success of business operations itself depends on it, as well as attracting consumers, business partners etc. 

The Anglo-Saxon legal system regulates the institute of business name similarly, but it goes a step further when determining its significance and explaining the importance of proper business name choice to all those who intend to start business and register a company. There is a phrase catchy business name, and also some companies which offer their services in choosing the appropriate business name. The choice of business name is of particular importance for those who start a new company, and the main aim of choosing this catchy business name is make the company recognizable in the market in a short time. Apart from that, if we observe the importance of choosing a business name from this perspective, we have to notice its other dimension - the psychological effect on consumers and their perception of the business entity – whether it can be easily remembered, if it is likeable and, as we have already mentioned, „catchy“. Subsequent business reputation is built upon that psychological and emotional aspect of the business name, and sometimes also corporate brand as well. 

Brand and branding

Product mark, trademark or brand is in use for a really long time. Its primary role was to make particular products distinguishable and different from the others, to assure it is recognizable and easily identified. We may say that brand exists ever since the market itself does. It is believed that it appeared first during classical antiquity in the Mediterranean, primarily in Greece and Rome, as well as Etruscan civilization (Clifton, 2009). The first brands were used for marking products (pottery), for which we have evidence. The primary aim was to protect buyers from bad purchases. Nowadays it has a series of functions, and marks (brands) have evolved from marking some products into a necessary part of everyday life of people which influences their lives in different ways. As for the word itself, the popular word brand comes from an old Scandinavian word brandr, which means burning. The connection with burning becomes clear when we remember that livestock used to be marked by a hot brand so as to identify the owner (Veljković, 2009).

It would have been wrong to assert that branding as marketing category exists for so long in human society. The reason is that the word brand denotes much more than marking products in material or physical manner. The lack of emotion component, communication context and associations with the branded product undoubtedly suggest that beginnings of branding can historically be put in the period after World War II. Consumers’ needs suddenly rose first in the United States and a drastic change of market conditions occurred. Because of the higher purchasing power of citizens, purchases were no longer observed solely as the necessity, but for the first time as a pleasure, too, and soon after as a trend. Indistinguishable mass products were failing to satisfy the needs of the new generation of consumers. It became necessary to underline the difference between competitors who offered products, and this required neglecting identical or similar characteristics of the product and creating image instead

Ivan Bulatović, Sanja Škorić, Vladimir Jovanović

There are many different definitions of brand. Among the most widely accepted in the literature is the one by the American Marketing Association (AMA): „Mark (brand) is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies  one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.“ (Keller, 2003).

D 1945 (2.8 billion) ( /). which those mascots a tc evelopment of mass media – newspaper, radio and television, enabled placing the information before a large audience. Companies recognized this opportunity as the primary channel for promotion of products, i.e. as the channel for creating a demand. Simultaneously, advertising as a new discipline gaining importance rose. It was focused on attracting attention of the targeted audience. The total budget for advertising in the United States in 1950 was 5.7 billion dollars, which was doubled compared to http://adage.com One of the turning points in marketing communications, especially in advertising, was appearance of Leo Burnett agency of Chicago, which started making illustrated characters – mascots in order to introduce a product to consumers in an attractive manner. Emotions presented and caused in the audience re the basis of today’s branding. Since then emotions, psychology and anthropology were used to feature the value of some product. Since that period companies stopped selling products and started selling brands. An example of that is definitely acquisition of the Kraft company in 1989 by Philip Morris for unimaginable 12.9 billion dollars at the time, which was five times the value of company’s assets. Such discrepancy occurred due to the market position of the brands Kraft had had in its portfolio, i.e. positioning relative to buyers, suppliers, distributors, employees e . (http://books.google. rs/). A quote of former CEO of Coca-Cola Roberto Goizueta speaking of this became very famous: „All our factories and facilities could burn down tomorrow but you’d hardly touch the value of the company; all that actually lies in the goodwill of our brand franchise and the collective knowledge in the company.“(Filipović, 2008). This quote underlines the significance of non-material aspects of the brand value.

Marinković, 2015). Marketing, market research and branding are the key factors when it comes to aspirations of companies to establish a quality relationship with users/consumers. If it is based on the quality data regarding consumers, branding may help to increase sale and make consumers loyal. It is believed that the most important role of marketing is creating a brand (

Marinković, 2015) The process of brand creation is complex, long lasting and it demands a clear brand strategy, which should primarily be based on retaining consumers instead of attracting them. Creation of successful brand is based on communication, which may be both external and internal. In the process of branding, a company, its consumers and associates (employees, distributors, agencies, representatives etc.) communicate between, and the company has to find the appropriate way to promote its product or service to all the targeted groups, while at the same time it should be maintaining the necessary consistency in internal and external communication. Cotler and Fitch call marketing connections between the company, associates and consumers the triangle of branding.

BRANDING A BUSINESS NAME

Creating business image by business name branding

A company becomes independent and acts on its behalf in the market upon registration with the business registry and that is when it acquires the identity. From the moment it starts operations, until the moment of its termination, the company creates its business reputation in the market and in commercial transactions, i.e. its image. If we compare the term identity with the term image, we could say that a company’s identity is what it really is, while its image is what others perceive it to be. A perfect situation is when business identity and business image differ only as much as it takes to operate successfully, i.e. when business image is slightly better than the company’s identity. However, unlike identity, image is a category created through a longer period, and as a rule it is much harder to gain a good name and reputation than a bad one, which is much harder to fix later (Å korić, 2016). There is a widespread opinion that good reputation needs to be built for years, while it may be lost within a second (http://www.profitmagazin.com/). Business image of a company should be proportionate to its operations, i.e. making profit, which is the basic aim of the company. In other words, this means the business image will be better if the company’s total profit is higher and vice versa - the worse the image is, the operations are worse and the profit is lower if the company’s reputation is bad. However, this would have been a trivialization of a very important category such as business image, and the business image is all but a simple calculation in the current business environment. Business image is influenced by many factors. Company may influence some of them by its operations, while there are factors totally beyond its control, such as economic and financial changes worldwide, social circumstances, political situation etc. The connection between reputation and success of a company on the one hand and reputation and business name on the other arises from the fact that business image is primarily connected to the business name. If we consider corporate brand as a way to improve business apart from the goodwill, it is completely clear that both terms are connected to the business name of the company. 

The value of the business name and brand can be expressed through analyzing financial performance. In economic theory, there are financial analysis, which speak not only about the different aspects of financial position (position and financial structure of the company) on its activities in the financial area (Asset Liability Committee) and on its functioning in the financial field, but also analysis, which through financial statements and attitude sublimated talk about the overall activities of the company, its position and development (Vučićević, 2012). The three most important areas predominantly determine the origin and development of financial analysis, including: financial management, management accounting and financial accounting (Anđelić, 2008) Financial analysis is a function required for the achievement of the objectives and tasks of the financial policy of the company. In modern terms, financials of the company centered on the adoption of the most important financial decisions on investments for the purpose of expansion, growth and development and business analysis of the company; then the financing or acquisition of assets and sources of funding of dividends to shareholders or a profit increase if it is co-owner of the shares in another organizational form of the company.