Branding for Startups

JFDI Mentor Shauna Li Roolvink, Founder & Principal Consultant of BrandHub, spoke to 50 founders last night at the JFDI–Innov8 2012 Bootcamp. She went over branding case studies and shared tips on naming a company, protecting a brand, and how to build a brand with limited resources when you are a startup.

What was her advice to the founders?

Pick a good name from the start.

It’s expensive to change it later on when you factor in rebranding consulting, educating customers, etc. How does one pick a good name? “There is no magical formula” said Shauna, but take into consideration:

“Invented names are the easiest to trademark but most expensive to market.”

“Names with lots of vowels are more friendly.”

“We advise against acronyms, since they are hardest to remember.” Whoops, JFDI!

Find out what your name means/sounds like in different languages.

Make sure the name doesn’t have bad connotations in the languages spoken by people in your target market. In fact, don’t necessarily stop there – it’s a globalized world and just because you don’t have customers in a country or region now doesn’t mean your product or service won’t be there in the future.

Shauna gave the example of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ failed branding of a new consulting arm which they named “Monday.” Apparently, PwC employees in charge of choosing the brand name never experienced the Monday blues. You can see a funny obituary for the “Monday” campaign written by BBC.

Protect your brand.

Shauna suggested that the URL is probably the most important brand asset for web and mobile startups.

She pointed startups to the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore Webpage, recommending startups to check online that no one else has trademarked their startup name, and to consider filing trademarks for the company name and company logo (2 separate trademarks).

You can build a brand with limited resources.

Startups have limited money to spend on branding, so what can they do?

“What you do doesn’t have to be expensive but be creative.” Think outside of the box to come up with creative launch events and strategies. Engage journalists to get your story into the media. You can also leverage your networks and affiliations and use their brand power to help grow yours.

Through BrandHub, Shauna has worked with a number of start-ups as well as established brands including SingTel Innov8, inSing, Appio Labs, Mozat, Progeniq,RedRock, Certis CISCO, Changi Airport Group, Portek International, The Arts House, National Heritage Board, National Library Board, NUS School of Business, Sarawak Energy, and Attorney General Chambers. You can follow BrandHub on Facebook.