Who cares about my brand?

For those of you who dare ask this question to someone who works in public relations or marketing, the answer is, “everyone!”

Take the famous golden arches – think there is a single American alive who doesn’t immediately associate this symbol with McDonald’s tasty Big Macs and French fries?

Try this tagline: “Just Do It.” Nike, anyone? How about this one: “Don’t leave home without it.” Your American Express card, that is.

According to the American Marketing Association, a brand is a name, term, design, symbol or other feature that distinguishes products or services from competitive offerings. A brand defines your company and includes components like your company name, logo and tagline.

Here at Philosophy, we love branding and have put plenty of thought into our clients’ and our own. Our tagline, “shaping thought,” describes in two simple words our firm’s overall philosophy.

Think it’s easy to come up with a snazzy logo and snappy tagline that immediately identify your company? Think again. We spend hours researching and brainstorming ideas for new company names, logos and taglines.

To start, we gather names, tag lines and logos from other businesses. We know how the three work together to form the overall impression of the company. We interview key stakeholders in the business and ask questions like, “What problem does your product or service solve?” “Describe your target consumer.” “What do customers say about your company?” Oftentimes, the answers lead us to key words or phrases that are repeated over and over.

Then we focus on these key words, phrases or ideas and ask, “what do they mean?” “What image and emotions are they evoking?” We use them to lead us to word choices and design ideas for the name, tagline and logo. We put the words together to form the company name and tagline, using word tricks like alliteration (Manic Michelle’s Marionettes), rhyming (Very Berries Ice Cream) or double meaning (Fresh Air Lines) to make them especially catchy.

Most importantly, we have fun and get crazy! Anything goes when we’re brainstorming. We’ve come up with some of our best logos, names and taglines in this manner, even if the really wild ones don’t ultimately make the cut. Finally, we narrow our list to five or so of our favorites and try them out on a variety of people. We easily find out whether or not we’re getting the right idea across.

Philosophy’s creative process leads us to defining effective brands for our clients. More than just the basis for a powerful marketing and media campaign, a strong brand becomes the company. Feeling like “you’re in good hands,” anyone?