Today we welcome back Leah Klugt from The Golden Goose. Leah recently transformed her business’ name and brand and kindly shares her experience and insights with you. Welcome back Leah! Naomi 
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet – or would it?
Brand Power – Demonstrated.
It’s not often in the design world that you get to see direct results. Sure – we know our service works! We know that customers choose based on design. We know that a well branded business enables you to be easily recognised and remembered by your target client.
I’ve taken the opportunity to use my own business as a case study for others – to prove it works.
The Old Me
I now shudder when I think about our previous name and branding. “Inkblot Design Studio”, ugh! How wrong it was for the type of business I run, and how wrong for the clients I get!
When your business image doesn’t match your business’ personality – you have a brand problem that needs to be solved.
As a graphic design and branding firm, it felt completely hypocritical for me to feel the way I did about my old branding and name. Particularly when coaching clients through the branding process!
Where is the Passion?
Another thing our old branding lacked was the brilliant passion that shone through the whole customer service experience.
When you aren’t passionate about the image of your business – you aren’t proud either. This has a significant effect on how bold you are in your actions for your business.
A striking business card on thick stock with an embossed logo mark on the front is going to get you going far more than something you printed out at home!
Just Do It
It got to the point that it was a “now or never” scenario. The studio had been alive and kicking for just over a year. It was like it had self-actualised over that year.
Since I was so unsatisfied with the name and branding – why not change it? Why not give the business the vibrancy and passion it deserved? Why not hand some of this energy to our clients, and make them see the quality of the service they were receiving reflected in our branded materials?
I didn’t want to wait any longer… I didn’t want to continue trading with the way I felt.
This is where The Golden Goose Design Studio was born.
The New Me
The Golden Goose was like plastic surgery gone right! From ugly duckling to gorgeous swan (or goose!).
From the decision to change the business name til the launch was less than 2 months. This included a complete name change, new business branding, new business newsletter, blog, website, complete new set of branded business materials and a complete overhaul of everything from business cards to the studio’s terms and conditions.
When I decided to rename and rebrand my business I hadn’t in a million years dreamed of the work that would fall into my lap the following month.
By accurately reflecting my business’ personality in both the name and the branding – I had completely changed people’s perspective of the business and were suddenly landing the better contracts that we were targeting.
Not only had I changed other’s view on the business, but I had also changed mine. It now has the capacity to be the business I always knew it was.
Exciting times!
Have you ever renamed or rebranded your business? What affect did it have? Or is it still holding you back?
Leah Klugt, The Golden Goose
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Author
Malcolm Owens
February 8, 2011 at 9:45 am
Hi Leah,
Changing a business name is always a difficult decision. You always have the good will and brand recognition associated with the old name but it doesn’t always meet the challenges of the current business.
After merging 2 companies 4 years ago we simply combined the names. It worked well and we kept elements of the old logo style in the new one. Evolutionary rather than evolutionary but that suited us at the time. It was important to maintain the links to the names the customers knew.
Sometimes change is good and provides an opportunity to relaunch and reintroduce a brand to current and new clients. Moving forward is very often the best option, just as you found!
Author
Leah Klugt
February 8, 2011 at 9:58 am
Hi Malcolm – great response!
Thanks for sharing your experience with a rebrand. As you’ve found, a rebrand doesn’t always have to consist of a complete overhaul of the elements in the current brand, or even the name.
It can simply be the ‘evolution’ of these elements to suit the business’ values and personality.
A good name, good will and brand recognition are all key factors that need to be considered before diving into the rebranding pool!
Another question we asked ourselves was ‘Are we going to lose any of our current client base because of the rebrand/rename?’
The answer being no – we knew we could move forward.
Author
Cupcake Recipes Australia
February 8, 2011 at 10:03 am
When I got into this business it was selling budget prizes to clubs and pubs, and after perservering for a few years, we totally re-positioned ourselves as gourmet hamper distributors.
Never looked back.
Author
MyCarBudget
February 8, 2011 at 10:14 am
This post is actually about a competitor of ours that i used to work for. McMillan Shakespeare is a successful salary packaging company but when I spoke to anyone about where I worked they would say is a book publishing company. All of the staff used to get the same reaction.
I don’t think it every hampered our sales efforts but identifying what we did as a business with what our name said just wasn’t working.
Some time ago (I had moved on by then) they changed the name and the branding to Maxxia. I think it has some slight connection to the old name but without the baggage that goes with a connection to the publishing world.
Author
Leah Klugt
February 8, 2011 at 10:15 am
I think you’ve stumbled on such a great point, Cupcake Recipes. The fact that you CAN completely re-position your business.
Many businesses are stuck working in their business and not on it.. stuck in the day in day out draul. We all know what this is like!
It’s important that we step back every now and then and take a look at the direction our business is heading, and the audience we are targeting and align ourselves on a better path to the place we want to be.
Author
Linda ~ Journey Jottings
February 8, 2011 at 12:39 pm
Word association is obviously very important when it comes to a brand name -
A ‘Blot’ has negative associations such as a ‘blot on the landscape’ or if you do make an ink blot that’s usually messy and ‘bad’!
Being associated with a company that lays golden eggs however implies you will pass on your magic and luck onto all you touch!
I think you made a good move Leah!
Linda
*highlights your holiday adventures*
Author
Leah Klugt
February 8, 2011 at 12:44 pm
So true. The connotations of individual words comes into play.
Thanks for your comment Linda!
Author
Phil Owens
February 8, 2011 at 3:03 pm
So, for someone starting out, what tips would you offer so that we dont have to go through a rebrand in 12 months ourselves? What would you have done differently?
Author
Gourmet Gift Box
February 8, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Personally we are rebranding and it is by identifying the key design elements that appeal to your customers. For our site, we have identified clean lines, ease of use and a definite focus on the product offered over and above having a sparkling logo or branding complexity. Our customers appreciate that.
Author
Leah Klugt
February 8, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Hi Phil, excellent questions!
If I could go back in time:
1. I would consider in further depth the business PERSONALITY
2. I would DREAM BIG from the start, not wait for it to happen
3. I would spend far more time considering my business’ position in the marketplace.. and where I wanted it to sit
4. I would then have spent time on my branding and other materials as I did through the rebrand (website, business cards etc)
The hardest part for someone starting out is lack of funds.. or prioritising the funds they do have. Some things are better done well from the start
Author
Leah Klugt
February 8, 2011 at 3:21 pm
Thanks for weighing in, Gourmet Gift Box.
Are you rebranding or are you changing your market positioning? Rebranding involves changing the image that the viewer/customer/audience is presented with.
Rebranding assists the market positioning process, but there are other ways to achieve this – one of which you have come across in the ease of use.
You can also change your market positioning by altering the product/service you offer. Eg. Bi-lo ice cream is hitting a different market to Weis Vanilla Bean. (I love ice cream!)
Certainly a great way of enhancing customer experiences with your product/service is to create an experience through visuals and the practical use of the website.
It’s no use having spot on branding if your product/user experience system isn’t down pat.
That’s why when we rebrand businesses we focus on core business personality traits or ‘branding values’ and assist the client in flowing these values through their business..
Author
Leah Klugt
February 8, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Hi MyCarBudget – sorry I must’ve missed your reply!
You’ve landed on a good point there – does a rebrand cover up a multitude of sins?
If you’re rebranding to ‘run away’ from a previous bad name, it will only get you so far.
Unless you are taking a look at why the old branding/name didn’t work – you’re going to wind up with the same problem with the new one.
If your products sucked before, they’re still going to suck after
Author
leon Noone
February 8, 2011 at 5:34 pm
G’Day Leah,
Really interesting post. I’m no more than an interested amateur in the whole marketing caper. But I’ve learnt one thing: If your marketing’s poor your business will suffer. And I’m happy to confess that I’m an unabashed fan of marketing guru Al Ries.
I feel that we pay far too little attention to the names we give our businesses. So many of us choose clever, trendy and “cool” names that are really all about us rather than what’s important to our prospects and clients. I also think that we sometimes obsess about logos when we should be obsessing about slogans that give meaning to our corporate identity. In Australia, “Woolworths the fresh food people” means that Woolies own the word “fresh.” That’s useful for a supermarket.
Incidentally, if you want proof, look at Woolies performance in the decade before they adopted that slogan and their performance since.
Good luck with The Golden Goose. It promises a lot more to prospects and clients than Ink Blot.
Best Wishes,
Leon
Author
Leah Klugt
February 8, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Hi Leon!
Thanks for your feedback
You’ve landed on something – alot of us make choices for our businesses based on our personal likes/dislikes rather than what’s good for the business.
Rather than one or the other (slogan vs logo) I like to think a combination of alot of fantastic marketing/branding/copyrighting fits together when coming up with a tip top campaign.
Woolworths certainly owns the word Fresh! I also love their new logo
Author
May King Tsang
February 9, 2011 at 1:11 am
What an interesting article! I was actually discussing this with a FB friend the other day! I had a different name for my company before MayKingTea but when I introduced myself, I would say “Hello, my name is May King, you know? As in making tea”. Several months later, one of my friends mentioned that MayKingTea is a fantastic name because it’s not only reflection of my true personality and my branding and…of course, it’s my real name too. My former tea company name was too hoighty-toighty and didn’t send out the correct message. My friend is actually going through a quandry as to whether he should change his business name, so I’ll definitely show him this article as I’m sure he’ll find it really useful. Thank you for sharing.
Author
Leah Klugt
February 9, 2011 at 10:46 am
Thanks for your feedback May! It’s amazing once you’ve found the right name, it just WORKS. Business naming is a fine art! Particularly as you have to choose your business name so early on in the process. I found that during the year before the change over, my business had self actualised so far beyond “Inkblot”.
Hope your friend finds the article useful!
Author
Carbonite Australia
February 13, 2011 at 7:59 am
Names can be very funny. When I started at Carbonite and started researching the name, one of the common listing on Google for it was Hans Solo being frozen in Carbonite and some game that shared the same/similar name.
However in our case I think the name is very fitting for us and the logo also works well. Best of all, some of the images we have been using also create some great connection with the anxiety created when you lose your data.
Author
Leah Klugt
February 14, 2011 at 9:42 am
Hi CA! Nice to see you on here too!
It’s creative to have a certain history and meaning to your name too.
Great tap into consumer emotion! Heard it said before that there are 3 major motivators;
1. Guilt
2. Fear
3. Manipulation
Author
Discount Office Furniture
February 17, 2011 at 5:21 pm
We looked at many names and settled on Group Purchase Online because,
It describes exactly what we are about and was available as business name and website name.
Author
Leah Klugt
February 18, 2011 at 11:09 am
Hi DOF. Thanks for pointing that out! I didn’t mention that it’s helpful to do a bunch of searches to check the availability of your domain name/business name. It’s also good to check FB Vanity URL’s and Twitter Handles to ensure you have access to all of these.
Author
Bambi
February 21, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Great discussion. The theory behind brand/business naming is something that I’m really interested in.
I would like to make a suggestion for those who are still thinking up that great brand name or feel that perhaps they need to change their existing one.
If you look at all the names referred to above the ones that stand out are those that ARE a brand – Golden Goose & Carbonite.
Imagine if you had seen some marketing from these guys but hadn’t quite remembered exactly their name and so put in a word similar into google….You would likely find them.
However, if you have a FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTIVE name (such as Marketing Consultants Australia) when someone puts in a few of those terms into Google – they find all of your competitors.
Plus – functional descriptive names just don’t cut through and stick in the head. And they certainly don’t help convey your distinct and unique personality.
You need a name that works as an Advertisment for you every time you use it. I have The Woo for exactly that reason. It is never used in isolation…so you see it within the context of my web-site (with text, pics, etc., that make it obvious what it is). And one of the best things that happens is when people asking me “Why is it The Woo”
and I get to give them the story behind the brand (Because – stories stick in the head).
Well done on Golden Goose Leah.
Author
Paul Hassing
February 21, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Nice one, Bambi!
Not wishing to muscle Leah out of her channel, I just wanted to say I think you’re dead right.
By the way …
Why is it The Woo?
Author
Gourmet Gift Boxes
February 21, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Thanks Bambi, I agree with your functional descriptive concept, and agree that once typed into google you may indeed find competitors, but what if you named your biz specifically for a niche with low competition on google.
Finding a niche search term for naming your business is a great marketing tool for those who have heard of you, but forget, and then type what they recall into google.
Author
Leah Klugt
February 22, 2011 at 9:04 am
Bambi, you’re marvelous Im so glad you posted a comment! It’s the unique names that are the most easily remembered. No muscling-out here Paul
Author
Bambi
February 22, 2011 at 9:55 am
Thanks Paul. Well, now that you’ve asked….HA.
I believe marketing should be about ‘woo-ing’ customers. Marketing is all about relationships.
Thanks Leah – and you have a unique one.
And thanks Gourmet Gift Boxes. If you can be absolutely first in a category – go for it. But that is very, very rare. And once you have established the category and competitors come along with similar names, you may need that extra oomph that a brand name gives you. IMHO.
But – of course, the name is only one aspect of branding. And there are stacks of examples where the generic functional descriptive name has led the market place for years.
Author
Paul Hassing
February 22, 2011 at 10:00 am
Thank you, Bambi. I’ve long wanted to know that!