In a recent training I talked about the importance of choosing the right name for a business. I have previously blogged about how some companies in seeking to be clever can unwittingly create an unhelpful and incongruent impression in what they want to communicate. A good example in recent times is “Confused.com” which is a company that supposedly seeks to provide choices for its customers! The constant repetition of the term “confused” of course creates the exact opposite impression.
 The golden rule in marketing is “difference dictates”. If your company doesn’t stand out from the crown in “being different” then your company is seen as just the same as everyone else. Smart companies know the importance of creating a memorable business name and the very best examples are where the business names then become part of everyday language. At one time there were no mp3 players and I remember a vice Ceo from Silicon Valley tell me in the 1990s about this mew mp3 technology where you could carry your whole album collection on a hard drive to play while driving! Now most people talk about “iPods”, even when referring to generic mp3 players. Apple essentially created a new business name that is now part of everyday language and of course the iPad and iPhone are extensions of the business identity. Another consideration is that some business names may not create the best impression internationally. For example “Lag Guitars” doesn’t in my opinion sound that desirable and or course there is the unforgettable “Dick Stick” brand.

I have noticed that when people choose names for a new business there can be a tendency to copy other businesses. In the world of personal change I have previously blogged about the endless references to “excellence” “agents for change” “quantum” “Meta”, “Excellence”,“Transformation” and other such stereotypical terms. There’s nothing essentially wrong with these terms, (hey I even ran a company once called “Tranceforming NLP”) but they don’t suggest a great deal of new creative thinking and are not “different” to everything else in the marketplace. The difficulty with many such terms is that they can quickly go out of fashion and that’s never great for marketing. I always suggest that a good starting point is to consider the impression that you want to create, before deciding upon the actual term to describe it. Otherwise the actual name of the business can be emotionally disconnected to the business and in some worst case examples the names are totally forgettable!

My advice is once you have a short list of possible names to then ask individuals who would be potential customers their views. Sometimes the results can be surprising and of course it’s useful to have more than just two possibilities, but I would suggest less than ten on any potential list. Also its common sense to check that nobody else has the same or a similar identity and you can secure the top level domain names (.com, .net are essential) for what you decide upon to avoid potential customer confusion. The most recognizable brand names include the following – Coca Cola, Apple, Disney, McDonalds and American Express. Each of these companies are instantly recognizable. Of course the name is not the brand, but just one of the elements that helps create the brand. Often the name is accompanied by a carefully constructed logo and businesses like EBay are a good example of this combination of name and logo.  It’s always nest to get a professional designer to create a log and not to simply outsource this to the cheapest bidder.

The most successful companies create “the cool factor” and when this occurs customers advertise the brand by displaying the brand name and logo on items of clothing. Essentially the company is creating a fan base in the same way that rock bands create a fan following. Apple is generally perceived to be a cool brand and people are happy to display the business logo and associate with the company name. In contrast I can’t image many folks wearing Dell T Shirts as Dell don’t personify “the cool factor”, well not so far anyway...