On building a strong brand
As I will be monetizing with advertisement it is unlikely that I will ever be able to buy users without loosing money. This basically leaves me with three ways to grow my games, to the size needed to hit my revenue goals.
- Marketing Building audience using marketing channels such as blogs, games websites, etc.
- Social Discovery Having users recommend the games to their friends. Either directly in person or indirectly via social sharing such as Facebook.
- SEO Being highly ranked in web and app store searches.
Common for these channels are that they work better with a strong brand and while games included under a single brand might not be directly related, the brand ties the games together acting as a quality stamp for users already playing a branded game.
Examples of social games companies with brands I consider strong:
- King with the Saga brand including titles such as Candy Crush Saga, Bubble Witch Saga etc.
- PopCap with the Blitz brand including titles such as Bejewled Blitz, Zuma Blitz, etc.
- SGN with the Panda brand including titles such as Panda Jam, Panda POP, etc.
While King, PopCap and SGN are strong brands, the brands they have spanning their games are typically more recognized by their users, than the company brands themselves. It's therefore only natural that King, PopCap and SGN have all tried trademarking their brands with mixed success. King for instance recently gave up trademarking 'Candy' as a result of a huge internet outcry that even resulted in a change.org petition.
With all this in mind I made the following checklist for my future brand when I first had the idea about a year ago.
- One Brand I want a brand that can double as my company name allowing me to use less resources on brand building.
- Unique The brand must be undeniable unique making it easy to find in searches and allowing me to apply for a Trademark without any internet outcries.
- Suffix The brand must work as a suffix for all my games making the game name in focus and the brand a secondary quality stamp.
- Domain name I must own the .com domain name of my brand. Without it I run the risk of the owner of the .com being able to bully me into a later unfavorable settlement.
- Short The brand must be short such that it's easy to communicate over the phone and text messages.
I will unveil my new brand as soon as I have finished up the last pieces of paperwork related to founding the company.
The paperwork is done, my hobby startup is called FRVR