Your company name should have a common thread that leads to the core of the business. When this isn’t taken into consideration often mistakes are made. The same marketing energy that you use to develop your business name needs to flow throughout all integral parts of your business.

Your business name means everything when it comes to marketing your business, it could make or break your business, so do not take this part of planning lightly. A business name automatically contains a marketing element; your job is to choose a name that will help your marketing efforts. It’s not as difficult as it sounds, but you do want to spend some time doing it. I’ve listed some questions below that will get your creative juices flowing and jumpstart your thinking, so that you can begin developing ideas for your business name.

• Write down a description of your target audience.
• What problems does your business help them solve?
• Make a list of words and phrases that appeal to them.
• List three to five benefits that you offer to your customers.
• List out the names of 4 of your competitors.
• Make a list of characteristics that differentiate you from the competition.

Now take these answers and formulate a list of 5 to 7 names. Once you’ve chosen a name it’s time to put it to the test. Visualize your target audience and ask yourself the following questions:

• Can the proposed name be pronounced easily?
• Does it read quickly and clearly?
• Can you say it and others understand it, without having to spell it?
• Is it spelled as it sounds?
• Is it short? Experts recommend that a business name have eleven or less letters and four syllables maximum.
• Does it contain negative internal words?
• Is it unique and sensory? These two traits make words memorable.
• Does it spark interest? Is there a story behind it?
• Does it represent who you are? Is it authentic?
• Does it express or imply a desirable message?
• Can your employees say it proudly?

How did your proposed business name do? Is it a keeper or is it time to go back to the drawing board? Be honest with yourself, in the long run you will be glad you did.

Having a great name is a powerful force when it comes to your marketing campaigns. Your name differentiates you from competitors, makes an emotional connection with your audience, and helps to build a strong brand that your customers recognize and trust.

From: Laura Schneider, Your Guide to Marketing (http://marketing.about.com/)

You will often find that many people confuse marketing with advertising or vice versa. While both components are important they are very different. Knowing the difference and doing your market research can put your company on the path to substantial growth.

Let’s start off by reviewing the formal definitions of each and then I’ll go into the explanation of how marketing and advertising differ from one another:

Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.

Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.

After reading both of the definitions it is easy to understand how the difference can be confusing to the point that people think of them as one-in-the same, so lets break it down a bit.

Advertising is a single component of the marketing process.

It’s the part that involves getting the word out concerning your business, product, or the services you are offering. It involves the process of developing strategies such as ad placement, frequency,  etc. Advertising includes the placement of an ad in such mediums as newspapers, direct mail, billboards, television, radio, and of course the Internet. Advertising is the largest expense of most marketing plans, with public relations following in a close second and market research not falling far behind.

The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is to think of marketing as a pie, inside that pie you have slices of advertising, market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement.  Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in the strategy. All of these elements must not only work independently but they also must work together towards the bigger goal. Marketing is a process that takes time and can involve hours of research for a marketing plan to be effective. Think of marketing as everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange between company and consumer.

Sponsorship has the potential to contribute to brand building in a variety of ways, several of which are unique to sponsorships. The primary goal is usually to create exposure for the brand and to develop associations. Three other brand building benefits however, can be relevant to the selection and evaluation of sponsorships. Connecting the brand to the event/ customer bond is another aspirational goal.

1. Mobilizing the organization for brand building. Both the process and result of a brand building effort often have a key payoff internally to employees and other brand partners, as well as externally to customers. This phenomenon is particularly common in sponsorships. Employees and other brand partners can receive emotional benefits that result from pride in being associated with the sponsorships, as well as the link between the sponsorship and their own lifestyle and values. Getting employees to attend events can enhance these emotional benefits. A team sponsorship can be particularly successful at generating emotional benefits because there is an attachment to a goal and a winner, as well as an activity. An event sponsorship can also act as a catalyst to create a global brand building implementation process and team.
2. Providing an experience for customers. An event experience can provide a customer with a unique opportunity to develop a link to the brand and its organization. Simply providing customers with an event experience, especially when the event is prestigious, says a lot about the brand and the organization. Further, it represents a tangible and unique way to reward a key customer. Assuming that the event is sponsored over time, the reward can be provided year after year, giving the customer an incentive to nurture the relationship. In addition, the event provides a way to interact with key customers in a relaxed setting; access can be obtained that would not be possible without the event as a backdrop. Involving a customer in an event can also make that customer become a part of the same family or team as the brand. Especially when the experience is duplicated over several occasions, an intense level of loyalty can be created.
3. Demonstrating New Products and Technology. The most powerful way to introduce a new product or technology is by publicity. If it is novel, interesting and important enough to receive press coverage, its brand building goals will be much more likely to be achieved. A sponsorship can be the necessary lever to elevate the news value of a product or technology so that press coverage results.  Even if press coverage is not forthcoming, the sponsorship can provide a context to make a demonstration more interesting and vivid. An event can also be used to showcase technology that represents a key association of an organizational brand.
4. Creating brand exposure. A host of examples show that awareness increases substantially as the result of a sponsorship, especially when brands follow up the sponsored activity with other marketing activities
5. Develop Brand associations.
6. Becoming part of an event/ customer bond – The Affiliation Effect.