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How to choose a great business name

January 15, 2006 on 10:43 pm | In Internet Marketing |

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Your business name can make a big difference - positive or negative - to the branding or positioning of your business, and ultimately to your marketing results.

But how should you choose a business name? I’m sometimes asked by clients to help with the naming of a new venture, and I’ve assembled a list of ideas and concepts that I like to draw on to assist the process.

Quirky or Functional?

Broadly speaking, there are two schools of thought when it comes to business naming.

1. New and Quirky: The Googles, Odeos, Flickrs, Del.icio.uses, Yahoo!s etc.

Quirky neologisms have the advantage of being memorable and unique. This type of name can work well for a mass-market product or service - especially when it’s a first-of-its-kind offering.

If you’re in a non mass-market industry, I recommend that you avoid quirky names and go for a name that is descriptive and functional instead - something that a prospect can understand immediately.

2. Descriptive and Functional:

A good descriptive name should communicate in 1 to 3 words as much as possible about what your business does, and if possible, communicate your unique difference.

Examples:

Marketing Results [Internet marketing consultancy] BetterEdit.com [Online proofreading and editing business] Loans Approved [Mortgage broker] Customized Stickers [specialist sticker retailer]

It’s hard to come up with a truly magnificent name, but it’s not so difficult to think of one that’s fairly good.

Other factors to consider

Focus: Apex Bookkeeping is better than Apex Business Services.

Uniqueness / USP: Expert Plumbing is better than Century Plumbing.

Cadence: The way your name sounds when spoken aloud. Does your name flow off the tongue, or is it difficult to say? This point may sound slightly strange, but it can have a big effect on memorability.

Keywords: As mentioned above, functional keywords contain more communicative power than neutral words. Functional keywords may also have positive search engine optimization effects in the online arena.

Common naming mistakes to avoid

Unfoccussed or irrelevant names: e.g. a florist called ACME Global Products.

Hackneyed names: e.g. Smith Building Services

Obscure aconyms: e.g. WDS Marketing. [IBM was International Business Machines before it became IBM. Only by being first was it able to later gain traction with the name IBM.]

Over-long names: e.g. Quintessential Management Consulting and Marketing Services.

Conclusion

The above guidelines should help you come up with a great business name. Even if you bend a few guidelines above (as you sometimes have to do), starting off with a strong name is the first step toward making your marketing work.

Will Swayne Marketing Results

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Trackback by Internet Marketing For Small Business - Entrepreneur's Journey — January 16, 2006 #

Nice post Will!

I’m actually in that stage of coming up with good domain names for a few upcoming websites.

The problem with domain names these days is that all the regular worded domains are taken. So if you want a short, memorable, and possible brandable/trademarkable (is that a word? :D) domain you need to make up a domain by either combining words or altering words or meanings etc.

And I can tell you, it’s not easy! Sometimes a really good possible domain name will come to you and at other times there’s just nothing.

I’m actually trying to come up with a good domain name for a general school community/resource site… any ideas?

cheers
Nathan Waters

Comment by Nathan Waters — January 17, 2006 #
Hi Nathan,

Thanks for your comment. You make a very good point - short, quirky domain names can be good because they’re

A) available and
B) memorable
C) trademarkable

I agree with you that it’s not easy to find a name with all these qualities - only in retrospect.

I’m not quite sure exactly what your school / community resource site is about or who it’s targeted at, but I think it’s normally just a huge brainstorming game.

By the by, I think http://www.LinkedIn.com is a good domain name - memorable but also suggestive of what it is (a social networking site).

Everyone always says that “all the good domain names are taken”, and I suppose many of the obvious choices are. But there’s still plenty of potential winners out there.

Good luck - let me know when you find a winner!

Will

Comment by Will — January 17, 2006 #
Good article! While I like most of it, I would also stress that keywords and focus are not necessarily important. If you have the money, coming up with a brandable name such as “Google,” “Amazon, “eBay,” “Apple,” etc., may even be better. I wrote an article that touched on naming your business as well.

Comment by Spencer — January 18, 2006 #
Welcome Spencer - thanks for your article link. There’s some good stuff there.

I agree that good, brandable names are great, in the right industry. I’m primarily writing for bricks-and-mortar business owners who want to generate sales leads for their business using the internet.

But hey, if you have the right concept and lots of ca$h, the big business branding approach is great. I just don’t have any experience with that yet. Maybe in future…

Thanks again for posting.

Will

Comment by Will — January 18, 2006 #
Hi Will.

I think I played around with a short list of 10 potential names when I was setting up my website.

Even after I short listed them I posted this list around to a bunch of friends and colleagues and the name was finally based on the majority vote.

Mr. Roomfinder dot com was born and it’s all about finding Rooms be it apartments, offices, or hotels etc.

To be honest, I was surprised a name like that was available as a .com.

Cheers

Aitch

Comment by Aitch — January 19, 2006 #
Great article. My site is AUTO APPROVED http://www.autoapproved.com (similar to Loan Approved cited). I think its a great name because of the double meaning auto as in car and as in automatically.

Keep up the great work Will.

Comment by Tyler Eastman — January 19, 2006 #
Hi Aitch - Thanks for your comment. I recognize you from the old E-J crowd :). I think Mr Roomfinder is a great name. It’s functional and also catchy. You also provide yet more evidence against the “Every good domain name is taken” myth. Thanks for posting.

Hi Tyler - Welcome! Yes, Auto Approved is a great name. Great keywords, good cadence and there’s some (semi) alliteration in there too which can enhance memorability…plus the layered meanings. You’ve got it all!

Comment by Will — January 19, 2006 #
Great blog!

what do you think of the company name

“the funding fathers”?

fantabulous? so-so? super-duper? terrrible?

thanks!! Izzy

Comment by Izzy — January 23, 2006 #
Hi Izzy - welcome!

Well, I guess you’d have to think about what your business does, what your unique difference is and who your target market is.

Is the business something to do with finance? If so the pun on “founding fathers” might be too flippant for your market - unless there’s some twist in your business model or positioning that makes that OK.

This raises a good point that a business name doesn’t exist in isolation and that what may be great for one business might be no good for another.

Will

Comment by Will — January 23, 2006 #
How to Choose a Business Name

Will Swayne is a sales lead generation specialist and principal of Australian Internet consulting firm Marketing Results. I actually hopped on over to his website from Yaro’s Entrepreneur’s Journey after finally finding time to catch up on several of…

Trackback by Websites Made Simple — January 23, 2006 #
Nathan almost brought it up, but whether the domain name is available can also impact on what business/organisation name you choose.

I didn’t mind too much with my first few sites but now I’d strongly consider purchasing the right name if it wasn’t available.

Comment by Ross Hill — July 24, 2007 #
Hey Ross — thanks for dropping by. You’re right, a lot of good domain names are taken now. For .com.au domain names, it’s not tooooooooo bad, but for .com names a bit more thought is often required.

Will

Comment by Will — July 24, 2007 #
Good article, thanks Will.

The name of the business / domain is so important.

I have to laugh to myself at some of the names i see from time to time, like the domain names that make other less desirable words (we’ve all seen the lists of “fart” & “sex” combinations in inappropriate places.)

Saw a good tool for picking domain names - be warned, this is addictive and you will probably buy a few names that you can’t beleive haven’t been snapped up!- http://www.bustaname.com

Like Ross, i too would buy the right name if it was parked somewhere, having said that, one i really would like is just too expensive for me right now, if you can though, i would buy the right name at a premium

Comment by Brennan Ryan — July 24, 2007 #
Hi Brennan - yes, some domain names are rather unfortunate. Thanks for the bustaname tool — I like it!

Comment by Will — July 25, 2007 #
What about a sense of timelessness. We named RedBalloon Days after the 1956 Oscar winning movie. It is visual, memorable, colourful and has a sense of fun…and once you know it you remember it.

Whats in a name

Comment by Naomi Simson — August 23, 2007 #
Hi Naomi,

Thanks for stopping by! “Red Balloon Days” is indeed a great business name that speaks to the senses and conjures up a sense of fun. It’s one of those “I know it when I see it” examples that is difficult to dissect but just works.

Comment by Will — August 29, 2007 #
Its the name that sells but the business name is most difficult to create. The problem comes when you have choosen one domain name and then you realize it has been taken by someone else. I must say that this article is really a good piece of advice for all the businessman who are striving to get their business name and are making the list but are tearing them apart. I hopefully feel these tips will really help you in choosing your domain name.

Comment by Dean — November 22, 2007 #
These are no doubt very useful tips. Obviously without business name, no business can survive. You are recognized by your business name and itâ€™s your business name that creates your place in the market. So it is best for you that you should choose your business name very carefully and with planning

Comment by marketing reviews — November 28, 2007 #
I think you do not have to be an expert on marketing to have a suitable name in your business.
Just a bit of imagination, originality and functionality are required.

Thank you.-

Comment by business mortgages — March 7, 2008 #
Great ideas about choosing a name, thanks. I feel one should chose a name that immediately tells your prospects what your business is about. And a possible suggest excellence too. I liked your example of “Expert Plumbing”, as a prospect immediately knows what you’re about.

Comment by Riggie — September 29, 2008 #
@Riggie - for SMEs, I agree that a name that communicates what you’re about is the way to go. High-sounding names that are ambiguous to the potential prospect/customer are the equivalent of pouring money down the drain. As if small business wasn’t competitive enough already!

Comment by Will — October 1, 2008 #