The first step towards good branding and a succesful projet is to make good decisions regarding your brand name. I'll take you through these 5 essential steps in creating a powerful brand.
1. Determine your target audience & positioning
Does the word “Brand persona” ring a bell?
It’s how we call a fictional portrayal of your ideal customer.
It is essential to make it as genuine and realistic as possible, in order to determine their needs and how your products and service meet those needs.
Questions you might ask yourself at this stage:
What’s your ideal clients:
- age/ sex / marital status / revenue / area of residence
- profession / hobbies / personal and professional interests
- motivations / beliefs / vision of the world.
Regarding, your positioning, start by determining your values:
Yes, this is very relevant to your “Brand persona” because they would normally share the same values.
Business owners often tell me that they see their new project as their child. Watch your business grow by offering it, since the beginning a strong and unique character. Meanwhile it’s totally normal that it burrows several of your personal values, it’s normal that it develops its own. It’s a fine game of balance and relevance.
2. Use the technique of Mind-Mapping.
Creating a mind-map is a visual way of structuring and organising. A mind-mind could be a way of taking notes, searching ideas or deconstructing a project that we can easily draw ourselves.
Mind Mapping is one of the most used methodes to graphically represent ideas and give them more clarity. It’s like a graphic that links ideas and concepts around a central subject.
Start with a piece of paper and explore by drawing branches and sub-ideas that can lead us to an abundance of new ideas that can lead to even more. Such a fun way to boost your creativity and make rich discoveries.
3. The right balance
A good brand name has to be clear and meaningful. Ideally it should also be memorable, unique and relevant.
Not too long, nor too short and not too complicated to pronounce. Don’t look for a very explicit brand name.
Think about all your branding supports and try to visualise your brand name spelled down.
Try to avoid word games. Although many people find them funny, unless on of your core value is “fun” and comedy is something important to your brand persona. In this particucal case, go wild with it.
4. Research
Don’t skip this step as it is so common that you have the best idea ever only to find out that someone already thought about it. It’s not your fault, it’s a matter of who claimed it first.
Take your time and check if your new brand name is available. Begin by writing down the name in your favourite browser. Afterwards, look for domain names, professional facebook pages, instagram accounts, etc … In Belgium you can also find an inventory of businesses here: la Banque Carrefour des entreprises .
5. Test, re-test and validate your Brand Name
The final choice should not only rely on your gut feeling.
A way of making sure you made a good choice is to involve other people in the process.
You guessed right, your Brand name should be relevant to your target audience. So why not reach out and ask them?
A good advice is to use a “poll” or a “google form” and invite people to share their opinion.
Last but not least, take your time.
Choosing a good brand name is not an easy process and it involves creativity and deep questioning. Let your idea sleep for a while and get back to it after a while with a fresh look. Do you still like it? If so, you might have yourself a winner, well done !
You can take it to the next level and start developing a Brand Identity for your business.
Hi, I’m Andra, a web-oriented designer helping business owners create cohesive brand identity. If you’re thinking of starting a new project, I’d love to meet and grow it together.