By Jin Yu-young
First impressions are a huge factor in consumer-brand relationships: a brand's overall image in terms of packaging and design usually plays the first step in determining whether or not a consumer will invest in a product.
Equally important in making a good first impression is a brand's name, slogan and story. These are the linguistics aspects of a brand that can lead to its success or lack thereof.
Min Eun-jeong, who has been working as a brand verbalist for the past 25 years, played an active role in over 500 projects with companies such as Kanu Coffee, Seoul Square and Opirus. She is currently the Chief Contents Officer of Interbrand, a company that consults with and creates marketing strategies for companies.
To explain the power of language in business, she outlines her insights in the book "Building the Brand," where she gives over 30 examples of how language can propel a company to rise above competitors.
The book describes the complexity of creating a name for a brand. The name must be memorable and distinguishable while being catchy and concise. Delving deeper into the context of the Korean language, a two-syllable name might appear sleek and contemporary while a three-syllable one will read more easily and seem more approachable. As anything over four syllables might be inconvenient to pronounce, companies should avoid longer brand names.
In addition to the issue of length, a brand's name must embody the company's essence, mission, and defining traits. One common mistake of brand verbalists is the overly ambitious tendency to define all of a company's characteristics with a single word. Rather than complicating a brand's message, brand verbalists "must focus on one key attribute" when deciding a name.
She points out other faulty approaches including not allotting enough time to the task, limiting the company's appeal to domestic consumers, and producing the typography (font, size, color, etc.) as a separate process.
Min also gives advice to prospective brand verbalists. Being fully immersed in a project, she says, will not only allow us to deeply understand a product and its story, but also enable us to evoke emotion in consumers. She also stresses the importance of persistence: "If you give up halfway, your ideas will also only be halfway developed," Min says. Lastly, she emphasizes the importance of rejection and states that it is those who can stand up after failure that are more likely to succeed.
"In Building a Brand," the author educates readers on the power of language and its influence on business. In the increasingly competitive environment we live in today, a brand's name is pivotal in establishing the first impression on consumers and determining if this will create a lasting relationship or be limited to a fleeting venture.
Jin Yu-young is a Korea Times intern.
First impressions are a huge factor in consumer-brand relationships: a brand's overall image in terms of packaging and design usually plays the first step in determining whether or not a consumer will invest in a product.
Equally important in making a good first impression is a brand's name, slogan and story. These are the linguistics aspects of a brand that can lead to its success or lack thereof.
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| "Building the Brand" by Min Eun-jeong |
Min Eun-jeong, who has been working as a brand verbalist for the past 25 years, played an active role in over 500 projects with companies such as Kanu Coffee, Seoul Square and Opirus. She is currently the Chief Contents Officer of Interbrand, a company that consults with and creates marketing strategies for companies.
To explain the power of language in business, she outlines her insights in the book "Building the Brand," where she gives over 30 examples of how language can propel a company to rise above competitors.
The book describes the complexity of creating a name for a brand. The name must be memorable and distinguishable while being catchy and concise. Delving deeper into the context of the Korean language, a two-syllable name might appear sleek and contemporary while a three-syllable one will read more easily and seem more approachable. As anything over four syllables might be inconvenient to pronounce, companies should avoid longer brand names.
In addition to the issue of length, a brand's name must embody the company's essence, mission, and defining traits. One common mistake of brand verbalists is the overly ambitious tendency to define all of a company's characteristics with a single word. Rather than complicating a brand's message, brand verbalists "must focus on one key attribute" when deciding a name.
She points out other faulty approaches including not allotting enough time to the task, limiting the company's appeal to domestic consumers, and producing the typography (font, size, color, etc.) as a separate process.
Min also gives advice to prospective brand verbalists. Being fully immersed in a project, she says, will not only allow us to deeply understand a product and its story, but also enable us to evoke emotion in consumers. She also stresses the importance of persistence: "If you give up halfway, your ideas will also only be halfway developed," Min says. Lastly, she emphasizes the importance of rejection and states that it is those who can stand up after failure that are more likely to succeed.
"In Building a Brand," the author educates readers on the power of language and its influence on business. In the increasingly competitive environment we live in today, a brand's name is pivotal in establishing the first impression on consumers and determining if this will create a lasting relationship or be limited to a fleeting venture.
Jin Yu-young is a Korea Times intern.
