There are books written about it: how do you choose the right positioning? And what type of brand name is the smartest choice? In the literature, an important step is consistently forgotten in this process. And if you forget this step before you have sunk your teeth into your brand positioning, you run an unacceptable risk that can have catastrophic consequences for your brand.
Why positioning?
With strong positioning you make your brand distinctive. Of course, that goes much further than choosing a name. Positioning is about the reasoned choice which characteristics of the brand should be emphasized (Riezebos & Van der Grinten, 2022).
During a presentation about positioning I heard a nice quote:
Distinctiveness is no longer enough. It is about being incomparable. This is how unique your brand should be – Marieke Pijler
According to Alsem and Kostelijk (2016), there are 6 reasons that make it very important for a brand to have a clear positioning. Number 1: increasing competition.
And that sounds good, actually, I think: being incomparable among your competitors . If you want to achieve that, you need razor-sharp brand positioning. Fortunately, coms professionals and marketers have long been convinced that a strong brand is of inestimable value to your business.
(Priceless) value in your brand
All the effort, all the money that you put into your brand, you want to get it out in one way or another. That way your brand increases in value. Only that value is in your brand and the right to that brand is not yours as long as you do not register it.
Not?
No, you do not automatically have the right to your brand.
In fact, someone else may have a right to a brand that you invented. And you may never be able to get a trademark right to it.
That’s really annoying if you’ve invested €1,000, €10,000, €100,000 or more in your brand and its positioning.
You only obtain the right to use your brand (the trademark right) by registering your brand.
This is how you get a monopoly on your brand
For optimal protection of your brand, a trademark right is necessary. A trademark right gives you a monopoly on your brand for certain products and/or services, in a certain region or in a certain country. But how do you get such a monopoly? By officially registering your brand. You do this in the register of the country or region where you want protection.
Also read: Trademark law: this is what you need to know about your trademark registration
For entrepreneurs who focus on the Netherlands, a Benelux trademark is the obvious choice. There is no Dutch trademark law. It is automatically a Benelux trademark (a trademark for the 3 countries of the Benelux).
But not all brands can be registered. There are legal rules and you also have to find out if your brand is still available.
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Is your brand available?
There is nothing more annoying than investing in your brand and finding out that your brand is no longer available. In other words: someone else has a right to the brand.
Therefore, before you spend those marketing euros: search the trademark register, the trade register, search online and the domain name register. Because that way you can
prevent a possible conflict with someone malta email list 149912 contact leads else (with a lot of legal hassle and costs as a result) as much as possible.
Two bonus tips for searching the trademark register effectively
Don’t just look for identical brands, but as a growing business, we understand the value also for brands that are simi
lar to yours, because they can also be problematic.
Look carefully at the products and/or services that the brands found relate to. Are they the same products and/or services as yours? Or does it look like them? Then that could be a problem.
For well-known brands, the products and/or aob directory services they relate to are often less important. These brands can have a broader scope of protection. For example, you probably wouldn’t be able to start a brand like ‘Coca Cola’ for services provided by beauticians. Even though Coca Cola® has most likely not registered their brand for those services.
Is your brand distinctive enough?
Suppose you start the brand “Lekker” for beef burgers. You immediately have a positive association. But can you register this name as a Benelux brand? No, unfortunately not. Then “Black Angus Beef” for beef burgers? Not possible either. A logo with a simple image of a cow then? Nope.
These brands are not distinctive enough because they can describe something of the product beef burgers. For example how they taste (tasty) or what kind of meat they are made with (Black Angus Beef or beef in general).