Spiritually Branding Your Business Identity

[Antonia M]

Coming up with a clear identity for you business, products and/or services can be challenging. Especially if you have many things to offer, it may be difficult to sum up what you do. At a recent seminar I attended, an intellectual property attorney made a poignant point. He emphasized the importance of distinguishing your trade name or brand name from the generic name and description of your product or service (i.e. Kleenex vs. facial tissue or Xerox vs. copy machines). In our struggle to be unique, creative, and to stand out, we might overlook this important gem. From a spiritual perspective, I would add that your statement should also convey the higher purpose or service objective of your business. As a spiritual business leader/entrepreneur, fulfilling your spiritual mission is ultimately your top priority.

[Ayele Khumari]

Having many things to offer in my practice, it has become a great challenge to summarize what I do. Because my work involves healing the whole person it spans, natural health, hypnotherapy,soul work, life coaching, seminars, and training. The integration of several fields into one practice makes it difficult to explain what I do. The ancients would have referred to me as a priestess or a shaman. We don't have such titles now or ones that the public readily identifies with because our society tends to separate and specialize. I have noticed that there are more and more of us doing this so it seems there needs to be a "new" field or redefined field that applies to us that can then be identified by the public. Some of the branding just seems to be the need to the need to define our niche.

My "brand" became Total Life Empowerment because I address and facilitate healing and empowerment for the whole life. Empowerment, for me is taking responsibility for your destiny and making active conscious decisions for your entire well being. By understanding and embracing the power within you to heal your life, you become an empowered being. This could and does apply for health, lifestyle, spirit, emotions, mind, etc.

[Antonia M]

Actually, I think it would be more accurate If I said that his point was about capturing the essence of what you do as opposed to trying to sum up everything you do. I was saying the other day that were it not for some of those same issues you mentioned above, I would just stick with calling myself a metaphysician and leave it at that. And I do actually use that term, but I don't use it alone.

The lawyer pointed out that companies adopt multiple brands for this very reason. He also said something interesting about tradmarking. A company named NY Cheesecake is unlikely to be trademarked by a New Yorker with a cheesecake business because the term is descriptive/generic and applies to every cheesecake seller in the state. Apple? Great trademark for a computer. A no-go for apple sellers. Anyway it gave me an idea for a branding exercise. If I had a name like Nike, Kleenex or Dell that has no inherent meaning or description, how would I approach my branding? Any differently? A rose by any other name right?