How To Build Your Brand, Think Bigger, And Market Better Part 1
– Branding, branding, branding. Now this is a topic that
I've wanted to talk about but actually don't talk
about on my channel a lot but it's a very
important part and there's so much confusion when
it comes to branding. Today I have Andre
joining me who is not only a trademark expert, a
branding expert he is a CEO or trademark factory
which is done help me done a number of trademark right
and also in my student mentee for more than three years
,so today we are going to give you some strategies
on how do you build your brand ? and how do you think bigger? or do you need to trademark
do not need to trademark? but also how do you market better? how do you get your message out there? Now let's talk about branding for example, and with me We have now a number of trademarks and we're getting so many trademarks. – which is did a report for you? – Yes. – And like that's a lot of trademark a lot of trademarks. – Now you may be wondering why why do I have so many trademarks.
Example, This is a trademark, Andre help me to train
my which is this one is not easy because it's my name Dan lok , right Why did not easy to train market it's personal name? – Because trademarks offices want to make sure that you're not trying to hijack somebody else's
name and if the name is common like a john smith that's a huge
problem so with with you was a little easier but the
funny thing is in Canada.
– you could tell the story. – so we got an objection. – Yes. – That from the trademarks
office it says it looks like you're trying to trademark
a name of a famous person. and we don't allow you to do that. So they say even though
the name is not common, it's the name of the famous
person and you can't have it so we had to prove that
downloads companies actually – I'm the one that's a mock
you want to protect my name. – Yes, – But it's a very detailed description from the Canadian trademark
office right entrepreneur a multimillionaire like it's like okay so they want proof to show
that I'm actually this me that trademarking right yeah.
Yeah.
Very interesting. So my name that's itself is a trademark a number of brands that are trademarks I'll tell a quick story how I learned about trademark so when I was way younger
20 some odd years old I would just marketing online and I register this domain
name called stealth marketing which is good name self
marketing I thought I would turn the website
or it would be some kind of a product or something like I know I am a bunch of domain names right so register Mark didn't do
anything just parked there a few months suddenly I
got a big like envelope in the mailbox I'm like
what is this and open up It's like almost this thick 100 pages from some trademark lawyer like – I love to write one imitating.
– it's very intimidating and basically It's the letter saying hey, I think was stealth is a
trademark you cannot use I it we know shut you down.
And it's very powerful within all the pages it's basically
big companies that has lost against like trying to fight
with this model it sucks I forgot but like big company like sonny or whatever like huge
company they all lost right, I'm like what the hell is this is so like this young guy was so
scary and getting a lawsuit or whatever I got a
phone with a guy I said no so we know that you
just pocket domain name now if you've been selling to domain name we could have
actually want to sue you or even a percentage of your earnings yeah they actually have the right
to do that can you imagine – This offer for all the
money that all the money that you made, – Right, so you know you're not using the mark
you haven't used to market so all you need to do just like don't use the mark, kind of surrender be fine.
And that's the very first
idea to my first exposure when it comes to trademark ,like wow. this is a very serious matter it's a nice to have when you
go to a certain point in that Imagine if I've been
running their business or marketing a website
for a number of years, suddenly I get this kind of
nasty letter and they could go after all the money they have earned.
Imagine the impact you will
have right for your business. So that's when I learned a little bit about more about trademark law Dan's point. – I was just gonna say it's very cheap Lesson that you got. – Oh yeah, yes. – you got a domain name. – Let's get a shit on me though. – And luckily you didn't invest in a lot into this so you could
have easily just like Okay, there you go. I'm done. – It taught me the lesson. – And much better than spend
years trying to build it up and then once you build that out, people start to notice and
then they shut you down ,yeah. – Then they shut you down. which is no good. so now every idea this idea
product or program or service, whatever I'm going to offer
whatever name I come up with the first thing I do,
right? I would contact Andre kind say hey, Andre, can you help me to see if this is a trademark book.
And we've done this many many times back and forth that come up with
this idea and this brand and I would should have a
message to Andre Andre is like okay, let me do some research. And you'll come back to me
sometimes will be okay good to go or sometimes I don't know it could be 5050 or like no way in hell that
does no way in hell you can turn to it , – Don't do it . – Don't wish So. Then I'm not spending time and money pursuing an
idea and knowing that I cannot even protect them .
It's it's almost like you are building a house and
you buy a piece of land right you invest the money you
you hire the the crew and you build this beautiful home and suddenly someone comes to your house and say you know what, this
is not your house in my house right it is you don't own this house I said what do you mean I've
been living here for 10 years it's not your house.
You don't have the right to be living in this house.
That's what I've learned and that's why I'm like
very careful especially why trademark My name because now the name a lot of people now using my
name is to do social media of like people using my name
setup think Facebook group fix social media account pretending to be me giving investment advice. telling people to buy
fucking cryptocurrency all this stuff that just to protect myself I need to do that. – Maybe you should share how much easier and started to shut down. – oh yes. – All those profiles with a registered trademark with a mock My name – we all know contact any
social media platform is a Facebook or Instagram
we show them hey we've got a trademark and they know
they will shut it down like very quickly. so when it comes to your brand now the next question maybe Is, when should I trade mark my name? My answer is , if you think you are going to be
building a good business then you should definitely
trademark your name but don't expect that having
the name the name itself is not going to build
your business right that's the expectation is not all perfect name that is perfect brand great logo that my business would explode
It's not like that but if you know that it's
going to grow is going to go someplace and you
believe in your marketability.
Your business acumen then is Good to trade market early
during before you get it out there, right. – Actually if you look at all
the big successful companies they've trademark their brand
their father first trademark, usually even before they launch. – Yes. – So we're fall two months before. – you had Uber. – Stripe eight months before they launched Google Facebook say month when they launched love
the Coca Cola story. – Oh yes. Tell the coco cola story. – So the father first trademark in 1892 they're still renewing the
same trademark. By the way, trademarks is the only type
of intellectual property you can renew forever. So 1892 when they were
selling nine drinks a day. – I called it a lemonade stand with a drink I drink a day right? And first thing they do is
they incorporated the get the trademark because they know that if this brand is going to go somewhere, they need to own the brand and now they do it now the brand itself just the brand is worth $73 billion.
– Just the brand not not doing none of the all the assets or anything like that. Just the brand.Right. – What have also share the
the George Clooney story I think that's a very good story. – So five years ago he
and his partner comes up with an idea for a brand or
the killer first thing they do they go and trade market yes then it takes them a year to get the trademark and then they finally find a manufacturer distiller in Mexico to actually make the thing. So first they come up with a name, then they branded trademark, then they make the thing they start getting some fresh
attraction on social media.
They started with George Clooney and they sold it to Diageo the biggest
distiller company in the world for a billion dollars in five years. Five years five all they had
the name that was trademarked, then they start making a drink and it often it's a good to kill, but it's a $50 to kill. It's not a $5,000. – From a company point of view you About the revenue Do you know how much revenue they were
doing before they sold it? – No I don't .
– But definitely not a lot
less than that lot less a lot less than that so
it's the brand that's worth a billion dollars not from a
typical you look at a company how much the company's worth that wanted like you know Vito earning and all that stuff so yeah
it's pretty incredible when you think about the power of branding so that's the very basics of why you need a trademark why you need a brand. How do you protect your
brand in the next episode, then we're going to dive
into your living more exactly how do you use it? How do you monetize it? And also how do you take
your brand to the next level so make sure Stay tuned
and watch the next episode and any questions on the low.
