- 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.