Naming Your Company is Serious Business
If you’re just starting your business or reinventing an established business, choosing a name is one of your most important decisions. The name you choose will create an image in the minds of others, so think about the image you want to reflect. There are several considerations.
1. Make your name memorable and recognizable, but in a positive light. Look it up to be sure.
Reebok, the athletic shoe manufacturer, named a line of women’s running shoes “Incubus” apparently without looking it up. Incubus is an evil spirit that was thought in medieval times to descend upon and have sexual intercourse with a woman. Once the meaning of Incubus was discovered and broadcast on ABC News in 1997, Reebok had to discard 53,000 pairs of the shoes even though they had been on the market for a year and had not received any customer complaints.
2. Avoid copying clever names that worked for others, such as Toys R Us.
One local discount store chose the name “Mick and Save.” The discount store, Pic and Save, issued an injunction against them.
3. Make your business name broad enough to cover what you do, but not too specific.
A bakery named “Santa Ana Homemade Biscuits” gives the impression that it carries just one type of baked item.
4. If you have a new concept and can afford the money and energy to advertise heavily, you can make up a name or choose a name that seems to have no immediate connection to what you do.
Steve Jobs was three months late filing a name for his business. He threatened to name his company after his favorite fruit, the apple, if his staff didn’t come up with a better name by 5 PM. They didn’t. He named his next computer after a variety of apples, Macintosh. Naming his company after fruit had its benefits. It helped to give Jobs’ new company a softer friendlier image, distancing him from the cold names of the established computer companies.
5. Choose a name that’s easy to pronounce and has immediate meaning.
The Geek Squad is a 24 hour computer support and repair company that was started in Minnesota by Robert Stephens in 1994. Turning the image of the “geek,” from a negative to a positive, the company continues the metaphor by calling the employees “agents,” their offices “precincts” and having their employees wear specific clothes and a badge, and drive black and white Volkswagen beetles called “Geekmobiles” with their orange and black Geek Squad logo on the door.
6. Check the spelling and punctuation. Check your dictionary, reference source or the most frequently misspelled words at www.yourdictionary.com/library/misspelled.html
Have several people check your business name before you order business cards and brochures. Can you spot the errors in these names?
- Carrie’s Cheese and Cracker’s
- Celebrate Your Occassion
- Tommorrow’s Trends
7. Once you’ve narrowed your choices to a few, search your county office, patent and trademark directory and a domain registry.
Even if you’re starting off small, you may grow into a major corporation one day. There are many ways to go about naming your company. You can even turn the task over to experts, but be ready to plunk down thousands of dollars for large professional naming companies. For companies with major clients, see www.ahundredmonkeys.com , www.interbrand.com or www.thenamingcompany.com. For a discount naming service, consult www.namedatlast.com.No matter which method you use for naming your company, be sure it fits your image and your product or service and attracts your intended clientele.
8. There are experts who think your company name doesn’t matter as much as the name your company makes for itself. WalMart doesn’t sell walls and Ikea doesn’t sell keys. So, if you have a company name that you favor, but it’s quirky and doesn’t describe what you do, all is not lost. You will need to offer a great product or service and soon your company will be known and profitable regardless of its name.
One Response to “Naming Your Company is Serious Business”
October 15th, 2008 at 2:23 am
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