WHAT'S IN A NAME?
EVERY business has an official name and so much can depend on that appellative, a cornerstone of the enterprise's identity. It can help push the business forward or hinder progress. Once the business title has been agreed by all concerned and approved in accordance with legal requirements you are likely to have to live with it: so be careful not to call the boy Sue.
What constitutes a favourable name that can help you win new business and build upon it in the longer term?
It needs to be easy to spell, thereby facilitating speedy recognition on the Internet. It should be short or such that it can be shortened when necessary, serving as a suitable domain name, fitting comfortably across stationery, being memorable in advertising.
In this latter connection, success for the business will be aided if the name has a strong visual element. It should have positive connotations that you want people to associate with the company. Ideally, it will include an indication of what your business does.
To be avoided are the banal, the hackneyed, the mawkish and the trite truncation. Oh, and the corny or crass: note the shortlived tyre remoulding business called Tread Carefully, a failed hairdressing venture named Clip & Chop, a removals outfit trading as The Humper, but going nowhere – and a financial services firm known for a while as Crooks Accounting.
DOWN THE DRAIN
I never ventured into the nearby Chinese restaurant called Good Luck, nor did I use a plumber from Down The Drain.
There are circumstances where it can be folly to take a geographical approach, using your city or region as an element. Quite possibly it will become a hindrance as your company grows. There are also search engines to bear in mind. Using names of well-known places with generic descriptions could mean you will languish in the foothills of Google.
Should this happen, don't be afraid to make a change. A small chandlery business serving local yachtsmen on England’s south coast set out on nationwide expansion and changed its name from South Western Marine Factors to Sowester. On a grander scale, Minnesota Manufacturing & Mining became 3M; Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation was reinvented as HSBC. These were strategic moves to avoid any stifling of growth.
Changing the name can be a costly exercise, though, not only in terms of the physical rebranding, but in the rebuilding of awareness. Nevertheless, sometimes retaining a name can create more damage than switching to a new one. Changing your identity can provide positive signals that you are adopting a new and fresh outlook.
OBSCURITY
You should be careful not to devise an obscure business name, thereby making it difficult for customers to know what it is about. They may pass you by as being a mystery or irrelevant to their needs. Remember when the UK's Royal Mail tried to redeliver itself as Consignia? It was soon switched back to Royal Mail.
Awkwardly constructed or deliberately misspelled names are more difficult to find and need to rely heavily on large promotional budgets to convey their meaning and make them memorable. There is much to be said for simplicity.
You want your new name to be dynamic and prestigious and not shared with a company that has negativity surrounding the title, no matter where it might be located.
There is also the comfort zone to consider. People should see your name and feel at ease with what it conveys. If you can tell them how good you are in the name, all the better: examples include Specsavers, easyJet and Top Shop.
Branding a new business is not something to be done in a hurry. Apart from the legal hurdles, it needs an understanding of the target market, deep thinking about future trends and directions, plus a generous dollop of creativity.
Reach out to your customer platform, describe what you do and keep it simple. Then the name can work for you. It will do the business.
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