A brand named Sue or a brand name that won’t get you sued?
A brand named Sue or a brand name that won’t get you sued.
In the world of startups and entrepreneurship, choosing the right brand name can be a critical decision that can heavily impact your business.
As a brand communications and optics strategist, I’ve seen countless entrepreneurs rush into naming their brand without proper due diligence. This oversight can lead to legal troubles, brand confusion, and missed opportunities for growth.
The pitfalls of hasty brand naming
When you’re excited about your new venture, it can be tempting to quickly settle on a name that resonates with you and/or your team. You might think that securing a .com domain is enough to protect your brand identity. However, this approach is loaded with risks that can derail your startup and foundational brand before it even begins.
Beyond domain availability
While having an available domain can be important, it’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to authentic brand name security. Startups should consider conducting a thorough brand name discovery to ensure their chosen name isn’t already in use or trademarked by another entity. This process involves more than a simple web search; it requires deep diving into various online and offline resources.
Comprehensive brand name research
To really protect your startup’s identity, consider these first steps in your brand name research:
Incognito Searches: Use private browsing to get unbiased search results.
Trademark Databases: Check national and international trademark registries.
Social Media Platforms: Look for similar names across all major social networks.
Industry-Specific Directories: Explore niche databases relevant to your field.
Some optics of brand naming
Brand optics go beyond legal considerations. You may want to consider how your chosen name will be perceived by your target audience and within your industry. Ask yourself:
Does the name align with your brand values and mission?
Could it be easily misspelled or confused with another brand?
Does it have any unintended connotations in different languages or cultures?
Protecting your brand’s future
Selecting a brand name that truly sets you apart requires looking beyond what you love and what works for just you. It’s about finding a name that will:
Protect you from legal challenges
Differentiate you in a crowded market
Allow for future growth and expansion
As well as considering the intention and perceptions of that name
A strong brand name is an investment in your startup’s future. It should be able to withstand scrutiny in terms of compliance, comparisons, and competition.
Over just deciding on one you like and agree on, take the time, the due diligence and the effort to find out if it is a name that has the strength to stand up to the scrutiny of a brand discovery.
Think Before You Name
Before finalizing your brand name, take a step back and consider the long-term implications.
Engage in a thorough vetting process, possibly with the help of a brand strategist or legal professional.
This upfront investment may just save you from costly rebranding efforts, comparisons, brand confusion or legal battles down the road.
This can start with a series of strong questions…
Here is an example of the questions I run through with some clients: Brand Interrogation for Development
Closing Thought: building a sound foundation
In the end, your brand name should be more than just a label if you want it to have the extended and explained impact.
I believe it should be a strategic asset that supports your business goals and resonates with your target audience. By taking the time to choose wisely, you can lay a solid foundation for your business and add a reassurance and stability giving your brand the best chance to grow and thrive in a competitive and oversaturated business landscape.
In the world of branding, this is not only about avoiding a lawsuit. It is about creating a name that can propel your business forward in a faster and more secure and sound way.
So, will your brand be named Sue, or will it be a name that sets you up for success without the risk of being sued? The choice, and the future of your brand and its name is in your hands.
CommSphere: Marketing and Messaging Short Video Musings.
First Discovery Steps Podcast Transcription Chapters
First Discovery Steps Podcast Transcription Chapters:
0:00 Introduction to Client Onboarding Discovery
0:35 Working with Loren Weisman: Process Overview
1:46 Authenticity in Client Relationships
3:05 Avoiding “Boxed In” Client Approaches
3:50 Honesty and Integrity in Messaging
5:15 Why You Shouldn’t Chase Trends
6:50 Setting Boundaries in Client Onboarding
8:31 Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
Song: Wait What Really Ok, Ok. With your host, Loren Weisman. This is a fully licensed theme song for the show about stuff that makes you say, Wait What Really Ok, Ok.
Loren:This is a mix of a podcast as well as an overview of how I do initial onboarding or starting of a discovery when it comes to working with me. And at the same time, if you’re not working with me or you’re working with someone that does messaging and optics or strategy or even for that matter, marketing, some of the things that I do, you may want to look to ask those people that you’re working with to do as well.
All too often, those that are looking to rebuild their messaging set, their branding, they’re oftentimes setting you into a template. It’s something that pre exists. It’s something to really just take, you know, as they claim, we think, out of the box, except they’re using all the same inbox terms. Something that’s very important in the initial onboarding time with me is to learn a little bit more so that the words really can reflect the individual. I feel we’ve come to a time where, and I’m sure you’ve seen the emails, it’s appear as an expert, appear as an expert, be seen as an expert.
But here’s the problem. Morally, ethically, faithfully, what if you aren’t an expert? What if they aren’t an expert? Many of these people are setting up words, framing phrases and optics to appear as something that they’re not. So if you truly have that expertise, if you genuinely have that authority, if you have real experience, to work your messaging, to work your brand foundation, to work the foundation of everything you’ll do from any kind of content to social, to press releases, to what you put on the web, to take that time to ensure it has your voice and not a voice is key.
A lot of people choose to jump away from their voice because they might not have enough to be a voice yet. So they use a lot of these tactics. I ran across someone a couple days ago. This guy had great authority, great knowledge, great background, excellent. And yet everything that he was putting out on social stuff, on his call to actions, on his, you know, the masterclass, I kind of disagreed with that thing. Masterclass thing.
He was using hype and messaging tactics of someone that had no authority. And in turn, it took down his true authority. He used hype, he used processing, he used this, you know, false involvement. And in that. And inside of those words, it took away from him.
First Discovery Steps Transcription Continued:
He didn’t need to do that. Whoever he was working with that put him into a box and took out all the elements that made him special. And in turn, he just sounded like someone else. And he sounded like someone that, for that matter, was kind of lying.
In that same case, many of these marketers are stating, this is what you say, this is how you say it. You need to do this, you need to do that. You’ve got to do this to be seen. And in many cases, when some of these tactics that they’re using are for people that don’t have the ability, the authority, or the expertise. So if you are true to heart in your word, if you are true to heart in your honor, in your morals, then it’s crucial to find your voice.
Not the voice, not a voice, but your voice, and work through the tactics and the honesty and honor and even humility. You can show off and highlight your authority without an arrogance, without making false claims, without making claims that are going to shut you down and push you out.
Think along the lines of where you come from, where you are going, what you’ve done in the past, not even necessarily trying to hide things that may be different from the given career that you’re in, because some of your expertise could have evolved, evolved from another area of expertise and that combination and that truth and that for someone to be able to vet you, would you be open inside of your messaging, inside of what you’re putting out there for your biggest hero, to see it, for the person that’s looking up to you, to see it, for a son or a daughter or a family member, or do you have certain stuff and do you find yourself switching?
First Discovery Steps Transcription Continued
But you know, depending on the audience, if you have the authority, there is a stability, and there can be that stability that can make a greater foundation for your voice for what you share. Don’t jump on the latest trending thing. I have a friend that’s a chiropractor I work with. One of the things I’ve had him stay away from is the fart joke.
I mean, it’s a fart joke. It started going a couple months ago, and it was somebody that was bending somebody and they’re. Do you hear the crack? And then all of a sudden you hear fart. And the chiropractor says, oh, that’s natural. Don’t worry about it. And then the person on the table being cracked is not embarrassed because they say, well, that was you. So that was funny the first thousand times when all of these chiropractors jumped on it. This trending copycat vibe doesn’t Bring any kind of authenticity. Okay, great. There’s a funny joke.
Okay, well, maybe my audience hasn’t seen that. Well, maybe it might honor you a little bit more to share the root content, but at the same time coming back to you to find the content that is about you, to find the message of how you deliver, that’s about you to find the right people to work with you.
Stop thinking along the lines of you need to cast the net to get absolutely everybody, because that isn’t necessarily true if you are casting the net to decide the people that you most want to work with, that you most want to sell to, and even talking about the people that, hey, you know what? This product isn’t for you. I’m not for many people.
If you don’t have that authority, if you don’t have that honor, if you aren’t prepared to be completely transparent, I’m not judging you, but I won’t work with you. I have my boundaries. And inside of setting your boundaries inside, in this initial onboarding, of knowing what you will do, what you won’t do, who you work with, who you won’t work with, what’s been done before, looking at the subjective to the objective, looking at the compliance, looking at what you’re allowed to do in a given field, especially if you fall into medical or law or other areas, to look at the complacency in a given field, to look at the competition, not to copy it, not to one up, it’s not to hype it, but to find your voice.
First Discovery Steps Transcription Continued
The cornerstone, the core cornerstone or the cornerstone of what I look for inside of onboarding is a discovery to learn an array of the individual, what they’ve learned, how they execute, how they work, all these elements that I’m talking about.
And then inside of that, building a genuine, authenticity, individualized message and messaging packet that then can be used for content, can be used for web, it can be used for bio branding, the outline of a book, setting up plans, if there’s going to be a podcast, if there isn’t, and making sure that it’s an individual journey and an individual map forward, it can align and have similarities to other things. But if you’re out there not being true to you and having to lie, deceive, copy, cheat and steal, and if that works for you, I mean, by all means do your thing.
But I know that there are a lot of people out there that genuinely want to create, connect, sell and do business from the heart and from a solid foundation. And if you do, then make it, you make it true, make it transparent and don’t buy into so much of the hype of so many people not telling the full story or claiming they have all the secrets or all the answers or exactly what you need to do to appear as something you’re not or on that same token to to hear use this to appear as an expert when you already are an expert and as opposed to using that you can build a foundation to showcase, amplify and illuminate the expert you have.
Be true to you, be true to your experience what you do, how you’ve done it, what you want to do and you may just connect then with a greater more sound individualized message that will reach the type of people you want to work with and impact them in a way where they may hear just their their ears opening a little bit more their eyes opening a little bit more to see the difference that the truth makes over the constant fails that hype marketing basically lies about.
Protecting your brand’s future
Selecting a brand name that truly sets you apart requires looking beyond what you love and what works for just you. It’s about finding a name that will:
First Discovery Steps Transcription