It comes in many flavours and colours, but ultimately it conforms to a few conventions that separate the awesome from the average.
You can tell when food, regardless of how special or everyday it is, has been prepared by an expert food lover, an expedient novice, or worse still, on a production line.
For years they have bared cheek and raised several fingers up to the often recklessly conventional cabal of mainstream TV.
Horseferry Road’s finest have been the country’s most diligent purveyors of thoughtful and slightly uncomfortable promotion for decades. Think Jamie’s School Dinners, the internet-only swear-fest, and Superhumans for starters. To this esteemed collection of premier league media branding we must now add the current Sochi spot (Gay Mountain).
If I got an English pound for every time a business asked me to give them a name like ‘Google’ I’d be a wealthy man. Their thinking is usually sound – it will help them to differentiate from the crowd in their market. The trouble is, when presented with names like ‘Google’ or ‘Yahoo’ the business suddenly loses all confidence. It seeps from them in front of my very eyes as they contemplate their new logo on their website, in a supermarket aisle or store frontage. Google-type names sound just too...different. The trouble with made-up or ‘clever’ names (that have a back story) is they tend not to trigger any familiarity bells, so they get rejected by businesses.
“It should do exactly what it says on the tin” I hear. No it shouldn’t if you are late to the market and there are already 1001 competitors already trampling on your new patch.
So they are offered names that communicate invariably generic attributes or benefits, literally and metaphorically, which of course they think are too dull. And the .com domain isn’t available. So off we head to Google-land again.
There are some great exceptions to this rule – Moonpig, Moo.com and Ocado being a few - fun and distinctive names that mean absolutely nothing, but which we can remember with relative ease. Unlike easyprint, cardsmadeeasy and other slightly dull generics.
Mimo was created from the names of our director’s children. It also means Multiple Inputs Multiple Outputs, which describes our approach to brand development, and is therefore what we do every day to create lasting differentiation for our clients.
On discussing the subject of naming your brand on Twitter, there is a common theme emerging with these successful businesses:
The simpler your business name, the more impact it will have.
A great, simple, short name can create a real buzz and position you as a real competitor. You will differentiate yourself from the crowd with an aspect of mystery from the offset. Just like if someone tells you that they have a secret, you will instantly want to find out more. It is that level of power that really makes a great brand.
Your brand values are important too and remember to keep this in mind. A way to support your brand name further is to use a 'tagline' for example, Nike's 'Just Do It' and you should refer back to this tagline when presenting your brand to someone new and to the public.
Mimo Hints:
If you need some advice with your branding strategy please feel free to get in contact with us at Mimo.
There are a multitude of similarities between the sectors of online gaming and video gaming; each driven by the latest generation of technology; skilled teams looking to create hit graphically charged games; boasting multi-million budgets and followed by a dedicated base of players and fans. However, according to Giles Thomas, founder and partner, MIMO Brands, the similarities are as nothing compared to one striking difference - where video gaming has its iconic brands such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Lara Croft and Call of Duty - there are, in his opinion, few if any defining brands in online gaming yet. Mr. Thomas is a branding expert with experience across a range of different categories and has acute knowledge of the video gaming sector as the former European Marketing Director at SEGA, having also worked in the same role for MTV Networks Europe. His view is that all marketers can benefit from the learning and experiences of their piers in other sectors, and that an insular approach can only lead to isolation to a sector, including potentially igaming.
"If you look at the brands people love, the ones they most associate with, you’ll find none currently from the world of igaming, which I believe is a missed opportunity given the size of the online gaming business” states Mr Thomas. "The online gaming sector is at the point the video gaming industry was before the arrival of brands such as Sonic, Tombraider, Harry Potter and Call of Duty. These new brands were driven by a different approach to brand development and marketing, and they set new benchmarks for their industry. iGaming marketers can choose to embark on a similar path to create brands with meaning and value, to spark their own brand revolution, or to continue to rely on the trench warfare of free trial and incentives."
Mr. Thomas references numerous industries in which the creation of brands redefined the sector. Mobile phone industry branding and marketing were revolutionised by Hutchinson Telecom launching the Orange brand that promised a brighter, wire-free future in a sector previously content with fighting a coverage and price war. In so doing the brand created customer preference and enormous value for then and future parent companies. Apple changed the multiple clone PC sector into the biggest brand on the planet. And the question is, can the online gaming sector do the same? "Online gaming can enter a new phase and begin to think bigger about brands - it needs to move from 'look what we can do' into customer orientated brands whereby players think - 'that's the brand for me,'" states Mr. Thomas.
There are strong parallels between the igaming sector and the early years of the video gaming sector; each with very fragmented markets. However, as we saw in video gaming, the online sector will consolidate and as that happens the combined budgets allow for the creation of a different type of branding. It's not entirely budget led - but the desire to build long-term properties is about more than quarterly revenue figures. "Currently, the online gaming sector appears to be dominated by the short-termist view, whereas building brands requires quite opposite thinking," explains Mr. Thomas.
If you look at some of the advertising campaigns currently promoting igaming businesses, there remain massive cliches and stereotypes that are actually being encouraged by the companies involved. Actors renowned for playing gangsters help to reinforce perceptions of the category held by the wider public. "The semiotics of gambling communication have not only remained largely the same, but usually been reinforced - the strong common visual language that portrays poker in darkened rooms, betting conducted by hard men, and a sector that celebrates a slightly seedy image," said Mr. Thomas. "Given the technology behind many of these sites is much the same, every brand has the opportunity to think about building their own unique attributes. The makers of fizzy coloured water in cans can create brands as different as Coca Cola from Pepsi. Lager is very similar whatever can it is poured from, but the way the brand is perceived by the public is down to the way the owners have branded their products, injecting attitude, meaning and values that differentiate the product experience."
The negative public opinion surrounding betting and online gambling isn't something that phases Mr. Thomas or dampens his view of the potential of brands in igaming. "The video gaming industry received an enormous amount of stick over the last 15 years for its pedalling of increasingly violent games, partly aimed at young people," outlined Mr. Thomas. "The igaming sector must tackle similar challenges by really engaging with their customers. Branding helps define how you talk to your customers and behave around them - understanding your customer relationship is key, and the relationship between players, games, money and the emotional benefits of igaming. For example, there are many different types of players from novice to hard-core gamer, all playing for a slightly different combination of reasons. Businesses need too understand everything they can about their customers and build their brands around these insights."
"In my view, PaddyPower has demonstrated best an intention to create a differentiated brand. They have adopted some of the language of lager brands to create preference, and in so doing have managed to stand out from the igaming crowd. Their communication is usually unmistakably their own, which is a claim that few if any other igaming providers can make. This is a sector currently occupied by ‘brands’ where the customer is selecting their product of choice through promotion and convenience, rather than through brand association. Which is a shame, because there are multitude of opportunities for them to differentiate. Frankly, if insurance companies and price comparison sites can successfully differentiate, then you can bet that igaming brands can."
Your definition of a brand will be different to mine. The Intellectual Property Office says this about a brand
A brand can be a trade name, a sign, symbol, slogan or anything that is used to identify and distinguish a specific product, service or business. But a brand is much more than this; it can also be a ‘promise of an experience’ and conveys to consumers a certain assurance as to the nature of the product or service they will receive and also the standards the supplier or manufacturer seeks to maintain.
A brand is an intangible asset of your business and is often the most valuable part. So how much is a brand worth?
A brand is really only worth what somebody is prepared to pay for it. If you were to try and calculate what a brand was worth on a business already for sale then in theory you could take the amount the business is to be sold for, deduct its fixed assets and the remainder, often referred to, as "Goodwill" is essentially the value of that businesses brand.
Calculating the value of your brand is a far greater task and there are many methods that we will discuss another day.
If you are looking to sell your business then developing your brand is going to be key. Here are a few areas we suggest you focus to add value to your brand and increase its value.
