When Brand Strategy Foundation is Strong, Pivoting is Easier: The Story of Charismagic

One of the most painful moments in brand-building is realizing the name you've fallen in love with isn't available. This happened to me, and here's how I pivoted and landed on an even stronger name while staying true to the brand I'd already built.

When I first began developing my branding course, I intended to call it Create Brand Gold. At the time, the name made perfect sense. The concept of gold was already a part of my proprietary brand strategy methodology, the Brand Charisma® Framework, which is built around two core phases: Archaeology and Alchemy. Archaeology is the process of uncovering hidden truths, buried stories, overlooked strengths, facts and insights about the brand and audience that may be untapped opportunities. Alchemy is the process of transforming those discoveries into something extremely valuable through strategy, positioning, messaging, and design: in other words, creating brand gold.

So the name felt really aligned, and the visual identity followed naturally. Gold imagery, metallic accents, golden crowns, and symbolic references to how a strong brand had a golden touch to all the marketing it inspired (like the fable of King Midas). I designed a logo, built course materials, purchased the domain name, made marketing materials with Create Brand Gold all over them.

Based on my research and informal discussions with a couple of generous IP lawyers in my network, it appeared that because "Create Brand Gold" was a conversational phrase built from common words, it would be difficult to protect and unlikely to qualify for trademark registration. Which was fine. I’m not big-time, and this self-driven course isn’t going to be the focus of my business. I just saw it as a way to give back to the entrepreneurial community to help those who couldn’t afford to hire a senior strategist for individual consulting.

Then I got serious interest from an entrepreneur online school who wanted to license my self-driven course. Which was going to involve advertising it heavily and potentially generating significant revenue. Suddenly, a spotlight was shining on the fact that this was intellectual property, and soon the world might know about it. I was aware that there was someone in my industry seeking IP protection of “Brand Gold”, and while based on my research it seemed super unlikely that the USPTO would grant her a trademark, the possibility of future confusion or legal wrangling was just a little too close for comfort. I didn’t want to discover later that I might need to lawyer up over it, so I decided to pivot. Of course I was crushed. I loved that name. I had already invested time, money, and creative energy into bringing it to life. (I didn’t yet realize there was a better name out there waiting for me.)

So I needed a new name, and it needed to work within the strategic foundation I had already built around brand gold, brand charisma, and the idea of making brands magnetic. After a great deal of brainstorming and cursing when it felt good idea after good idea were all already taken (try coming up with a clever name in the branding industry!!! Seriously, my peers are smart!) I finally landed on Charismagic®.

It ticked so many boxes. Unlike Create Brand Gold, which describes an action, Charismagic made the course a thing – a noun people could experience, recommend, and associate with a specific methodology. It infused the concept of Brand Charisma. It was playful, which is part of my brand. It made it clear that the course was going to deliver a desirable outcome. It was shorter, which improves its likelihood of being remembered and not shortened by people out of convenience. And most satisfying of all from a legal standpoint, it was an invented word, which makes it highly protectable from an intellectual property perspective.

Today, I'm delighted to say that Charismagic is officially registered with the USPTO. Along the way, I also made the decision to protect the proprietary strategic process behind my work: the Brand Charisma Framework.

The experience reinforced several things I tell my clients all the time about branding. Brands already exist - therefore they aren’t created, they’re discovered. This helped me go back to the drawing board with refreshed hope that the best name simply hadn’t been revealed to me yet. Rebranding is a myth - you don’t throw an existing brand away, you only ever merely refresh a brand. And lastly, if the underlying brand strategy is authentic and well-developed, a name can evolve to be something else while the deeper meaning remains intact. I reassure my clients that when they have a strong brand strategy guiding marketing, it's much easier when they need to pivot, evolve, or expand messaging.

The gold theme never disappeared. It still exists within the Charismagic course. Archaeology still uncovers hidden treasures. Alchemy still transforms them into brand gold. And the Charismagic course delivers Brand Charisma.

In hindsight, being forced to rethink the name didn't weaken the brand. It strengthened it. The process pushed me to clarify the relationship between the framework, the course, and the outcome they were designed to create. Not every obstacle is a blessing in disguise. Sometimes an obstacle is just deeply annoying. But sometimes, being forced to think harder leads to a better answer than the one you started with. And that’s reassuring, right? 😂