Avoid trademark registration for that brand!

Every day the Australian trade marks register, business names registers and ASIC company register is littered with new appalling names and logos.

If branding is so important, how come so few do it well?

Ponder the top 10 lists below of what branding is, and is not.

Use a poor trades person and you can often see the problem immediately or soon. Get a poor adviser and the problem often lurks for years before it bites.

What branding is not

1. Advertising
2. A business card website
3. Registering trade marks but not using them as registered
4. Designing a logo on your own, without a graphic designer
5. Thinking in straight lines, eg tomorrow is just like yesterday
6. Using an acronym as the name of your company, oops not clever
7. Seeking a trade mark registration with no advice, 'cause you can
8. Ignoring media fragmentation, use of online video, and social media
9. Imaging a word which describes your product is a great trade mark, eg Supa
10. Failing to recognise that mobile phones are more "my world" than print media

What branding is

1. Providing delightful service
2. Knowing what brand architecture means
3. Recognising the screaming issue of work/life balance
4. Striving for real innovation, not new skin thin changes
5. Attitude, opinion, editorial, a personality, being genuine
6. Responding to the tastes of new markets and channels
7. Understanding demographic data indicates a changing world
8. Keeping it real, to attract and keep talent, clients and partners
9. Responding to changing values and attitudes, in all generations
10. Applying an integrated approach to brand an organisation and its offerings

The rubbish piles in Australian name registers because of two main reasons:

• People in business believe do-it-yourself registrations are a cost saving, not realising that online registration is deceptively simple
• It's difficult for people in business to locate experienced professional advisers who not only do the job, but add real value and care about the end goal.

It takes a team of professional advisers and consultants to do branding and trade mark registration well.

Good branding at its creation involves interactions between the business client, and its in-house and client network as well as a graphic designer and experienced, insightful and concerned trade mark attorney or lawyer.

Branding is everyday work for us as a law firm and consultancy specialising in trade mark registration and related business identity development work for clients. A lot of what we've learned about branding is captured in the above top 10 lists.

For more guidance on branding and trade mark registration, go to the right hand colum of this website and check out the videos and the list of "Related Articles".