Logos and Slogans
For marketing purposes, you usually want to choose an appropriate slogan to go with your name, like “Twist and Shout” for a pretzel company, or “Ride the Wave” for a marine company, or “Just Do It” for a sports shoe company.
You also need a logo: a graphical representation of your brand like the famous Nike “swoosh” symbol or the default Coca-Cola lettering. FYI: a logo and slogan is “trademarkable” if it is unique but it is not “patentable” or “copyrightable”. In the case of Coca-Cola, their formula would be patentable and their literal wording would be copyrightable. Conversely, it is logos, slogans, lettering, and colors that get trademarks.
In the vetting process for your brand, each element of your logo, slogan, font and so on should be carefully considered with the help of marketing professionals, and then ultimately selected from as many options as you can afford from professional graphic designers.
You need to have a first class logo, and then ensure your logo has perpetual and extensive exposure in your target market, which in some cases are all the world’s Internet consumers.
Your marketing material preceded with your name, slogan, and logo (which may or may not include a graphical symbol to go with your style of text treatment) should be exposed in a wide variety of venues simultaneously: referrals, press articles, sales messages, affinity groups, and materials via fax, mail, newspaper ads, radio, on-line, and so forth. We like to use the expression “tag the world.”
Your brand is everything so don’t shortchange it. In the beginning, pay to build it by leveraging the right image and domain, and stick with it, because you will discover that branding reinforcement over a long term also pays out for the long term.
Now you are ready for your lawyer to compile and then file basic paperwork to get your business properly incorporated and legally operational in the marketplace.
Basic filings and documents you will require include:
In fact, you should plan to have this additional material also:
For Marketing:
For Management:
For Investors:
For Legal:
For Financial: