What’s A Name Worth? Not Much

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November 7, 2005 by Dane Carlson | 4 Comments

Rhonda Abrams in the USA Today explains that no business name — regardless of how memorable or even how well-established — is critical to success:

Remember one of Rhonda’s Rules: A name is only as valuable as the marketing dollars and the business behind it. You need both a marketing budget and a well-run company to make a name or trademark meaningful. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how memorable or clever your name is.

For instance, there is absolutely nothing memorable or even distinguished about the name a small technology company trademarked in 1976, but that name today is a household word — Microsoft.

On the other hand, many companies with great or even long-established business names have failed, such as PanAm, Pets.com, HomeGrocer. Great names can’t compensate for the lack of a good business model or adequate financing.

Sometimes even a bad name can be good. When Arthur Andersen Consulting services split away from the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, it chose the name Accenture. I thought that was a terrible name, and I still do. But when the Enron accounting scandal brought down the accounting company, it was a darn good thing that Accenture had dropped the name Arthur Andersen.

Moreover, every name — no matter how seemingly valuable — can be changed. It’s easy to believe that customers know us so well we can’t ever change our name, but it’s just not true. Small companies often change names when they change ownership, typically with positive rather than negative effects. Even very large companies change corporate names and are able to keep, even expand, their customer base.

In Uncategorized | 4 Comments
Tags: Branding