Know-How Exchange : Branding

Where will you be located?
What names are "elegant and classy" for you?
Some names to get you thinking: Periwinkle, Limone, or Tartare.

What are some brand names in other categories that you find elegant and classy? If it's a restaurant, don't you want something in the name that speaks to the kind of food and/or ambience? Who is your target audience? Where?

Limone.

OK.

What's its meaning? If it feels right, use it. Tell its story.

Then own it. Make it yours.

But bear in mind that names alone do not "brand".

Names identify, but an identity is not a brand. Logos, and colors, and typefaces and such? They're all window dressing; eye candy; fluff; puffery. Surface.

Brands have body and soul. Brands walk, talk, laugh, cry, smile, smell, hear, taste, touch, feel, breathe and move people.

Brands are created by experiences and emotions.

Brands are fueled by passion, vision, and consistency.

Brands have excellence, are focused relentlessly on attention to the smallest detail, and are propelled by dogged determination and commitment, and by excellence of execution and delivery.

What experiences do you want to give people?

How will you make people that eat in your restaurant feel—about food, about flavors, about mixtures and textures—and about you? What lasting memories will you—and only you and your restaurant—evoke? What experiences will you create (and own) that people will want to repeat over and over again, and tell their friends and relatives about?

Answer these questions and therein will lie your brand. Honor those promises and your brand will endure. Build on those promises and experiences and your brand will thrive. Screw up those experiences and your brand withers on the vine.

Good luck to you.