There’s hardly a day that goes by without a new brand being launched in Bangkok, and they’re mostly real estate brands. The market runs hot and at times it seems as if the creative runs cold. Billboards and newspaper wraps are emblazoned with obscure names that have little to do with the core essence of the product and add little to the emotional buy in, and at worst are not memorable. 

So you’ve had this vision that your new idea is a sure fire winner. You’ve done your research; market/competitive set/target audience research, fine tuned your product and now you’re ready to launch it except for one thing …you need to give it a name and create a brand. Sounds easy perhaps but in reality, beware the pitfalls.

     Brand creation is a tricky business – or perhaps more aptly, it is a ‘sticky’ business. There  are some basic rules to remember – not least the ‘three key rules of marketing: brand recognition, brand recognition, brand recognition’. A new brand has to be sticky, achieving that strange alchemy whereby it really gets lodged permanently in people’s minds. It has to resonate with its target audience, and be built around an original and compelling story. Creating a successful brand means coming up with something that is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s not just about a groovy logo or a catchy slogan or a memorable name. All of these elements must work together, woven around a credible story, along with clever use of colour, design and visual mood and tone, to create a brand with true cut-through and staying power.

     As an example, the following short exchange rings true. A lady, sitting next to Raymond Loewy, CEO of EXXON at dinner, struck up a conversation.
'Why', she asked 'did you put two Xs in Exxon?'
'Why ask?' he asked
'Because', she said, 'I couldn't help noticing.'
'Well', he responded, 'that's the answer.'

     While the creative process is key in brand creation in terms of coming up with the inspired ‘x factor’ that will set the brand apart, there are some basic rules to keep in mind. From a legal standpoint, a new brand should be able to be trademarked, and that means chosing a legally strong name. One way to achieve this is  by using an invented or coined word – such as Google, Skype, Kodak, Kleenex or Kia. Another strategy is to opt for a brand name is totally unrelated to the product or sector to differentiate – Penguin books springs to mind. You might choose a name that evokes a feeling or action rather than a specific product or service – in the local market, Oishi – Japanese for ‘delicious’ – has been a great brand success story for the Japanese restaurant and green tea beverage brand. Jaguar cars and the ubiquitous Twitter are other brands that fits this category. Other options include acronyms, combinations of different words – Facebook and Whirlpool, to mention two, and foreign words.

     Some of the chief no-nos when it comes to getting trademark clearance include words that literally describe the product or service, words that are highly suggestive of the product or service, geographical place names, people’s names (unless they are very unusual), superlatives such as ‘classic’ or ‘premium’, common industry terms, marks of less than three characters, and marks that consist of numbers.

     According to Interbrand, a recent survey of the top 100 brands in the world revealed that only one described the goods or services of the actual business. Care to take a guess which brand is was? Pizza Hut. (Although this obviously didn’t include acronyms such as KFC and GE, which derived from more specific names). Why do most brands avoid this route? Apart from the potential trademark difficulties, it is extremely limiting in terms of future brand extension. Pizza Hut burgers, anyone? Contrast this with, say Virgin, one of the world’s most innovative and extended brands featuring a catchy and slighly risque name and a story woven seamlessly around the exploits of its adventurous and entrepreneurial founder, Richard Branson. Since its creation as a record store, the Virgin brand has been extended to everything from airlines to financial services to cola drinks, among many other products.

     Brand creation is an inexact science and one that can go horribly wrong. But when you get it right, the value you add to your new product or service is immense. As New Zealand branding consultant Mark di Somma quips: “Brand is the 'f' word of marketing. People swear by it, no one quite understands its significance and everybody would like to think they do it more often than they do.’’