10 Jan Global branding is easy with global trademarks
Today, a properly structured and truly protected global trademark is worth a ton in gold. For this reason, a single name fully guarded for its iconic personality with a top-level protection plan and equipped with a matching dot-com is the most sought-after commodity.
Let’s face it; such a name is worth a hundred times more than the head office building, all the fancy furniture, factories and all the stacking chimneys combined. Just ask Sony, Rolex, Bacardi, PlayStation, Panasonic or Telus, and they will tell you with an uncontrollable smile that without their unique moniker, their entire empire will have no value.
If by chance, your corporation owns a one-of-a-kind, globally protected trademark, then surely you have struck gold. Otherwise the question is why not make it a plan to get one for 2005? It’s so easy.
Just as it is so easy to create and build a proper global name, it is equally very disturbing to know that less than 1 percent of corporations around the globe have such unique ownerships. Most have local or regional name brands and most constantly push these weak names while struggling to get global clearance. It is amazing that how all the knowledge and expertise required to make this happen are so easily ignored, while a great fanfare is wasted over much weaker and geographically limited names. Current history is littered with these poor name identities as they eventually fade away in the long run.
Anyone can play: No matter how superior such pursuits may seem and how advanced the exercise for universal global identity may appear, the fact is that all it takes is some know how and any corporation can play this game. To find a proper name identity, first you need a Five-Star Standard of Naming. This is a process designed to ensure the uniqueness of a candidate name with direct relativity to the business it represents while securing a position for a global trade marking with a matching dot-com. Anything less will fail.
But first, you must clear the decks, as traditional creative services and firework branding has no room here. The creation of global icons and universal cyber brands for the global markets is not to be confused with graphic and logo design processes or big-budget blasts to jumpstart weak names. These practices are only great when you have a truly global name and a global corporate nomenclature strategy in place.
Hug a trademark attorney: As a first step, discover the rules of global marketing, apply them to your current image and see they fit your current name. It may seem complex, but these rules are very logical. As growth and marketing opens more and more countries, your names should also be able to travel in each of those territories without any fear of trademark problems. Hug a trademark lawyer today. They offer the best and most economical layer of protection in the shape of trademark applications.
Once a name is properly secured, you would have acquired something extraordinary. Most creative shops themselves lack serious knowledge of global registrations and domain laws and this makes them scared of lawyers. The branding shops, which only rely on pure creativity, leave you with legal registration issues and end up doing only half the job.
You need guaranteed results and truly Five Star Standard Name solutions. Currently the art of big budget branding has now shrunk to art of applying global naming to the most economical medium of cyber branding. There is a drop of some 95 percent of the old branding cost and it has now changed the entire branding landscape. So apply a comprehensive modern approach to establish a truly global name identity for 5 percent of the cost. Shocking.
Check your current profile: Take your current names in use and build a country-by-country profile by establishing the numbers of conflicts in each country. This exercise may sound complicated but it can be carried out by a push of a button when conducted under professional guidance and using the right technologies and global reference.
Utilize the current online educational tools to bring within your corporation a higher level of understanding on this subject. First it is extremely inexpensive and it is extremely fast. Within days, you can have the entire name analyzed and end up with a report with recommendations and suggestions.
Go for gold in 2005: Get your marketing teams to go for that super shine in your name identity and corporate image, and make sure that you get a system in place to achieve all this quickly, efficiently and in the most cost effective manner. All you will need is the desire to go global with a powerful global identity. The rest will fit if you follow the right procedures and make sure your entire organization is ready to play the global game. Creation and the development of global name identities can be achieved within a few weeks. All you need is the ‘masters of naming architects’ the rest will unfold very nicely.
Get your current names analyzed for global acceptability, get your teams into play for new educational tools on how to create, capture and cultivate global icons, make plans for introductions of new global name identities and start building an icon. Solid gold, that is.
The opinions expressed herein or statements made in the above column are solely those of the author, & do not necessarily reflect the views of Wisconsin Technology Network, LLC. (WTN). WTN, LLC accepts no legal liability or responsibility for any claims made or opinions expressed herein.