This is the oldest marketing lesson in the book – What to call our brand. It seems it doesn’t matter how many times the story is told, but some businesses never seem to learn. Here’s a bad example of a clothing brand name which I saw in Bloomingdale’s today.
Yep, Acne. Which means pimples here in Australia. I’m surprised it even made it instore. So here’s the startup blog rules for brand names. Which I’ll keep short:
- Try to invent a word that currently has no meaning. (our job is to invent meaning under it)
- Ensure you can ‘own it’ globally. (No confusion, registerable)
- Make sure it doesn’t mean something ridiculous, in your country or another.
That’s all that matters in real terms. Other rules are made up by people who are focused on stuff which doesn’t really have much to do with brand building.
