Introducing Brand Tuned

To give businesses the best start in life when it comes to developing a new brand, it is essential that intellectual advice is taken during branding projects so the brand can stand, be distinctive, and use protected IP to remain unique.

The importance of IP should never be underestimated when it comes to your brand and your business. When creating a brand name, designing a logo or dealing with any other aspect of your branding, getting it wrong from an IP standpoint can cause huge problems for a business. The costs to put it right can be huge.

To put that into perspective, imagine, for example, spending £50,000 on a new brand only to discover later down the line that someone else owns the trademark.

Unfortunately, it happens. Which is why it’s so important to integrate IP into your branding from the outset.

Sometimes the costs of poor brand choices are invisible, and the business has low revenues without realising it is due to the brand created for it.

Because IP is one of your biggest assets

Intellectual property, as the name suggests, is an asset. It’s the very heart and soul of your brand. IP affects every aspect of your brand from the name you choose to your logo, tagline and your livery. Of course, this also determines how recognisable you are in the marketplace, how distinctive you continue to be, and how successful your brand becomes.

So it’s vitally important to develop your brand in a way that helps you derive optimal business value. That involves creating all your branding elements with IP in mind. It’s not just about protecting any assets that are created.

Intellectual Property is a complex business. While Azrights can look after all legalities concerned with IP protection, when it comes to conceptualising and designing all the elements that go with your brand, it’s important to develop your brand strategy with IP as an essential component. That means getting the right advice at the very beginning. We can then ensure the brand that’s created for you really supports you to make your vision a reality.

Why IP matters

Your brand and intellectual property are intrinsically entwined. Creating a brand that helps you achieve your business goals means taking IP into account at the design stage.

IP comes in many formats, from the name you use to copyright elements and the final designs developed to bring your brand to life. The effect of IP can be felt throughout your business operations, so IP must be central to your branding strategy.

This can be achieved through a variety of means including:

• Due diligence searches before finalising icons, names or other elements.
• Legal agreements with suppliers and contractors
• Registering rights for trademarks, and designs at the right time.

Once this all in place, you can start consolidating your brand and bringing all the elements together. This is when the designers take over to create a brand that’s fully protected, one that gives you great visibility in your marketplace and helps drive your business goals.

Even if your business is already well established, if you’re rebranding, taking IP into account, and doing an audit of your IP could be invaluable in properly identifying where your assets lie and creating a strategy (and additional branding elements) that not only protects you, but strengthens your business and your brand further.

It’s important to highlight too that IP is international. Treaties between countries throughout the world have been developed to protect businesses and artists when it comes to their creations, their brands, their products and other work. At Azrights we have a lot of expertise and connections in this area and work with a network of agents throughout the world to bring in the knowledge necessary to help establish, protect and fine-tune the design of your brand for global markets.

A Unique Approach To Branding

Get your brand right first time

Your ‘brand’ is that all-encompassing entity that sums up your business, your vision and your values. Your intellectual property is the glue that binds this all together. By integrating branding with IP, through our brand consultancy Brand Tuned, we can support you to create a strong, visible brand that stands out in your marketplace and delivers real value for your business, while also ensuring your brand assets are protected, from your name to your slogan, logo, icons, any music or images you use.

By focussing on IP at the outset, you create a foundation for creating the most distinctive brand elements for your business and prevent problems down the line. This is something we know from companies that come to us for IP protection and help – due to issues that occur after the branding work is concluded. Use IP as the foundation for your brand identity and these problems can be eliminated.

Brand TUNED – the 5-step framework for brand and business success

IP First

Using our TUNED framework, we start by getting to know your business and analysing IP risks and opportunities to create the best IP strategy for your venture. Working in partnership with you, we’ll begin with reviewing the elements you want to see in your brand.

Understanding the Market

Research is key to understanding your market and developing a brand identity that will stand out. Throughout we’ll use our expertise, experience and connections to understand how to best create your brand and IP protection strategy.

Name it Right

One of the biggest challenges for any business is finding the best name for your brand. Creating the right name for your brand is important. Not only must it be memorable and able to make you stand out in your marketplace, it’s crucial that the name is legally yours before you invest in developing the brand further. Sometimes the costs of having the wrong name are invisible – for example, the business may have poor revenues due to its generic name.

Establish Your Brand Strategy

Once you are clear on your brand vision, it’s time to finalise your brand strategy. In partnership with you, we will consider how to position your business, and create the perfect story.

Drive the Brand

We put all the elements required to optimise your branding for success. Putting power behind your brand involves getting visibility by promoting your brand’s presence so it is noticed and recognisable in the marketplace, both online and offline. We can advise on the best ways to do that. Driving your brand internally is another facet of this so you create the right culture within your organisation to inspire your team.

Put Brand Tuned To Work For Your Business

Designed to help you succeed

The Internet has changed the way we do business. In a digital world, governed by intellectual property laws, IP is now more important than ever. For your business to be a success, it’s vital you get the expertise you need to navigate copyright, trademark and other IP legalities to avoid infringing on the rights of others, and to make sure you own your brand. By understanding how IP affects your branding you will be able to develop a much stronger, enduring brand, that can succeed and thrive..

With this in mind, we can guide your team of experienced designers to work for you to create all the elements that go into your branding, with the goal of ensuring you will stand out and be noticed.

Avoid costly mistakes

Not every business owner knows that the rights to use a name come from trademarks – not domain or company registration. This is where mistakes can be hugely expensive. Branding agencies are more focussed on the design of your brand and can neglect IP along the way. Or worse still, leave it to you the client to deal with after the brand has been created. At which stage, you may discover you have to start over again.

This is why IP needs to be addressed at the very beginning of the brand creation process. Throughout, we work with your designers to ensure your brand is protected and on brief to achieve your business objectives.

Our TUNED framework has been created to develop distinctive brands using IP to stand out, as well as to avoid potential problems. This provides a clear process for designing a distinctive brand, around a name that’s owned by you only and fully protected. You can then safely proceed to build your brand identity around that.

When it comes to discovering your brand name, Brand Tuned can guide you through the best ways to brainstorm, or, in partnership with you, create the perfect brand name for you.

Now you’re ready to drive your brand, bring it to life with Brand Tuned

There are many considerations to take into account when developing a successful brand strategy. Your business model, your values and your future vision for your brand should all be used to clarify your concept before moving to creating the visual identity and laying out a road map for promoting the brand. Here again, we work with your design team to advise on the best ways forward ensuring that IP is taken into account, so you can fully protect your business and generate most value from your brand.