Identity « Merriam Associates, Inc. Brand Strategies

Merriam Associates specializes in branding that gets results. Everything we do systematically generates leads, closes sales, boosts profits, and builds a solid reputation for your company and your products or services. Our background combines the rigor of global Fortune 500 companies with the tenacity of successful entrepreneurs.

Lisa Merriam NPR Interview on BP

Lisa Merriam interviewed on NPR about the fate of the BP brand

Scott Neuman of NPR asked me about the possible boycotts of BP. I explained that brand is not a driver for people buying gas. Location is most important. People will literally not drive across a median to reach a gas station on the [...]

Boring Green Logo Redesigns Are a Color Cliche

Green–it’s the new blue. As an overused boring corporate color, blue is losing ground to green. Corporations everywhere have been jumping on the “green” bandwagon, whether they are hotels that wash towels less frequently, moving companies that reuse boxes, or retailers that recycle plastic bags. The green washing trend is even spreading corporate [...]

Renaming Proxios: CEO Talks About the Process

Fast growing, innovative companies can sometimes outgrow their brands.

“Our name became constraining,” said Frank Butler, CEO of Proxios, a fast-growing company using cloud computing technology to create affordable and reliable alternatives to traditional in-house information technology and phone systems. “Our old name Super-Server did not have broad appeal and it was dated.”

Merriam Associates gave this [...]

Selected Naming Project Portfolio

Merriam Associates names almost a hundred companies and products a year. We work across categories, from consumer to B2B, from billion dollar companies to start-ups you haven’t heard of (yet). Our innovative approach creates strategically valuable names with impact.

Public Relations meets the Blog

PR is the most effective way to build mind share, marketing pull and general awareness. You must learn to craft the finer more focused little blog blasts and leverage them. Long copy still sells; you just have to build that long copy in discreet chunks and sew them together on the web.

Your Identity: Part Three, Domain Names

You will FIRST need to consider a domain name for your business before you pick a name. You need to buy domains names and try to secure as many domains as it requires to promote and protect your business.

Your Identity Part Two, Logos

Take a random survey of major brands you know and see how few of them actually use symbolic representation, but they all use typography and color.

Your Identity: Part One, Start-up Naming

Your identity is important. Three key ingredients are

Your name
Your domain name
Your logo.

Serviceable, adequate names are not that hard to come by. The distraction of trying to be too creative a can be a problem, simply avoid that and keep it simple . Great marketing creates great names. The world is [...]