Brand Naming and Logo Trademark – The integral part of Brand Design

Last Updated on December 6, 2022 by DesignerPeople

As it is said, “a book should not be judged by its cover“, but that is now true when we talk about brand names. When we hear the first time the brand name, it does communicate a lot with us and also leaves an impression. Impression can be latest, or after a while, you can just ignore n forget. Hence brand name plays a very crucial part of brand building.

Today consumers understand brand not just as product or services but more than that. Hence a correct title can improve your chances of attracting new customers by showing people the fundamental values you stand for. Memorable names also generate customer loyalty and simplify the process of word of mouth marketing.

A brilliant brand name is the essential core foundation and differentiator of your brand, which helps you to build awareness and convey meaning.

Imagine what the brand “Apple” will be without its name? There are plenty of innovative technology companies, but Apple has the brand where only the name will provide a platform, and it is the first indicator that this company thinks differently because it resonates with consumers. It’s a mark of trust.

A brilliant brand name sets the stage for the brand and becomes evident when you check the lists of the Top 100 brands. The brand naming will immediately display emotion and trust: VISA, Google, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Starbucks, Subway, FedEx, Red Bull, Twitter, and Shell.

What is the Brand Naming?

A brand name identifies a specific service, product or name of a company. Brand naming should evoke positive images or emotions in the consumer’s mind, which will then, help your brand gain brand equity and value.

Types of Brand Naming

The beauty of naming your brand requires correct knowledge of which industry you are into because depending upon this, the type of brand name is decided.

1. Descriptive

The brand name here will clearly describe what it refers to and speak for itself which can be feature, service, Organisation and product.

Descriptive names quickly convey the characteristics of what the product or service accomplishes.

Example: Mother Dairy, here the brand is clearly communicating their nature of work and its emotional traits connected with it by word “Mother”.

The disadvantage of this kind is that brand can get constrained because once the name is decided, it stays for really long and while the company expands and then creates confusion.

2. Acronyms 

Here the company prefer to use its name in abbreviations or initials instead of the long brand name. Smaller names are more likely to stay in mind, easy to trademark and increases brand recall.

The primary problem with acronyms is that they are as empty vessels. They hardly draw from any other words in our lexicon, and even with a lot of use acronyms don’t absorb much meaning. They are just a grouping of letters.

3. Experimental 

Here brands build sensory interactions with the audience in all aspects of the brand experience to emotionally influence their behaviour, preferences and to actively shape their perceptions of the brand.

They plan to position firmly in the mind of customers by withstanding their expectation as displayed by you.

The biggest problem of creating an experiential name is connecting meaning to the brand, this needs a deep understanding of your work and what does it stand for before the naming process is started. If the brand naming is out of sync with the brand positioning statement of the business, it loses impact.

4. Invented 

These are made-up words which will be very powerful because they do not come with any baggage as they are empty vessels designed to represent a brand.

The products here are entirely innovative or new and first in the market, which makes its specific identity in the mind of customers and the market.

But they are using invented words which are very tricky. Not all invented words make attractive brand names. It is best to avoid invented names which include Latin or Greek words.

Answer these questions before starting the brand name process:

1. Which language do you need a brand naming

Brand naming is a source of communication, so it is imperative to understand which language you want to address your brand. If the product target market is rural, then using Indian regional language is better compared to English.

If it is for urban, then English is preferred as it can be understood by many people and can be used for exporting also. If your product is ethnic then prefer local language brand naming is which will build strong connection with your target audience.

2. Type of brand naming

What kind of brand naming is required depending upon the explained examples can be executed as per the need and type of industry.

3. Do you need a single word or adjoined words are ok

Few people lookout for creative brand naming which are a combination of two words; this makes them easy to trademark and also increases brand recall value.

Crunchilicious – Crunchy+Delicious

4. What is the personality of your company

If your brand is cheerful, mature, humorous, premium, affordable etc. should be identified and then accordingly, the brand naming should be decided.

5. Vision and mission and type of industry

Brand vision, culture, ethic, culture and its values play a very vital role, and one should consider these elements while constructing brand naming this will give long term benefits.

What are the Perfect Brand Naming Ingredients?

• High recall value /memorable
• Easy and simple to remember
• Should be representing your brand personality
• Easily pronounceable and readable
• Meaningful
• Check if you can own a trademark
• Track availability of Domain name
• Should communicate the emotion and visual vigour

Also Read : Why to Rebrand? Successful Indian Rebranding Case studies

Step by Step Process to Create Perfect Brand Name 

A lot of companies assume that naming their brand will be simple until they try to do it.

With so many competing companies out there, already equipped with trademarked names, it’s difficult to find something that’s both original and meaningful to describe your company.

To make sure that you start the search for your Brand Naming on the right track, here are some of the things you’re going to need:

Step 1: Set clear brand objectives

Correct setting of brand objectives will help you to accomplish the correct brand naming. Are you planning casually to come up with a title for your company, or label to describe your products and services too? Develop a creative brief that outlines what you want to do on your naming journey.

We encourage our clients to build a project brief which will outline the brand objectives which they want to accomplish with their brand naming, and the identity they’re creating for their brand. Hence this initial step is quite crucial because it gets everyone on the same page, working towards an incredible moniker.

Step 2: Identify and define core identity

Before u start checking out for brand names find out what brand is known for and what it is trying to obtain.

The best brand naming technique is to show you how to highlight your brand culture and values in your title. Hence your audience can begin to see your unique personality before they ever engage with your company.

Your core brand identity should include the below elements:

• Brand vision
• Brand mission
• Brand culture and values

Step 3: Build a user persona

Few companies plan brand naming without considering their correct target audience, which is the biggest mistake. Always ensure you know your brand target market and audience with whom you will communicate.

If you are unaware of whom the brand identity is planned for, then it is a very tough call to find an impressive brand naming. Before you begin your brainstorming sessions, make sure that you have a distinct user persona or set of personas that you can use to examine your ideas from a customer’s perspective.

Hence this will help you to be in customers shoe and understand their viewpoint and perception.

Step 4: Brand naming (Discovery and Brainstorming)

Once you have got the initial characteristics of the brand naming technique out of the way, one can move onto the discovery and brainstorming stages. The brand naming process will typically follow a brand positioning phase, so you should already have some research on your company available.

The idea of going wild with your brand naming process may look funny, but particularly when you are trying out ways to create a distinct brand, which most companies do need some hints and constraints to work during the discovery and brainstorming stages.

So, hence you can start by:

Identify the adjectives which define your products or service

• Describe what emotional value your customers will get when they think of your product or service
• Check out feedback from people what they think about your brand.
• Hence all these steps will help you to come up with meaningful brand names and then out of many, and you can finalize one beautiful name which justifies your business and your brand personality.

Step 5: Execute your brand name and refine  

Once the brand name is in the market your job doesn’t stop here, you need to keep track on audience response, are people understanding what brand is all about, many such questions should be checked and then accordingly modifications are done.

Five Features to Test Your Brand Name

To assess your brand name, consider each by five characteristics:

• Distinctive:How does your brand name stand out compared to the competition?

• Sound:When you say brand name loudly, How does it sound? Is it easy to pronounce? Is it poetic or hard-hitting?

• Stickiness:Is the name memorable? Do you require someone to remind you about the name?

• Expression:Does the brand name demonstrate the personality of your business? Does it fit your brand’s culture?

• Appearance:What does the brand name look like in print medium and electronic media?

Brand Logo and Brand Name

A brand logo will help you prove the visual impact of your name. The brand logo should always be part of the brand naming; they both cannot be separated from each other.

To gain productive results, they both have to work in a coordinated way such as the Brand name “Disney” is all about bringing smiles on the faces of children it is all about fantasy work.

Hence they designed the brand logo of Disney they made sure it all about happiness, cheerful and fantasy world which completely justifies the brand name.

What is Logo Trademark?

Logos are a visual or graphic representation of a company’s identity and/or its products and services. A trademark is a mark capable of being represented graphically, protecting the logo design. It can distinguish the goods or services of one person from that of another when used in trade.

It can be inclusive of any or all of the below elements:

• Symbols
• Colours
• Words
• Fonts
• Images
• Letters or acronyms
• People, animals, or other fictitious characters

A trademark solidifies your ownership of intellectual property by establishing and using a logo. At the same time, here, you automatically have the sole right to utilise it and take legal action against infringement.

RIGHTS IN A LOGO BE PROTECTED?

In any other trademark, a business can establish rights in a brand logo in two different ways.

Use in the marketplace:

Your brand can only prevent another company from using the same logo if both of the following apply:

The company’s logo is confusingly similar to your logo, which is usually determined by comparing the appearance of the two symbols by monitoring its overlap of the companies’ products, services, and customer base.

Intellectual Property INDIA

To acquire national rights in a brand logo, a business must register it with the country patent and Trademark Office that confers national priority on the owner as of the filing date or the registration date. 

WHY LOGO NEEDS TO BE TRADEMARKED?

• Provides unique identity in the market
• Easy tool for communication
• It will secure you for life-long
• Easy to get identified by customers
• Can convey intellectual and emotional attributes
• It protects your image and ensures that other businesses don’t infringe

The Goals of Brand Naming and Trademarks

The effective brand goal of a name is to display a quick way to identify and remember the brand naming that will evoke a positive response in the audience.

Example, a lot of shoppers will buy their “brand naming” products as opposed to the general due to their perceived value.

A trademark will ensure legal protection for your brand naming. Through the process of registration, the company is able to seek legal action against others who copy or use the brand without permission.

Let’s look at a few powerful and iconic brand names that do this well

1. Google

Derived from word “googol”which means” 1 followed by 100 zeros” displays the owner’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s mission to give massive information to all users.

2. Amazon

The brands CEO Jeff Bezos wanted a name which starts with alphabet ‘A‘. He has chosen Amazon because it is the biggest river in the world, just what he wanted his company to be.

3. Skype

The idea was oriented from “Sky peer to peer” which was then names as Skyper and later it was made smaller as “Skype“.

4. WIPRO

It stands for Western Indian Products which is a Pvt ltd multinational IT consulting and system integration service brand in India.

5. Dabur

The eccentric etymology of brand comes from the founder “Dr .S.K.Burman” who was famous for his passion and missionary zeal and called as “Da” star “Bur” man in the local dialect which later became famous as Dabur.

6. Maruti Suzuki 

Maruti Udyog Pvt ltd has created a storm in the domestic automotive industry since 1981. Maruti is known as Hindu strong God Hanuman, son of the god of wind (Marut).

7. Tanishq

The name was masterstroke coined by Xerxes Desai who is now retired VC and MD of Titan Industries. The name Tanishq is derived from “Tan” means body and “ishq” means love.

CONCLUSION

The biggest obstacle for finalizing a brilliant brand naming is time and looking at trademark importance people should invest their time and effort towards it.  A lot of companies are not willing to put in the time or resources necessary to choose a name and trademark logo design that will empower their brand which is a mistake and should be avoided.

By investing the effective time, one can make all the difference in the world of their business as it will lead a better future in securing their brand. A brilliant and creative brand naming can set the foundation for your business to be a leader in its category while protecting your logo with trademark will ensure your secure space in market.

If you do not have the time, manpower or the resources to invest in the process of naming and protecting logo, then it is going to cost you for long hence this is when you need to hire a naming agency or branding agency.

Make sure you set aside a particular budget to acquire domain names which are professional as well as creative. DesignerPeople is a brand naming agency which will bring forward the resources necessary to get the job done and provide you correct guidance towards trademark also. Connect us today we will help you by providing ethical brand name which is creative and at same time its available in the trademark portal so we will help you to stay distinct and unique.

Author: Anush Malik

Being a strategist’s head and a long term visionary personality aims to achieve excellence in branding, packaging and digital marketing field. My 15 years of design experience and masters degree ais my strength which keeps me motivated and keep me going positively. I have participated in extensive branding design conquests in India, USA, Australia and New Zealand with winning zeal. My objective is to encourage start-ups and hence involves actively in the articles which will act as a productive intake of knowledge for them. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.