Branding

Just as individuals express their individuality through their identity, so organizations try to differentiate themselves through their choice of name, their logo, or house style. Branding used to be predominantly for promoting and advertising consumer products, but nowadays it has much wider relevance as every business is urged to differentiate itself from the competition through its brand.

The brand stands for something, it communicates infinite messages about a company. The ways in which a company might stand out are by its name, its tag lines (slogan), logo or other design, and its products and packaging.

Many new businesses fall into the trap of choosing very descriptive names when they start up, possibly because their main objective is to alert the market of their existence for the given product or services. So, a plumber may call the business, ‘Plumbing and Heating Engineers Ltd’. Later, as this business becomes more established it may regret choosing such a descriptive name – especially, if it discovers a competitor with the same name. It is not possible to trademark a descriptive name. So competitors can use it freely. So a descriptive name gives a business little brand value.
A business with a more distinctive name might be able to prevent others free riding on its reputation. It could also register a trademark, and secure its brand identity.
If you really want a descriptive name combine it with a distinctive element.

After choice of name, the next step in branding your business is to work out your unique offering, and then retain the services of branding consultants to help you develop a corporate identity to reflect your brand. This involves designing a logo and stationery, and ideally, devising a tagline or slogan that encapsulates the essence of your business which you use for all correspondence and promotional material. The objective is to arrive at an image or brand which will better help you to market your business.

However, you should be aware that every aspect of a business speaks volumes about its brand, from the traditional brand elements of logo, and tagline, to less obvious matters like your contracts (or lack thereof), and general style of doing business. As branding involves a far more extensive exercise than merely engaging a design company to create designs for you, your aim should be to think about all aspects of your business, so as to create a consistent image across your entire business, for example, on your website, brochures, offices, correspondence, and staff.

Trademark and design registrations are the most powerful way of protecting your brand identity, and business name. Even if you are not budgeting to register trademarks in the early stages of your business, it is nevertheless important to choose names, and tag lines that are capable of trademark registration. For more detailed information about trade mark registration go to our trade mark registration section.

We can take care of all your branding requirements, including advice on corporate structure (should you brand the business or individual products?). Many elements of your brand identity can and should be protected by intellectual property rights, and invariably intellectual property becomes one of the most valuable assets of all brand owners. It underpins all the other work that you put into distinguishing yourself from the competition. For a discussion of how design registrations can assist you please visit our designs page.