Vanessa and I love Halloween. We were fans long before we started our first brand! In fact, one of our goals is to throw a huge Halloween bash when we get an office! Because Halloween is awesome!
Stick with me here, or I’ll find a way to sneak you into a witch’s cauldron, Looney Tunes-style. EH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!
Too much?
Beyond “awesome,” Halloween makes me think of a whole lot of things: fun, make-believe, candy, The Monster Mash, killer costumes – and horribly, horribly wrong costumes. It also makes me think of candy corns, which are gross. Don’t eat ’em.
If Halloween Had a Logo
While we’re always talking red or blue, or red and white or blue and white when it comes to logos, but Halloween’s colors are already a huge part of it’s identity. There would be no choice but to make it orange and black.
For this post, I really wanted to make the Mayniax Branding logo orange and black, but the stubborn brander inside me kept it from happening.
If Halloween Had a Visual Hammer
This one’s no contest – Halloween’s visual hammer is the jack-o-lantern. Just strolling around Ann Arbor this time of year, one can’t help but be inundated by all the pumpkins with crazy faces on them. Plus, come trick or treat time, they’ll be on porches all across the land!
If Halloween Had a Tagline
Trick or treat! ‘Nuff said. “Happy Halloween” just seems too generic.
We believe fun and silliness keep us young! And when so many people have nothing to look forward to during the week, isn’t it nice to have a day where you can hide behind a mask, cut loose, and feel like a kid again? Unless you actually are a kid – then you get to sneak a lotta candy up to bed. If you only get one day out of the year where you get to cut loose and stay young, make sure it’s this one. Make sure it’s Halloween!
If Halloween Had a Dork in a Beachcomber Hat, Eye Patch, Gorilla Sweater, Christmas Bow, and Plastic Sword
Stay gutsy, gang!
The world is broken, and we believe only entrepreneurs can fix it. But they’ll never get that chance if no one cares about their brands. So, with a little bit o’ nuttiness, a little bit o’ research, and a lotta bit o’ guts, it’s our job to make people care.
Wanna set up a happy fun time chat with Ann Arbor’s favorite branding team? Then click here, fill out the form, and we’ll get back to ya!
I’ve been wanting to write a blog on naming your own gutsy brand for months. In fact, I did write one! And as I was putting the finishing touches on it, I decided – in a fit of brilliance – to delete it from the official Mayniax Branding iPad, thinking I could recover it from the iCloud. And I couldn’t.
And my business partner, Vanessa, rolled her eyes.
And now that you’re all laughing at me, it’s time to present:
5 Tips for Naming Your Gutsy Brand!
Tip 1: Don’t Worry About Putting What You Do in Your Brand Name
“But Dave, you guys have ‘Branding’ in your name?” I know, but the name everyone remembers is “Mayniax.” And we’re building it so that, in the future, we can remove “Branding” from the name – like Apple did when they removed “Computer” from theirs. Don’t worry, there’s always a plan.
For examples of not putting what you do in your brand name, think of all the brand names you can. Hell, I’ll even list a few: Target, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Budweiser, Exxon, Apple, Macy’s, Sears, Walmart, Hewlett Packard, Google, Microsoft, Toyota, Disney, Amazon, McDonald’s, etc. In fact, you can click on over to Interbrand’s list of the best global brands, here. We all know what most of them are because they’re brands we’ve all heard of, but not a single one has its product or service in its name – unless you count the “Cola” part of Coca-Cola.
And besides, saying what you do is what your tagline’s for.
Tip 2: Don’t Use Generic Words
Al Ries, who co-authored several influential marketing books – including Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, and The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding – talks about never using generic names for your brand(s). In fact, he flat out tells us to keep “nature” out of brand names.
When we say “generic,” we mean to stay away from words that can have a lot of different meanings. Words like: systems, solutions, services, business, group, tech, good, stuff, studios, etc. All of those words can mean different things to different people.
Long-time readers of this blog know the name of Vanessa’s and my first brand: Good Stuff Studios. Seriously, I don’t think it gets much more generic than that. And that’s why we decided to change it.
Because, like Al Ries says, “If ya got a bad name, change it.”
Tip 3: Do Use a Made-up Word
We have three reasons for this one!
1. It’s easy to trademark a word that’s never been used before
2. You can define that word, so it’s possible to make it stand for the category, like Kleenex is to tissue
3. Google loves a branded search!
So how do ya make up a name?
Telescoping
Telescoping is one way to give a shot. That’s when you mash some generic words together to see what sticks. Here are some quick examples: Microchip + Software = Microsoft, Federal + Express = FedEx, or Cocaine + Kola = Coca-Cola. Yeah, Coca-Cola used to be made with cocaine.
Because nutrition.
Anagrams
Coming up with anagrams is another way to name your gutsy brand. Unfortunately, using online anagram finders give you words already in use. So try coming up with your own using nouns, verbs, and adjectives you think of when you think of yourself and / or your target market.
Spell a real word differently
You may have heard of a little internet search company called Google. Well, that’s actually a re-spelling of the word “googol,” which is a mathematical term. And you don’t want me discussing mathematical terms. Another example we hope springs to your mind is Mayniax, which is obviously a re-spelling of “maniacs.”
The trick to this one is making sure people can’t possibly mispronounce the new spelling. When we were coming up with Mayniax, we played with several ways to spell it. One of which was “Maniax,” which would’ve been pronounced all kinds of ways.
Tip 4: Keep it Short
Naming your gutsy brand, like everything else branding-wise, falls under the heading of simplicity.
If we look back at Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2016 rankings, We’ll see the longest name, character-wise, is Hewlett Packard Enterprise, with 26. But, since everyone says “HP,” – even though it’s technically not that “HP” – we’ll give this to Johnson & Johnson, with 17 characters – and we don’t recommend using ampersands because they can’t go in your URL. The longest one syllabically is Tiffany & Company, but since everyone calls them Tiffany’s, we’re giving this one to Johnson & Johnson, as well.
Something to keep in mind is the aforementioned brands were created a long time ago, when there was less competition, and when the average human’s attention span was longer than that of a goldfish. So keep it as short as possible, with as few syllables as possible. That will help keep it memorable.
Tip 5: Don’t Use Acronyms
As mentioned before, our first brand was Good Stuff Studios – and if you haven’t done so, yet, read our full story here.
What I didn’t mention before, is that some friends of mine and myself started Good Stuff Studios before Vanessa and I even met! And it was up to yours truly to design the logo.
And the logo I designed was a huge GSS, with a tiny Good Stuff Studios underneath it.
The problem with GSS is it’s also the acronym for the “Good Samaritan Society.” While I’m not exactly the devil, I doubt anyone would confuse me with being a member of said society. The point is, all the acronyms are taken. And the ones that aren’t, violate Tip 4.
Besides, it’s much easier to remember a real word than a combination of letters.
Here’s a re-cap of our five tips for naming your gutsy brand!
Tip 1: Don’t put what you do in your brand name
Tip 2: Don’t use generic words
Tip 3: Do use a made-up word
Tip 4: Do keep it short
Tip 5: Don’t use acronyms
And as a reminder, don’t play with technologies you don’t understand. Because if your business partners are like mine, you can actually hear their eyes rolling at you.
Stay gutsy, gang!
The world is broken, and we believe only entrepreneurs can fix it. But they’ll never get that chance if no one cares about their brands. So, with a little bit o’ nuttiness, a little bit o’ research, and a lotta bit o’ guts, it’s our job to make people care.
Wanna set up a happy fun time chat with Ann Arbor’s favorite branding team? Then click here, fill out the form, and we’ll get back to ya!
I have about a zillion branding topics in my head I want to talk about, but I’ll save them for a zillion rainy days. Instead, I thought I’d give you some super sweet branding moves that should be simple to implement, so you can differentiate yourself from those poor saps that haven’t discovered this blog, yet. So, let’s get to ’em!
1. Brand yourself as a specialist
I know, I know, you’re an entrepreneur! You need money! And you’ll run yourself into the wall doing every possible little thing you know how to do to get it!
I get it. I’ve been there. But the fact is offering too many things is a huge reason why business owners and entrepreneurs struggle from month to month. Look, I know the struggle’s real – I hate myself for typing that – and that you need to make ends meet, so I’m not suggesting you cease all the extra things you’re doing. I’m just saying that, when you brand and market your business, you focus on selling only one product or service – the one you actually give a damn about. That way, you’re setting yourself up to only sell that one product or service, long-term.
And, in case you’re not sure focus is where it’s at, here are a few links you’ll want to check out:
I suggest this for one reason: differentiation, especially if you do a lot of networking.
Look at the huge pile of business cards in your office. Now, go through them and try to remember everyone who gave them to you. Most people can’t, and those who can should probably be working in a lab somewhere. Or possibly being tested in a lab somewhere.
In that stack of business cards, there were a few with faces, but the vast majority didn’t have them. And that’s why you put your face on your business card. And don’t be shy because you’re not “photogenic.” I’m not exactly a pretty boy, and if you go to our website or Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google+ accounts, you’ll see it everywhere. For better or worse. Which means it’s probably worse.
3. Make your logo red or blue, or red and white or blue and white
We conducted a study of the Fortune 100’s logos to come up with this theory. It’s not always set in stone, but it’s definitely something you should consider. And hey look, you can find our blog post about it here!
4. Create a tagline
The goal of branding is always to be first in the mind of clients and prospective clients alike. The reason I talk so much about simplicity and focus is because no one remembers complicated. One of the ways to get in the mind is through a tagline people can’t forget. When we come up with a tagline, we use three things: 1) Leadership. 2) What you do. 3) A word for clients and potential clients to remember. Bonus points if you can give it some alliteration or make it rhyme!
It’s amazing the number of businesses we come across that don’t use taglines. Don’t be that guy!
5. Limit social media
Before we get into this, I want to type something that seems counter-intuitive to it: grab every social media account you can! You never know what’s going to take off, and you don’t want to try to get an account later, only to have your name snatched up by someone else.
With that typed, here’s what I mean by “limit social media.”
Avoid constantly updating them all. To be a real social media expert on a ton of networks, you actually need to do social media 40+ hours per week. Because I’m typing to gutsy entrepreneurs and business owners, I’m guessing you don’t have that kind of time to play on Facebook. So, my suggestion is this: focus on one social media platform. That way, you should get pretty good at it, and you’ll still have time to do everything else that consumes your work week. And, by the time you feel like you’ve really mastered that one platform, maybe you’ll be able to hire a social media expert to handle all the platforms you signed up for.
Remember, gang, branding is a long-term project. It takes a long time to get a brand going, but when it catches, it catches fast! Keep at it, and if you’d like to talk to us about helping you brand, feel free to get a hold of us at contact@mayniaxbranding.com, or sign up for our newsletter on your way out of the site.
Have fun, and as always,
Stay gutsy!
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