Branding Your Product

Let's begin with a question: what is branding? Branding is the discipline of marketing to create a product name, emblem, or design that captures the essence of the product and distinguishes it from other products on the market. If you want to truly stand out among your competition you need to create a brand image around your products, or they will fade into the background of consumers' minds.

Why branding matters in product development

Inventors and startups often treat branding as an afterthought — something to bolt on once the engineering is done. In practice, the strongest product launches develop the brand alongside the product itself. The name influences the trademark search, the visual identity influences the packaging dieline and enclosure design, and the positioning influences which features get prioritized. Retail buyers and crowdfunding backers alike make judgments in seconds, and those judgments are almost entirely brand-driven: does this product look credible, professional, and worth the price?

Branding is also one of the cheapest forms of differentiation available to a small company. You may not be able to outspend an established competitor on tooling or advertising, but a sharper name, a cleaner logo, and more coherent packaging cost comparatively little and compound over every unit you sell.

Step 1: Naming your product

The first step to branding is creating a name around your product. In my experience, the best way to create a name is to brainstorm it with the people on your team. The goal is to get as many ideas out there as possible — no idea is a bad idea when coming up with product names. You want to pick key words associated with your product and combine them, merge them, or even come up with completely new and unique names that don't exist. You want something that will stand out amongst your competition.

Once you have a shortlist, pressure-test it before you fall in love with a name:

• Trademark availability. Run a knockout search of the USPTO database for your product category before investing in a logo.
• Domain and social handles. An exact-match .com is ideal, but a clean, memorable variation beats an awkward exact match.
• Pronunciation and spelling. If customers can't say it or spell it after hearing it once, word-of-mouth suffers.
• Meaning in other markets. If you plan to sell internationally, check what the name means (or sounds like) elsewhere.

Step 2: Building the visual identity

Once you have a name for your product, you will need to create a logo and identity around it. The logo, packaging design, website, and marketing collateral are all the first touchpoints of your brand with the consumer, and you want to make it a cohesive experience for them. One of the best and easiest ways to get your brand identity off the ground is to hire an experienced agency or design firm to craft it. The agency will work with you and your team to meet the goals of your business and help you create a consistent brand image for your product — the logo, a color scheme, consistent typography, and any auxiliary materials to ensure brand consistency, usually delivered as a brand guideline: the document that fully outlines the design look and feel for the brand.

A good brand guideline typically covers logo usage and clear space, primary and secondary color palettes with print and screen values, typography for headlines and body copy, photography and illustration style, and tone of voice. With that document in hand, every future vendor — packaging printer, web developer, trade-show booth builder — produces work that looks like it came from the same company.

Step 3: Carrying the brand through packaging and beyond

For a physical product, packaging is where branding and engineering meet. The box is simultaneously a marketing surface, a protective structure, and a line item in your unit economics. Decisions like box style, insert material, and print process should be made with the brand guideline open on the table — and early enough that the packaging doesn't force a late change to the product itself. The same discipline applies to your website, instruction manual, warranty card, and every email you send: each is a brand touchpoint that either reinforces or erodes the impression you've built.

The bottom line

Don't underestimate the importance of investing in branding. This can make or break the adoption of your product in the marketplace. You really want to create memorable and pleasurable experiences with your customers — and that experience starts long before they ever use the product.

Launching Ideas offers brand marketing services — naming, logo design, brand guidelines, and packaging — as part of our turn-key product development process. Request a free quote and we'll help you build a brand your product deserves.