How to determine brand potential

One thing I’ve struggled with - not least through trial and error - is how to determine a brand and build it.

Lessons I have learned include:

1. Use familiar words to define a brand where possible
2. If using made up words, try to avoid more than 2 syllables
3. Thriving communities confer brand by sheer familiarity

And of course, if you feel you may have a brand in the making, don’t chuck away your hard work by taking a risk with a new name, because that will change your site’s perceived identity and denigrate your previous hard work.

One of my biggest branding failures I think is Platinax Internet - I tried to be clever and think of a made-up name that would confer a sense of excellence - ie, Platinum. But all I ended up doing was act too clever. I broke rule number 2.

I’ve long grappled with how to change this, so with the next month of so I should be taking over a premium keyword domain which will completely describe the site’s function, and also offer brand potential.

It’ll also invigorate me to push on the site again, and have a load of posts in planning to push on the blogging side of it.

The biggest surprise I’ve had with branding is with what is now called sffchronicles.co.uk. Originally named “chronicles network” it was never attempted as a brand, merely a name of convenience.

Even when bringing in nearly 150,000 uniques a month, the most searched for keyword in referral traffic was “chronicles network”. That’s when I realised I had a potential brand.

However, it just wasn’t right. So a few months ago, for various reasons, I decided to rebrand the site as “SFF Chronicles”. I think it’s worked because members always referred to the site as “chronicles” anyway - a sign that “network” was redundant.

And by adding SFF to the title, the name helps identify itself to its target audience (ie, people looking for Science Fiction and Fantasy).

Overall, I think if you are seriously trying to develop a brand presence, I think you need to think very very hard on a name, but also register alternatives if you can just in case.

However, if you feel a brand isn’t really working as a brand, or can be improved, then think very carefully, for a long time, before making the move - to ensure that any change of name will not be to the detriment of your site, members, visitors, and identity.

2c.