After abandoning our car the adventure of getting home began. Luckily we had some spare clothes in the boot to keep us warm, so after the 6 hour journey we finally got home, did we mention we were only 30 minutes from Nottingham!?

Not everyone thinks like this, and this is where most entrepreneurs make mistakes. The question is though:  How do you come up with an effective name? Now this is where Strafe Creative can help.

Let People Know Who You Are:

Your name should echo your character. This is a crucial part of branding. You need to be promoting this name, getting it in front of as many eyes as possible as often as possible. How do you want the public to perceive you?

For some, that means integrating your personal name into the name of your business. This is very common in some professions. Some which come to mind are legal or accounting.

Explain What You Do:

It’s hard to believe how many business’ names give little, if any indication of what type of work the organization actually does. Take the following examples:

- Luke & Co
- Red and Blue
- First Time

I for one have no idea what any of these companies listed do. Can you tell me what any of these companies do? Of course you can’t! Their problem is that they are relying solely on customers already knowing who they are or by having their name found in ‘context’. Nowadays this isn’t always going to be the case. Remember this!

Explain How You Do It:

Be careful selecting what words you use in your name, because you can convey a great deal about your company’s identity. Consider the names of these four different personal training companies:

- Nottingham Science and Nutritional Personal Training
- Above and Beyond PT
- Rapid Workouts
-Kettle Bell King

All four companies are providing the same service, Personal Training. Yet the first appears to support a more medical approach, the second, a luxury and  nothing is to expensive approach, the third focuses on a quick, fast workout and the last shows a speciality in a piece of gym equipment. In this example, kettle bell work.

What separates you from your competition:

Your company name is the first opportunity to tell clients just how your are different to your competition. You can emphasise what makes you unique, pinpointing what aspect of your products and services can’t be found anywhere else — or that you do better than anyone else.

Consider the Personal Training example we looked at before. Each business clearly has a different focus and approach to their customers. They are attracting different types of clients, who are seeking fundamentally different approaches. For example I want my work out to be over quickly so if those were the four options I would automatically phone Rapid Workouts first. Remember that all the Personal Training examples managed to portray there company identity in less than six words.

Gaining Customer Interest:

Always consider your target market and audience. What qualities of your services are of the greatest importance to your clients and customers? What words would attract them?

Word choice is also important. (Continuing the workout theme) Two health and supplements shops can both specialize in speciality supplements, but the one who labels themselves “Big Man Supplements” will draw in a decidedly different crowd than the one named “Body Conscious Supplements”.

Inviting Further Investigation:

Remember that every person is different and that just because you or one particular group finds to be funny and engaging may turn another group off, after all, your name should be inviting. Make sure your name doesn’t intimidate customers away! The last nugget of information for today is remember to be yourself as well and although some industries are more formal than others, adopt pretension at your peril.

Adapted from a Susan Friedmann blog post

Wishes are varied and far reaching. For some a trip to Disney Florida or Paris to meet their favourite characters, for others it is a chance to get up close to a favourite pop star or sporting hero and some children simply want books and toys. Whatever the Wish, wherever possible, When You Wish Upon A Star will aim to make that Wish a reality.

When You Wish Upon A Star rely solely on fundraising events and the generosity of the public to enable us to grant the Wishes of these special and courageous children. Everyones help is vital and with your support, they can provide a marvellous experience, during a very difficult time for everyone involved.

This year they are celebrating their 21^st Birthday Party and as Strafe Creative have been raising money for them throughout the year  they had asked us to help with the celebratory ball and design all the printed material for the event.

Now the event isn’t until the 22^nd of September, but you can see the lovely logo which was designed for the event. For anyone wanting to get involved with the event, just give us an email on hello@strafecreative.co.uk mentioning the charity ball and we will let you know the details.

The staff were incredibly friendly and the entire event was a very well organised. Well done to everyone involved and will be something that is in every British persons memory for a long time.

Check out a few of our snaps!

In a horrible twist of fate Ross has broken his ankle and torn his ligaments which means Strafe Creative can no longer take part in the Adidas Thunder Run (see our previous blog for details on what this is) because of this we are unable to raise money for “Wish Upon A Star” charity  in this event.

But all is not lost! We will be getting together to see what sort of event we can do (and keep Ross involved) whereby we can raise money for this fantastic charity. If anyone has any great ideas please let us know, it should be noted though that Ross will be on his crutches now for a good couple of weeks!

Brief given to us

The Carlton Academy wanted a new brand which would attract new children and their parents to the academy and move away from the old image of a sports college. The new brand was to have a clear tie with the Redhill Trust and feature a stag which was chosen as the academies all important mascot. Did we also mention this all have to be completed in the students summer holidays and be open for the 1^st of September? No easy task.

Solution

Strafe Creative’s solution was to design a modern, clean and complimentary brand identity for both the new academy and the Redhill Trust to enable easy association between the two. The brand was then rolled out across (big breath need for this looong list!) School planners, staff diaries, folders, prospectus for both sixth form college and main school, “well done” cards, business stationary, school uniforms, posters, banners, postcards, pop up banners and even the website.

The Carlton Academy branding was a fantastic project which Strafe Creative have been very lucky to be involved with, we hope the new academy achieves all its sets out to and in the future we hope to have the option to once again work with such an exciting and driven group with such a clear focus on what they wanted right from the offset.

Brief given to us

After newly becoming an academy, Fernwood needed all new signage and prospectus’s to attract new students for the upcoming year. It was decided that early years prospectus would be moved away form and all new modern ones would be crafted over the summer holiday whilst the students were away (lucky guys!) Queue the tender process and our eventual winning of said tender.

Solution

Having extended the Fernwood brand with added colours and signature styles we added this to all the media we originally tendered for. This included; signage, posters, business stationary, prospectuses, folders, newsletters and even the website.

This Year Strafe Creative are taking part in the Adidas 24 Hour Thunder Run for the charity “Wish Upon A Star” which we are now proudly corporate sponsors of.

The Charity

“When You Wish Upon a Star” are a charity whose primary aim is to grant the Wishes of children between the ages of 2 – 16 years old suffering from life threatening illnesses. All children have Wishes but for these children and their families that Wish is so much more precious and for the duration of their Wish, these children are able to forget about hospital routines, doctors, gruelling treatments and have the chance to smile, laugh and enjoy life like any other child. Wishes are varied and far reaching. Whatever the Wish, wherever possible, When You Wish Upon a Star will aim to make that Wish come true.

The particular “Wish” that us here at Strafe Creative are getting involved in is to raise money for the Lapland experience! This is when each December up to 4 planes take up to 400 very sick children to Lapland to meet the real Father Christmas.

The Lapland experience (What we’re raising money for)

Their journey begins at 4am when they arrive at the airport to board the plane full of excitement.

On arrive at Lapland they experience the wonders of the magical forest and enjoy husky rides, reindeer trails, hot chocolate with toasted marsh mellows plus plenty of time to go sledging and snowballing plus lots more.

They are then taken to a hotel and are treated to dinner and entertainment by the Elf band. Once dinner is over Rudolf brings along Santa on his sleigh to meet all the children.

Still full of excitement and energy the families cross the Artic Circle to make a special visit to Santa’s Village. They meet the Elves in the post office sorting letters from children all over the world, have a go on the ice slide and it has been known that they witness the amazing sights of the Northern Lights.

Per child this fantastic experience costs £800 so we’re aiming to send 2 children to Lapland this Christmas, because of this we’re aiming for £1,600.

How we’re going to raise the money

Right we should probably also explain how we plan to raise this money! Strafe Creative are completing the The Adidas Thunder Run!

It’s a 24 hour off road relay race against the clock. We’ll be running in a small team of 4 and it’s designed to test our tactics, endurance, speed and team work. From what we’ve heard it’s going to very tiring but very rewarding as well!

To make this 24 hour endurance race even harder one team member must be on the course at all times during the 24hrs. Runners must complete one full 10km lap before changing over with a team mate but may run 2, 3 or more laps at a time before changeover. The team with the most laps completed when the clock stops after 24hrs will win!

That’s pretty much all the info, but if you want to donate please visit our charity page here

What SIFE do

SIFE is an international non-profit organization that works with leaders in business (that’s us!) and higher education (In our case Nottingham Trent University) to assemble university students to make a difference in their local communities while developing the key skills to become socially responsible business leaders. Participating students form teams on their university campuses and apply business concepts to develop outreach projects that improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need. An annual series of regional and national competitions provides a forum for teams to present the results of their projects, and to be evaluated by business leaders serving as judges.

Why we got involved with SIFE at Nottingham Trent University

After hearing about how SIFE works in the local community, Strafe Create knew this was something they wanted to be involved with. After become involved we were asked to come on board as business mentors for the students of Nottingham Trent University as well as sponsor the team in the regional and national finals which they attended.

How we helped them

Working hard with the SIFE members we helped devise plans for the coming year, as well as guide the students with their projects throughout the year, dipping into our pool of contacts when needed. Later in the year SIFE entered the regional finals, which allowed us here at Strafe Creative to flex our creative talents. We helped build a brand identify for the team and designed all the presentation material to match, which included the brochures and presentations themselves (the team was great and even coloured coded the ties accordingly). Our directors even went with them to London to supervise their finals appearance.

Nottingham Trent had their best year to date with the business projects and have asked us to stay on board for the upcoming year to mentor them and help with marketing material. A great project to be involved with and the guys here at Strafe Creative look forward to continuing the hard work for our local community in the future.

As a finalist we were even given our own table with our brand featured throughout the day. (We even featured in the Sunday Telegraph!) A great event to be involved in and although we didn’t win, it was an excellent event and we met some great people.