it wasn’t until excess demand hit Mr Mcllhenny’s door did he think of ordering for new unused bottles.

Enter  John C. Pemberton, a victim of circumstances Pemberton was forced to look for a cure for a drug problem to most returning war veterans in the United States.His experiments led him to stumble upon a formula that up to this day is considered one of the greatest creation of man. His formula led to the famous invention that is Coca Cola.










Edmund Mcllhenny and John C Pemberton are no different. They both created unique recipes  that could not be duplicated by anyone else in the world without their express consent. Both creations have a world wide distribution network and are considered successful brands in their respective industries. Notably one creates ripples across the world and is easily recognized by the younger generation  while the other is in my opinion a shadow that only stands out to the very keen eye.
                                             
                                                                 
The clear difference between these two products is branding. Pemberton had a secret weapon in an associate called Frank Mason Robinson   who not only came up with the name ‘’Coca Cola” but went a step further to hand write on all specimen bottles that were being sent out into the market.

The standards set in that dark little laboratory became the governing norm of all Coca Cola products.That simple gesture has made a world of difference to an ordinary soft drink product. That is the power of branding!