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Clarity

Athol Foden

Serving the world from California

Founder and Naming Director of Brighter Naming, offering naming and branding consulting worldwide. Former Intnl VP Sales and Marketing and tech guru - no naming project or subject too technical or scientific. Tracking all the naming trends.
If you want to pick the brain of a naming and branding guru, who really gets the gist of scientific, industrial, engineering and software products, as well as financial, real estate and consumer products, then call me and I will give you more than your money's worth.

$1.67/min

15 Calls

10 Reviews

22 minutes
Avg. call

Start-ups Marketing Strategy Naming Business planning Domain Names Writer Dynamic Speaker Product Naming Name Development Company Naming

Call me to talk about

Instant Corporate or Product Identity

Select names are offered with custom logos to get any business up and running in short order. Includes professional trademark checks.

http://www.brighterbranding.com

Checking Trademarks and Name Registrations

Over 18 years experience checking company, product and service names for potential registration. Have developed our own in-house search methodologies and databases for my own use only.

http://www.brighternaming.com/names/trademark-searches/

Naming Process Executive Meeting Facilitation

Have advised and tested our naming best practices process hundreds of times over the years. Working across many industries we name a company or product line every week - from sole proprietor startups to international conglomerates.

http://www.brighternaming.com/process/naming-process-2/

Answers 7
Reviews 10

Answers

Athol Foden answered

If there are no quality .com available domains suited for my travel startup, is it too bad to use a .org or .travel gtld?

As one of my industry colleagues said: If you think all the good domains are taken, you don't understand branding. Think about naming your agency, not describing it. We easily find 100 free .com domains on every naming project.. and often a lot more. With names that sound like they should be in the dictionary.
And yes, soon all the new domains will be here...like .web or .shop or .online or... BUT BUT trademark rules will apply even more than before - and trademark rules govern domain rules. So please make sure the trademarks are clear before you pay for any domains. By this time next year it will be very acceptable to have a non .com domain name. May even be cool to be a .buzz or a .cool!

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Domain Names

Online Travel

Athol Foden answered

How do you get access to the right people to validate an idea?

Cold cold calling is stupid and takes forever. Either set up dummy site or info and share it then ask for feedback. Quickest way (that my son did to great success) setup in a coffee shop and put an ad on Craig's list and offer to pay $10 for anyone who will come by and see your demo and give feedback. In one day and hundred dollars you will have your answer more than you can believe.

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Market Research

Ideas

New Product Validation

Athol Foden answered

I am starting a company that will operate a range of niche travel experiences. Are there benefits of using multiple brands for different experiences?

Only the super big guys can handle multiple brands! And they have separate operations teams handling each one. Humans need to be fully immersed in a brand to do it right, and few can handle many on the same day. Plus how do you cross promote? Doesn't matter if it is online or offline. Notice Amazon is one brand for all they do.

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Branding

Naming

Online Travel

Athol Foden answered

I'm having problems with ideation for a startup, I'm a web developer, what needs of yours aren't being met? Or how can I find a big problem to solve?

The problem you have, as is so common with many of these answers, is that they try to jump right to the problem. Wrong. It is like looking for a job. In reality you are looking for 100 places to send your resume to get 20 interviews to get 3 offers so you can pick one. So you need a methodology that puts lots of ideas in the hat and then you narrow it down through a funnel process. Marketing 101.. See Marketing Textbook from profs at Kellog School (NorthWestern).

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Early-stage Startups

Lean startup

Concept Ideation

Athol Foden answered

What name should I give to my product? (rebranding)

What if I don't like Melissa - or the bad guys discover that is the magic keyword? Surely I can pick my own name? Ted, Frank, Melinda? So company name should be different - like modernsteward or MagicButler.com (better still.. it is for sale for a small fee from Brighter Naming)

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Domain Names

Branding & Identity

Athol Foden answered

Should I change my startups name, making it more memorable, less generic & better fits future services, but domain will be a .me vs our current .com?

When push comes to shove, it is not about the domain at all. It is about the trademark... and he who owns the trademark wins legally. Doesn't even have to be same products or services - if they are in same industry they may be covered by same registered or even unregistered common law rights. And no one can register or own a generic name anyway. Get yourself a unique name and build your own brand, on a .com or .net or .org or .biz or soon .hotel or .travel or .xyz or .corp or .shop or .web.... all of these will be here within a year... so unless it is about you (me) don't go there.

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Domain Names

Name Change

Name Development

Athol Foden answered

I own [word1]and[word2].com as well as [word1][word2].com. Which should I use for my main domain?

Depends on the words. Rolls Royce fit together nicely. Johnson and Johnson need the and. How customers, clients and management say it on the phone and in public is far more important than SEO comments below since that can always be fixed

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SEO

Domain Names

Name Development

Reviews

It was very nice speaking with Athol and he provided me with great advice. Many thanks

Chris Bash Source: Clarity

Very helpful.

Dan Dobos Source: Clarity

Our company had a great product but few customers and Athol was very creative and innovative in his sales, channel and marketing strategy allowing us to create a brand presence that was much bigger than our real footprint in the market. He was an excellent mentor and really helped me develop myself as a marketer.

Kathleen Wiersch Source: LinkedIn

Athol is a remarkable and creative genius and I heartily reccomend him for your naming struggles!

Danny Glix Source: LinkedIn

Brighter Naming developed the name Japatent, which is perfect for my company, a Japanese patent translator.

David Govett Source: LinkedIn

Athol is an exceptional and inspirational manager. He leads by example always. Under his direction I learned what it took to be an effective marketer and entrepreneur. He is one of the very many reasons I continued my career in branding and naming.

Christina Alba Source: LinkedIn

Athol is one of the strongest, most practical and creative marketing and brand guru I've met. He has an amazing ability to translate market and industry research to viable, results-oriented branding and marketing for your organization.

I highly recommend Athol to speaking at your firm or association on Marketing and Branding (he's fascinating to listen to) or to work with as a client. You will not be disappointed.

Barbara Belk, Ph.D.
Corporate Psychologist
Belk & Associates, Inc.

Barbara Belk, Ph.D. Source: LinkedIn

Athol has been a tremendous help for our Bootstrapper Breakfast branding and trademark efforts. He has also supplied very creative naming approaches for several of our clients. He is delightfully entrepreneurial and I value his affinity and deep understanding of the needs of early stage software software startups.

private private Source: LinkedIn

Athol is very good at what he does. He serves on faculty of the MILE Leadership Excellence program where I am Exec. Director. Athol is outstanding in his knowledge and application of his area of expertise. He is authentic, insightful, and has high integrity. I completely and fully endorse Athol and encourage others to get to know him and his work!

Barbara Belk, Ph.D. Source: LinkedIn

During the time I worked with Athol, I was officially attached to OEM Systems, but working in the field writing XIOS code as well as doing sales support calls with the sales staff.

Athol was a cheerful, results oriented manager. While he was very much in control, he leaned more towards consultative style as opposed to authoritative style.

He always listened to the input from the staff before making decisions, which is a quality I value in management.

It was always a pleasure to apply myself when working for him because he is a team player with almost no ego. He is well grounded and makes good decisions. He is forthright and honest.

I recommend him as a dedicated and reliable manager and would be very pleased should I ever get the chance to work with him again.

Douglas Goodall Source: LinkedIn

Member since May 2013