Creating your logo and establishing your business brand can be challenging but when done correctly it will give your company a significant advantage. By Gary Shotton #000330

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Logo & Branding

By Gary Shotton

This text is in Extreme Rough draft and will be edited in the near future.

Hello, my name is Gary Shotton and I really enjoy doing these and talking with you via video and audio and today we’re going to talk about logos and branding by like a name in your company, naming your company and how to brand it. And a lot of our discussions and teachings come as a result of someone asking about this from an African country in this case Tanzania. They asked point blank How do I name my company and create a logo.

Well first of all, in a name, you probably have two major choices in naming your company.   One is somehow naming it after you. The Turner roofing company or the Smiths shoe shop or something to do with your name might want to consider that because that would be a company that maybe he’s destined to be just a local artist, down at the Smiths that’s a that’s, everyone knows about it and that’s great name for someone that might want to stay kind of local, but if you want to grow and grow out and be kind of expand outside your local neighborhood, you might want to name it something that’s kind of catchy or something that’s related to your product.

Well first of all, we can think if you’re gonna put a name on something you’ve got to reflect how people view you help people consider you as your product or service, and I’m convinced that we all know that there’s five basic senses that the human race makes it sound, no particular order, but when we make a judgment, those are the five things five parts of our body that make us a simulate the facts and information, and we make choices based on that so my strong suggestion is you consider that as you are making your brand and your logo. Well, first of all, let’s say that you’re going to store let’s say that you’ve got a store that’s on a road or a street, I would look first from a distance I would look out away from my business and I would first look where I would put the sign and what would be the name of this company, and we could call it here in the United States curb appeal meaning from the curb of the street you can look in maybe from a foreign nation, they don’t have curbs like we do so we call it a roadway view from the roadway someone’s driving by. From a distance maybe 30 to 40 feet away. Could they see and understand what’s in the shop, I’m always amazed when I see the name of something on the side of a, of a building or a store, and there’s, I have no idea what they’re doing, none. Well, that’s not good. You should be advertising to the people passing by, on the street. Obviously in their car. Obviously that’s mostly your sight, your visual.

Let’s go a little closer. Let’s say that your people are walking by, more common in foreign countries and you’re walking by and you have a storefront and you have a window. Well, now you’re getting this people looking at your store, a little closer. Let’s do somebody it’s like one of the in our group was at photographer, well there’s a great place, kind of common sense to have some of the best pictures that you’ve taken blown up as big as uniform I’ve been a nice frame of weddings are happy families are fun pictures of small children. Those people are going to visually see your product as they walk by, they’re going to remember, when I need a photo a family photo or my wedding or someone’s getting married. I’m going to come to that place where I remember seeing that the pictures in the window.

Now, let’s go a little closer, even there you might have the opportunity to add a little music. Maybe wedding. The Wedding bells or something to do with a wedding because now you’re pulling in sound, not just sight, sound, but let’s go a little closer somebody opens the door, and now they’re inside your story now you’ve got them, you kind of got an opportunity to use more of the senses. I like what I saw my dentist do at their clinic. They have some kind of air freshener that tech that smells like clean the cleanest possible rooms that you could spot possibly smell. They say that in selling us cars, there’s a new car smell. In other words, us take the spray can be like the air freshener. And it has a smell. Okay, now you have sight, and you have smell well inside your store like my mom did with the cakes and doughnuts, she had nice music. Okay, we’re using sound sight, sound, and smell, and you might be able to shake hands with a person as they come in, or, in some way pat them on the back, and now you’ve got touch, you don’t want to Maul them you want to take over. But you’ve got the feel of touch, and you could even roll into some taste, while at a restaurant that’s real easy. Somebody in the malls or wherever shopping in the malls here, they have people walking out on the little tray and they give you with a toothpick, a small taste of the food that you want to eat. That’s kind of obvious. There’s a bread company in town that they have a very well known fact that they cut off a large slice of bread with butter, and you can taste the bread with no obligation to buy.

You see, what you’re doing is you’re getting as many of your five senses involved in creating your brand and your logo, and now you’ve got something going, how am I going to name this. Well, if you go to the the the English language you want to probably think of something that has a little rhyme to it. I always like the thought of jolly lollipop. Jolly lolly pop. Okay, that has a little remembrance to it a little bit of thought to it. I wouldn’t name it something that’s really hard to spell are could be confusing to spell are something that’s easily misunderstood. If you’re in a different language now you’ve got to get your team around you and suggest some names and think about a good name, a name that has a little rhythm to a little rhyme to it a little, but clearly identifies what you’re doing.

Now let’s go to the logo. I will refer to a dentist in town.  They have from the street, it’s a very well lit larger building for dentist, especially for teeth for children. Well guess why children do not just jump in with excitement. Mom and Dad, I want to go to the dentist, because they’re going to be somebody’s going to look in their mouth and they’re probably gonna hurt a little bit, but you know what this company’s done. They have a very large nice playground with lots of lights, similar to some of the food chains that have a playground so kids come, while you’re eating and they play. Oh okay now we’ve got somebody that’s coming into the clinic with what would be a dreaded type of event for small child or a child, and they have the most wonderful experience while they’re waiting in the waiting room with the toys to play, and you’ve got this smell that’s clean really a clean smell, and you got some music that’s like kids music they’re, they’re almost the most favorite level songs that that’s in their mind with some rhyme and some reason, not lowed, not overbearing but subtle and now you, your your your got the people meeting you at the at the door or with a big smile and a Hello and a slap on the back or handshake. Now you’re engaging this person well this same tooth. DENTIST store has a pretty cool logo, guess what, they have this giant as their logo of very large tooth like a shape of a white tooth well thought out, and on it, they have like a clown space with a big happy clown smile. These are, this is not normal kids do not like to go to the dentist, but you have this idea that the dentist is, is something that’s enjoyable to go to, and even the logo has a large tooth. And it just one tooth with a big clown smile on it. That’s pretty cool.

In the United States, we try to trademark the name so that somebody can’t rob the name from us it’s a very important, you’ll have to pay money if you don’t, if you don’t respect the trademark in the United States. So you actually file for this nobody else is using that, but you can’t use a name like “Fast Print” for a print shop, because it’s too general, but what can you use, and, and how can it so what you’re doing is developing a reputation.

I was just talking with somebody that did “Wall Art”, and they had been doing pictures of frames that hang on the wall.  They have scriptures on these items, they’ve been doing it for 43 years, and their name is well represented. The name is “Carpentree”.   That’s kind of a cool name because they make and sell items like wood frames and the tree represents us as Christian logos and assembles that tree is a kind of a symbol of Christ on the cross. So, they had given some thought to this, and the comment of the of the owner was that we have such a great reputation because we make their product in the United States, and people know our name. That’s what you want. logo, in this case “Carpentree”, guess what, they have a large tree as a part of their logo with the words “Carpentee” included in that shape of a tree. I can remember it. I don’t have to think about it too hard. I can recall this but when the need comes.   Wow, I can come up and find that company either through a Google search.

Now, there is a place here to really seek the wisdom of God, the wisdom of God will help you in logos and ideas. The Spirit of God will give you a unique idea, he will give you something that fits you very well fits the business very well, has a nice jingle to it. Well I hope this helps on the Spirit of God help you. And thanks for being a part of Inspiring Better Business.