B2C and B2B brand identity design

“Your brand is what people say about you when you leave the room”  

A brand is far more than a logo, it is the embodiment of who you are as a company and is made up of all the touch points your customer has with you.

Investing in a unique, clearly defined and powerfully communicated brand delivers value and growth because it differentiates you from your competitors in the mind of your customers. This idea is what they believe about your brand and is what they refer to when it is time to buy.

People are increasingly busy and customers like brands they understand because it takes a lot of the hard work out of making a purchasing decision.

We achieve differentiation by developing a brand led strategy which drives the design and marketing communications.

Naming a Brand

The naming of your product, service or company is an important part of the branding process. Although it may seem like a simple task, the creation of an apt name for your company can often be fraught with difficulties. 

Difficulties of choosing a name

• The name of a company is an imaginary concept; it has no meaning until it is applied to real life. It can take months or even years of advertising and brand promotion for a company’s name to become synonymous with its core values and ideas.
•  The psychology behind words and images is very complex and subjective. A single name could evoke many different emotive responses in different types of people.
•  Many markets are flooded by different names and logos. It can be very difficult for emerging companies to find a suitable name or logo that is not protected by copyright laws.

Criteria for choosing an effective name
Names should:

• Be easy to read and pronounce in all languages, if possible.
• Have no negative connotations.
• Be adaptable to different mediums and trends.
• Relate to the company’s product or service, if possible.
• Be charismatic
• Be easily incorporated into a visual style or design.

Different types of name

• Individual – A company that is named after the company’s founder such as, Marks and Spencer.
• Descriptive – A name that describes the distinct selling point of the company or brand such as, Pop Tarts.
• Associative –A name that alludes to what the product to do or be such as, Walkman.
• Abbreviated- A name that contracts two distinct words to form a brand or company such as, Adidas (Adi Dassler).
• Initialled- such as, KPMG or PWC.
• Stylized- A name that is chose because it looks and or sounds attractive such as, Nike.

This material on naming has been primarily sourced from The Design Council’s The New Guide to Identity (London: Gower, 1996).