Since we talked here earlier about Naming Don’ts, let’s see some DO’s on the matter. Without any doubts, choosing a name is one of the most important decisions a company can make when launching a brand. More than that, when we’re talking about small businesses it seems that the most stressful thing about starting a new company was not manufacturing of products or advertising to customers, but coming up with a name.
Here is a list of 9 things that should be taken in consideration when naming a new business or product:
1. The Name Achieves Differentiation From Competition – your name should be different from the competition, as should your messaging.
2. The Name Reinforces Positioning in Marketplace – a name should make an impact and should bring forth some sense of the company’s position as it enters the marketplace.
3. The Name Engages Customer or Prospect – it should be something that causes interest, causes inquiry and causes potential for action.
4. The Name Is unforgettable – it should embed itself in the collective consciousness, tie to mental signposts in the consumer’s brain and help the consumer remember the name when speaking to friends.
5. The Name Has a Life of It’s Own – A company name needs to carry a self-sustaining message, something that identifies what the company does or provides, without additional messaging or clarity being added.
6. The Name Evokes Deep Well For Graphical Images – it helps develop a logo, and design for websites, etc.
7. The Name Rises Above the Goods and Services You Provide – it should have a greater, more encompassing edge than the things you provide – because if it is tied to services or products, and they change, your name might well need to, also.
8. The Name Has What It Takes to Dominate the Category – this comes from the idea of timelessness, of speaking to the consumer in an unforgettable way, but it also goes above and beyond that.
9. Url has to be Available for Registration For Web Address– extremely important issue in today’s time and age of the internet.
A couple of much more basic ones that would be at the top of my list. If these don’t work, you can forget the other 9!:
1. You can own it: trademark it in your relevant categories.
2. Its 3-4 syllables long, or can be easily shorthanded to this many syllables. Especially important when people have to ask for the brand, such as drinks ordered in bars.
Think about the last one, and you will struggle to think of a great brand that is more than 2-3 syllables. Google (2), Apple (2), Yahoo! (2), Coke (1) etc. etc.