JayZo's Blog

As many of you know, CampusLIVE recently rebranded to Dailybreak! Aside from me now being able to sleep more regular hours (and by regular I mean startup regular, not regular-regular…caffeine and I have a love-hate thing going right now…), I can now look back on all the branding exercises I was exposed to in the process of re-branding an entire company.

Note to self: don’t just jump in. Wow. There’s A LOT that goes into it.

I wanted to share with you today an exercise we used to begin our process. While this didn’t lead to the name itself per se, it helped us frame everything we did in the right way moving forward. Here’s the deal:

GOAL: Understand and visualize the emotions we want our brand to convey. What does the brand mean to us? What does it mean to consumers? To clients?

APPROACH: 

1. Divide into groups of 3-4 people.
2. Each group grabs a stack of magazines and begins tearing out images that in some way relate to their emotional connections to the company’s brand (even if the brand name is TBD). Paste the images on a poster, collage-style.
3. Regroup as a company and hang the posters on a wall. Then have each group select someone else’s poster for the next step.
4. Next, go back with your original group, along with another group’s poster, and circle the image that is the best visual representation to your group of what your brand’s emotional benefits are. This will likely be a quick discussion to come to an agreement on a single image from the poster.
5. After one image has been circled, take another poster and write all words that come to mind to describe that circled image. You should come away with a giant list of words since it’s all about what pops into your head.
6. Whittle that list down to the best 3-5 words that your group agrees are best suited to describe the image (and in doing so, your brand). Again, this may be a small discussion to agree on the short list.
7. Regroup, discuss what you came up with and why. Then, it’s time to start creating your actual, tangible result (e.g. a new brand name) using the words and images you’ve come up with. Set up a Google Doc or hold another meeting to present ideas - however your team best operates.

And there you have it - a quick way to start the process of branding your company! Now, I need to throw in TWO caveats: (1) this is only one method for getting there - there are tons of other approaches that work just as well; and (2) this is to get you STARTED. This will not by any means lead to miraculous creative insights and thus a finalized brand name (though it might). 

Above all, remember this: people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. So branding, a brand name, and the emotional ties to it are all hugely important. Project the WHY behind your brand and inspire others to follow.

How important is your company’s brand name? Does it reflect the emotions you, your users or your customers feel? Let me know below or on Twitter. 

Thanks for reading!

For inspiration behind the “Why” statement, see this TED talk.