Satow Strategies delivers world-class branding, naming as well as traditional and e-marketing solutions for any-sized businesses.

Creative Naming Workshops:  To help you name products and services in a timely way, we begin by working with intact executive, sales and marketing teams to define a sensible strategic naming strategy to meet your market needs. Next, we focus on generating creative name ideas in an exciting, hands-on brainstorming session. Just grab a thesaurus and we’re off and running.

Positioning/Repositioning Workshops:  In these sessions, Satow Strategies leads you and your intact team through the positioning process, leveraging strategic mapping tools to “reveal” the best competitive messaging for your products and services.  The results can be quite eye-opening.

Brand Assessment Workshops:  See your brand from the outside in, applying proven brand management tools to assess and adjust your current brand strategy and plan ways to boost its power and performance more effectively, across audiences and channels, over time.

Personal Positioning and Branding Workshops:  Organizations, groups and/or individuals can sign up for these dynamic, hands-on sessions that apply time-tested business branding methods to help individuals discover their unique value proposition and find ways to promote that value to enhance their role at work and their future career endeavors.

When you’re ready to focus on brand strategies in a flash, email us at info@satowstrategies.com or call us at 602-481-1942.

Clients often come to me asking for help in naming a new company or re-naming an existing company. In the course of exploring their strategic requirements, we often discover that there are actually a lot more “name-worthy” elements to their offerings than meet the eye. I find that the more effective we can be in discovering and leveraging these hidden areas, the better it is for their brand in the long run. This holistic approach to naming may cost a little more upfront but translates into higher brand valuation in the long run.

Here’s a list of focus areas you should consider when it comes to building effective name strategies for your business:

Company: Naming the company is obviously the single-most important aspect in any business naming process. Referred to as the “Corporate Umbrella Name,” the company name needs to work well in any context or brand hierarchy — whether it is integrated in product and service names, i.e. – “Microsoft® Office®” or whether it serves more in the role of a corporate name only, in the background like “Post-It Notes®” (“from 3M”).

Category: If your company is drowning in a crowded sea of competitors and you’re having difficulty keeping your product or service afloat, consider re-positioning your offering by creating a new category, poising your unique value as central to the market. For instance, if you’re in the office furniture business but you’re products are all uniquely made of sustainable woods and materials designed in pre-made sections for cost effectiveness, be bold and stake a claim in a new market category you’ve dubbed, “natural modules.” This sounds a lot more unique and interesting than “office furniture.”

Offering: Product and/or service offerings can be ripe with brand name opportunities. While you should never err on the side of “branding everything” – such a shotgun approach can be a brand-diluting, market-confusing and budget-depleting proposition. It’s a good idea to start with a brand hierarchy that clearly conveys how your products and services fit in relation to your corporate umbrella brand. They may be worthy of their own product brands or sub-brands to convey their significance in the market as well as in your company’s portfolio.

Technology/Unique Capability: If you have unique intellectual property (IP) that you have either patented or have a patent pending, it is worth considering a trademark name that effectively positions its unique value in the market. You may even consider an ingredient brand strategy. While this type of program can be expensive and complex to manage, the payoff can be tremendous if your customers want to tap into the power and panache of your “secret sauce” for their own products.

No matter which naming projects you need to tackle, Satow Strategies is here to help – from company re-naming to ingredient brand strategies, we can help you build effective strategies, programs and implementation tactics.

Contact us at 602-481-1942 or at info@satowstrategies.com to learn more about how effective naming strategies can boost your corporate value.

© 2007 Satow Strategies LLC
Other names and brands are the property of their respective owners.

Years ago, when I was managing brands for a technology company, I went online the night before a big product launch to see how many references there were to this soon-to-be brand name. I found only about 20 citations related to other, rather obscure, uses of the term. Today there are nearly 2,000,000 internet references to this name. Pretty exciting but also pretty scary when you think about the powerful genie that can be unleashed when a new name is launched. Now you don’t see it… now you do. How do you turn the Name Game into the Fame Game and deliver the most bang for your branding buck?

Here are several tips on how to minimize the fear factor and maximize your results:

1. Begin with a great name. No matter how much money you plan to spend on marketing a new brand, if it doesn’t have the makings of a good name, it’s DOA. Ask yourself the following: Did you test the name in the marketplace? Does it effectively communicate your unique value (or give you plenty of room to create that value)? Is the name easy to pronounce and spell. Does it conjure up positive references or negative?

2. Do your legal homework. OK, so you’re in love with your new name. When it rolls off your tongue, you’re sure you hear the sound of a cash register going “kachink.” But, does your trademark attorney have a mile-wide list of reasons why it’s a bad name? Things like…It is already a trademark in your category… It means “your hippo stinks” in several languages…It is too generic and unprotectable…Your competitor uses a similar name. If so, take heed now – such advice can save you mega-bucks in the long run.

3. Mum’s the word.A favorite expression in the semiconductor industry is “Loose Lips Sink Chips.” At one company I worked for, heads nearly rolled when the CEO overheard an employee conversation on a airplane about an unannounced product. So, get a privacy screen for your laptop and a muzzle for your staff. The best launches can be ruined if they’re pre-announced by the press instead of strategically announced by your staff.

4. Blast off! No matter what the scale of your dreams or the size of your budget, every good name deserves a good send-off. I’ve seen successful launches as subtle as a posting on a homepage and as grandiose as a Times Square celebration – complete with ticker messages! The key is to scale your activities to smartly fit your strategy and your budget.

5. Keep it rolling. In this game, there’s nothing more clever than a “rolling launch.” Rolling out your messaging over time – through tradeshows, merchandising, regular press announcements, website updates, e-newsletters, postcards, and the like, lets you build momentum while you build your brand. Remember launches help you create a brand, but on-going communications programs help you build it. And don’t forget to get online the night before your launch to count the number of references to your new name. If you play the game right over time, the “before and after” snapshots will be exciting indeed!

When it’s time to play the name game at your company, contact Satow Strategies at 602-481-1942 or info@satowstrategies.com. We’re ready to help you succeed.

1. How important is it that the name be legally protectable? Category-styled names such as ‘network computer’ or ‘potato chips’ and ‘lip gloss’ are more ‘generic’ or ‘descriptive’ than other more ‘suggestive’, ‘arbitrary’ or ‘fanciful’ styled names such as ‘Revlon’, ‘Intel’ or ‘Yahoo’. Generally speaking, when names are more generic and/or descriptive, they are less expensive to establish in the marketplace but also less protectable legally. Figuring out where your name should be along this strategic continuum is one of the most important steps one can take in any naming process.
2. Should we trademark the name? Applying for a trademark or service mark can be an expensive proposition but, on the other hand, you may be penny-wise and pound foolish to avoid this highly leveragable investment in your company’s brand.
3. Should the trademark also have a logo? While it is often the case that a logo may be designed for a trademark name, it is certainly not required or necessarily even advisable. The question of whether or not you need a logo for your trademark should be considered carefully, from the marketing, legal and financial perspectives.

When you’re ready to start the process of naming your company, product or technology, call Satow Strategies at info@satowstrategies.com or 602-481-1942 and we’ll help guide you in your trademark strategy, name development and logo planning.

© 2005 Satow Strategies, LLC.