Bzzzd is one of our ready made brands for sale complete with a choice of logos, the all-important dot com domain but also a ready-to-go website that has been tested, launched and had initial content added. 

The brand itself is a great one for a multitude of uses and applications but we chose to showcase it as a global bar guide website.

The current website offers the chance for the owner to add review of the best bars all around the world as well as get votes from users of their favorite bars.

There is huge potential here to launch something very interesting and potentially lucrative once the site has enough entries and you can attract the advertisers.  Alternatively, a large drinks company will come along and buy the site (this has already happened to a similar site so it is a real prospect). 

We wholeheartedly recommend this brand to all those looking for a high energy brand applicable across a wide range of industry areas.  If you happen to be inspired but the idea of compiling a global bar guide, then this is a perfect brand for you.  Either way, the brand includes the website…

All this for $9,995.  That’s a great deal.

Paul Bart, founder of 5LetterBrands.

Will the dot com remain as the dominant internet domain suffix or “tld”?

The short answer is an unequivocal “yes”! 

The dot com or .com or dot-com as it is variously known has been the dominant internet domain type for many years and will remain so despite the never-ending influx of new alternatives.

Quite simply, they are not really alternatives as nothing announces your business more than the dot com.  Imagine, your business you have spent so many hours building up not being with a dot com domain…

Customers and anyone the least bit interested would search on Google and assume you owned the dot com.  If they found the dot com domain corresponding to your business, what would happen if you did not own it?

Of course, you could make sure no-one else muscles in on your brand by buying the dot com domain anyway but then why not use it in the first place as that is where everyone looks first!

Long live the dot com!…

Paul Bart, founder of 5LetterBrands.

We are proud to showcase our top five brands on 5LetterBrands as part of our site launch…

At number five we have Qamio which is an excellent brand for anything particular or leading its field as can se seen from our description: 

A contemporary version of ‘cameo’, meaning a small but important acting part, usually for a famous or noteworthy person, this is an awesome brand.  This brand would make an outstanding name for a small product that makes a big splash: a phone, a camera, a tablet computer, a car or another piece of wizardry technology? A highly flexible and easily trademarked name, this would also be perfect for a new services business – Qamio Consulting sounds perfect and as ever the dot com domain is included.

At number four we have Kowde which has an inevitable IT connection for something hi-tech as we describe here in detail: 

With a name sounding exactly like ‘code’, kowde.com can’t help but bring to mind an image from the movie “The Matrix” of green code running up and down a computer screen. As we all know, coders and developers alike want to brand themselves as cutting edge and “in the know.” Kowde.com’s one-of-a-kind way of spelling “code” evokes that cutting edge quality consumers are looking for in a business. Due to this unique quality, kowde.com stands out as the number one choice for use in software or security, either as a product or business.

At number three we have Nyvio which is highly memorable as either the next skin cream or a new New York way of life: 

This widely usable brand has associations with the energy and dynamism of New York, along with a more personal connection to life ‘vio’ (from French ‘vie’, Spanish ‘vida’ or Italian/Latin ‘vita’). With both energy and life, this brand conveys a sense of optimism and success. ‘Vio’ also makes a great abbreviation for video, so this is a strong brand for any business, product or service connected with media. If you have any sort of NY connection or just like the sounds of this fantastic brand, we recommend it with the all important dot com included.

At number two we have Aviau which is a great aviation brand: 

Due to the association with “aviation” or “air”, suggesting mobility, this would make a perfect brand for any business in the aviation industry and any wireless technology or mobile business. Aviau.com is a fantastic and memorable brand as it is evocative, sounds great, and is easy to spell and communicate to an associate or customer. The combination of one consonant and four vowels adds extra value to this brand. As always, this brand is sold with the valuable dot com domain name accompanying a great logo, enabling the brand to be used immediately. A superb and rare brand.

At number one we have Tawke which is such an awesome brand we have no apologies for asking a high price for this one: 

Well, what can we say! This is one of the best brands we have ever seen for a telecom or mobile phone business. It could be applied to a phone network, handsets, a mobile operator business, voice over IP, apps for smart phones – the list is endless and this brand is awesome and powerful, of that there is no doubt. The brand is descriptive and so easy to communicate either orally or written down and we wholeheartedly recommend this brand. Alternatively, this brand could be used for a conference or any other communications business; even a call centre. The dot com is included and is very valuable.

We love the logos with these brands too!

Take a good look at all our brands on the website and please let us know your thoughts…

Paul Bart, founder of 5LetterBrands.

After many months of planning and developing, our state-of-the-art website is now online…

Featuring over 100 high quality brands, ranging from only $500 to $100,000, there is a wide choice for any industry or application.

We kick off our launch with our latest offer, our “5 for 5 in 5″ where we offer our 5 best value brands for $500 for 5 days.  See them here:

http://5letterbrands.com/browse/price/0-500  

Over the coming months we will be developing our relationships with logo designers and sales partners to build this business into a highly visible leading brand website.

Our success is directly linked to the involvement of our partners form all sectors so we actively encourage you to join us with some great offers such as generous commission splits and other member benefits.  Join us here:

http://5letterbrands.com/register/member

Check back often to see our new features and offers.

Paul Bart, founder of 5LetterBrands.

“Many organizations fall far short of success globally because they not only fail to plan but also plan to fail!” – Paul Bart, brand specialist and founder of 5LetterBrands.

There are many examples of truly successful companies worldwide but there are very few that are really world-class and successful on a pan-global scale.

This is the result of many factors but a common set of 5 failings would be as follows:

1. Failure to plan for the scale of the business at the outset.
2. Inappropriate branding for a global market.
3. Lack of multi-cultural understanding.
4. Fear of broader economic implications.
5. Lack of desire or energy to expand globally.

The last three reasons are factors pertaining to the organization itself, its ongoing planning, communication and performance.  Whilst any one is “make or break” for global success, we wish to focus here on the earlier stages of brand planning and creation so the first two factors are our subject matter.

1. Failure to plan for the scale of the business at the outset…

Many organizations are highly focused at launch on their target markets whether a vertical sector such as automotive or health-care or a horizontal sector such as the US or the UK.  This is essential but to limit the potential for the business in such a way is wrong.

From the outset, truly world class firms see the global potential and plan for it.  They ensure the infrastructure, IT systems, channels to market and even the company name are scalable and will work across the globe.  Our modern era sees more and more online business opportunities for both virtual and physical businesses and so we have many examples to look at.

Consider an online firm such as Facebook, Skype or Adobe.  They create a global presence by the sheer fact that their online presence is visible around the globe from day one.  Of course they have to establish local partners or resellers but their name is there to be seen.

More traditional companies have to work harder.  Car-makers like Honda and Toyota are now totally integrated globally but they has to fight hard initially to expand first out of Japan and then Asia.  Local marketing budgets and launch programs had to be huge as well as a fair amount of loss leading business to get a foothold.

Any company planning now for global penetration would do well to heed the experiences of those precursors and plan well to ensure later expansion is easy.  One of the most important areas to get right at the outset of course is branding.

2. Inappropriate branding for a global market…

One of the reasons that Honda and Toyota have such success across the globe is that they have brands that work in any geography and they understand the needs of local markets.  The same can be said of Samsung, Sony and LG in the consumer electronics sector or Apple, Nokia and Nintendo in the IT and gaming sector.

These are all household names with global reach yet local presence.  On a branding level, they have all chosen names that are short, easy to remember and have a warm and positive connotation.  Arguably, Sony outguns both Samsung and LG on the sound of the name itself but Samsung and LG know this and work hard to counter with great slogans and tag-lines as well as big budgets!

The lesson here is that by far and away the easiest way to guarantee global success is to get the branding right at the outset.  You do not want to have to change brand midway as Datsun had to do to Nissan thereby confusing its customer base for many years or re-invent yourself at great cost as did Andersen Consulting to Accenture at huge cost.

You want to get it right first time with a brand that will expand, endure and adapt easily.  How do you ensure that?

Simple… Don’t get too focused or specific with your brand name.  If you do, you might still be successful but it is less likely.  One of the more famous examples of this is Carphone Warehouse plc founded by Charles Dunstone in 1989.   At that time, mobile phones were car-based and not very mobile at all so it all made sense.  The business is now the largest mobile phone retailer in Europe with over 2,000 stores so it has been a great success but the name is hardly appropriate today.

In fact, the brand has had to be compromised.  In the UK and Ireland it is so well known that a change of name was not an option so it remains uneponymously The Carphone Warehouse but across mainland Europe it is known as The Phone House.

No big deal but think how much easier things would have been with a name that really was expandable, enduring and adaptable… Something short and sweet like a “5LetterBrand”, in fact!

At 5LetterBrands we have a vast selection of great names that are all available as fresh unused brands with a great logo and a dot-com domain.  Of course, the logo might need to be customized for your specific business but don’t underestimate the power of a brand that does not tie you down!

Paul Bart, founder of 5LetterBrands.

Do the math… Run the numbers… Whichever way you look at it, “5LetterBrands” is real estate that can never be replaced!

Here at 5LetterBrands, we want you to invest with us in something really unique – dot-com brands.  But not just any dot-com brands; 5 letter dot-com urls with great logos…

Why? Because they are one of the best investments you can make!  Guaranteed to increase in value, cool to own, useful for your business and very cheap to maintain.

You can’t say that about many investments – real estate has its ups and downs, fine art has to be carefully and expensively stored as do classic cars and fine wine; stocks and shares are always highly volatile.

5LetterBrands are online real estate but unlike physical real estate, they can never be replaced so they have to continue to increase in value as demand increases and of course each 5LetterBrand only cost around 10 USD each per year to maintain.

How can we be so sure they will always gain in value?  Simple!  There is a finite supply and demand is increasing exponentially as more and more people go online and need urls.

Let’s consider the statistics for a moment…

1 letter urls are not allowed and in any case there would only be 26 of these anyway so if they were they would be very, very expensive.

So the shortest urls are 2 letter urls.  There are only 676 of these so they are still very expensive and somewhat limited as to what you can do with them.  You can only really expect to create abbreviations (initialisms to be precise such as ba.com).

When you get to 3 letter urls, there are 17,576 available so they are still pretty rare and initialisms rule (bbc.com) or three letter words (dare I say it, sex.com).  These still don’t really lend themselves to becoming “brands”.

4 letter urls number 456,976 and can be “brands”.  You’ll see them around you but they are still mostly initialisms (ymca.com, lapd.com) or acronyms (nato.com) with the exception of some that make real brands such as ford.com or nike.com.

But before you go rushing off to buy a 4 letter brand, the bad news is they are all sold out.  We own a few, but very few, so do take a look on our website…

Which brings us to 5LetterBrands, which we think is where it’s at… There are 11.8m give or take and, at time of writing, there are still some for sale.  But, and it’s a big “but”, how many actually can be called worth “brands”?

Well, first off you have to be able to pronounce it so xwtkp.com is out and even if you can, is it memorable enough and powerful enough?  The reality is you have to do some more complex math to understand the rarity of really worthy 5LetterBrands.

Vowels make easier-on-the-eye brands and there are only 5 of them (6 if you include “y”) and so ideal mixes of consonants and vowels such as isuzu.com (vcvcv) and fedex.com (cvcvc) are most in demand.

The numbers of these combinations of letters available as 5LetterBrands are far lower – 84,500 and 439,400 respectively to be precise.  When you get to 4 vowels in the brand such as some of the great brands we have for sale like aokoa.com (vvcvv), you are into seriously rare territory as there are only 16,250 in existence.

Compared to the number of urls on the internet, that is very rare.  Considering that there are over 80 million .com urls at last count on the web, owning a brand like aokoa.com or aviau.com, both of which we currently offer for sale, puts you in a rare club of 0.0002% (one in 200,000) of dot-coms!

By the way, we only recommend dot-com (.com suffix) urls as they are the de facto international commercial brand urls and of course we didn’t include hyphens or numbers in our calculations as generally these don’t lend themselves to great brands but can be used…

Not only do we have great sounding, rare, short, dot-com urls on offer but they all have a choice of wonderful logos which is why we call them “brands”.  This of course adds dramatically to the value and is the reason to invest in 5LetterBrands!

A final thought to leave you with… If you ever doubt the size and future growth of the internet, consider that already the total number of pages is estimated for 2010 as being equivalent to 12 piles of pages…

…where each “pile” is a stack equivalent to the distance from the sun to Pluto and back – that’s big so consider yourself lucky you found this page!

To find out more about what we do or to buy a brand right away, contact us.

Paul Bart, founder of 5LetterBrands

It is, of course, easier for a big business than a small business to create a memorable brand. With a multi-million dollar budget, a great ad team and lots of mass media exposure, you’d be hard pressed to fail – or would you?

There are many examples of getting in wrong on big budgets as well as getting it right but the good news is that you don’t actually need a huge budget to create an excellent brand but you absolutely do need the following: inspiration, dedication and specialisation.  But let’s step back for a moment:

What is a brand?

When you think of BMW, what comes to mind? Maybe you remember their famous slogan, “the ultimate driving machine”, the elegant lines and feel of their cars or the prestige factor their cars engender.

All are part of BMW’s brand and all work to reinforce the image BMW wants you to know: a BMW is a sporty, expensive, top-of-the-line piece of engineering.

Your brand therefore is your commitment to your customers beyond their physical purchase and ownership.

BMW promises great cars. Burger King promises affordable, instant and consistent food. If you want to do achieve similar fame and fortune, you need to create an intentional thought and feeling in the mind of consumers when they think about your business. That is your brand appeal!

So what is the promise of your business and how are you going to differentiate yourself and succeed in today’s competitive business world?

Before we talk about the 5 steps to creating your brand, it is worth remembering what sets brands apart from companies…

Firstly, brands are unique:

The whole idea behind branding is that you distinguish yourself in a busy marketplace. If you try and be everything to everyone, you will end up being nothing to anyone!  Your brand has to be unique to your business, it has to be different from the competition to a degree and it must reflect something at which you excel.

Secondly, brands have to live up to their promise:

Your brand must be based in reality. That is, it must be linked to the culture, style, product and service of your business. Sticking with BMW as the example, they would not have created their excellent brand if their cars were not so good, they did not have the motorsport connections they have, they did not invest in extensive research and development their company did not project then same shiny image they want for their cars.

I can tell you that having owned many BMWs, they do go wrong quite often but often the best way to get them fixed is to deal with the head office and complain how bad it makes their brand look.  They have always surprised me in how far they will go to maintain their brand image…

Thirdly, brands are integrated:

A quality brand is reinforced by everything related to it – where the business is located, the prices, the customer service, in short… everything. Think about how similar and sleek all the BMW dealerships look!

Similarly, all of your marketing must be integrated. If it is not, it will be hard to be  noticed.  You must reinforce your desired image again and again. The best way to do this is to create marketing materials and branding that have the same look, feel – your name, logo, slogan and corporate colours all say who you are and what your values are.

Based on all of the above, here is how to go about creating your small business brand:  5 steps to creating your very own brand.

1. Pick a good name…

This may sound very obvious but many businesses fail because they are simply not memorable.  We firmly believe that short dot com names are the way to go because nothing else can compete with a name that rolls off the tongue, is easy to remember and sounds cool.  Of course you can go longer or even shorter, but it is hard to beat our “5LetterBrands”!

2. Pick a good logo…

All great brands have a great logo.  Images are memorable than words especially if they make good use of colour.  For that reason we offer a choice of high quality logos with each of our brands but we can always customise them for you too as it is critical to get what you really want at the outset.

3. Decide on your promise…

As indicated before, this must be based on things that are real in your business, things you value and things you are willing to keep as values.  They can be one thing or more and can be almost anything but you have to be good at what you promise.

Starbucks offers excellent coffee in a relaxed atmosphere.  Skype offers good quality free internet calls.  Nike sells high quality sportswear.  Tesco sells a huge variety of quality and value food.  The list goes on…

You can diversify later on but stick to your core offering until you are successful.

4. Launch your brand…

Once you are happy with your brand, launch it!  By that I mean, make sure you pull all the stops out to get noticed.  A common mistake of small business owners is to invest in the core business and neglect marketing.

You need to be exploring all possible channels to get your name known too.  Don’t just think about the traditional ones, consider the new wave of viral and affiliate marketing tools out there.  If you are unsure, we have a consulting service that can point you in the right direction or even manage the whole thing for you.

5. Live up to your promise…

Last but not least, live the words.  Make sure you actually are what you say you are and you live up to your company values and proposition.  The quickest way to destroy your hard earned brand is to not be what you are supposed to be!

I hope this helps.  If you need more help or advice, don’t hesitate to contact us- we are here to help and we have a great selection of ready-made brands you might like.

Paul Bart, founder of 5LetterBrands

Maybe you are asking yourself what this 5LetterBrands thing is all about… or maybe it’s already clear but you want to find out how it can benefit you?  Either way, read on…

5LetterBrands is a fresh take on branding.  With today’s essential requirements for establishing a new brand being ownership of a great .com domain name and projecting the right image, a new way of finding your ideal brand is necessary.  By traditional means, acquiring a suitable .com domain has become extraordinarily difficult and time-consuming.  We are introducing an extensive portfolio of great .com domain names, mostly 5 letters in length — hence the name 5LetterBrands — all accompanied by an original, professionally designed logo.

All our brands have been conceived specially for their purpose and, perhaps most importantly, all our brand names sound cool.  Our domains have been assembled over the last 10 years, both by direct registration and through highly selective purchases in the secondary market.  What they all have in common is that they are original, unused and trademarkable names ideal for immediate use to brand a product or service.

The domain and logo together provide the core of your ready-made brand.  We offer additional services such as rapid website design, company start-up consulting and more but for now let’s talk about why 5LetterBrands is such a unique concept…

Sure, there are places to buy domain names and even more places to buy logos but what 5LetterBrands does, which is unique, is that we offer the very best together as a ready-made package — everything you need to launch your new brand right away.

Now, we don’t just have 5 letter brands, we also have some 4 letter brands and others with 6 letters or more, but the majority are 5 letters.  Why choose 5 letters?

5 letters really is the optimum length: more distinctive name than acronym, punchy, easy to remember and credible.  Shorter than 5 letters and the cost escalates dramatically while the meaning often decreases.  6 letters and beyond and you start to lose exclusivity and ease-of-use.

There are exceptions to all this but try finding a cool brand name with 4 letters or less; it’s rare, whereas we see 5 letters all around us: Cisco, Intel, Skype, Xerox, Kodak, Honda, Volvo, Amgen, Merck, Roche, Alcoa, Chubb, Tesco, Mobil, Pepsi…

Sure, there are some really short ones like ba.com or lg.com but they’re abbreviations and don’t really sound that great, do they?  And longer – who is going to remember how to type your web address or email for something like acaciaresortspahotel.com?

The exciting thing about 5 letter domains is that they are finite ‘real estate’, especially those with attractive sounds.  There are actually 11.9m combinations of letters that can make .coms of 5 letters but fgtsd.com isn’t too easy to say, is it? — so the actual number of desirable domains is far lower.

For example, the number of 5 letter domains with 3 vowels is only 84,500 and when you put this number in the context of over 100 million registered .com domains across the globe, you start to see the rarity.

More importantly, unlike physical real estate where there will always be new developments or up-and-coming zones to invest in, there will never, ever be any new 5 letter .coms.  What we have now is all we will ever have.

So, all in all, we have a great selection of 5 letter brands that sound great and are ready to use.  We will be launching our full website shortly, introducing these .coms with great logos and added value services.  So how can you benefit from this?

If you are a talented designer who wants to increase your earnings, we want to hear from you, as we are building a special designer community to create great logos and showcase them on our site…

If you are a brand advisor or business consultant, we want to hear from you too as we are building a network of partners to work with globally on a revenue-share basis…

For business owners, marketing managers and entrepreneurs, you need to watch this space closely as there are some really special brands that will suit your business or new product launch…

Finally, if you are a .com owner or collector, we are always adding to our portfolio of cool .com URLs so we would like to hear from you if you want to do business…

Most of all, we want to hear your views on the business so please use this blog to post your comments.

Paul Bart, founder of 5LetterBrands