Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Branding Bloopers: The Biggest Small Business Branding Mistakes

Jeff Gregory, Brand Counsel, LLC

You Want To Go Where Nobody Knows Your Name

With apologies to ‘Cheers’, be honest: virtually no one cares what your last name is in the marketplace. Plus, it severely limits expansion possibilities. Where’s Joe in “Joe’s Bait Shop” when you’re on your fourth location? Seriously, get out of your own way and think bigger than yourself. Sure, it’s down-home to call it by your last name, but who wants to stay down-home once you’ve seen the big city?

Latin is a Dead Language for a Reason

Supposed rule number one for internal naming: lunge for a Latin root dictionary. Of course, no one has spoken Latin for thousands of years, and no one in your target audience ever took any Latin, but don’t let that stop you! Much of our cleanup work involves convoluted Latin naming that is at best non-memorable, and at worst a complete disaster. If ‘E Pluribus Unum’ is all you can remember, what makes you think a snazzy Latin root word will do the trick? There are rare cases when attorneys, pharmacists, or doctors are your primary audience and may get it, but why make them work so hard? Be memorable, easy to recall, and tied to a conceptual framework.

The Heavens Don’t Have The Answer, Either

Fairly obvious rule number two is to grab a book of star names and go that route. Genius! Except, again, off the top of your head, how many can you name? Do you think your clients are astronomers? Hey, Sirius Satellite Radio got lucky. Do not think that your future lies in the stars. There are, of course, billions of possibilities to get completely lost in the market going this direction. Look at what happened with Miss Cleo!

Cramming Works Best for Exams, Not Brands

When our branding industry was young and impressionable, someone decided to just use word parts and cram them together. For a little while, that was ok: MacBook, Earthlink, Wordperfect. Believe me, every possible word combination has been tried, trademarked, and the web name has been purchased. Please save yourself that headache.

‘i’ have an idea!

No, you don’t. The ‘i’-everything craze, started by Apple, has been played: iPod,iPhone, iRobot. The only advice here: don’t look like an ‘i-diot’.

Completely ignoring Trademark Laws

While this may appear rather obvious, you’d be amazed at the number of people who are dying to call their software “Explorer”. After the legal fur flies, your company may not even be in business. Do not play cutsie with someone’s duly registered trademark. It can get real ugly, really fast. Besides, Logoworks has a great partnership with LegalZoom, so let’s play nice out there.

You know, we do have professionals for this kind of thing

If you have any designs on building a substantial business, consider the use of a branding expert. Of course, I say that because I am one, but this is no easier than the work your attorney, accountant, or neurosurgeon does. Brands are about nuance, tone, color, just the right phrasing, linguistics, and lots of other highly creative and intuitive things you just may not possess. Expect to spend from $10,000 to $250,000 for help like this (ours average $25,000).

Involving everyone on your team for input is fine, as are brainstorming sessions. We use them all the time, in very specific ways. But you know who would be great to name your company? Your clients. Market research and focus groups can uncover their drivers, which are so much more accurate than your own. If you haven’t already, ask some for some advice.

Finally, a brand name or corporate identity that tells a story is often a sure winner. The use of commonplace words used in a business setting can be very effective. Don’t just think about the name; try and build a story line around it.

Jeff A. Gregory, CEO and Chief Brand Strategist at Brand Counsel, LLC has been naming companies for decades. He has consulted on hundreds of projects from high technology, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, to small business and services branding. He may be reached at info@brandcounselllc.com or by phone at 704-451-3760.

Posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 11:55 am and is filed under Branding, Design, Leadership, Marketing, Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.