Keeping the Company and Product Names Separate

Of all the mistakes a business can make, this one will not affect you until it's too late. Your product or service needs a name and that name should be different than the company name. Furthermore, you should not use the company name + product name together. When doing so, it implies that the latter is generic, when in fact you want the brand name of the product to stand out and be distinctive. If a product/service brand is distinctive, it doesn't need the company brand name to support it.

In consumer markets, successful brands often do not need to have the corporate endorsement. Other brands rely on the strength of the company's reputation. Proctor & Gamble does not use its corporate name as leverage to sell Tide, or any of the hundreds of consumer packaged goods it sells successfully. Kellogg's uses a similar model with its brands, except the Kellogg's name is a little more prominent in some cases, such as Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats or Kellogg's Rice Crispies, key brands developed in house over the years. The best brand names that Kellogg's developed itself were Apple Jacks and Pop-Tarts, which have the capability to stand on their own without referencing Kellogg. Acquired brands such as Lender's and Eggo also do not need the Kellogg's name. Beverage manufacturers have learned lessons in bridging companies with products. Coca-Cola did make a collasol branding mistake by reverting its popular '80's diet cola brand Tab to Diet Coke. Al Ries discusses this error in the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. In the consumer goods market, P&G has one of the best product brand strategy, none of which has to do with advertising. On the flip side, Service Brand International, Inc. manages a portfolio of service-based franchises, including Molly Maid, Mr. Handyman, 1-800-DryClean, Certified Restoration Dry Cleaning Network and Ductz. The individual service brand that I like the most here is Ductz. Certified Resotration Dry Cleaning Network is too long and too generic. Ductz is short and sweet. The Service Brand International strategy, containing a few solid individual brands is likely more lucrative and valuable than if each brand carried the SBI name. If you provide services, divide them down as far as you can and brand everything individually.

B2B's often attempt to leverage the company name as part of its product branding strategy. The reason this concept gets so much traction is that in B2B, the customer places more of an emphasis on the company and the decision to buy is often equally company and product/service dependent. B2B corporate acquisitions often times transition the use of corporate names into the use of product names. Microsoft Windows is an example of company/products kept together. Windows doesn't need the Microsoft name. When IBM acquired Tivoli, Rational and Lotus, each was previously used as a dual corporate-product brand, but came to be a product line brand post-merger. Now, IBM markets the product brands keeping the namesake of the former company as the brand.

Small businesses usually do not consider the difference. In business infancy, the product or service is the basis for the company. There isn't a lot of harm here, but if the entire business is focused on one product and the names are intertwined, it often makes it difficult to launch seperate, distinctive product or service brands. This leads to poor market performance as perception of the company/product/service appears to be diversified, and the jack of all trades brand never wins. When you keep the company and product/service separate, and giv ethe products AND services distinctive brand names, the business adds value. The brand is an investment in the value of the business.