be bold
One of the first challenges every marketer encounters when launching a new brand is to pick out a name for it. Naming is very crucial in the overall brand strategy for more or less three reasons:
First, as your branding agency in Dubai will tell you, it is the initial point of contact that your customers have with your brand, and as it is said that the first impression is the last impression, you want to make a first good impression of your brand in the audience.
Second, an exclusive name reinforces the brand positioning in the mind of the consumer. And third, the name you choose has a direct impact on your brand building budget, as some names are easier to communicate than others.
Brand names are categorized into 4 groups namely: Family names, semi-descriptive names, initials, and abstract names.
As the description implies, the brand is named after its founder. Some of the world’s most vigorous brands fall within this category: McDonald’s, Disney, Mercedes-Benz, Stanley Tools, Chanel, Gucci and many others.
Such names provide some information about the product or its uses. Renowned brands that have adopted this naming strategy are Intel, Microsoft and MasterCard etc.
Initials are a collection of letters having no evident connection to the marketed product/service. This strategy is mostly applied by well-established and authentic companies and not recommended for new entries to the market. Some examples include: IBM, GE, LG, ICI, and more.
Similar to the initials, abstracts also provide no obvious description of the product or its uses. Nokia, Gap, Canon, Marlboro, Xerox, Kleenex, Apple are a few examples.
Your naming decision and the ability to build a brand identity design depend on the type of product/service you want to launch, the marketing resources you have and the ability to consistently deliver on your brand promise.
There are four effective steps that must be a part of your brand development strategy to create a brand. These include:
The name plays a vital role while building a brand identity design and development strategy. If you have a good name and style it add positives to your product’s success. It is however the most difficult and challenging task to start with. Certain points should be kept in mind while choosing the right name for your brand:
You will never fall behind your competitors if you live in your consumers’ minds and hearts. This can be done in several ways:
Brand sponsorship can be of three types:
Private brand sponsorship- Many brands also known as National brands are supported by lots of advertisements and social marketing strategies to emerge and stay in the market. However, smaller companies may not always incur huge expenses to have their brand endorsed. In such cases brand sponsorship is very important. As opposed to National branding, store branding works for such brands and big shopping malls and stores resale such generic products at significant discount rates. They endorse the products specifying its advantages or some even put side by side comparison with the top brands. This association of the big resellers with lesser known products aids in uplifting the brand value of the product once had no name or recognition.
Licensed Brand Sponsorship- In this type of brand sponsorship, a company purchases the name and symbol of another manufacturer on a fee and endorses its products under its brand name.
Co-Branding- Under this brand sponsorship strategy, established brand names in a product category, combine with other established brand names in another category, to create a broader consumer appeal while launching a new product or to enter the market.
To increase the value or worth of a brand, it is vital to prepare a brand development strategy that fits with the changing business scenarios.
Brands name of a product can be extended to an existing line of products to approve new colors, sizes, ingredients or flavors of an existing product. However, overextended brand names might cause consumer confusion.
When a current brand name is extended to a new or modified product in a new category, for instance Nestlé’s famous brand of noodles ‘Maagi’ has been extended to its tomato ketchup, pasta, soup etc. A brand extension offers an instant recognition and acceptance to a new product. However, extending brand may confuse the image of the main brand.
Multibranding provides a way to create different features that appeal to different customer segments, take over more reseller shelf space and target a larger market share.
For instance, Coca-Cola is a reputed company that sells multiple varieties of soft drinks under different brand names. These brands are fighting each other to rule the market and eventually each one has a smaller share of pie, however the Company is dominating the soft drink market overall.
It requires prudence, knowledge and patience to create a Brand. They are not created in a day or two, wait and watch for the right time and ways to let your brand grow by applying several different strategies. The blog covers only a few points suggesting some best practices to build a brand, but your real test begins in the field.
Creating a Brand Name entails a lot of strategies, steps and ways. Behind a successful brand name, there lays lots of endeavors from every individual in the company, a vividly clear vision that isn’t only for the company but for its customers as well and at the foremost an uncompromised quality of product or service.