In determining all of the branding materials for CrowdPicker, we tested everything through our polling system as the site was being developed. This included the name of the service, tagline, logo, and color scheme. Throughout the process of determining our brand, the crowd helped challenge our assumptions about the service and our positioning by how our questions were asked and the options the crowd choose.

The name of our service was the first thing to get tested with options including: Picky Posse, Mob Select, Picky Genius, Crowd Picker, Swarm Select, and about 50 more. After several polls and combined with our assessment, Crowd Picker emerged as a clear winner according to our voters. We had been leaning towards Picky Posse as our personal favourite, but the crowd was overwhelming in their selection!

After much deliberation about some of the strengths of our service, we created these potential taglines to help orient CrowdPicker: Rapid Research, Fast Feedback, Speedy Swarm, Don't Decide Alone, Guerrilla Research, and several others. The results of these tagline polls aided in both finding the main benefit in the opinion of the crowd, and developing a marketing message that matched our intended direction.

The logo tests were fun and illuminating. I never expected to be as overwhelmed with great logo submissions as I did after running a contest through 99designs. I was faced with 10 terrific concepts that were unique in different ways. The different message of each caused some confusion in my assessment of how each correlated with my goals. By writing out what I was looking for in a logo and running several polls, the crowd consistently ranked our current logo as the favourite. I had originally been leaning to another design, but the influence of the crowd helped me step back and objectively reassess the submissions.

The crowd helped in all of the decisions made with Crowd Picker's design, and it continues to help quickly test any ideas for new features or design modifications.