Author:Sapna

Baby

Like naming a baby, naming your company needs some proper consideration. Your company name will likely exist for the duration of its lifetime (mergers, acquisitions or complete rebrands aside).

Your company name is possibly one of the most important parts of your brand communications. It’s the first way you can make an impact and it’s an easy way to stand out and be remembered.

Soap holder with soap three bars of soap

Happy New Year! I’m sure we’re all hoping for an improvement in 2021, let’s just say it has a LOT to live up to! In the meantime, how about we give it a little shove in the right direction and help the planet at the same time?

Every January, I share some #smallchanges we can make to live a little greener. OK, it’s nothing to do with branding, but it’s everything to do with our brand, as one of our values is being kind – to each other, our clients, suppliers and the planet. I know that previous blogs have inspired readers to make some significant life changes, so I’ll keep updating this blog each year with my tiny steps to a greener life in the hope of inspiring new readers (and old!) with my finds.

All these tips are geared for busy people like you – easy, realistic, affordable and sustainable. Even if you just do one thing, every little helps.

Well, what a year 2020 was, eh?

This time last year I wrote about what I’d learned in business in 2019. Four years in, the business was starting to take off and we’d ended the year winning our first award. Last year’s blog is here but in summary, lessons learned were:

  • To get – and stay – out of your comfort zone
  • To give as much free knowledge and value as you can
  • That influence follows assets
  • That you can’t do it alone and
  • That you’ve gotta be in it to win it

Those were lessons we decided to build on for 2020…then 2020 happened. And…well let’s just say things didn’t *quite* go to plan for any of us. But out of that we learned new lessons too!

models in black dresses

As 2020 drew to a close, we learned that the fast-fashion and high-street behemoth, Arcadia Group, was yet another casualty of the year that no one wants to remember (but will).

Whilst I felt no pang of regret for Arcadia Group (owners of TopShop, Miss Selfridge, Burton, etc) as a whole, I’ll admit to feeling a momentary pang of sadness at the end of TopShop, in the way I feel when a pop-star passes away – another slice of my youth disappearing.

Feb 1 2021: News in that fashion giant ASOS has now bought the brands TopShop, TopMan, Miss Selfridge and HIIT brands has thrown an interesting curveball into the mix. Whilst the high-street shops will still be closing, the brands live on.

Who knows what that will mean for sustainability – I hope they will look at that as part of the takeover. But what it does attest to is the power of brand.

InnerVisions-ID-Branding-Consultancy-London-BrandMatters_VictoriaMcd

Victoria McDonald is the owner and founder of Quirk & Colour, an Interior Design company based in Brighton which helps busy professionals transform their homes, reflect their personality and increase their happiness and wellbeing.

Victoria worked with us a year ago, so we thought it was about time we caught up with her to find out what impact her branding has had on her business…