Archives for May 2019

Criteria for a Great Brand Name

May 28, 2019 by ZestyBrands Leave a Comment

What’s in a name?

Are you a rising startup in search of the perfect brand name? Choosing a brand name requires strategic thinking and consideration of brand naming guidelines. Choose the wrong name, or even the wrong spelling could cause an incredible amount of headaches and missed opportunities.

If you want to create a brand name that sticks in the minds of your customers, and works for you to create brand recognition and awareness, then you’ll need to keep the following factors in mind:

Differentiated

A great name stands apart from the competition, as well as from other words in a sentence. If you want to own a unique position, you don’t want to be confused with another company or blend in with the rest of the market. From a legal standpoint, you want the rights to own and protect your name.

Meaningful

More than just stating a feature or function, a great name creates a feeling or shares a benefit. Choose words that evoke the positive associations you want customers to have with your brand.

Has creative legs

The best names have creative “legs”—they readily lend themselves to great storytelling, graphics, PR, advertising, and other communications.

Easy to spell, easy to say

A great name doesn’t leave your customer tongue-tied. A great name feels good to say, therefore people like the way it sounds and are more willing to use it and remember it.

Download the:
Brand Naming Criteria

4 Questions to Ask Before Branding Your Business

May 23, 2019 by ZestyBrands Leave a Comment

Are you ready to get Zesty?

Branding is an opportunity to connect with the right audience in an unforgettable way, but without an understanding of the branding process, your business will be lost and your money will be wasted.

Here are four questions to get you thinking about brand strategy. Our Vancouver branding agency is passionate about working with you to build a brand infused with intelligence, meaning and imagination. We’re excited to help ambitious companies, so if that’s you then get in touch!

1. What is your core conviction?

Your passion which motivates stakeholders forward—a common purpose beyond profitability.

2. Who is your audience, and why should you be their only choice?

A brand needs to resonate on a deep emotional level with its audience. Understanding who they are and connecting with them authentically will be what drives sales and loyalty.

3. What is your zest-factor?

Carving out a defendable and distinct position and personality is how you will make a notable impact.

4. Why are you seeking a branding agency?

If your strategy stops short at a logo, then your efforts are vain, meaningless and disconnected.

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Let’s chat about launching your new brand—drop us an email!

How-to Write a Brand Value Proposition

May 17, 2019 by ZestyBrands Leave a Comment

The best thing since sliced bread

A value proposition is a clear statement of the results that the customer can expect to receive from your product or service. Because your marketing initiatives are organized around this value proposition, it’s critical to get it right.

A big idea around the brand is more important than a big idea behind your marketing. Without a value proposition, even the most creative and well-targeted advertising won’t increase brand’s value.

Value proposition worksheet

Your product/service with key features ensures customer always enjoys key benefit

Finding Your Brand Voice

May 6, 2019 by ZestyBrands Leave a Comment

Branding Beyond Design

As brand designers, we develop many aspects of the brand, from the strategic thinking that creates the big idea, to the brand visual graphics, colour strategy, typography and imagery. But there’s an aspect that many startups and designers overlook, and that is a brand’s voice.

People often say, “we need branding work,” and then they begin the conversation talking about colour schemes and logos—That’s a mistake. Your logo, your tagline, your colour scheme, your graphics are just the outward facing articulations of your brand’s purpose, promise, voice and personality.

Engaging, relatable, and memorable brands are more than marketing tactic—they’re about telling a story and forming lasting connections. Are you the kind of company that people want to chat with over a few pints? Or are you the one who people are continually inspired by? Perhaps you’re the one they look to for expert advice. Defining your voice will give you a powerful tool for connecting with your customers, but only if you know how to do it.

Your audience is constantly inundated with marketing messages these days, but if you can learn how to give them something that truly surprises or intrigues them, they will pause and really consider what you have to say. They might smile, or laugh, or take a moment to think. Done right, that moment will stick with them, and they might even share it with someone else—because we all love a good story.

People buy from people they like, know, and trust based on a relationship cultivated over time, they don’t want a robotic, one-sided, copy-and-paste relationship.

Finding your brand voice

Behavioural psychologist and Stanford professor Jennifer Aaker designed a framework that posits there are five dimensions to one’s personality, and each contains a set of facets. Each facet contains a set of traits.

To apply these to a brand, you rank the traits on a scale of one to five, with one being the least representative of your brand and five being the most. The Five Dimensions Framework can be used to compose the personality of a new brand or to articulate a brand’s current state (defined by customer perception and attitudes) and future state (defined by desired perception).

Another method is using Carl Jung’ 12 archetypes. His theory was that the identities are derived from our most primitive instincts and collective unconscious, forming the foundation of who we are and what stories we tell and surface in our culture. We tend to have one dominant personality, but often we’ll have a back-up as well.

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For brand strategy services, send a message to our Vancouver Branding Studio