People understand who you are by putting you ‘in a box’
If your name or tagline isn’t direct and summarize what you do precisely, and from the target audience’s point of view, your clients are going to waste time and lose interest.
Most of the company could benefit from the advice of a marketing team when it’s time to find a name, a logo, or a tagline. You shouldn’t choose a name for the wrong reasons, just because you find it funny wherever it was the nickname of the puppy you had on your 8th birthday.
More seriously, your name has to be unique and memorable just like your tagline should provide a value or an explication on what you do.
If you do a quick search on accounting companies, more often than not, you will find that the name of the company is the name of the accountant who created it. This, therefore, does not provide any useful information to the public on the services provided.
And if the tagline is “We do your tax properly” it’s even more boring as not only all the other accountants do have the same message so it’s not memorable, but the message is redundant if not worrying at best:
- Redundant because an accountant who says he is going to do your taxes is the same as telling you that the water is wet or that the fire burn… it’s very trivial.
- It’s worrying precisely because it’s the minimum you expected from an accountant: that he properly declares your taxes. Suppose you enter a restaurant and the cook tells you that he just has washed his hands… would you be reassured?
To find a good name and a good tagline, there are some rules to follow:
1/ Don’t assume that people will research your company to find what services you can provide them.
You are searching for a dentist around you and you see this:
- Provencher Family Dentist
- Sunny Dental Care
- Steve William P DDS
At a glance, you know the first two will provide you what you are looking for so why bother checking the third one?
2/ Try to have a tagline that will explain what you will provide to your client.
- Very white teeth.
- For a clean and healthy mouth.
- Putting a smile on your face.
- Helping you smile.
- The world deserves your smile.
- Leave with a bright smile.
The first two are not bad but are expected and they don’t bring much while the following will have this very memorable little human touch.
3/ Keep in mind that your logo as well as the tone of the tagline will influence what people think of you.
Here are 3 Mexican restaurant logos. If you are looking for modern Mexican cuisine or at least present, which would you choose?
But be careful to not mislead because if customers expect traditional homemade food and you serve them reheated food, you risk being attacked on social media as they will feel betrayed.
Keep in mind that your company name, logo, and tagline work together to help potential customers understand the services you offer.
Does your company name indicate what you can offer?
- If yes, your tagline can talk about what people will gain from working with you.
- If not, we would advise you to add an explanatory tagline.
Is your logo’s design in line with the services you offer?
- If yes, perfect! try to stay consistent everywhere (Business cards, website, Facebook page, even the poster on your door).
- If not, you should think about updating your logo in order to fix the situation and avoid disappointing or misleading customers.
Do you have a logo with a good enough definition on hand?
Because the last thing you want is to have a pixelated logo, which would completely discredit your image.
High definition files (therefore vector) have most often an extension like:
- .AI (a vector native file from Adobe Illustrator)
- .EPS (if made on Adobe Illustrator or a vector software)
- .PDF (if made on Adobe Illustrator or a vector software)
- .SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
Ok, but what is a vector logo file, and what is the difference between a pixel file and a vector file?
Long story short, a vector file is an illustration made with curves (vector) that are re-calculated permanently as requested by the size you need. The same file can then be used to make a wallpaper on your smartphone or to print a 50 square foot promotional banner on a building.
Here is a zoom of the same logo in JPG and PDF:
When the file reaches its maximum magnification size, we see its pixels whereas a vector file will constantly recalculate the curves in order to keep an optimal definition. This is why even large pixel files. JPEG (or .jpg) files cannot be considered high definition. No more than .PNG, .BMP etc.
Whether you need guidance choosing a name, creating a tagline, or remaking your logo in high definition, we can help you.