Branding Made Easy, and Cheap

March 15, 2007

What do Coca-Cola, Google, Starbucks & Apple all have in common?

They are internationally known mega brands and billion dollar companies.

… and their brands were created on the cheap by the founders of the companies.

I remind myself of this whenever I sit down to come up with a name and branding for a new idea. It is definitely important to spend a good amount of time finding the right name and brand for your project as it will help you the creator bond with it and pitch it… but at the end of the day, how good your product is will determine it’s success and not the name you gave it.

Google is probably my favorite example of the good product trumping the terrible brand. You could actually say that Google’s brand is quite good as it is easy to remember and just about everyone in the world knows it. But if you took their brand to a top branding firm today you’d probably get “Childish colors and a beveled serif font! Blech!” Several million dollars later they’d give you a really slick looking logo and a 12 page report on how the average search user demographic responded in test markets to the new and improved logo.

For a real life example: UCLA and their $100,000 updated logo.
“The UCLA logo consists of the four letters “UCLA” rendered in letterforms inspired by the Bauhaus design movement. (The Bauhaus Manifesto was issued in 1919 – the year UCLA was founded.) There is a slight but definite forward slant to the mark. No font can duplicate the logo, because each letter has been individually altered to make a harmonious whole.”

Pretty amazing that UCLA didn’t tap their own student body and design programs to come up with something…

In Guy Kawasaki’s Book, The Art of the of Start (The whole book is great and I highly recommend it.)… he gives some great quick advice for naming your ideas.

- Have a First Initial That’s Early In The Alphabet
“Some day your organization’s, product’s, or service’s name will appear in an alphabetical list. Better to be early in the list than later…”

-Avoid Numbers
“They are bad ideas for names because people won’t remember whether to use numerals (123) or to spell out the number (One Two Three).”

- Pick a Name With “Verb Potential”
“In a perfect world, your name enters the mainstream vernacular and becomes a verb…” People Xerox documents and Google things.

- Sounds Different (As Opposed to “Think Different”)
“The name should sound like nothing else. For (a bad) example: Claris, Calrins, Claritin, and Calria. It’s hard to remember which names refers to software, cosmetics, antihistamines, or online marketing.”

- Sound Logical
“In addition to sounding different, your names should also sound logical. That is, they should “match” what you do. A good example of this is the names of the Pokemon characters…”

- Avoid Trendy
“… The bottom line, in hindsight, is that you should come up with a name that will endure for decades, and save your cleverness for the features of your products and services.”

I’ve seen people waste months trying to perfect a brand for an idea before really getting it all started and my advice to them is “Choose something that feels right to you in your gut.” You are your idea’s lead sales dog and it will be you who creates the culture around this brand… so love it and move on.

Good luck & Happy Branding!

P.S. The Origin of Brands by Al and Laura Ries is a good read too.

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