How I chose a new brand name for my company

This is a guest post from Eli Barbary from Bright New Day. Clear Thought has been using Eli behind the scenes for marketing administration services. So, when she took the step of re-branding and launching her new business, we thought it would make a perfect interview to show how a real entrepreneur went through the process – and of course showcase one of the lovely suppliers we often work with.

Bright New Day Creative Consultancy started life in December 2009 under the name Barbary Solutions. Although I always knew I wanted to work in the creative sector, the company originally focused on providing virtual assistance and help with administration as well as marketing support.

After 18 months of trading I made the decision to shift the focus of the business onto the marketing side of things. My background is in marketing and as I was being asked for these services more than the VA side of things, it made sense to make the shift. It also came about that the time was right to expand the business, so I took on a partner, Toby Duckett. Toby’s skill set, largely in tech support, audio & video editing and design, complements my own, and has meant that we have been able to expand on what we offer as a company.

Why Bright New Day?

Obviously, with a new partner and a slightly different emphasis, it made sense to rebrand and change the company name to something a bit more general. I wanted to move the company slightly away from my own identity and give it an identity of its own. By doing this, I felt that we would have more scope for expansion in the future, and it would make it more inclusive for the people working within the business.

We chose the new name in two ways. Firstly, we wanted something that expressed the feeling that people got from working with us. I have always been keen on gathering feedback for customer service reasons so we had a good supply of data. Looking back over what people said about working with Barbary Solutions we discovered that one thing came up over and over again: our customers felt a sense of relief, calmness and a renewed enthusiasm for their businesses.

Secondly, I have always had an interest in the meaning of names. I love the way that, quite often, the meaning of someone’s name reflects their personality. My own name, Elinor Dagny (pronounced ‘downie’), means bright new day. We felt that this perfectly encapsulated our business ethos, as well as adding a secret personal touch.

The Bright New Day brand

Our whole brand identity followed on incredibly easily from this point. We had the name, and we knew what sort of feeling we wanted to evoke: new beginnings and a sense of relief, hope and calm. To have an image of the sun in our logo was the natural choice, although getting the right design was a bit more difficult. We played with various images of sunrises and sunsets but we felt that the design we chose was much more powerful. The bright colours and bold text seemed to convey exactly the warmth and friendliness of our company personality. And thus, a new brand was born!

If you are considering a rebrand, or starting from scratch, you might want to consider these points. Asking questions such as:

What is the personality of your company?
How do you want people to feel when they see your company?
What are your values?
What are people saying about you?
What sort of image do you want to present to the world?

… will help you to clarify the essence of your company, and in turn, will help you to encapsulate that into your own branding and image.

Eli Barbary is the owner of Bright New Day Creative Consultancy, a company which offers marketing and communications support to creative freelancers and small creative agencies. Their website can be found at brightnewdaycc.com