Slangbusters Branding Studio | Microenterprise Branding Service

Exploring how brands name; is there more to it than what meets the ear?   I wrote this piece while I was working from home because of the quarantine.  In my free time, I thought of starting a personal blog, to utilize the free time and channelize my creative energy into something. I began with the process of naming the blog. I reminisced over multiple names over days after I was done writing such pieces for Slangbusters. I filled a wall with post-it notes with names on it over the weekend and over time, I finalized something which did not matter as much. Now, I have a name, but there are no blogs in the Medium publication that I created with that name, and I sit here wondering, if only I had invested that much amount of time into brainstorming topics that I could write about, the idea of writing the blog would have solidified into something more than just a name. Names, huh. How did we begin naming anyways? Linguists have developed theories that suggest young ones were given n...

It is just wonderful how a strong identity can prove to be a catalyst to rational decision-making. One of the differentiating factors between us social animals,  the homo-sapiens and the rest of the animal kingdom is that we can make decisions. Not just decisions, rational, informed, insightful, thorough, decisions. Unlike the other species that usually make instinct-based decisions by default. Although, we humans have our limitations too. We cannot be rational 100% of the time. To err is human; a lot of decisions that we make in our lives are not even made consciously. It is amusing that while we are responsible to create our identity intentionally- personal or for a brand, and at the same time, it is mostly shaped by how others perceive it. As we grow up, it becomes easier to make better decisions. Growing up, not just by a number that is your age, growing up in terms of more experiences, a better sense of self. This self-actualization promotes instinctive decision making without...

Investing in culture is a brand strategy FTW.   If you are looking for building company culture inside the boundaries of the corporate setting, t he keyword gods have defied you and this is where you should stop reading and probably close the tab. If you are looking for some insight about incorporating culture into your brand, read on. For starters, company culture inside the headquarters or any place with employees working for the brand is also important for the cultural implications outside. If you are an ice-cream brand that has tapped into the culture of a family enjoying ice-cream after dinner, you cannot be a company that forces their employees to work overtime and refrain them from the happiness of sharing the ice-cream with their families. These brands would suffer in how they are perceived by the consumer, no matter how aggressive the marketing is. (Culture > Propaganda) Branding is not what it was a  decade  ago. Earlier, companies would introspect and identi...

  Because size does not matter. (A still from ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’) I have a baker friend. She runs a cloud kitchen, a fancy word used for culinary businesses that are run from home, without a professional setup of a bakery, a restaurant or a cafe. Social media and food delivery apps have given way to many such small-scale businesses to run from homes and small kitchens. My friend single-handedly manages taking orders, production, delivery, and accounting of her baking business. She recently created an Instagram account for her bakery to reach an audience and to share images of her beautiful cakes and jars that she sells to local residents of her city. When I happened to go through her IG stories, I saw she was using ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ when she was taking orders, sharing reviews, etc. One of her stories read: “Now launching, new flavors in cupcakes: DM us, we will be happy to customize your order for any event.” We.  She delivers quality pastry, has a culinary arts diplo...

Are we on the same page? Here goes something.  Once, I ordered food at home really early in the morning, at around 4 AM. I did not want anyone else in the house to be disturbed, or the delivery guy bothering joggers and people who got up that early. I’m sure they would not like someone asking for directions first thing in the morning. What I did was that I kept a track of his location on the app and waited outside, by the gate just a minute before his arrival. Somehow, this made him so happy, he delivered my food with the biggest smile I have seen at 4:30 AM in the morning. He told me, “Customers like you, make it a tad bit easier than it is. Thank you for coming down without me having to call. I did not have to ask people for directions and now, I can get on to the next delivery without wasting time.” I’m sure he must have had a bad day with a customer who must have ordered and gone to sleep. All I did was the bare minimum of being there before his arrival. This instance says...