How To Build A Brand On The Internet
Sir George D Beauchamp was the father of electric guitars. He was the oldest electric guitar manufacturer in the industry. When he started manufacturing guitars he realized that his last name was not catchy enough for the brand to sell. He needed a catchy name that would make his brand sell. He chose his best friend and partner’s name Rickenbacker for the purpose. He had chosen Ro-Pat-In Corporation and Electro String for his brand earlier.
Rickenbacker was a very famous surname back then. Sir George felt that choosing such a famous name for his brand would do good for his struggling business. He was absolutely correct. The name he chose eighty years back has become a legacy today. It is synonymous to ingenuity and class. It has become symbolic to music and several artists across the globe
Brand Names with a Difference
A brand name can make or break a business. Goldstar was one of the world’s leaders in making high quality home appliances. It was South Korea’s second largest exporter in the category. GoldStar stood apart from the rest of the category in several ways. It symbolized unattainable grandeur, superiority and high brand values. It stood apart from the rest of the brands because it made high quality products at very economical prices.
There was a huge financial crisis in Asia in 1995. The sales of the company saw a huge decline. The company lost a major chunk of its market to newer companies who offered products at a lesser price. The company did not get deterred due to the downfall. They revised their branding strategy, renamed their company “lucky goldstar” and relaunched themselves into the market with a huge bang. The shortened brand name “LG” sounds more appealing and classier than its predecessor. It recreated a space for itself on the international market. LG maintains that their rebranding strategy was not designed to make a place on the market. They wanted to launch into the western markets too.
Brands and Associations
Branding is like creating a personality from scratch. You are responsible for giving it a face, a personality, a behaviour etc. the personality you give to a brand becomes something that people will remember the brand by. There are times when the graphic designer plays a very crucial role in creating the brand. The name, logo, colour scheme etc play a vital role in forming the brand. Firstly it is important for you to choose the kind of image you would like your brand to portray.
If you use a sans-serif font for your logo, you will portray a formal, upscale image which is suitable if you are into manufacturing or some upmarket services. Designer, ornate fonts are normally associated with designers or the wedding industry. If you use curly, bubbly types then you are a young brand. Neon Green is a colour that is typically associated with web services.
Branding Online
The internet has become a very cheap method of marketing. Almost all brands today have an online presence. As a result of which, you need to have a very catchy name or a logo that stands apart from the crowd. Since online branding is not restricted to a particular geographic location, your name and logo should have a global appeal. Do not use names which are in a regional language. People normally don’t remember names that don’t mean anything to them. Use English preferably. It is a universal language. Do not use any such symbology that might hurt the religious sentiments of any particular caste or society.
Brandverbing
Brandverbing is something that has had mixed opinions from several marketing experts over the years. Some experts feel that brandverbing makes the brand a part and parcel of our day to day language. Brand recall is higher if the brand is successfully brandverbed. Till about ten years back, marketers rejected the idea completely. They did not give any specific reason for doing so. Brandverbing is an age old practise. It was not created intentionally by some clever marketer. It has evolved over the years. The consumers are solely responsible for creating the culture of brandverbing.
One of the most popular examples of brandverbing are “just Google it!” instead of saying look for specific information on Google, people just take the shorter way out.
Lennon is symbolic to the western rock and roll world. His name has become a symbolic brand “Lennonized it” is another way of saying that you sang something the rock and roll way. Brandverbing is good only when it is created over a period of time. The popular search engine Bing paid an American crime show huge amounts of money to displace Google as a popular brandverb. It failed in doing so.
Word of Mouth Marketing using Brandverbing
Brandverbing works wonders when it comes to word of mouth marketing. Word of mouth is probably the oldest known form of marketing where people relied on old loyal customers to promote their products or services. Brand experts always recommend names that are attractive and easy to remember. They also prefer shorter names to long complicated ones. No brand has ever been successful without proper word of mouth marketing. No matter how big a brand is, it needs its share of word of mouth publicity. Negative publicity can really bring a brand down. Brandverbing and word of mouth marketing always go hand in hand.
Having Humorous Brand Names
Brandverbing can be deceptive. It does not succeed in all cases. One in ten brands succeeds in this marketing strategy. Another great way of making your brand a huge success is to use humour in the brand name itself. The comic element of the brand makes people remember the name. Hundreds of brands across the globe try funny, witty names for their brands. In California itself, there are over sixty brands that use the humour element. Some of the most famous brands among them are Escape from New York Pizza and 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.
