One of the most exciting steps in creating your business is deciding on your company’s name. The name of your business will be the most identifiable element for the entire life of your brand. Creating the right name is a mix of creativity, meaning, impact, versatility, and availability.
Over the years, we’ve seen critical mistakes hinder the evolution of a brand. Taking the time to come up with the right brand name will inevitably save you money in the long run. Re-branding is an expensive process and potentially risky for business.
A great business name won’t totally make-or-break your business, but it can make an impact so you want to make sure it’s a positive one.
For many, deciding on a name is the moment when it truly feels like they own a business. But choosing a name for your new company can be challenging, especially when your perfect name is already taken by another company so do your homework to be sure your top choice is available… and trust the process that will lead you to that perfect name.
AVOID THESE PITFALLS
The goal is to come up with a name that is unique AND easy to remember. Pick a name that will allow your business to scale if you decide to do so later on down the line. Before you get started keep in mind the following pitfalls avoid
SHORT BUT SWEET IS BEST – Don’t make your business name a complete sentence or too many words. The shorter the better when it comes to a name. We recently worked with a new company named Running Long Running Happy. When we signed on to create their brand identity we suggested a name change while the business was still young and luckily they were open to possibilities. We implemented our Naming Process and came up with WIM. The company was founded by Carla Frank literally on a whim when she found herself going through a life-changing break-up and used running as therapy. She wanted to help other women through similar situations by leading running retreats all over the world. So WIM is an acronym for Women In Motion with a tagline of Run the World. WIM Run the World. The name WIM is super easy to remember, short and lends itself well to fun whimsical branding with a meaningful story behind it. The tagline just sweetened the deal
DONT PICK A NAME THAT IS HARD TO SPELL OR PRONOUNCE – One of the easiest ways to get the word out is word of mouth. If people can’t pronounce your name they will avoid it. You want your name to flow easily so people will talk about your brand. If you choose a name hard to spell or pronounce you will spend a lot of time and energy correcting people and educating people. It’s not impossible though, think of Patxi’es (did I spell that right?) they do a pretty good job of helping us with pronunciation by following their name with: (pronounced pah-cheese). Since they have amazing pizza it’s working for them. But if you don’t want to follow your name with instructions on how to say it, save yourself the trouble and avoid this pitfall if at all possible.
DON’T CHOOSE A NAME SIMILAR TO YOUR COMPETITION – Back in my college days I was a bartender at Chevy’s and my good friend worked at Chili’s down the street. I’m not really sure what restaurant came first, although its probably easy to find out but that’s not really the point here. I can’t tell you how many times people would show up at my bar, order a drink while they waited for their friend to meet them. After drink number two they would start to wonder why their friend was so late. It was always the same issue… The friend was sitting at the bar down the street sipping a drink with my good friend while they sat at my bar having drinks with me. It was great fun to compare stories but the point here is: don’t allow your business to be confused by consumers. Choose a unique name that won’t send your customers down the street for a drink.
DON’T BE GENERIC – I recently saw an episode of The Profit where Marcus Lemonis helped a struggling Bagel Company in NYC with a rebrand. The original name of the company was NYC Bagels and with the rebrand came a new name: Cory’s Bagels. With tons of bagels companies in NYC, there was nothing that made this bagel company stand out except the fact that the bagels were excellent. If you’re proud of your product or service the last thing you want to do is allow another company reaps the benefits of your hard work and vice versa, don’t lose business because people think the other businesses mediocre product is yours. With the new brand and name, there was a clear distinction between Cory’s Bagels and all the other generic NYC bagel companies. Make sure your name is doesn’t get lost in a sea of same.
DON’T CHOOSE A NAME THAT IS LOCATION SPECIFIC -This is not a hard and fast rule. You could choose a location-specific name if your location is known or associated with whatever it is you’re offering. Take for example North Beach Pizza. North Beach Pizza has several locations in the Bay Area. In the Bay Area, we know that North Beach is San Francisco’s Little Italy neighborhood. So the name makes perfect sense to this particular region. But national expansion could challenge the name’s effectiveness. On another note Trader Joes does a great job of embracing each neighborhood or city location of its stores which is a great way to be engaging with the community you serve. They feature murals and photos in each store that are location specific. But could you imagine if they had named their store after the first location in Pasadena back in 1967? The chain giant would be called Passadena Market which is definitely not the brand we’ve come to know more than 50 years later.
TRUST THE PROCESS, MAGIC IS BOUND TO HAPPEN
Our naming process here at ARTdeezine starts by exploring possibilities in several different categories. Download our Naming Worksheet and spend at the very least, an hour of dedicated time brainstorming. Work through each category, you may find that some names are a combination of more than one. The goal of this exercise is to get as many ideas as flowing as possible. For this reason, we strongly suggest that you contribute an absolute minimum of 10-20 ideas for each category. This is where the magic happens so don’t skip categories or skimp on the number of possibilities you come up with for each category. Write down every idea that comes to mind even if you think it’s totally silly or there’s no way you would ever actually use it. Often times one silly or undesirable name will lead to the perfect name. Trust the process and be amazed at what comes up. We’ve guided tons of new business owners through this process and the results are usually pretty amazing.
FOLLOW THESE 6 STEPS TO DISCOVER THE PERFECT NAME FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Now that you’re aware of what not to do, get to work on finding the perfect name for your new business. This process works with product names and program names as well. Start by downloading our worksheet here and then start brainstorming. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Step One: VALUES-Write down your company values (should be aligned with target audience values) What feeling/emotion do I want my business name to evoke in my target audience?
Step Two: USP-Write down your company’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) What’s the one thing that makes your business different than the competition?
Step Three: KEYWORDS-Write down Industry keywords
Step Four: BRAINSTORM-names in each category (see how you can incorporate value, USP, and industry keywords)
Step Five: CIRCLE-Go through and Circle your favorites, and narrow it down to the top three
Step Six: AVAILABILITY-Check availability of each and make a choice!
