Rethinking Your Brand? Use IP Strategically

For the next year, we can expect more uncertainty in business.  Some businesses are pivoting to an online solution, while others are rethinking their offerings.  It's important to consider IP strategically if you are rethinking your brand is Shireen's message in this episode

•  In addition to the podcast, Shireen is hosting a series of complimentary webinars to support the business community and take them through her TUNED framework
• TUNED  stands for:
  •  Think IP First
  • Understand the ideal customer
  •  Name it right
  •   Establish your brand identity
  •  Drive your brand strategy
•  In the future, there will be solo episodes discussing topics like naming and guests who support businesses to identify new names, or who can discuss values, purpose, IP value and so on.
• Building a powerful brand is relevant to everyone from a startup to a growing business looking to attract more clients
• IP should be part of a business and brand strategy as well as part of the creative process
•  You can register for the next webinar on 10 June 2020 at the Brand Tuned registration page and see a recording of the first webinar www.brandtuned.com/webinar-brand-tuned

Access the 7 Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Branding or Rebranding eBook when you subscribe to TUNED NEWS.

Brand Tuned's Newsletter

Shireen: Hello, and welcome to Brand Tuned, successful brands successful business, the show for entrepreneurs and brand creators, where we discussed personal and business Brands to give you ideas and inspiration for your own brand. I'm Shireen Smith, lawyer, entrepreneur, author, and advocate for developing purpose based brands to change.

Hello, and thank you to those of you who have left reviews for the podcast and message me about it. It's so exciting to find that people are listening and benefiting. We've now finished the first series of 10 episodes, and from next week onwards, I'll settle down to one episode a week, expect a mix of solo and interview podcast episodes to inspire your thinking around brand and business. At least for the next year. We can expect more uncertainty in business due to the Coronavirus and much heralded recession. Some businesses are pivoting to online solutions, while others are having to radically rethink their offerings. Some people are simply having to start over from scratch. Now while some businesses in the very same sectors such as food and drinks are thriving, others are on their knees. So we're likely to see a radically transformed High Street once we emerge from this crisis. My hope is that this podcast will support you to think through your brand, giving you ideas and inspiration. If I can help in my small way to support listeners to identify the essentials to focus on, then my time in doing this podcast will be worthwhile. I'd love to hear from you and to receive feedback. So do please get in touch. What I'm doing at the moment apart from this podcast, to support the business community on a entirely complimentary basis is a series of monthly webinars to take interested parties through my tuned framework. Now tuned stands for think IP First, understand the ideal customer, name it right. Establish your brand strategy, drive your brand strategy. Now, at the time of writing, we've done episode one of those webinars on the next one is on the 10th of June. So what does think IP first actually mean? Well, IP is actually intrinsic to business success. It's part and parcel of business. When you create anything in business, you're effectively trying to make a change of some kind in the world. You're turning your ideas into a business or other venture. And that involves identifying and creating IP. That's why I suggest your approach should be IP lead rather than design lead. In other words, leave your visual identity to live address some fundamentals, which IP covered. We'll take a short break at this point as I'd like to mention the Brand Tuned series of webinars, which support founders to think through their brand, taking IP into account at the right time, which is good for you make firm decisions about what to create. Just visit brand tuned.com. And the webinars are reference right there on the homepage. Okay, back to the podcast. Now, whether you're a lifestyle, business or plan to exit with a life changing sum of money, taking account of IP risks and opportunities first, or as early as possible in your business journey is the way to avoid the need to undo ill considered actions later, among others. Things IP thinking, drives more revenues, serves and guides you. It protects you against the competition. It reduces the overall costs of brand protection. And it removes many of the most common frustrations in business. Now I saw a need to combine my skills as an IP lawyer with an understanding of marketing and branding. So I could guide my clients to better develop their ideas, new ventures, brands and campaigns to build a business and brand on solid foundations requires strategic thinking. And that's the starting point for helping my clients. It's important to identify a powerful name, so you can stand out and be distinctive. It's such an important decision, and you'd benefit from taking advice from someone who knows what's involved to enforce your rights with a name. I help ensure my clients choose names that are ownable, and take account of their ideal customers pain points. In this podcast, I will produce some solo episodes, discussing topics like naming. And I'll also invite guests who support businesses to identify new names. I hope the totality of what's on offer on the podcast will serve listeners. In business, we constantly need new names, not just when we start our businesses, but also to name our frameworks, our new products, and later on to if we go on to set up other ventures. So it's an important business subject to understand the issues around names are not well understood, and many considerations in naming that were critically important 10 years ago, such as the availability of a.com domain, are just no longer key because the Internet has changed so much. I'll keep you updated. So you can draw from Brest best practice with your naming projects. If you're keen to increase the value of your business, and build your brand on solid IP foundations, then pay close attention to your choice of names and protect your trademarks. Well. I'll cover that in future episodes because my focus is on all things brand trademark, an internet related. Building a powerful brand is relevant to everyone, be it a start up, scale up, or growing business looking to attract more clients. It's how you ensure you're more valuable on exit. In a world where your intellectual capital consists primarily of intangible and digital assets, you get a far better return on your investment. If you think of IP as part of the creative process. It's a crucial aspect to bring on board before you develop a new business or brand. Don't assume that IP simply serves to protect what you've already created. By then it may be too late is the IP strategy should be part and parcel of your business and brand strategy. And I'll be discussing strategy quite a lot in future episodes. The Brand Tuned product that I'm developing helps founders, as well as creative agencies to achieve the best outcome. So they can create a brand and visual identity that combines creation and creativity with IP protection. That's how you get a strong distinctive visual identity and name that ownable and legally protected as the basis on which to build your business. If you want to create a product, protect what's yours so competitors can't readily steal your ideas, or you want to monetize your brand through licensing and franchising. You would benefit from setting an IP strategy for your business. I saw a need to combine my skills as an IP lawyer with a firm grasp of branding, in order to guide my clients when they were developing their ideas, to build a business and brand on solid foundations requires strategic thinking. And that's one way I can help my clients. So bye for now.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Brand Tuned, where we aim to answer the question. What does it take to create a successful business and brand? I'd love it. If you would take a moment to give me a review. If you have any questions, send me a message. You can find me on LinkedIn or most other social media platforms or on my personal website, shireensmith.com.