Is Your Name Your Brand?

What's In A Name? Is Your Name Your Brand?

My maiden name spurred jokes that were less than desirable until I married a guy named Hoover. Then the jokes about "suc*" became the norm. So the new name took me from one bad joke to another. Ugh.

When I married a second time, Hoover was swapped for Brown. AT LAST! A name that did not spur obscene jokes! Boy oh Boy, a happier person could not be found. It's a name I kept even after the twelve year marriage ended. "Brown"," aside from being a much better personal name has become my professional "branded" name and has stood me in good stead since 1978.

Because I made the transition long before a professional name meant that much for brand recognition, I've never had to worry about the name itself. At least not for a very, very long time. Being branded under "Brown" came naturally. Why would anyone want to make note of this?

It's about branding and what that means. So, as an example let's look at Coke. It's not unusual for company leaders and brand marketers to forget that their brand has such a tremendous impact on a large population. For our example let's remember the "new Coke" that was introduced in 1985. Although Coca-Cola invested $4,000,000 in market testing, the launch of their new product created a public outcry. In less than three months Coca-Cola re-introduced the original formula. What made the difference? Why did they change back? What happened that made the introduction of the new formula such a resounding failure? Coca-Cola focused on the introduction of the new product formula rather than the loyalty of their own brand.

When I changed names from Hoover to Brown, I had no idea that Brown would become a company name. When people think of "Hoover," it's a natural progression to "vacuum cleaners." Perhaps it's the luck of the draw for some of us that we have the business names we do. Nowadays, I have to compete with UPS and their "what can brown do for you?" campaign. This, however is not equal on a scale that equates with the name Hoover. Thank goodness!

So, when you think of your company (or companies) names, how did you make the final decision that helped you settle on a name you could brand? Or was that even a consideration for you? Got a story? Let's hear it!

EB :D

Update for Mother Company - BEK, Brown Enterprises of KS

Hey Folks.

I don't think I've written much about my companies or even about the big bad Mother of them all. I don't intend (and never have intended) to turn any of my blogs into a place just for advertising my websites, the websites of my friends/associates but this will be more discussion of design and content anyhowsen, so bear with me.

Having a lot of clients is a blessing. Gotta love that part. But it has been a bad thing in that we've had precious little time around here to work much on our own websites. Some are woefully old and uh, they look it. Some have a brave new face with not much to back them up. So, I finally started taking every spare minute to design a new site for BEKansas.com (BEK, Brown Enterprises of KS) our Mother of all Mothers when it comes to websites. I did not want something slick and new looking. I wanted something that was reminiscent of older sites. Lots of newer sites are pretty slick but I wasn't looking for slick. I was looking for traditional. I hope I made that mark.

One thing I also wanted to do was give a lot of credit to the place I live. Wichita is a great town and likewise, my little part of that metro area, Derby, KS. So collecting photos, landmark areas, museum items of interest, has been a lot of what we've been doing around here. Trying to give our towns a premiere place among our own self serving words. Yeah, BEKansas.com is not about trying to sell anything to anyone. It it going to turn out to be a place just to describe our business, show off our SEO abilities a little bit, and of course, some writing (web content) stuff.

Since we opted for older design concepts, it will look older than it really is. The BEK sites and the Buddy sites are new, but of course, we've been doing the work since the www made it's debut on the wider Internet. OK, enough about that. OH, one more point. If you visit that particular spot, it's still in development. Many pages have yet to be uploaded and many more are not even completed yet. If you do though, give us a holler. What do you think of the new watering hole?

Until next time - keep your skis on your feet...

Eileen :D

MIFH - What is that???

MIFH or Most Interesting Fellow Human is new term. Just made it up today!

I find these folks all the time on the internet. People who are so interesting that I am drawn to their websites time and again. I don't mean for products or writing talent or dynamic personalities. I mean the person themselves. Personal websites that become destinations to bookmark and keep track of. Places to return to, to see what that person is doing today or has been doing. You might say a blog does that but sometimes this is just not so. Some websites are so much better than a blog or ARE a blog. Anyhousen, I found a MIFH this past week and wanted to write about my feelings for some of these people, re: the MIFH's in general.

If you had the resources to travel anywhere you wanted and do whatever you wanted, how would you go about it? Would you play all day with friends? Golf, pool, polo? Or would you advance your personal knowledge base of the peoples of the world? I should reiterate that dynamic personalities are usually famous people. The people I am talking about are normal, everyday folks who are traveling the world, taking photos, meeting people of all nations on a personal level. The P. Hiltons of the world are shallow, limelight grabbers who burn money for fun. None of the folks I am talking about do anything remotly like that. They go about their quiet lives, truly living a dream most of us could not or cannot imagine.

I like to think I would be one of the MIFH folks if I had the resources. Then again, I wonder if I would be a squanderer like some of the dynamic personalities (?). If I were to dream a dream of world travel and meeting common folk, like myself I believe I could truly be happy every day of my life.

Gee, that was a funny thing to say. Because, I am a very happy person. I am happy in the thought that I know what is coming each day, keep a managable schedule; love my family and friends; love my work. I don't find that anything is missing in my life but find that I, I guess the word is admire people who spend the time (and money) getting to know the peoples, nations and religions of the world.

What a wonderful thing to aspire to. I guess it gives me something to dream about. At least for today. The MIFH's of this world should be the ones in the news and interviews and as noteworthy human beans (not a typo) but maybe that is not what they want or what they aspire too. Interesting, don't you think?

Blessings.