Whether it’s for a company or a product, naming is a challenging task that the Living Blueprint team is always excited to take on. It’s an opportunity to test our creative mettle while operating under close guidelines. Naming requires a careful mix of inspiration, creativity, research, and an intimate knowledge of the client’s brand. Living Blueprint has an informal “perfect name” checklist that we follow whenever we’re given the opportunity to tackle a naming job. These are the main guidelines that we keep in mind (in no particular order):

1. Brand appropriate - Is the name consistent with the desired brand experience? Razor might not be the best name for a company that makes toys for infants.

2. Meaningful - There’s lots of room to be creative here. Incorporating the names of symbolic figures? Translating words from Latin or Greek? Inventing your own compound words? The only limit is your imagination (and good taste).

3. Sounds good - This one is highly subjective, but people will know a clunky or ugly name when they hear it. Most companies will want to avoid awkward names – unless it’s on purpose.

4. Exclusivity - Is someone already using the name? You don’t want your client receiving any future surprises of the “cease & desist” variety.

5. Domain availability - When the perfect name is found, trademarking it is one of the first essential tasks, followed very closely by owning the .com. There’s a measure of luck involved here because many domains were purchased years ago. Want to name your company after Greek, Roman, or Egyptian mythology? Good luck.

6. Translates well to a logo - We live in a visual world where logos are often more recognized than names. Making a client a logo with a bunch of words and letters jammed in like alphabet soup is generally a bad thing.

7. Easy to pronounce - Whether it’s making a sales call, doing a trade show presentation, or giving their email address over the phone, your clients will be using the name on a daily basis. If you can make their life easier, so much the better.

8. No unforeseen complications - Here’s where you do your research to find out what you didn’t know you needed to know. Is your newly invented compound Latin/Greek name phonetically identical to a nasty word in Mandarin? Did you just name a human resources agency after a third-world dictator who was overthrown in 1957? Don’t find out the hard way.

Living Blueprint has put our company and product naming skills to work in a number of projects over the years. Here are a few examples.

Syntaris Power
Max Pacific Power were a renewable energy company who were preparing to submit to BC Hydro’s Clean Power Call request for proposals. They came to Living Blueprint needing to create a brand that was representative of an international-grade corporation and part of this rebranding process was the creation of a new name. Our research, brainstorming sessions, and staff meetings led us to a combination of “synthesis” (a substance created by combining multiple other substances) and “taris” (inspired by “terra”, Latin for “Earth”).
Syntaris Power = Working with earth to make power.

Altitude Recruiting
Frank Power’s recruitment company specializes in IT staffing solutions and have been highly successful in helping both companies and job candidates find their perfect match on local, national, and international markets. For this naming project we started with some research and brainstorming sessions, then moved into third-party input. We filled a room with impartial participants who were invited via Facebook, Craigslist, and word of mouth, began throwing ideas around, gave away an iPod, and gathered input. At the end of the day, the winner was Altitude Recruiting.

Pacific Coastal Airlines
When Pacific Coastal Airlines decided to restructure their fare system by grouping the fares into three price categories, those categories needed names. The extensive process involved executive meetings, focus groups, customer surveys, and an internal communication strategy designed to engage all Pacific Coastal staff in the decision. The result:
Encore – full price, full flexibility
Classic – discounted price, limited flexibility
Bravo – lowest price, least flexibility

Executive Counsellor – Marie-Helene Pelletier
Dr. Marie-Helene Pelletier’s background is unique. Academically, she has a B.A. and M.A. in clinical psychology and a Ph.D. in counselling psychology. In the business world, she has an MBA and managed a network of 3,000+ professionals as Chief Professional Services Officer for Homewood Human Solutions. When Marie-Helene decided to start her own counselling and consulting business aimed at providing support services for CEOs, executives, and other professionals in leadership positions, she wanted to highlight her extensive psychology background while avoiding the social stigmas attached to words like “therapist”, “psychologist”, “analyst”, etc. After much discussion and debate, Executive Counsellor stood above the rest.

Get it Right – Explore, Create, Scrutinize, Test, Repeat

The naming process can be very rewarding and is a chance for an agency to do some linguistic exploring and flex their creative muscle, but it should never taken lightly. Every prospective name needs to be carefully scrutinized, discussed, debated, and tested. There can’t be any doubt that the name suits the client because once a name is trademarked, a domain is purchased, a website is launched, and the orders for printed collateral are being sent out, going back is no easy task.

It’s hard to ignore the popularity of mobile websites. Smartphones are seemingly in the hands of almost every teen, pre-teen, and adult in cities around the world. Google has launched their Go Mo initiative, which outlines the importance of mobile for both personal and business applications. While some continue to downplay mobile sites as a “cute fad”, recent findings tell an entirely different story.

The Future of the Internet is in Mobile

According to leading international IT experts Gartner Inc.:

• By 2013, more people will be accessing the Internet via mobile phones (~1.82 billion users) than PCs (~1.78 billion users)
• By 2014 there will be over 3 billion people transacting electronically via mobile / Internet technology

Convenience is the rule. People aren’t surfing the Internet from their desk, they’re on the street or at the mall using their smartphones to help them choose everything from computers and TVs to restaurants and hotels. And the personal aspect of mobile technology is astounding – how many people keep their phone within arm’s reach of their bed? Mobile websites are here to stay and businesses who delay are losing out.

Of course a regular website will work on a smartphone, but there are a few problems:

• Sites not optimized for mobile are hard to navigate without a lot of scrolling and “pinching”. A Compuware statistic states that 57% of users would not recommend a business with a poor mobile site.
• A full site requires much more data transfer than a mobile site, which means higher bills for the user.
• If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, will the user remember your site and wait to look it up at home? It’s nice to think so, but Compuware tells us that 40% of users will turn to your competitor.

Not all Mobile Sites are Created Equal

While low-cost templated mobile sites are available, they aren’t always the best choice. Accurately translating your brand experience from a full website to a mobile version involves carefully distilling your message and imaging into their most potent form and optimizing them for the smaller space. Since Living Blueprint is a strategic branding and communication agency, this is our specialty.

The world is on the move and businesses who don’t stay connected are losing out to their competitors. Don’t get left behind! Contact Living Blueprint and get your business mobile.

Sources:

• “Gartner Highlights Key Predictions for IT Organizations and Users in 2010 and Beyond”. Gartner Inc. January 13, 2010. http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1278413
• “New Study Reveals the Mobile Web Disappoints Global Consumers”, July 19, 2011, Compuware, 2011 http://www.compuware.com/d/release/592528/new-study-reveals-the-mobile-web-disappoints-global-consumers

Client Update – Catered Art Website Launch
We’re very proud of our work on the recently launched Catered Art website – a breathtaking display of divine culinary creations by chef Mark Halyk. Cutting-edge design and stunning photography unite perfectly in this tantalizing showcase, which has earned descriptors like “elegantly manly” and “food porn”.

Food is the attraction at Catered Art, so photography was a priority and gorgeous photos by Michael O’Shea form the backdrop for each page. The top menu is collapsible and clicking a button on the site’s right edge makes all page text disappear, enabling unimpeded appreciation of the full-page photos. Viewers are also invited to “eat with their eyes” in a large photo gallery of Catered Art’s inspired work. Please visit the Catered Art website to experience it for yourself, but don’t do it on empty stomach!

Download the full Catered Art case study.

Three Divisions of LBP

As Living Blueprint, now known as LBP, evolved, our services coalesced into three closely related divisions, each designed to help your company in a distinct way:

Branding & Strategy

“Know the enemy and yourself, and you need not fear one hundred battles. Know yourself but not the enemy, and every victory will be accompanied by a defeat. Know neither the enemy nor yourself, and you will lose every battle.” – Sun Tzu

LBP will guide you through the process of gaining a deep understanding of your company’s services, staff, and corporate culture; and that of your competitors. This enables us to create a strong, representative brand image and devise a deliberate strategy to lead you to success.

Fulfillment & Communication

The most successful companies engage their audience on a regular basis. LBP will design a proactive Brand Fulfillment strategy to keep you connected with your target audience via the most appropriate media, whether that means events, news releases, blogs, online videos, print advertising, etc.

Workshops & Presentations

Corporate acceptance and strong communication are vital to a successful brand. Without clear communication, even minor misunderstandings can cause major problems. LBP believes strongly in the positive, cohesive effect of maintaining a culture of communication and we will design a series of customized workshops and presentations to ensure that your entire organization is informed of all developments and that everyone feels involved in the overall direction.

The Living Blueprint Concept Holds True

During our self-discovery phase, we were pleasantly surprised to find that our name is even more conceptually relevant now than at the beginning. Our systems literally create a “living blueprint” for your company. It will guide you through the process of running your organization and will follow your evolution, adapting to the inevitable challenges that you’ll face as you grow.

With our refined direction and solidified team, we felt that Living Blueprint had reached an important milestone. So we turned our processes inward and rebranded. From now on you’ll know us as LBP. The logo and colours have changed, but the same great minds are at work. We look forward to growing along with you.

If your brand seems a bit flat, then you might consider developing a communications plan to bring it to life. If you haven’t tackled a communications plan before it may seem a bit daunting. But if you’re prepared to commit some time and effort and understand some of the fundamentals, you may find the process simpler than it appears.

A good communications plan follows a basic structure that PR professionals call the R.A.C.E. formula. It stands for Research, Analysis, Communicate and Evaluate. Before you put a plan together take the time to research your target audiences. Ask them what they are thinking, what their concerns are, their likes and dislikes. Find out what they need to know and how they prefer to get the information. Test key messages and use a mix of both qualitative and quantitative measures if you can.

Once you’ve completed your research, take some time to analyze the results. Be prepared to adjust your approach based on what you find out. An honest analysis is critical. If you get this step right you can move forward with a clear sense of what you are going to say, how you are going to say it, who you are saying it to, and how to deliver it. The research and analysis phase provides valuable insight and discovery that is used to formulate your strategic approach to the communications plan.

Strategy is the single most important element of a good communications plan. Without a strategy a communications plan is merely a series of unrelated events that will provide very little support for your brand. The tactical components of the plan must all connect in some way to the overall strategy. After nearly twenty years as a professional communicator I am still surprised at the number of companies that fail because they did not put in the time and effort to develop a strategic approach to brand fulfillment.

The communications part of the plan, the tactics, is where you can be creative. Simply put, the communications tactics are a series of events that provide you with an opportunity to deliver your brand to your target audiences. Whether it is a booth at a trade show, an online newsletter, an email drip campaign, or a banner at the county fair, you need to ensure consistent application of your brand. Key messages should reinforce your value proposition and if you correctly analyzed and applied the knowledge gained from the research and analysis phase, the messages will resonate with your target audiences.

Where possible, you should seek to create a two-way dialogue with your customers. Social Media like Twitter or Facebook can help you to engage in tw0-way conversation and provide you with endless opportunities to present your brand and find out what people think about your company and its goods or services.

Evaluating your communications efforts on a regular basis is a hallmark of a successful strategic communications plan. Take the time to build in methods to measure how your key messages are being received and whether or not they are being heard. Make adjustments as required and communicate again. This creates a dynamic interaction, a two-way conversation between the public and your brand. Communication provides the breath of life that makes a good brand great.

The interesting thing about branding is getting an inside first hand look at companies. Who is behind them, where are they going, are they complex or simple? In many cases we help our clients clarify these and many more questions. Alaska Pacific Energy (APEC) is a new company looking to make their mark on the world and they want to move aggressively into the market place. As we went through our ‘Insight & Discovery’ stage with the principals of this company we found they had many great ideas on where they could go, what they wanted to be and how they wanted to get there. We always start by asking, almost silly questions like ‘what do you do?’ This simple little question when asked to a board of directors who all assume they are on the same page gets great dialog started. Don’t get me wrong – this company does know who they are, but to clearly define that and then articulating it with a unified voice is not the easiest thing to do.

The final brand has a strong look and feel to it and some really unique elements like the hidden menu. They were very clear with us as we created their brand that they wanted something different and not the average industry website. We really wanted to give them something elegant, powerful and of course visually pleasing. Ultimately, when you are looking for an agency see if you like their work; an obvious statement but really – look close. If you find their work cheesy, over complicated or even dated then move on. If you love their work and find it inspiring then maybe – your subjective nature, and the agencies subjective nature are soul mates.

check out the work we have done for this company

Visit their new splash page Alaska Pacific Energy

Living Blueprint has been helping charities and good causes since the day we opened our doors and when the opportunity to help three young girls raise money to build a well in Ethiopia came about, we simply could not turn away.

I will write more on this post in the next few days but I want to get this up right away as they have an event on May 15th (this weekend) and I want to get the word out any way I can.

Please have a look.

Visit their new splash page The Kindness Effect

We are proud to announce that Pacific Coastal Airlines has chosen to work with us on a year long print campaign. In a past life I was a ramp attendant at the Victoria Airport and I worked closely with Pacific Coastal, however,  my role was to martial the airplanes and all all did was simply put the baggage on and off.  Due to this back-ground I have a unique insight to the operations of the Coastal Pacific airline and their day-to-day routines.

Pacific Coastal is a family run airline and was founded by CEO and Director Daryl Smith over 30 years ago. Daryl’s roots are in the logging business, but he gained his reputation through 42 years of aviation experience as a pilot and owner of several regional carriers. With various degrees from the University of British Columbia and Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, the Smith family oversees all operations in the Northern and Southern BC Regions alongside a staff who have previous experience with Air Canada, AirBC, Trans Provincial Airlines, Canadian Airlines, and more.