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Step 4: Create Your Brand Name & Brand Identity

Now that you’ve established your purpose, target audience, brand positioning, personality, voice, and tone – it’s time to create your brand name and identity! In this lesson, our expert will discuss how to name your brand then we proceed to a written section on how to work on your brand identity. Get started below!

Katy Rea on How She Came Up With a Brand Name

Transcript

00:09 - 01:46

Brand naming is so important, as your name is the first trigger that conjures up your brand in customer’s minds. The reaction it sparks when seen or heard for the first time will start to define your brand, hopefully in a good way. Firstly, someone should choose their company brand name because it feels right to them. They will be seeing it and saying it more than anyone else. Secondly, they should choose a brand name to suit their market. Have a think about your customers’ beliefs and perceptions. Make sure it has positive connotations. Associations matter not the meaning. If it’s going to be an international brand, check for unwanted meanings in other languages. Once you’ve chosen your names, it’s important to check the suitable name availability and also for any trademark restrictions. I decided to call Battalion “Battalion” because when I was setting up the agency, I was meeting with so many different creatives in Berlin and they were coming by my apartment at that time every day. I was probably seeing about six people a day and I was just amazed by the talent that the city had, and it was a real international mix. Lots of people from all over the world and it started to feel like something bigger and it started to feel like a force. So when I came across the word Battalion, I don’t know how I came across it, but I saw it and it just stuck with me.

How to Form Your Business Name

Developing a name for your business is crucial, but it can also be a challenging process. You might be wondering how you should come up with a good name for your brand. There are a few directions you can go with when creating a brand name. You can either:

Combine Several Words, f.ex: Female Founder Space
Add a Suffix or Prefix, f.ex: Spotify, Bitly
Combine Two Words, f.ex: Facebook
Invent A New Word, f.ex: Canva
Add Or Remove A Letter, f.ex: Tumblr

This worksheet will help you to choose your brand name

Now you know what to think about when creating a brand name. First, you need to keep in mind that you will most likely create a website connected to your brand, which means you need to search through the internet if the URL you thought of is available.

To make your search for available URLs more efficient, we created a ready worksheet that you can download to help you discover available URLs’ for your potential brand name.

Let’s move on now to your brand identity and define it. Your brand identity is the collection of all elements that your business creates to portray the right image to the consumer. These elements include your purpose, values, unique positioning, personality, voice, and tone. From these elements, you design the foundation of your brand identity. In this section, we discuss the brand design, visuals, and slogans.

Brand Identity

Collection of all the elements that portray the right image to the consumer. It involves the brand design, visuals and slogan.

How to develop your brand design and visuals?

To develop your brand design and visuals, there are a few elements you should look at as discussed below:

Typography – This is the font (or type) you choose for your branding materials. This should be consistent across all the materials you use.

Color – This is what people associate with your brand. Customers have psychological ties to different colors. Hence, using colors strategically can have a serious impact on how your brand is perceived by your customers.

Form and Shape – Just like color, form, and shape reinforce a reaction from your customers. So you want to define whether you will use more clean lines, round shapes, or straight-edged shapes.

Once you’ve decided on these elements, you can now design your brand identity which involves working on your logo, product packaging, business cards, email design, and website among others!

Article "Brand Identity Guide: 5 Steps to Pick the Right Colour"

Read this article. It will provide you with easy-to-implement guidelines on selecting the right color for your brand identity.

Creating your brand slogan

On another note, your brand identity also involves having a good slogan as it forms an important element of a brand’s visual identity. Your brand slogan is a concise expression of your brand promise.

Here are some notable examples:

Nike – Just do it!
L’Oreal – Because You’re Worth It.
McDonald’s – I’m Lovin’ It!
Walmart – Save Money. Live Better.
Coca-Cola – Open Happiness.

Now write your own slogan!

To better guide you in crafting your slogan, we have prepared a checklist for you to go through. Take a pen, download the checklist below and let’s get working.

Build Your Startup Brand from Scratch