Naming a company is like laying the first stone of a building. Once in place, the entire base and structure is aligned with the original stone. If it is off, the rest of the building is off and the misalignment is amplified. So if you have that nagging feeling that choosing a name for your new business is critically important, you’re right. With 18 years in the name and brand business, I have witnessed the good, the bad, and the really bad. Here’s how you can avoid the worst of mistakes and get off to a good start.
Mistake #1: The Committee (Involve all your customers, employees and family members)
We live in a democratic society and it seems like the right thing to do: involve everyone in an important decision. This approach, however, presents some problems. The first and most obvious fact is that you’ll end up choosing only one name, so you risk alienating the very people you’re trying to engage. Second, it often ends with a consensus decision, resulting in a very safe and very simple name. A better method is to involve only the key decision makers, the fewer the merrier, and select only the people you believe have the company’s best interests at heart. The need for personal recognition can skew results, so you’re best served by those who can park their egos at the door. Also make sure you have some right-brained types in the mix. Too many left brains and the name often ends up being too literal and descriptive.
Mistake #2: The train wreck (Take two words and make them collide head-on)
When forced to think of a creative name, many aspiring entrepreneurs will simply take part of an adjective and merge it with a noun. The results are names that have some twisted logic to them, but look and sound horrible. Someone who starts a high-end service franchise becomes a QualiServe. It’s a bit like mixing chocolate syrup with ketchup, there’s nothing wrong with either, but they just don’t go together. Other common truncations include Ameri, Tech, Corp, Tron, etc. The problem with this approach is that it’s just forced, and that’s what it sounds like.
Mistake #3: Where is Waldo? (Names so simple they will never stand out from the crowd)
The first company in a category can get away with it. So you have General Motors, General Electric, etc. But once you have competition, it requires differentiation. Imagine if Yahoo! had it come out as GeneralInternetDirectory.com? It would be much more descriptive, but hardly memorable. And with the onslaught of new media and advertising channels, it’s more important than ever to carve out your uniqueness. Nothing does that better than a well-conceived name.
Mistake #4: The Atlas Approach (Using a Map to Name Your Business)
In the rush to start a new business, many businesses choose to use their city, state, or region as part of their name. While this can help at first, it often becomes a hindrance as the business grows. A client came to me with complaints that he was serving more of the market than his name implies. He had aptly named it St. Pete Plumbing since he was a native of St. Petersburg, Florida. But yellow page shoppers assumed it was his entire service area, too. With a little creative tinkering, we changed the image of St. Pete from a city to the image of St. Pete himself, complete with wings and a plumber’s wrench. The new slogan? “We do miracles!”
Other companies have struggled with the same problem. Minnesota Manufacturing and Mining was growing beyond its industry and its state. To avoid limiting their growth, they became 3M, a company now known for its innovation. Kentucky Fried Chicken is now KFC, de-emphasizing the regional nature of the original name. Both companies made strategic moves to avoid stifling their growth. Learn from them and you can avoid this potential bottleneck.
Mistake #5: Cliché you say? (A good name is worth a thousand words)
Once past the literal and descriptive stage, the thought process usually turns to metaphors. These can be great if not overused to the point of being trite. Since many companies consider themselves to be the best in their industry, the world is full of names like Summit, Apex, Pinnacle, Peak, etc. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with these names, they’re just overworked. Look for positive word combinations and metaphors and you will be much better served. A good example is Fortune 1000 data storage company Iron Mountain, which conveys strength and security without sounding cliché.
Mistake #6: Hide the meaning (Make it so obscure the customer will never know!)
It’s great that a name has a special significance or meaning. Establish a story that can be used to tell the company’s message. But if the reference is too obscure and too difficult to spell and pronounce, you may never get a chance to speak to that customer. They will simply pass you off as irrelevant. So resist the urge to name your company after the mythical Greek god of quick service or the Latin phrase “We’re number one!” If a name has a natural, intuitive sound and special meaning, it can work. If it’s too complex and bewildering, it will remain a mystery to your customers. This is especially true if you are reaching a mass audience.
I pushed the envelope a bit on this one myself, naming my brand company Tungsten, after the metal Thomas Edison used to create a brilliant light. However, my clientele is made up of seasoned professionals who appreciate a good metaphor and expect a branding company to have a story behind its name. It’s also a way to differentiate my services (lit, bright, bright). So while it works for a branded company, it wouldn’t work well as an ice cream parlor.
Mistake #7: The Campbell Approach (Using Alphabet Soup to Name Your Company)
This is a trend that is thankfully dying out. Driven by the need for a matching domain name, many companies have resorted to purposely misspelled or misspelled names. The results are company names that sound more like prescription drugs than real-life businesses. Error #2 is sometimes combined with this to result in a name like KwaliTronix. (Or worse: Bugs #2, #4, and #7, resulting in KwalTronixUSA.) It’s amazing how good some names start to sound after searching all night for available domain names. But resist the temptation. Avoid using a “K” instead of a “Q” or a “Ph” instead of an “F.” This makes spelling the name and locating it on the Internet much more difficult.
It’s not that coined or invented names can’t work, they often do. Take, for example, Xerox or Kodak. But keep in mind that names like these have no intrinsic or linguistic meaning, so they rely heavily on advertising, and that gets expensive. Many of the companies using this approach were first-in-class or had large marketing budgets. Verizon spent millions on its rebranding effort. Accenture too. So check your pocket before signing up for these types of names.
Mistake #8: Sit on it. (If in doubt, do not make any changes)
Many business owners know they have a name problem and are just hoping that it will somehow magically be resolved. The original name of one of my clients was “Portables,” which reminded some people of outdoor toilets or portable classrooms, neither of which was a good association. This added to the confusion when phone carriers tried to explain their new concept of movement and storage. After some careful tweaking, we came up with the name PODS, an acronym for Portable On Demand Storage. The rest is quickly becoming history as they expand both nationally and internationally. Peter Warhust, Chairman and one of the original founders, states, “For the record, changing our name to PODS was one of the best moves we’ve ever made.”
Exercise Experience, a former Florida-based company, was frequently mistaken for a gym. They were actually selling very high-end fitness equipment. This brings up a very important point: it is better to have a name that does not give any impression than a name that gives the wrong impression. Much of the advertising budget we spent on the Exercise Experience was used to clarify that they were selling fitness equipment. This was valuable airtime that could have been better spent selling the team rather than explaining the business. Ultimately, the company went bankrupt. Not to say it was solely because of the name, but I think it was a factor.
Mike Harper of Huntington Beach, CA, purchased a thirty year old building maintenance and cleaning company called Regency. We both agreed that it sounded more like a downtown movie theater than a forward-thinking facilities management company. After an exhaustive name search, we developed the name Spruce Facilities Management. Spruce not only conveyed the green image of a spruce (something important to the client), but also meant “clean.” The new tagline fit the bill: Spruce… “The Everclean Company.”
It’s only a matter of time before Southwest Airlines and the Burlington Coat Factory and others that have successfully outgrown their original markets begin to question their positioning. Like 3M and KFC, they may need to make a change to keep up with their growth and image.
In the rush to start your new business or expand an existing one, take time to think about some of these issues. According to the late Henry Ford, “Thinking is the hardest job there is, which is probably why so few do it.” Albert Einstein went a step further by stating that “imagination is more important than knowledge.” By tapping into your creativity and avoiding these potential pitfalls, you’ll be able to create a name that works both in the short term and in the long term, one that allows for future growth. Like the original cornerstone of a building, it will support upward expansion as your business reaches new heights.