When you're launching a company, there are certain administrative tasks you need to take care of, but don't forget to think about your company's identity.
Building a strong business identity is crucial for companies, especially in certain industries. The creative development of your company starts with choosing a name that represents your values and a logo that serves as the seal of your brand identity.
Today, we're focusing on the steps involved in determining a company's name, logo, and visual identity!
Finding a company name that is both revealing of your activity, without being just a soulless facade, is a step that can be complex. It is clear that a name cannot be detached from any commercial interest.
So, it seems appropriate to ask yourself "what is my sector of activity?", "who is my target audience and what are their characteristics?", "what are my company's values?".
Once this step is completed, the search as such can begin!
What methods are used to optimize your name search?
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Brainstorming: This is a widely used method to optimize the research process by encouraging lots of ideas. The key is no censorship, which helps avoid judgment and allows potentially great ideas to surface. It's a great way to start looking for a name!
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Mindmapping: Mind-mapping can be useful later on to classify proposals by theme and thus correlate the company's values with the chosen words. This, again, helps to refine your search.
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Studying the lexical field helps to further refine the choice of name. It's also a method that will allow you to start a natural referencing strategy that is now linked to the search for a name.
Even if you’ve found the perfect name, you can't just use it right away. First, you need to check if it's available!
In this regard, the prior art search should start with the INPI or National Institute of Industrial Property to check the availability of this brand:
- If this trademark has never been used, you can already acquire it and use it.
- If the name is already in use, you'll need to check with the company that owns it to see if you can use it, and if so, agree on terms for using the brand.
After picking the right name, it's important to choose a logo that represents your brand. It's a key part of your communication and how your visual materials look.
The logo will also guide the graphic charter and thus the design of all your communication tools (website, advertisements, etc.).
Besides boosting your brand's visibility, your logo should also make things easier for your customers.
In this regard, the logo is far from being just a decorative tool; it asserts itself much more through its ergonomics and use. It is therefore important to pay attention to the style of your logo: it reflects an image of your company, so it is important to appear as a dynamic, modern company, in tune with the times.
Therefore, some styles should be avoided depending on trends, and others should be favored.
Finally, to have your logo created by a professional, if your team doesn't have a graphic designer, there are many options and the prices vary depending on the services offered. It's therefore important to budget the service well in advance but also to compare offers in order to be fully aware of the different possibilities.
In conclusion, it is important to clearly define your project to determine how much importance should be given to your company's identity. The company's activity will obviously influence the degree of importance to be given to this. This step is still essential for each project and is at the heart of the company's development.
Written by our expert Quentin Moyon
April 26, 2018
