How to Brand a Midsize B2B Company

I frequently hear people suggest, "Let's brand this!"—meaning, let's find a creative name for this thing.

There are two misconceptions buried in that statement. First, sticking a name on a service or product component is a far cry from developing a brand. If you don't have the resources to make the name into an effective brand, you are better off not pasting a name on it in the first place.

Few companies can carry many brands successfully. IBM is a $50+ billion company, but it has determined that it can only support five brand names. A track athlete competing in multiple events is less likely to win than one who focuses on a single event. Similarly, companies that put all of their efforts behind one or a few brands are more likely to achieve success than those who try to promote many brands at the same time.

Let's look at how a hypothetical company called MidSize wrestled with a surplus of product names and honed in on one differentiating message for the company brand.

Battling name confusion

As with many companies, MidSize was formed by the merger of MidSize and Primo, which had only recently changed its name from Exceli. MidSize has three products, only two of which share a root syllable in their name and none of which have any relationship with the company name. Customers who aware of MidSize's latest product are often unfamiliar with MidSize, the company. At industry conferences, MidSize executives find almost everyone is familiar with at least one of their products, but few have heard of MidSize, Primo or Exceli.

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