Frequently Asked Questions

When people within your customer base have become aware of your product and it’s unique benefits, branding it clearly with a fun, differentiated name will make it so they instantly recognize your offering among your competitors, increasing the chances they purchase your product.

When a brand is established, consumer perception is that the product delivers the brand promise, and other products are somewhat of a gamble. They may work well, but probably not. Products labelled with the brand can command a higher price than competitors offering a similar product, and people will be glad to pay it, and be proud of their purchase.

Strong brands develop a following. Customers who have become believers in the brand, fall in love with it, and return to purchase more products consistently. Even friends of the believers have more openness to try the product their friend loves so much. Customer loyalty to brands can be very intense, even to the point where customers can demand a say in the product and development of new products and become angry if they are excluded. It seems like a problem, but it is the contrary. That type of following makes a company extremely stable and allows it to be very profitable.

When new competitors come into a market, they often are very loud and seem to advertise everywhere, and often try to entice people to try their product and gain new customers by offering lower prices than the established suppliers. Those who built their business based on the argument of price are now vulnerable to the new competitor. Those who developed strong brands will lose the least customers.

When a brand is strong, customers are more likely to remember the product and name, and when they speak with friends who are looking for a similar solution, they share their positive experience with the brand, which translates into greater sales.

When brands take root and become strong, competitors often try to take advantage and impersonate the leader with similar graphics and names. Imitations come out of the woodwork. A brand can receive trade protection from the Patent and Trademark Office, and beneficial rulings in courts of law, including injunctions for those encroaching on the brand and settlement proceeds for damages.

Strong brands are short and memorable, so when they are advertised, people have a greater tendency to remember and share the advertising message with others. Short strong brands also take up less space in ads, which is actually very important. Cluttered ads are less effective.

Studies of Recruitment officers around the world have shown that the brand recognition of the employer has great, favorable influence in the application process. The reputation of a brand that delivers on its promise to the consumer, conveys status upon the employees. The best candidates want to work with the strong brands.

A brand name must set you apart in the eyes of consumers. It is not necessary to have a total departure, but enough to where it is obviously not the same. This will be important later in the life of a business to have benefits like a distinct personality with a following and legal protection.

It is easier to gain traction marketing brand names that are logically connected to your offering. Absolute relevance is very generic, and absolute uniqueness, although very strongest for branding, is notoriously hard to build up. So here we are talking about a place in the middle. A subtle relevance, not a hard, overt tie.

Sounds can be smooth, choppy, sloppy, gooey, sharp, or any of a multitude of phonetic descriptors, and the combination and flow can be phonetically appealing to a target audience, or not. Good brand names are easy to pronounce and have an enticing sound that goes hand-in-hand with the product or service that relates to the brand.

Longer names take up more space in ads, can clutter the message you are trying to deliver to your audience, are often harder to remember, can be a hassle to type into a browser, are more prone to take potential customers to a competitor's page due to a typo, and can be less enticing on marketing materials like business cards, flyers, an others. There is a "sweet spot" in the range from 7 to 12 characters in a domain name. Good brand names that are shorter, are likely better, but the price of short domain names is often prohibitively high for most people.

Many names have an “Aha!” moment, when the customer thinks “I get it. That’s pretty cool.” That moment helps promote memorability. A strong emotional impression, of a fun, short, relevant, witty name, will also make the brand easier to remember. Combinations of words that create a clear mental image are also easier to remember, because people don’t remember specific details as much as a storyline. Having memorability is a very powerful quality of a brand name.

People know about color psychology. It is the same with language as well. Words can evoke beautiful, strong, successful, scary, or any of a multitude of emotions. It is good to convey a feeling with the name that is appealing, and avoid words or implied words that can evoke negative emotions. Some people are critical of this idea, but the fact is that if words did not convey emotions, nobody would read books for fun.

Since domains are so scarce, after many frustrating attempts, failing to find names you feel would be good, it can be very alluring to get a domain name that has a technology you offer. For instance, if you purchase the domain “CSS3Developer.com”, which is an acceptable length and pleasant, somewhat memorable, and tells people a little of what you do, so it is not bad, but you are tying your business to “CSS3”, which is a version of CSS that, although you may be a master of it, will feel dated when the next version is released. It is so expensive to rebrand, that you are probably better off continuing to work with your obsolete name regardless of it now losing relevance and appeal to customers who want the latest in the field. It would’ve been much better to have paid a little more upfront and started out with “CyberGC.com” for instance. Tech changes. Don’t tie yourself to it.

The real pros in branding are the higher level marketing guys in companies like Procter and Gamble. Truly masterful marketers. There is a reason it is “Pringles” and not “Potato Chips”, and it is “Pampers” not “Baby Diapers”, and the reason is simple. You cannot apply for (and get) market protection for a generic term, per the Lanham Act, so they must find a creative name to trademark. Names like “Pringles” and “Pampers” carry a feeling that fits the product, they are distinctive, phonetically appealing, memorable, fun, engaging, and over time they develop a following. And that, tied in with trade protection, makes it very hard for competitors to encroach on their business. These brands are slightly different, in that they do not need to be relevant, because the brand owners’ budget hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising and the point where they needed engagement was the supermarket aisle. Domain names need to engage with users who have never seen the brand name before in search engine results, and that is not the same.

Some names may be illegal to use, others may expose you to a law suit due to regional and industry specific trade protection. For instance, you cannot use the word “bank” or “trust” if you are not incorporated as a financial entity. If you do, the Federal Trade Commission may want to have a word with you regarding misrepresenting your offering and being in breach of the Truth-in-Advertising Act, and the potential adverse consequences in a court of law. Or for instance, if you start a business called “Fampa”, focused on marketing family attractions to tourists visiting Tampa, you may have no problems. However, if instead you use your “Fampa” site to market fruit flavored carbonated drinks… As soon as you have a little success, the legal team of Coca-Cola may want to have a word with you regarding their exclusive rights to market fruit flavored carbonated drinks as “Fanta” and how your offering is violating those rights, and the potential adverse consequences in a court of law. It is of paramount importance that you research thoroughly and make sure that the brand name you intend to use, is one you can actually use for your purpose.

There are many studies that have told us that within as little as 1/10th of a second and up to a maximum of 7 seconds, humans decide whether or not they will look further into your offering. Some surveys have shown that the purchase decision was loosely taken within 2 seconds, which has enormous implications. Your brand name is one of the few critical things that will be taken into consideration in the first impression.

With over 300 million websites online, and unfortunately, the many people who are out to defraud and take advantage of others, as online consumers, we have a healthy level of skepticism regarding what we find. It is a much higher level of resistance to trust than when meeting others face-to-face. Trusting a site enough to enter our financial information into a form is not something that comes easily. Overcoming this barrier is key for those who seek success in an online business. A good brand name helps, by exuding a level of decency and implied proficiency that can influence customers into feeling less mistrust. After all, scammers churn domains as they get banned from search engines, so it would be very unlikely that a scammer would burn a domain name that is obviously very valuable.

People are more open to the things they like, and spend more time exploring their curiosity for them. In that same way, a good brand name, can help promote interaction with your ideas and products, which leads to greater strength in message delivery, conversions, and revenue.

Search engine algorithms take into account a great many things, however, 3 main, big picture aspects dominate the algorithm. First is the quality and relevance of the site content (does your offering address the needs of the user who typed in the keyword phrase? Is it well written, varied, and substantial?). Second is your popularity, which is largely determined by the traffic to your site from sources other than the search engines (do you have your own following?). The third is how people interact with your content. If you have a high bounce rate (people leave your site quickly), search engines will lower your site in ranking because people seem to not find what they were looking for in your content. If you have a low click through rate in the search results (people don’t click on your link), you also lose rank, because people don’t seem to find your link interesting. A good brand name piques the interest of potential visitors and makes them more open to view the content of your page, improving click-through rates, time spent at your site, pages visited, and a host of other engagement related metrics, improving your performance in the search algorithm and improving your site’s ranking.

The product and service make the offering superior. The main objective of the brand is to make the offering distinctive (stand out as different). Standing out isn't about having the brightest color. If competitors' brands are in yellows, oranges, and reds, then perhaps we can be blue... or green... Same with the iconography, attitude, values, and story. They don't have to shock, but they must have a substantially different feel to other brands in the market.

Visual branding must stand for what a customer can expect of the brand. If a customer cannot tell what you do quickly when seeing a brand's assets, it is likely to create confusion and reduce the market impact of the brand.

People purchase in a setting. For instance, a luxury apparel brand will not be purchased in a flea market. At least not at the premium price it is worth. Visual brand assets are a backdrop of sorts that must align with the ideal product purchase environment.

A brand's visual identity, must have a design and feel that aligns with the demographic and psychographic traits of the target audience. If you supply funeral services, your brand should not be extremely youthful, aggrandized, bright, humorous, or sexy. However, confident, mature, and compassionate consultance excellence, would probably resonate very well.

On average, it takes a person 7 contacts with a supplier before they decide to purchase (become a customer), and it takes a customer three purchases to feel brand loyalty. It is essential that every point of contact drives the same feel and appeal, so people progress towards their 7 contacts and 3 purchases to become loyal brand supporters.

A brand that is distinctive, clear in focus, resonates with the target audience, sets the right tone, and is consistent, will already be highly memorable in comparison to many, if not most, competitors. But name selection and graphic design can make a brand more memorable. For instance, short names that flow well phonetically, and are easy to spell, and visual graphics that reinforce the brand name, can make a brand easier to remember.

Our favorable perception and interpretation of new concepts, and the speed and depth with which we embrace them, is intrinsically related with the authority, familiarity, and alignment in the values perceived from the attitude with which the concepts are presented to us. Stated simply: If a brand has a relatable attitude that is highly regarded by the target audience, it will lower the barriers of defense and allow the offering to be considered quicker.

Some brand assets are intrinsically linked with the recognition of a visual brand identity, and all differentiatable businesses should have them.

• Logo - The entire concept of branding is rooted in the mark left behind by a hot branding iron. Being the point of recognition that is central to a brand, it should be common sense, that having a logo is essential. The logo is the banner behind which your supporters rally, in the same way as patriots rally behind their flag...
• Color Palette - The psychology of color is essential to create the setting that encourages your target audience to purchase from you.
• Font Style - Fonts have personality and it is important to decide on styles that support the brand strategy.
• Brand Guidelines - Using the assets in a clear and consistent way, is key to memorability and reinforcing the brand's presence, making it stand out among competitors.

Although they can be eliminated if there is pressure for space or simplicity in design, most businesses can gain very real benefits from have a succint and impactful tagline that ties directly into the most important strategic differentiation factor of the brand. Taglines are particularly useful for businesses for the following specific reasons:

• Message Clarity - Taglines can help communicate a brand's value proposition or promise in a concise way.
• Establish Positioning - When rebranding, changing the positioning of a brand, or establishing the brand position in a market that is not yet familiar with the offering, a tagline can help define what the brand stands for.
• Greater Cohesion - When brands grow, there is a tendency to degrade in power due to confusion created by variations born from adapting to new geographies, launching new product lines, and expanding existing ones. A good tagline serves as an anchor point to bring everything together consistently, clarifying the brand message and impact.
• Increased Emotional Engagement - Taglines are an opportunity to present the wit and attitude of the brand, which can resonate emotionally with the target audience.
• Standing Out - When brands are seen side-by-side, having a compelling tagline can make your brand stand out among all others, and pique curiosity for viewers to explore it.

If your offering is experienced in a physical form. For instance, it is served in a bottle, cup, or glass, or is a food that is served wrapped, or is delivered in a box, etc. The customers' brand experience with the product (up to that point it is only the promise of a product) begins at the moment they see the packaging. It is a moment of heightened expectation and intensity, particularly for first time buyers. Packaging can be costly, but the reinforcement of a positive experience at that moment can be very impactful. Packaging can be particularly important for brands that have the following concerns:

• Shelf Competition - If your product is selected by customers in a retail aisle that has your competitors' products, then packaging may be your single most important point of contact with your target audience. Spending on marketing, only to bring interested buyers to the aisle and have them decide on a better presented competitor... is not the aim of marketing. In a worst case scenario, after a long sales process, the fight for the intensely coveted shelf space, and the high expense of marketing your product locally, the retailer removes your product from its shelves due to low product rotation that resulted from poor packaging.
• Unboxing Experience - Particularly with premium brands, and brands of items that are commonly given as special gifts, the packaging presentation can be critical to the brand experience. If we combine these three aspects: 1. Premium, 2. Gift product, and 3. Sold among competitors' on a shelf, as could be the case with high end chocolates box sets in a supermarket. The packaging could be so critical, that it alone could make or break your brand. It is so powerful a combination, that you can likely double the price of the second most expensive option on the aisle, and display your chocolate gift box in an amazingly luxurious and opulent presentation, with a backstory of Belgian roots, and discerning ingredients, and it will likely outsell many competitors.
• Sustainability Positioning - Brands that are driven by a core value of being environmentally friendly, can demonstrate those values in the packaging, creating synergy with their marketing, and a satisfying experience that reinforces the buying decision.
• Tactile Brand Interaction - Products that we classify as "touchy-feely", meaning that people sell themselves on the purchase when they have the product in their hands, can benefit from some types of packaging that allows better interaction.
• Regulatory or Informational Needs - When a branded product requires assembly instructions, an operation manual, or other disclosures, those items within the packaging are a part of the brand experience of the customer and should be treated as such, using the brand guidelines.
• Brand Connection - Included within the packaging, can be branded items that enhance the customer experience and depth of relationship. Like a brand sticker that provides extra advertising when happy customers proudly use them, warranty sign-up cards that provide contact information when sent in, quality certification / originality statement which reduces returns and deepens the customer relationship through greater peace of mind, and / or a pamphlet of available accessories and related products, which brings in extra sales due to the high conversion of a strong branded message to a pre-qualified lead. These all must be consistent with brand guidelines of course, but the benefit each of these additional branded items brings to the business, improves significantly when delivered alongside high quality, brand-appropriate packaging. They synergize together.

Jingles can make a brand more unique, engaging, attractive, and memorable. They may not be suited for many businesses, but can make a big difference in some scenarios.

• Audio-First Channels - When marketing on the radio, e-books, concerts, meeting rooms, podcasts, and other venues that deliver their message with heavy use of audio, jingles can leave a powerful impression, help the message stand out, and make the brand communication much more memorable.
• Earworm Recall - When jingles are very contageous, they can keep members of the target audience experiencing brand recall for hours and even days. One exposure to a jingle could make the brand unforgettable, and that is worth looking into for many brands.
• Emotional Tones - Similar to colors and descriptive words, sounds also have a psychology. Jingles that synchronize with the emotional setting in which the purchase decision takes place can have a positive impact on customer experience, brand recall, and conversions.
• Mass Media Campaigns - Jingles are particularly well suited for advertising that is aimed in a less targeted way. They can be a topic of conversation, and improve awareness, prompting more virality and long-term retention of the brand message in people who will later become members of the target audience.
• Brand Launches - When brands are first introduced in a market, it is often advisable to blanket cover the market so the brand is seen and remembered. There is a wave of curiosity that can quickly drive word of mouth and viral story effects. Jingles can help make each engagement more memorable, amplifying the message, and improving ROAS.
• Brand Value Reinforcement - Some brands have strong values through which they connect with their target audience. Particularly when those values are related to a culture, ethnicity, or age demographic, a jingle that is aligned with those values can resonate in a big way.

Being an extra element to manage, and one that requires a lot of professional insight and effort to create well, most business can find a mascot to be more of a burden than a benefit in their brand building efforts. But there are situations where mascots are worth the expense, as they can bring true power to a brand.

• Children and Family Oriented Offerings - The target audience has a duality in which it has to appeal both to the children directly, and their parents who take the decision to buy. Friendly mascots are often great for that purpose.
• Long-Term Engagement - Instinctively we recognize people by how they behave, often more so than their looks. Mascots like the Kool Aid Jug, Planters' Peanut, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Kellogs' Tony the Tiger, The Energizer Bunny, Epcot's Figment Dragon, Mickey Mouse, and M & M's talking candies, enhance long term recall. In a way, they grow on us in our hearts, as a friend might, particularly with children. Later in life, we often see the brand as a comfort producing experience.
• Brand Personality - Brands whose strategy involves having a bold and engaging personality can often benefit greatly from the right mascot. Characters like Geico's Gecko, Progressive's Flo, the Marlboro Man, Land O Lake's Native American Woman, and Aunt Jemima's Cook. All drive a personality that adds to the brand's appeal.
• Event Marketing - When your brand has large events with numerous attendees, mascots can make the experience more immersive, entertaining, engaging, and memorable, particularly before the main segment of the event starts.
• Mass Marketing - Very large media campaigns require variety to maintain attention. A singular brand tone and visual identity, but multiple types of hooks, and engaging situations. Mascots can work well in adding variety, because of the many opportunities to create fun situations and communicate brand values in the form of a mascot's tone, attitude, and backstory.

Other important brand assets that may offer great success in the market and you may want to consider including in your brand are:

• Internal Brand Framework - Printed policies that all employees are aware of, which include the brand strategy (vision, mission, values, story, positioning etc), and rules of interaction of employees with customers that reflect the internal brand culture of the business, like the brand's telephone etiquette, sales presentations and tone, customer onboarding process, handling of issues, delivery interactions, post sale follow up, and many other similar possible interactions.
• Brand Iconography System - Icons are useful to maintain clarity and simplicity, and break up what could otherwise be an unappealing wall of text. If you will use icons, it is important to specify in your brand guidelines, the library and style of icons used in the brand, so they are consistent.
• Brand Pattern - A stylistic choice that provides a background accent that enriches the visual interest of the brand and is unique and trademarked to the brand. The brand pattern can bring extra power, since the main objective is to be unique and different, and competitors can use similar colors and font, causing confusion.
• Brand Graphic Design Style - Often times brands need to use images with graphic adaptations, or vector diagrams to illustrate ideas. It is good to have a clearly defined style that is consistent with the other brand assets.
• Brand Voice - A voice that is used in audio communication, sometimes without the mascot, or in addition to it, and represents attitude and values of the brand. For instance, Harley Davidson has a strong, confident, assertive, unwilling to settle or back down, yet down to earth, man's voice they use in their voice overs.
• Brand Story - People are more likely to buy from brands they align with, and are more likely to pay attention to information presented as a story. So a good brand story that resonates can be very powerful.
• Influencer Spokesperson / Ambassador - This is the use of a celebrity's status and influence as the brand voice. It can be tricky, as sometimes celebrities are involved in scandals, but can also be very powerful. For instance, Hanes had great success with Michael Jordan as their spokesperson.
• Strategic Brand Collaborations - Sometimes, there are partnership opportunities that synergize. For instance, a brand of sports apparel, may find a good fit with a brand of sport watches, a brand of sports equipment, or shoes. There are many initiatives that can produce great synergy in results for both. Examples of strategic brand partners as part of the brand strategy, include Louis Vuitton America's Cup Challenger Series, movie features on McDonald's happy meals, and Star Wars Lego products.

We do not build brands without a clear strategy. We begin by studying your existing brand strategy to better understand they intentions, satisfaction, and experience behind transactions with customers. If you do not currently have a formal strategy for your brand, we can consult on a retainer basis to help facilitate defining your strategy. Unfortunately, there is a significant amount of time and effort that is required to be able to start designing a brand identity that resonates. Here is some key strategy information we will need to know.

• Target Audience - Full demographic profile (who are they?), and in depth psychographics (preferences).
• Value Proposition - What needs (physical and psychological) does the brand satisfy in the target audience?
• Competition Landscape - Who are the dominant players that compete against you and what are they doing.
• Brand Strengths - Are your customers weak in comparison to you in any particular area? In particular, we need to know where those strengths align with real market opportunities.
• Market Positioning - How do you want your brand to be perceived among your competitors?
• Core Strategic Statements - What are your mission, vision, values, culture, and story?
• Marketing Channels Used - How do you currently reach your target audience?
• Messaging - What does your current customer communication system look like? What ad copy and imagery are you using?
• Brand Contact Points - Where do existing and new customers have contact with the brand? What is the setting in which they are buying?
• Customer Brand Feedback - What is the experience of your customers with your brand? From their point of view.

This part involves summarizing the tone required. It is recommendable that we develop mood boards that approximate the feel we are aiming for with the visual identity, however, if your budget does not allow for it, we can simply agree on intent and dial in the tone using a set of brands in other industries that you feel could set the right tone that would be engaging to your target audience.

This is a quick step that is the start of the logo brainstorming process. Finding things that could be emblematic of the core strategy differentiation factors and energy the brand needs to display. Once this is agreed, we work on developing logos that could work, drawing from the nouns ideas and the feel we need to achieve.

We develop between 50 and 100 very rough drafts of logos we feel could work for your application. We clean up, flesh out, and deliver 10 black and white, initial professional drafts of different logos we feel could work well for you. We evaluate the appeal and general feel of the logos, and with your input, select three from the batch, that we agree would best serve your purposes.

The three logos are developed into a basic visual branding system, with a free standing logo icon, wordmark logo, emblem logo, and brand pattern (if required). We deliver the 3 semi-final visual system drafts to you.

After you have taken the 3 brand visual systems and shown them to your team and customers, and there is feedback on which system is best, we take your feedback on final shape tweaks and colors, and implement them into a final draft of the visual brand system.

We deliver a pdf file with sections detailing your official brand assets and how to use them (and not use them) in order to present a consistent brand touch point across marketing channels and at every interaction with your customers.

This concludes the brand development process. But we do follow up with you to ensure the implementation is going well.

We need to understand your business, your market, how you fit in it, and your strategy to succeed through it all. This information is essential if we are to help you develop a brand that stands out from your competitors and resonates with your target audience. Specifically, we need the following information:

• Target Audience Profile - Full demographics and psychographics of your target audience.
• Value Proposition - Clear statement of the needs your customer has that you fill with your offering, and why your customers choose to buy from you.
• Competition Landscape - A list of your major competitors and why they are leaders.
• Brand Strengths and Weaknesses - A detailed description of what is easy to compete and take business from competitors and what is not.
• Market Positioning - A description of the position, relative to your competitors, that you want to have in the perception of your customers. This is usually the cross sections of your strengths and the opportunities in the market, expressed as the strategic differentiators that you want to be known for.
• Core Strategic Statements - Your brand mission, vision, values, culture, and story.
• Marketing Channels Used - The current marketing channels you are using to communicate with your target audience.
• Messaging - The text and images of the advertising messages you are currently sending your customers.
• Brand Contact Points - What are the major contact points (ads, landing pages, receptionist, sales people, showroom floor, delivery driver, packaging) you have with your typical customers, and how those contact points feel.
• Customer Brand Feedback - Raw customer testimonials and reviews.

We may have questions, or require your opinions as the person closest to the target audience we are seeking to engage, closest to product offering of the brand, and as the entrepreneur who has to manage the brand and drive it into the market. Open communication with you is important to achieve high quality results.

We can attend and help guide the customer feedback, but you can save the expense and do it yourself, with the additional benefit that customers will be more brutally honest in our absence, and that is what we need. Brutal honesty. If they love a design in our absence, we are on the right track.

Select 10 customer you have good rapport with, and are examples of your various higher volume customer types. We will give you a detailed list of questions to help you be prepared. Our objective from the feedback is to get acquainted with how the logo feels to them compared with the strategic goals and brand values, attitude, and feel of the transaction we are seeking to build into the brand. Feel free to insert your own questions to drill in and ensure we will understand the customers' perception in depth. The questions are simple, along the lines of:

• Which of these brands is the best looking?
• In your opinion, which brand best displays X, Y, and Z? (brand values)
• Which brand feels like a solid offering you can trust?
• If you had to select only one among these three brands, which would you do business with?

Developing your brand is a truly cooperative endeavor. We do the design research and expression to match your target audience's values and the tone for the brand, and align it with concepts that help them remember the brand, then we validate our research with their first hand opinions to fine tune your new brand so you can take the power to market.

If you don't have a strategy, it makes no sense to build a brand visual identity. If you need help developing a brand strategy that will set you apart in the eyes of consumers in a way that will resonate with them, we are more than happy to help. Strategy development services are billed on a retainer basis. We bill an hourly amount of $150 as consultation compensation. Normally, brand strategy consultation can run between $1,500, and $15,000, depending on how in depth and extensive our involvement is required to be.

Developing a visual identity for your brand that is in line with your strategic objectives and resonates with your target audience takes some doing. Talent, skills, effort, and time. The total cost of building a brand with us should run between $2,250 and $7,500, depending on the amount of drafts, revisions, and research we are required to do. We deliver full brand guidelines with your logo, wordmark, color palette, font style, and best practices for using everything so the brand presents consistently at each point of contact with customers.

We can develop additional brand assets that are consistent with your brand strategy and resonate with your audience. Their price can vary greatly depending on the extent of the work to be done. For instance, packaging is often done as a system for product lines, not a single product, and our cost of development varies with the scope of work. It is hard to give an estimate not knowing the scope. In general, prices for additional brand assets in brands we developed and are intimately familiar with the strategy behind them can cost as follows:

• A single simple retail packaging design for a bottle or box, can cost an additional $600 to $1,500
• Jingles can cost in the ballpark of $1,500
• Mascots are often more design and time intensive, perhaps in a range of $3,000 to $4,500

Always with the caveat that additional drafts and revisions will increase the cost.

Would you go to a doctor who hadn't studied medicine? Or use an engineer who didn't have an engineering degree?

Online marketing has a very low barrier to entry, so many people with dreams of making easy money, can learn a small aspect of marketing and sell that service. Every day we encounter multiple claims, advice from self-proclaimed marketing gurus, and marketing implementations that are rather clueless. The amount of misinformation related to marketing online is staggering.

At Max Branded we not only have the formal education in marketing, but our founder graduated tying the concentration GPA with the valedictorian of his class. It is like needing a doctor and being treated by a doctor who graduated at the top of his class.

Our real world experience involves taking some of the world's top brands, like Nike™, Adidas™, Scott™, San Jamar™, Chef Revival™, Tork™, and Cellcosmet™, among others, into both domestic and international markets.

Most graphic designers that enter the field of brand design seek to deliver aesthetics they feel are beautiful. It is their name riding on the design after all. But the personal preferences of the designer can sometimes be misaligned with those of the target audience, the environment that encourages a purchase decision, the strategic goals of the brand, or the values that resonate with the target audience.

At Max Branded, we seek to deliver designs that feel right. Not just to engage the target audience, but also produce the emotional state in which they are willing to trust and take the purchase decision.

Below you will find a dozen samples of our work that are presented in line with two modern branding trends:

1. DarkMode is preferable due to recent scientific studies that have proven it preserves the eyesight of guests.
2. Studies have shown that having a dominant brand color in marketing communication can drastically increase the retention of the brand and it's message.

In today's environment where we frequently see greed and misrepresentation to unfairly gain an advantage, it can be hard to come across partners who will take ownership of their work, strive to deliver honest results, and live up to their agreements, as we do.

When we state what we believe, we can't guarantee it's 100% factually accurate. But we do guarantee it's what we believe to be true, and any mistakes are not intended to mislead anyone. With our formal education and experience that is a very meaningful guarantee. We strive to be trustworthy, and a big part of our effort, is that what we think, say, and do, all reconcile at the end of the day.

There are strategic plans, internal processes, and proprietary technologies that we protect to preserve a competitive advantage in the market. We also do not discuss privileged information regarding our customers and their plans, and confidentiality agreements with partners. We also seek to simplify our communications for the sake of clarity, so much of what you hear from us can exclude details. The intent is to protect essential value, be a loyal and dependable, added-value partner to you, and streamline our interface. Never to deceive.

Our confidentiality, transparency and integrity are especially important for you when we are offering marketing insights, and exploring your brand strategy and the key differentiators behind your brand as we develop it.

We have the ability of outsourcing many of the tasks that require highly focused talent, and provide oversight to ensure all efforts are concerted into marketing power for your brand. As such, our pricing is built upon a cost plus management structure. Projects like brand development are done on a retainer basis, so the less work we have to do, the less our services will cost.

Our current billing per hour is $150. If we take into account the uncompensated time spent securing projects, identifying the scope of work to be done, and sending proposals, and we use the best practice for standard independent contractors of doubling the hourly rate of a full time employee, then our hourly rate works out to the equivalent of hiring a highly qualified and experienced full-time marketing professional for a yearly salary of $150,000, which is actually a great value.

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Brand design is a retainer based service, so we work out a schedule of work and collect, usually half of the forecasted expense as a deposit.

Brand development is an iterative process, each time arriving closer and closer to the final result. It is also an involved process, expect to participate providing a lot of information up front and along the way.

Along with the notification, we give you an itemized report with the expenses charged against the retainer, a progress update on the work done, and bill you for the estimate of the remainder of the brand development process.

We deliver the final brand guidelines per the brand development schedule, you sign off on it, and if there is a positive balance on your retainer we refund it, if there is a negative balance, we send you a final bill for it.

When people see search results of similar named sites, the assumption is that the “.com” domain is the original. For instance, if we see “MaxBranded.com” and a different site at “MaxBranded.xyz”, we will have the impression that the “.com” is the official site. The sentiment is mirrored in feedback from search engine algorithm updates that reportedly affect “.com” extensions less, because sites with “.com” are sites that on average, indeed have the greater authority.

There are many domain extensions today. However, studies have shown that people trust “.com” more than the same name with any other extension. It is also something we intuitively know because we search for things online, and Credibility is critical, and “.com” has more of it.

It is not the same to stand at a traffic light in a Porsche than in a Volkswagen… It is not the same to drive a Jaguar, than a Ford… In the same way owning a great domain that is an original .com, has its status. It is not the same to say “I own PlayPartner.com”, than it is to say “I own PlayPartner.xyz”. The difference is actually huge.

We make assumptions of the quality expected from the services of a person by the level of professionalism by their point of contact. For instance, if Adam started a business and called it "SimpleGC", he would have a tough time getting people to buy from him if his point of contact was “SimpleGC247@gmail.com” because it is very unprofessional. It would be more professional to have the email "Adam@SimpleGC.xyz", but the most professional and likely to attract customers would be "Adam@SimpleGC.com”. Marketing studies conclusively support a single fact: professionalism sells. And a clear, engaging, and memorable “.com” domain is the top end of the professionalism spectrum.

In the business world, we place our contact information on business cards, advertisements, printed marketing, stationary, directories and many other places. When people glance at the information, they immediately recognize “.com” as the ending of a website or an email address. Often people have doubts as to whether “.co” is a typo, and can fail to recognize other extensions as a web address. The gold standard is “.com”.

Many devices and apps will automatically insert links to web addresses with the ".com" extension, but not with most other extensions, making it easier for visitors to reach sites hosted at .com addresses, and peruse promotional content.

Google did not appreciate that when their users typed in common keyword phrases, they had to endure sifting through lower quality websites in the first page whose domains contained the exact keyword phrase. So Google implemented their renown (infamous in some circles) EMD (exact match domain) update to fix their issue. Crudely summarizing the update, websites with a domain name that is an exact match to the keyword phrase will no longer appear at the top of search results, unless they are worthy sites.

Today, when businesses are named after high volume keywords, and people Google the exact business name, they may not be able to even find it, unless it is a good website and has enormous popularity. The weight of search results is now placed on the relevance of the total site, and the merit it has. So if you called your business “Best(Product_Category).com”, hoping that Google would send you traffic because monthly searches for the keyword phrase “Best(Product_Category).com” has 30,000 searches a month, you will probably be disappointed. Not just because Google will not give you traffic, but also because the customers you develop through your own marketing, and who remember your company name (“Best(Product_Category).com”), and search for it, will find all your stronger competitors' sites instead of yours.

Short domains are considered better (assuming all other metrics are the same), for better performance in marketing and memorability. Keywords can make the name cumbersome to work with in marketing campaigns. For instance “Best(Product_Category)in(City_Serviced).com” makes for an extremely long name that is impractical.

Generic names tend to be less interesting and do not develop equity as readily as more unique, fun, witty, interesting names. Trying to keep a name short while packing keywords tends to make a name very unappealing. It is doubtful that “LocalCoffeeShop.com” would have had the same success as “Starbucks.com”.

New domains are often considered to be scraping the bottom of the barrel. Often, the better domains were taken a long time ago, and as there have been fewer domains available, older domains can sometimes provide better options. Of course, an old domain does not mean it is a good name.

Old domains often have a number of visitors who arrive out of a variety of reasons. Like backlinks in past SEO efforts with the domain, or bookmarks in past visitor’s browsers, old magazine or news media could contain printed links at the end of an advertisement or editorial content, online directories or personal contact information linking to the domain, or people remembering the domain name and typing it in the browser. This is not the case with all aged domains.

At Max Branded we do not put much weight on existing traffic, because it can often be counterproductive. A previous use of the name would likely have been with a different application, and when visitors arrive expecting a solution related to the previous application and don't find it, they quickly leave the site. This bounce metric can give search engines the impression that your content is not good and harm your rankings. Some backlinks are also not good because they can be associated with spamming tactics and having them can also hurt your search rankings. Buying a name with 10,000 backlinks can actually be a challenge and a time-consuming chore for SEO purposes. We feel that in the vast majority of instances, it is best to start your backlinking strategy for your new application for your domain name, from scratch.

But overall, having people see your new site is a good thing, and if there is a lot of traffic, and the visitors are indeed interested in your new site, it could be fantastic, but that is certainly not a reasonable expectation of a domain at any age, it is mostly unrelated to the backlink count, which is a standard metric for the value of traffic in the domain industry, and is extremely difficult to assess for several reasons like:

What needs to be assessed Value of traffic has a lot to do with the demographics and preferences of the actual visitors related to the new application of the domain, and that information we cannot possibly know, since it has to do with a possible future application of the name, and is often expensive and time consuming to obtain because it is not readily available.

Link quality The value of each link also has to do with the credibility and prominence of the site at which the link originates, and the relative exclusivity of the backlink at the page in the source. A site with 3 good backlinks could be a great purchase, but even those might be unrelated (causing SEO issues), and are unreliable at best, because they will likely be lost once the source realizes the link destination has changed.

Backlinks often do not bring traffic or add credibility Backlink count on its own can be very misleading, as many old SEO tactics involved high volumes of garbage links, and even good SEO tactics that are relevant today create backlinks whose benefit can often be lost over time. A domain with 10,000 backlinks could have well over 9,000 of them offering zero value.

One of the issues that search engines face is the proliferation of spammers and scammers. As quickly as they are banned from results, they migrate much of their content to a new domain and circumvent the ban for another brief period until they are banned again. They are always operating on new domains, so search engines often penalize new domains.

But when a domain has years of being registered and has not been used in a manner that would get it banned, search engines will tend to rank the domain higher because it is less likely to be a problematic site.

Our selection process involves research on the name and it’s meaning in western cultures, assessing all the qualities we list as important in name selection, including distinctiveness, relevance, phonetic appeal, length, memorability, and the emotions the name evokes, among other parameters. We rate our findings and select only the best.

Traditionally, naming a new business venture involved a group of people brainstorming and coming up with possibilities, then discussing the options, and clarifying preferences, then checking the availability of those names’ domains. With domain names being as scarce as they are today, it is likely the name is not available, and if the domain is not available, then it is back to brainstorming. This iterative process can ultimately end in a name that is not very good because there tends to be lower quality in each iteration. And perhaps equally importantly, it is very time consuming, and expensive. Checking Max Branded’s name recommendations is a great shortcut, since there is additional marketing insight filtered into those names already. Also, checking through the names allows you to get a first impression of the feel of the name when seeing it for the first time. It is very valuable insight, and is practically impossible to get when brainstorming, because you have been playing with words for so long that the names feel like a collection of prioritized possibilities, rather than a business. The result is less time to market and a superior name.

Marketing design allows us to better understand how the name will feel in use, and you get to keep the copyrights with your purchase. We developlogos and materials to be appealing, brandable, trademarkable, and flexible for different marketing needs, including being rendered in black and white, and being scaled down to a 16px X 16px favicon among many others. Having the preliminary marketing also means that you are not starting from scratch developing your site. With a few adjustments, the site design can be ready to launch, saving time and money and creating a very appealing end result that produces a strong brand following. Having professional marketing support from the initial design stage means less problems later on when designs often reveal issues that make them unsuited for some marketing needs.

We feel that our domains deliver superior value to those of competitors simply because of our marketing research, extensive prescreening, and the wealth of experience behind the rigorous selection process. In addition to that, many of our domains are offered with even greater value with bonuses like being bundled with similar domains, extended aging, social pages, artwork, and others. The detailed bonuses included with each domain can be found in the detailed listing of the domain.

Many online suppliers are guarded, playing in what seems to be an adversarial role against their customers with their cards close to their chest. Their online offerings often hide their price, and other information. Granted, their domains are probably very valuable indeed, and sticker shock can prevent people from contacting the seller, and each entrepreneur has the right to do business as they wish. But at Max Branded we are 100% transparent. Our offering is very straightforward. We research and screen hundreds of thousands of names and source those with the most potential, we then develop a brand appeal with marketing designs to enhance the power of the name, and provide the package to our customers with the intent that our efforts will serve them in building the new brand they dream of. Our efforts are in line with our customer's interests, we hide nothing, and our transactions are in the spirit of win / win.

In marketing we use statistical data to validate our interpretation of market opportunities. And of course there is great value in it, particularly in the feedback areas to better understand how people are engaging with our offering, where they are coming from, and what preferences are met and unmet. This process should be the core of the marketing evolution of a company. However, in areas where a market has not yet experienced a product (prior to launch), it can be very difficult to use statistics because there is no reliable data available. Even a focus group of target market customers, which is very advisable, can be tricky to manage and can give wildly incorrect data, even when well managed.

There is a phenomenon that challenges data. It is the opposite of Murphy's Law, and could be expressed as "If the business can be successful, it will be." And it relates to the drive of the entrepreneur. It is a severely underrated marketing influence. The passion to bring something new into the world, the strength of courage, facing competition, and uncertainty, while carrying the weight of responsiblity for employees and the effects of the business in the community. It is sheer will power, and it is fueled by belief. When you, as an entrepreneur, feel a name is right, and you know it down to the core of your bones, you just know…

The Brand Bundle price for each domain is listed next to the domain name, and is payable to Max Branded via Escrow.com. It is our compensation for releasing the ownership of the domain, and delivering Brand Bundle items for the domain, which include:

• Release of the domain(s) owner­ship to buyer.
• Purchase Protection Warranty. If you do not receive the domain, you pay nothing.
• Logo in .eps format (Sca­lable Vector).
• Website logo icon set in a vari­ety of sizes in .png format.
• High resolution square and horizontal logo .png images, without slogan, over clear back­ground for light, dark, and color placement.
• Business card template image.
• List of the brand colors used in both RGB (dig­ital disp­lays) and CMYK (prin­ting).
• List of recommended fonts for brand.
• Branding guidelines for using fonts, images, and colors.
• Some domains include bonus items which are specified in their listing.

Note: The Brand Bundle price does not include custom alterations to the marketing materials.
Please refer to terms and conditions and our privacy policy that govern the release and delivery of the bundle items.

When you purchase your branded domain, it needs to be transferred to a registrar account in your name. Max Branded covers expenses associated with the release from our registrar(s), however, you are responsible for the fees your registrar of choice collects to transfer your new domain(s) in. Usually registrars only charge a one year extension to the domain registration, effectively transferring the domain in at no charge, since all domain owners must pay the registration fee on a yearly basis. It is a normal expense of owning a domain, the same as tag renewal fees are a normal expense of owning a car.

With less than 4% of our inventory sold each year, we need to find twenty five (25) high quality domain names (a very time consuming proposition), acquire them (sometimes for thousands of dollars), develop branding for them (many hours of work for each) and onboard them (build a page, create custom images, write about the name, and insert into the site), and pay registrations and transfer fees internally, and a variety of other expenses. All of that must be paid by us 25 times for each single branded domain we can collect revenue for. In order to keep our lights on, we must be very efficient in keeping costs down, and charge enough to cover our entire expenses for 25 domains, not just a single domain. It is simply the nature of our business model.

We spend a lot of time researching and identifying market potential, and developing the branding for each of our domains, keeping in mind the applications and target audience for which they can be ideal. The brands we develop are engaging and offer real power in the market. Buyers seeking to use one of our domains in ideal application, will likely earn millions of dollars in revenues. That is value that we don't just say we deliver, but also stand behind with our 100% performance gua­ran­tee^*G.

Everyone who has gone through the effort and expense of gaining a college education, has the expectation of earning enough money to make their efforts worthwhile. It is a return on investment on the costs of education. That is also our case.

Finding great names is very time consuming because they can be extremely hard to find. The rarity of domains that offer real marketing power, increases their market value.

As entrepreneurs, we have to spend on developing the different aspects that become the start up we are launching. It will likely take teams of professionals, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and facilities investments, and more hundreds of thousands in the launch and marketing expenses to generate awareness in the market. A single billboard ad can cost tens of thousands of dollars per month. And yet, the engagement, tone set, and memorability of the name are critical tying everything together, attracting and retaining customers, and producing a hearth behind which they can rally as fans. A small improvement in the brand name, can yield enormous benefits in additional returns of all other expenses. Securing a powerful brand name is certainly not the place to compromise quality to save a little money.

When the power our branded domains bring to the table, and the rarity of domains that can offer such power is appreciated, the high value we offer is clear. And knowing that other high-power brandable domains, are sometimes sold for hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars, due to their ability to command authority, it becomes clear that the ROI of sourcing a new brand with us can be extremely high. When, in addition to understanding that very real value, people also appreciated the magnitude of our costs, the education in preparation, and effort that goes into developing our brands, and how those expenses must be offset by the relatively few sales. Then it becomes obvious that our price on domains is not expensive at all. The price is actually an amazing value, in line with our mission of helping our customers be successful in the market with their brand.

Specifically: Professional educators at accredited institutions, senior citizens who are 70 years or older, and first response. Namely, military personnel, paramedics/EMTs, fire rescue, and law-enforcement. If you indeed qualify, we thank you for your service and hereby pay our respects to your contributions. Hopefully, we give back to you with both the extra 10% off, and your success with the the brand you acquire from us.

Any purchase of 3 or more similarly priced Brand Bundles can be evaluated for an additional discount, within reason. 10 or more similarly priced Brand Bundles will result in approximately an additional 10% off.

We increase the price of Brand Bundles based on a number of factors, including market shifts that may produce opportunities, partnerships that may increase our expenses, and the devaluation of the US dollar. If you were intending to purchase a domain and we recently increased the price before you were able to finalize the decision to buy, let us know to consider holding the price increase for you.

Our price is designed to be haggle-free. We know that we could get four or five times the price for any of our Brand Bundles, so we will not accept lower offers for our Brand Bundles. We invest rather extensively into each Brand Bundle and feel confident in the value that our Brand Bundles will bring our customers.

As a rule of thumb, our price is much lower than what we feel the monthly marketing budget should be for a venture. With that in mind, over the first 5 years, the price of the Brand Bundle is less than 1.7% of the marketing budget, which is nothing in comparison to the benefits it is expected to bring. The reason our pricing is so far below what we feel is attainable, is because our mission is to help new business ventures succeed in today's challenging market conditions. Discounts will not be considered unless there is a reasonable and fair cause to take the time to consider a discount.

Assessing return on investment is the responsibility of the entrepreneur / investor. If you agree that the return for the price of a domain will be great, then there is no valid price objection.

Making financial arrangements to cover business expenses and cashflows is another important job of every entrepreneur. If any of our Brand Bundles is truly unaffordable to any entity, then the chances that entity will be successful using the Brand Bundle are minimal, simply because the entity lacks the financial resources to launch successfully. They will struggle to afford employees, essential services, inventories, R&D, startup costs, overhead up to the breakeven point, and the myriad of unexpected expenses that are sure to arise in the course of business. From our perspective, with our high value proposition, there can be no valid affordability objection.

On the page of the domain you are interested in acquiring, click the "Buy Now" button, and submit payment to own the domain(s), agreeing to the terms and conditions of Max Branded.

Once the bundle payment clears, Escrow.com notifies Max Branded that they are holding the funds related to the purchase of the domain(s), and we are to deliver our part of the agreement.

Max Branded gives you the auth code(s) to start the domain transfer(s) of the domain(s), and provides you with the bonus items per the domain purchase agreement.

You use the auth code(s) we have provided you, to transfer the domain(s) into your account in the registar you chose.

The transaction with Escrow.com has an inspection period of 4 days, where you have full ownership of the domain and can ensure you have indeed received what we promised to deliver. You can confirm approval by express communication acknowledging the receipt of the marketing resources and auth code(s) that worked transferring the domain(s) into your registrar account, or implicitly accept by simply not denying the receipt. Either way, you are in control.

With the acceptance of receipt of the domain(s) and bonus resources, per the terms mutually agreed upon in advance, Escrow.com releases payment to Max Branded, and the transaction is concluded.