Get your current corporate names analyzed for global acceptability, get your teams into play for new educational tools on how to create, capture and cultivate global icons, make plans for introductions of new global name identities and start building icons. Solid gold that is.

Today, a properly structured and truly protected global trademark is worth a ton in gold. For this reason, a single name fully guarded for its iconic personality with a top-level protection plan and equipped with a matching dotcom is the most sought after commodity. Let's face it; such a name is worth a hundred times more than the head office building, all the fancy furniture, factories and all the stacking chimneys combined. Just ask Sony, Rolex, Bacardi, PlayStation, Panasonic or Telus, and they will tell you with an uncontrollable smile that without their unique moniker, their entire empire will have no value. If by chance, your corporation owns a one
of a kind, globally protected trademark, then surely you have struck gold. Otherwise the question is why not make it a plan to get one for 2005? It's so easy.

Striking Gold In 2005

Just as it is so easy to create and build a proper global name, it is equally very disturbing to know that less than 1% of corporations around the globe have such unique ownerships. Most have local or regional name brands and most constantly push these weak names while struggling to get
global clearance. It is amazing that how all the knowledge and expertise required to make this happen are so easily ignored, while a great fanfare is wasted over much weaker and geographically limited names. Current history is littered with these poor name identities as they eventually fade
away in the long run.

Anyone Can Play:

No matter how superior such pursuits may seem and how advanced the exercise for universal global identity may appear, the fact is that all it takes is some know how and any corporation can play this game. To find a proper name identity, first you need a Five-Star Standard of Naming, this
is a process designed to ensure the uniqueness of a candidate name with direct relativity to the business it represents while securing a position for a global trade marking with a matching dotcom. Anything less will fail. But first, you must clear the decks, as traditional creative services and firework branding has no room here. The creation of global icons and universal cyber brands for the global markets is not to be confused with graphic and logo design processes or big budget blasts to jumpstart weak names.
These practices are only great when you have a truly global name and a global corporate nomenclature strategy in place.

Hug a Trademark Attorney:
As a first step, discover the rules of global marketing and apply it to your
current image and see if fits your current name. It may seem complex but these rules are very logical. As growth and marketing opens more and more countries, your names should also be able to travel in each of those territories without any fear of trademark problems. Hug a trademark lawyer today. They offer the best and most economical layer of protection in the shape of trademark applications. Once a name is properly secured, you would have acquired something extraordinary. Most creative shops themselves lack serious knowledge of global registrations and domain laws and this makes them scared of lawyers. The branding shops, which only rely on pure creativity, leave you with legal registration issues as all being too legal and too hot; end up doing only half the job. You need guaranteed
results and truly Five Star Standard Name solutions. Currently the art of big budget branding has now shrunk to art of applying global naming to the most economical medium of cyber branding. There is a drop of some 95% of the old branding cost and it has now changed the entire brandinglandscape. So apply a comprehensive modern approach to establish a truly global name identity for 5% of the cost. Shocking.

Check your Current Profile: Take your current names in use and build a country-by-country profile by establishing the numbers of conflicts in each country. This exercise may sound complicated but it can be carried out by a push of a button when conducted under professional guidance and using the right technologies and global reference. Utilize the current online educational tools to bring within your corporation a higher level of understanding on this subject. First it is extremely inexpensive and it is
extremely fast. Within days, you can have the entire name analyzed and end up with a report with recommendations and suggestions.

Go for Gold in 2005
Get your marketing teams to go for that super shine in your name identity and corporate image, and make sure that you get a system in place to achieve all this quickly, efficiently and in the most cost effective manner. All you will need is the desire to go global with a powerful global identity. The rest will fit if you follow the right procedures and make sure your entire organization is ready to play the global game. Creation and the development of global name identities can be achieved within a few weeks. All you need is the 'masters of naming architects' the rest will unfold very nicely.

Get your current names analyzed for global acceptability, get your teams into play for new educational tools on how to create, capture and cultivate global icons, make plans for introductions of new global name identities and start building an icon. Solid gold that is.

Naseem Javed, author Naming for Power and also Domain Wars, is recognized as a world authority on global name identities and domain issues. Javed founded ABC Namebank, a consultancy he established a quarter century ago, and conducts executive workshops on image and name identity issues. He can be contacted at njabc@njabc.com.

(The views expressed here are those of the author and indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to the same)