Living Entrepreneurship Blog / Babson Entrepreneurs

What’s Your Brand?

Ted Schleuter, chief brand officer and the founder of Crunch Brands, was recently on campus to share his insight on branding. He was currently part of various assignments such as Unreal Candy, Sperry Top-Sider, New Balance, Pan-Mass Challenge and Aceso. Schleuter has been wtih Digitas, Arnold Worldwide and Greco Ethridge Group.

Schleuter created Crunch Brands for many reasons. Crunch Brands is a team of brand specialists who solve four core business challenges: identity crisis, web noise, brand uprising and brand fatigue. In other words, Crunch Brands helps companies understand who they are so their customers will too.

Schleuter advised to the entrepreneurs attending that when one is naming their company, they should take many things in to consideration. For example, the company name should be brief and distinctive. When the customer hears its name, the customer should know what kind of company it is. Their name is their image. If the name does not show who they are, then the customer will not understand the company and the company will not be successful. Schleuter also commented on logo and slogans. He stated that it should be verbally and visually appealing. Customers look at what is appealing. If it does not appeal to the customers, then they will turn to other products. Additionally, Schleuter shared that some entrepreneurs make grammatical errors on their slogan so before you make it public, make sure it is legally available and also linguistically appropriate.

Schleuter mentioned that there are values to naming and branding. The core values are: be authentic, be imaginative, and be passionate. Through engaging with your brand, show your customers that your company wants to help. This can be done in many ways. This can be done by choosing an appealing logo. Moreover, the colors of your logo can change your brand image. If one tends to choose a bright color then it will easily stick to customers mind.

Branding and naming may not seem important, but they are two factors that need to be addressed sooner rather than later. Branding and naming will make an impact on how customers perceive you, so take these into consideration early in your entrepreneurial venture.