2 Brands or 1 Brand with 2 Different Divisions? It Depends on the Situation.

Moderator General July 24, 2013

What’s in a name? Well, as it turns out, a lot actually.

About 4 months ago, I re-invented the brand, Boomopolis into a social media management company for small businesses, professionals and startups.

 

Since I have a strong background in television, I simultaneously developed another site called Contestantville – where real people can become stars.  This directory was an easy way for potential contestants/experts and reality producers to find each other through a directory.

 

On the surface, they were two completely different models, and so I branded them differently, however some key realities quickly came to the surface.

1)      I’m a small business myself, and trying to launch two different companies simultaneously was taking up way too much of my time.

2)      I realized that with Contestantville, I was more interested in the EXPERT portion of the business – helping small businesses, professionals and startups get on TV or the radio (as opposed to contestants getting on game shows).

3)      It became clear that both Boomopolis and the Expert portion of Contestantville were serving the same market – small businesses, professionals and startups who wanted to maximize their exposure.

So I had a decision to make. I could continue to work them as 2 separate brands or I could combine them with one brand.  Here were my PROS and CONS.

Combining into One Brand –PROS

-Able to blog, tweet and post under one account instead of two. (cutting work in half)

-The clients coming for the media opportunity portion could benefit from the social media management portion and vice versa. (They both serve the same function – increasing visibility, and they can promote each other.)

-When marketing to experts, they may get turned off by the word, “Contestant” in the title, because they’re technically not contestants. They’re experts who just want exposure – another name would be a better fit for that market, but I was not in the position to create a brand new name for the site.

Combining into One Brand – CONS

-If I try to sell the company down the road, it might be more challenging to sell a PORTION of one company as opposed to a separate entity.

-I already built and marketed the sites under 2 separate brands.

-People might be confused on what the brand does – since it does BOTH social media management and TV and radio placement

Well, it was a tough decision (and too about a week to implement), but I opted to form the companies into one brand – BOOMOPOLIS – Boomopolis.com serves the social media management portion and Boomopolis.tv serves the TV & Radio opportunity portion.  And they both link to each other as well. The blog/twitter/facebook page are all shared under ONE Boomopolis brand.

If I had a ton of funding a lot of employees, perhaps I would have made a different decision, but combining everything under one brand makes the whole thing a lot easier for me to manage as a small business owner.  I also think it makes easier for my target market to find me.

By doing this, I’m also able to focus only on the EXPERT portion of Boomopolis.tv (formerly Contestantville), so it’s no longer “Where Real People Become Stars”.  It’s now “Where Small Business Owners Become Stars”.  And in the end of the day – that’s where my passion lies – helping small businesses become more efficient and profitable – partially by relying on each other.

So there you have it. I hope you enjoy the new merger, and as for the Contestantville logo (which I really liked), I’m only bidding farewell to it temporarily. I plan to re-use the logo with another site I plan to launch in the future under a different name.

Until next time.

Evan Aaronson
President, Boomopolis

 

 

 

 

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