Does your outfit need a new name? Take a look at what entrepreneurs and experts who know the process have to say.
In late 2005, Michael Curcio, the CEO of Pyro’s Grill, a fast-food chicken and steak restaurant in Jupiter, Fla., was getting ready to start franchising his business. But he faced one nagging problem. Potential customers would often enter his restaurant expecting to find Greek food like gyros and would leave disappointed when they realized Pyro’s wasn’t Greek. Curcio knew he had to change his company’s name and make his branding clearer if franchising was going to work.
‘Even if it’s 1% of potential customers that are confused by the name and go away unhappy, losing those sales can really hurt you in this business,’ he says.
So Curcio hired King-Casey, a branding company known for creating the Merrill Lynch bull logo and which helps develop marketing and branding initiatives for large chains like McDonald’s and Subway, among other types of businesses. Although King-Casey doesn’t normally work with small companies, Howland Blackiston, one of the principals at the firm, decided to give the fledgling restaurant a shot—and a good deal, because he liked the food and the restaurant’s overall concept. More.
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