Involve only the key decision makers, the fewer the better, and select only the people you feel have the company’s best interests at heart. The need for personal recognition can skew results - so you are best served by those who can park their egos at the door. Also, make sure you have some right brain types in the mix. (Read “Purple Cow” by Seth Godin to get a good idea of how right brainers think.) Too many left brains and the name often ends up too literal and descriptive.
- Stretch your self a bit creatively. Draw out a grid on paper and fill it with positive words that evoke the emotions you want your customers to feel and experience when they deal with you. Then try combing those words with more literal ones. By mixing creative words with literal words you give your company a bit more distinction than a jammed together descriptive name. Examples of this strategy include the airline JetBlue, the automotive navigation system called OnStar and Apple’s notebook computers called PowerBooks. Need some good words? Try the Visual Thesaurus.
- Go to dmoz.org or search Yahoo’s directories for companies in your industry. Print out a list of all the names and see what naming staregies they are using. Typically, a large percentage of them will be using the same one or two techniques (for example proper names of the original founder or a key attribute like “Superior,” or “Advanced.” Then look for other ways to name your company, such as using a metaphor (i.e. Jaguar) or an invented name (Xerox and Kodak) or an evocative name (Delta’s airline “Song”.)
- Look for combinations of positive words and metaphors and you will be much better served. A good example is the Fortune 1000 data storage company Iron Mountain, which conveys strength and security without sounding commonplace. To see just how common some companies names are, go to the USPTO database and search a word under “Trademarks.” A search of “Summit” yielded over 1400 results!
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Photo by Stabilo Boss.
Naming A New Biz Or Start Up
May 23, 2008 by Rich | 1 Comment
In Branding, Creativity, Trademarks
Ben Jones on May 23rd, 2008 at 11:37 am
Great post Dane….I actually wrote a pretty in depth post about choosing a business name a while back too. Check it out and let me know what you think: http://www.ben-means-business.com/2007/06/choosing-perfect-business-name.html