Choosing a company name and logo
Christian Louboutin Discount is of crucial importance to a growing business. Your name is an extension of your marketing plan and should convey a feel of what your company is about to customers. Your logo should capture your essence and coordinate with the name you've chosen, and whether you choose a text or picture logo is part of that. Selecting a name has to be one of the first decisions you make, as you can't open up without one.Other People Are ReadingHow to Create a Statement With Your LogoHow to Design a Logo for a Business SignPrint this articleInstructions Choosing a Name1Decide what you want your name to communicate to your customers. Are you soft and fuzzy? Professional? Fun? Entrepreneur magazine recommends using real words that describe your business precisely. Customers want to identify with who you are. By describing yourself accurately, you have a better chance of marketing yourself to the right audience and getting your target customers.2Brainstorm names by speaking with friends and looking in dictionaries. Entrepreneur suggests coming up with a list of at least 10 names and working from there. Get feedback from anyone you can and revise until something feels right.3Check out the competition. You want to distinguish yourselves from them as much as you can. What value do you bring to market that didn't exist before? Determine the principle features of your company that make you different and see how you can use them to shape your company name.4Make something up. Considering the success of startups like Google and Yahoo!, made-up words are a realistic option. Most successfully made-up names, however, denote specific features that pertain to the company. The name "Acura," the luxury arm of the Honda corporation, was chosen by a naming firm after deciding that the prefix "acu" (meaning "precise") was recognizable as a positive name in many languages. If you can come up with a catchy name that conveys the flavor of your business, you have a strong contender
Christian Louboutin Outlet.5Use crowdsourcing, an innovative method for outsourcing tasks for free or little expense. The idea is to submit your task to a group and elicit ideas. For example, you can post a contest on Facebook to name your company (or design your logo.) The winner gets to see his work on public display, and you could also offer a prize.6Hire a naming firm. Just as you'd hire an accountant to do your taxes because that person has the knowledge and experience, a naming firm is trained to provide you with the right name for your business. You'll have to pay for it, though, and it can run up into the tens of thousands.7Check that you can legally use your chosen name. If someone has already trademarked the name, you may be out of luck. In most cases if your name is being used by someone in your industry, you'll need a new one; but if its being used in a different industry and potential for confusion is unlikely, you can probably keep it. You can check potential names with the Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries online.Choosing a Logo8Determine your budget. Unless you have superior graphic design skills, you will need to hire a graphic designer to create your logo. If you have an employee on staff who has a design background, build this into her responsibilities. If not, you can hire a self-employed graphic designer who will normally run on the lower end of the range; pay for the project, not hourly. You can also invest in a design firm, which can run into the thousands of dollars. The advantage of a firm is that you will get many different ideas to choose from and have a team collaborating on your job.9Decide if you want just text or a graphic. IBM, Sony and Microsoft are examples of companies that have plain text logos, with a twist, which is what makes it a logo as opposed to a word. Nike has logo with a "swoosh" graphic that has little meaning outside of what the company has marketed it to mean, while Apple Computers has a logo with a graphic that is connected to the meaning of the company name. (But even Apple has had legal trouble regarding its trademark, so unless you already have the capital to go to court, here's a reminder to check if your name and logo are not taken already.)10Choose a design that works well wherever you place it. If it's going into a product, make sure it fits where it's supposed to. It should look good on a business card as well as wherever you advertise---whether on a flier or at a bus stop.11Fit in with the theme of your name. If your name is elegant and classy, choose a fluid or classic font type and coordinating graphic. If your name is sporty, a sharp, solid or edgy font type will look good.12Be careful about colors. Make sure your colors will look good on business cards as well as in advertisements and on your products. The amount of colors you use is a factor as well because it will cost you a lot more to print up materials with many colors. Entrepreneur magazine advises that your logo should look good even in black-and-white, and color should be used as an embellishment---not a main element of your design. However, many brands have become famous for their signature color. There's Tiffany & Co.'s blue, and Christian Louboutin's red sole.13Stay clean. Too much going on in the logo can look confusing to consumers. When the logo is small, you'll end up losing many of the details.Tips & WarningsGo with customers feedback on top of anything else---they will be buying, and they know what they like.Don't spend too much time on this, select a name that seems right and feel confident about your choice.
