Avenger Penguin

I'm running behind by about four days in my attempt to catch up with the 12 Week Challenge partially because this is a step that can be very time consuming: deciding on branding. The brand that I am building up will require a name, associated colours, relevant imagery (or a logo) and some words to describe the message or "story" the brand is telling.

One of the more open questions asked at this stage is "What story are you & your business telling?" I will write out a vague story of the people I am looking to help and that should frame the branding.

The Story

Whether held as a long term interest or entered at a later extant stage, the gothic subculture of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is certainly noted as being one of imaginative and distinctive with its clothing.

Consequently, it is common for those that identify themselves therein to seek garments from independent and specialist vendors and moreover it is not uncommon for many to take to creating or customising clothing themselves.

Any that feel a particular talent for such creations may partake in selling through Ebay, Etsy or at stalls at known events. Some go further to want to make a full business and brand out of their creations, but being skilled with making clothes does not naturally lead to being skilled with setting up a website for promotion thereof.

It is at this point that the choice falls between:

1. Sticking to Ebay, etc. and appearing less professional than those with their own websites;
2. Paying significant amounts of money for a professional, customised website and online shop; or
3. Attempting to put something together alone, which is both time consuming and difficult. This is especially the case with software tools not truly designed for building websites (e.g. Microsoft Publisher or Microsoft Word).

It is with those options in mind that I wish to brand my service as something that offers the professionalism of a self-owned site over #1, remains absent of the overhead costs of #2 and still produces results much better than those of #3.

The Brand

So, I've now identified the story of someone whom I'd be targeting with my business. The next step is to look at the brand itself. This includes deciding:

• three words for which the brand stands;
• a colour scheme;
• a logo or some artwork; and
• a name for the brand

I'd say the brand stands for: "simple, fast and polished". The fast aspect is to be from the focus on allowing a site to be constructed as quickly as possible, which then ties into the simple theme in that it should be free of requiring a large amount of effort or technical knowledge. The word polished finishes off the brand's aim to provide the aforementioned advantages with a professional edge that will stand out as being better than any self attempt.

As for colours, I will be looking to stick within colour schemes widely associated with other goth and alternative webites, such as palettes of purples. Logos and artwork will follow the chosen colour scheme, but I will push the specific choices (I do have a shortlist) into being part of the stage of putting together the website.

Choosing a name is also part of the brand, but can be a lengthy decision process (especially for me). In fact, it warrants its own section.

The Name

Names are strange beasts at the best of times. Companies like Apple or Orange get away with something as arbitrary as a fruit or a colour so long as they permeate the branding everywhere. The ubiquity of the Apple logo is hard to escape today and Orange's logo and website chromatically live up to their company's name.

Many companies like to capture some of their activity in the name. Microsoft and IBM (International Business Machines) are clearly technology companies, but still retain the gimmick of a name they coined.

If your brand is very specific, you may wish to make it much more explicit in stating what it is you do. While this is less gimmicky, it means your name alone is a good explanation of your services before people have to read on to your taglines or sales pitches. Carl of AnAdventurerIsCarl is soon to do a final launch of FilmIndustryResumes. There's no ambiguity there as to what that service provides.

So, choosing a good name means overcoming:

1. How much do I want the name to convey what the service actually does? Anything too abstract may not clearly do so and a leaflet headed with the name might not grab much attention.
2. Should the name still retain some imagery or poetic quality even in light of the previous consideration? Some markets respond better to a simple name that doesn't beat around the bush, but some may be more captured by a name with a good aesthetic.
3. Most obvious or common names are taken in terms of domain names. The sheer number of people registering domains today means you can be nearly certain that your top few ideas will not be available to buy as a .com. Thankfully, I have run into this with several projects and now know to start with the more unusual names first.
4. I'm pretty picky in general anyway. Combined with all of the above, I will quite easily take some time to choose something I genuinely like.

However, the fact I'm writing this means a name has been chosen. I've retained some explictness by phrasing it as a Call to Action, e.g. BuildMySite. The word "build" is less aesthetic than possible alternatives, so the word "weave" is one I feel fits in much better. The final result is the alliterative WeaveMyWebsite.com.