7 steps to create a killer brand

1. Focus on a single brand

A startup, no matter how well-funded, will always feel short of resources. So the business should focus all its branding energy and resources on building up a single brand – the name of the company – and not try to create separate brand identities for the company and for each of its products. Multiple brands will diffuse your energy and resources, and confuse customers.

Single-brand focus is highly effective whether you’re a consumer or B2B business.

In the consumer space, think Polo shirts, shoes, home décor, dresses, bed and bath, etc. – it’s all Polo, with little energy wasted on sub-branding. In another realm, folks just say they got an iPad, not that they bought an iPad 2, Wi-Fi + 3G, 16GB.

For examples of good B2B brands, think how IT products are marketed. If a CIO is asked which database his company uses, she’s likely to reply simply “SQL Server” rather than “Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition”…. or simply “Oracle,” rather than “Oracle Database 11g Release 2”… Similarly, the same CIO asked what types of servers her shop uses might respond simply “HP” (rather than “HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 v2 Servers”), or just “Dell” (rather than “Dell PowerEdge M520 Blade Servers”).

2. Snag the URL

As you’re considering alternative names, make sure you can snag the URL (domain name). So as you’re brainstorming names, bring up a registration engine such as GoDaddy.com orRegister.com and, as you think of names, check to see if the URL is available.

Generally the shorter the URL the better. .com top level domains are preferable for most businesses.

3. Keep it simple

Ideally, the name should be short and memorable. So if I’m launching a gaming company, BongoBaby would probably be preferable to Jim’s International Game Enterprises, Inc. Make the name hard to misspell and hard to mispronounce. I know those are double negatives, but the point is that you want people to be able to find you in a search engine, and to easily refer you to their friends.

4. Choose one: descriptive, evocative, or whimsical

Next, you have a fundamental choice with three basic paths. The first path is to select a name that’s descriptive of what you do – think WebMD, The Home Depot, 1-800-flowers, or Urban Outfitters. The second path is to choose a name that says nothing about what you do, but is evocative. Oracle is a great abstract-but-evocative brand name, evoking wisdom and an ability to predict the future. Another is Warby Parker, the online purveyor of eye glasses that intentionally chose a name evocative of old-line, preppy Eastern retailers (rather than a descriptive tag akin to LensCrafters). The third path is to select a memorable, unique nonsense word. Nice examples of such whimsical brand names include Hulu, Zynga and Tapjoy.

5. Avoid branding by committee or focus group

It’s good to be inclusive and seek opinions and ideas. But if you form a committee and put everything to a vote, you’re likely to end up with a least-common-denominator brand that’s bland, uninspired, and may look more like a hybrid camel-elephant than the thoroughbred you’d hoped for.

6. Apply your brand consistently

You can do everything else right, and screw it up here. Consistency of usage and application of the brand is paramount. A company should have a consistent look-and-feel and consistent language and stick to them. For example, do you want to be referred to as Urban Outfitters or as UO? Do you wish to be known as “a pioneer in cleantech,” or “an innovator in green energy”?

7. Protect your brand

Trademark the company name, logo, and tagline. File with the US PTO for registered trademark status. In your online (and any printed) materials, be sure to display clear copyright notices.

By Jim Price 

Jim Price is a serial entrepreneur and Adjunct Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Studies at the Zell Lurie Institute at The University of Michigan Ross School of Business explains how to build a killer brand in 7 steps.

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Why I’m Tired of #Fail

We use the word “FAIL” with such abandon today – even with a taste of vindictive enthusiasm – and often in the instant someone or something rubs us the wrong way, most especially a business.

We have microscopic levels of patience that match the brevity of our status updates, making showpieces out of brands’ missteps, sometimes deserved and sometimes incredibly petty and reactionary.

There are most certainly failures of customer service, product, and corporate responsibility that are egregious, and I’m not talking about those. But the focus on those problems that ARE “epic” is diluted in the sea of flippant verbal retribution that’s leveled at companies simply because we have a mobile app at our fingertips and a moment of frustration.

When was the last time you simply asked a company for help instead of impaling their head on a virtual Twitter stake for all to fear? Used their Facebook wall to lodge a level-headed complaint or inquiry that gives them an opportunity to be helpful instead of on the defensive out of the gate?

What’s our role in helping companies improve based on crafting our feedback with the same care and attention we’d want the companies to demonstrate to us as customers? In other words, if we want them to listen, perhaps we need to be conscious of putting better and more useful information out there for them to find.

As advocates of the very technologies and ideas that we’re asking companies to use, we need to deliver input that’s relevant and conducive to companies’ identifying and addressing the problems we have, even when that input is negative. Fixing a problem requires understanding the cause. Sometimes, an individual mistake or bad judgment call by a customer service employee is just that, and we need to differentiate between inconvenient and unfortunate incidents by companies and recurring problems that are systemic.

Is It Just Us?

My friend Tom Webster said in our Twitter conversation on this topic: “The 10% who create content don’t speak for the other 90%.”

Point being that our online fishbowl illustrates this tendency more so than the rest of the universe, and that most people express their frustration differently, if at all. This is true. But businesses are watching, paying attention to us, the squeaky wheel brigade. Partially because we’ve told them they have to, partially because there are good businesses out there that care and want to demonstrate that they’re paying attention. And there’s a very real sense that the 10% will become proportionally more significant as time goes by.

One reason we have a credibility problem in this space is the carelessness with which we sometimes wield the very tools we’d like companies to adopt and value. We want them to be thoughtful and responsible but as individuals, we lash out at everything that doesn’t suit our fancy. And we wonder why companies are reticent and reluctant to jump in with both feet?

I’m all for demanding a high standard of service, for insisting that brand promises get fulfilled, for returning value in exchange for the money that we as consumers invest in a business. That is, to me, utterly without question.

But when there are shortcomings, we need some critical thinking around the threshold between a mistake and an epidemic. I wish we’d think a bit more about how we express our concerns if we’re serious about a business hearing us, understanding the underlying issue, and responding. Temperance still has a place in the business world, and can still get things done.

We talk personally of embracing failure as a learning experience, but we so easily brandish the scarlet letters of #FAIL for others. Do we love watching things burn so much that our best and most valuable contribution is to help toss another match?

I’m curious about whether you feel this, too. What am I missing? When do you feel compelled to cry fail? Sound off in the comments.

5 Little-Known Factors Could Affect Your Personal Brand

Although it’s a constant uphill battle to build your brand, destroying or severely damaging it is scarily easy. In that vein, you’ll want to stay away from the following practices:

Appearing Unfocused

You might have multiple interests or passions. Think about which is the most important or most developed to focus your brand around. It can be confusing to others for you to be an expert in two or three completely different fields. What about your brand? Can it be expressed in six words or less, be memorable and convey a positive feeling about you?” He also gave examples such as, “What can Brown do for you?” and “Just Do It.”

Keeping Your Private Life Completely Separate

Gone are the days of keeping business and personal lives separate. You do not want to appear insincere in your efforts. In fact, people will respond and connect with you more if you come off as a real person. So, share stories and experiences with your audience. You’ll be surprised at the deeper connection you will form with each person.

Lack of Listening

Building a brand requires consistency – but it also requires listening to feedback. Do you know what people are saying about your brand? Set up a Google alert to catch new postings mentioning your name, or search Twitter. Genuinely read and listen to praise, criticism and feedback. It can only help you strengthen your brand further!

No Back Story

Everyone has a back story – where they grew up, where they draw inspiration from, why they are passionate about their field, their education, etc. Think about it: the celebrities and well-known people you look up to all have a back story, and you’ve probably heard it a dozen times. Where is President Obama from? How did Bill Gates get his start? These stories are important parts of their brand and allow people to relate to them. What’s yours?

You Think Visibility = Strong Brand

Don’t jump into social media and blogging before you give yourself time to create a strong personal brand. When creating yours, make certain you ask yourself the following questions:

• Who are you?


• What differentiates you from your competition?


• What do you want to do for the long-term?

You can damage your brand by presenting inconsistencies if you don’t consider these important elements of your brand first.

Is there anything else you would add? Have you ever been guilty of any of these?

Author:

Heather R. Huhman is a career expert and founder & president of Come Recommended, a career and workplace education and consulting firm specializing in young professionals. She is also the author of#ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), national entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com and blogs about career advice at HeatherHuhman.com.