In a world where imitation, counterfeiting, fraud and fake news have become mainstream, companies and individuals need to take their identities seriously. Customers need to know the brand they are buying is the one they thought it was, and business needs to know their counter-parties and customers are who they say they are. Creating, protecting and proving identity is now crucial in business and private life.
Branding was invented to identify ownership – a crude branding iron applied to the rump of a cow - and h grown into sophisticated systems distinguishing one brand from another by communicating clear propositions with distinctive identities and delivering consistent quality. Once created, brands must protect their brand's intellectual property before others steal try and steal it.
In our digital world, business also needs to verify customers are who they say they are, quickly and cheaply. This no longer applies only to regulated businesses where your passport and utility bill prove you are legitimate; secure proof of identity now applies to a wide range of services, both in B2B and B2C markets. These systems need to be accurate and totally secure, as personal data is the 21st Century’s gold. Everyone – good and bad – wants it, so Privacy is now a strategic business issue.
Here are some useful points about brands and identity, with links to some services that may offer interesting further reading on a range of identity solutions issues:
Brand naming
Any new brand needs a meaningful brand name that doesn’t infringe any other party’s rights in the business sectors it intend to operate in, and so can then be protected with trade marks across all the relevant geographies. The brand will also need a matching domain name, social media handles and maybe a listing in the app store. Nucleus is a leading brand agency with a reputation for agile, fast track brand naming solutions, and a well-proven naming process. BrandNaming.co.uk also offers a useful brand naming guide with its top six tips to successful brand naming.
Brand protection
To protect and enforce legal rights, a brand’s intellectual property needs to be registered and managed professionally. Trade marks, copyright and design rights must to be registered and managed worldwide, so a good IP adviser is essential. Stobbs IP is a leading firm of trade mark attorneys who work extensively for Silicon Valley tech companies, as well as European corporates and small businesses. They coverall areas of trade mark and IP law, including anti-counterfeiting and brand tracking.
Brand identity
Turning a good name into a compelling brand requires a brand strategy brought to life creatively with a brand identity and brand experiences designed for both the real world and the metaverse. Articulating brand purpose should embody the brand strategy and express a brand narrative that defines why the brand deserves to exit. In a world where all brands need to be sustainable, the brand narrative must now explain what they are doing for the planet, pollution and social responsibility. Bringing all these brand assets together and consolidating them in brand guidelines, requires experience and multi-disciplinary brand expertise, such as provided by Nucleus.
Identity verification
Fully automated identity verification has been the holy grail of identity management, with agent or in-person verification in seconds, without any human interaction. As far as we can wee, only OCR Labs delivers this, not by checking databases, but by verifying the actual documents submitted, applying neural network learning to deliver near-instant global coverage to tell whether the documents are official or faked, with a reach of 16,000 documents and 142 languages via a single API.
We will be adding to this blog with more useful identity solutions referrals, but we hope you find these reference interesting and helpful.