Names matter - whether it’s a band name or a business one, finding the right name can give your new business a jump-start, a clear brand in the marketplace and an instant connection with customers. Choosing the wrong name can condemn you to mediocrity, fighting to differentiate your business from others and a failure to generate the necessary name recognition that leads to strong brand identity.
Generating business name ideas
Coming up with business names isn’t always easy. Unlike bands: Dead Kennedys, Smashing Pumpkins, Def Leppard etc, obscure or downright weird names aren’t likely to produce consumer interest - quite the opposite.
How to use a store name generator or a business name generator
There are three very different approaches to the process of coming up with a great business name.
- The first is to choose an informative business name - Auto-Parts Today, for example, conveys exactly what the business offers: auto parts, delivered today! The best known informative business name in the world is probably Facebook.
- The second is to pick an abstract name, something on which you can project the image, values and personality of your organization. Shiver, Underground, Pulse - these are all abstract names, they possess meaning but that meaning is not associated with the business to which they are attached, rather to a feeling or mental process that allows business identity to be emotional rather than informative. Google and Yahoo! are perhaps the best known examples of abstract business naming.
- The third approach is to ‘coin’ a name by making up or mashing up words to create a complete new word that has new or unknown associations. This process can work extremely well, for example Shopify and Haagen Dazs are both coined names. Haagen Dazs might sound lovely, old-fashioned and Danish but actually it has no meaning at all in the Danish language.
Of course each of these also has its downsides. An informative name can be seen as bland and boring. An abstract name can convey an emotion but not much information, and a coined name can seem nonsensical to potential customers. So it’s not which of the three approaches you take that matters as much as finding a strong, clear and consistent identity that can be conveyed by the name have chosen. Essentially, whichever approach you take, the business name you choose should be able to carry the uniqueness and many of the values of the products or services you are offering.
The difficulty of finding a great store name
There are dozens of store name generators out there and they all claim to be able to create the ideal name for your business but the truth is that the route to a successful business name is more complex than that.
Begin by defining what your business name needs to communicate - is it going to convey key elements of your business, communicate an emotional response that your business generates or pique interest in your organization? That will help you decide which approach you’re going to start with. The more your name communicates, the less energy you have to put into explaining your business, but this can also be a limiter - too specific a name (Eastport Pizza Delivery is great, until you also want to deliver Westport or branch out into salads or wraps) can handicap your business in reaching a new customer base. Too abstract a name, on the other hand, can alienate customers who simply don’t get what you do.
Test your business name
A shop name generator can help you find several potentially great names, but which is right for you? The first thing is to make sure that the names you’ve shortlisted are memorable - and that takes time. Put them away for a couple of weeks and then sit down and see if you can write them all down from memory; it’s a great test to see if your business name idea really works. Even better, say the names to a reliable friend or family member and ask them to recite the names back to you after a couple of days. The ones they can remember with no prompting are worth taking forward.
Creative agencies spend vast budgets on coming up with great brand names, and a large part of what they do is testing, testing, testing. You don’t need to use an expensive agency to come up with a great business name, but you do need to undertake similar activities. You can use a business name generator to shortlist good business names but you’ll still need to do some research to find out what your shortlisted names convey to others and to be sure that the emotional resonance they have is the kind of impact you want your business name to have. “Toothsome” might seem like a great name for your catering company but if your customers think it sounds like a dental firm, you maybe need to think again!
Ensure Brand Consistency
Every entrepreneur today knows that branding matters - but brand consistency isn’t always as well applied and yet it’s a crucial component of establishing a great brand, and a great business identity.
Messaging, visual branding, communications … all these need to line up behind your business name. One of the key problems that a new business can have is that the founder chooses a business name that can’t be applied consistently across all channels because it’s already being used by somebody else. This presents three problems:
- Brand dilution - if your customer searches for you on the internet, they need to find you, not somebody with the same name as you. So if your company name is available on Facebook and as a domain but not on Instagram or Twitter, you might want to think again - if you can’t be present in all social media then you run the risk of confusing or even alienating your customers. Worst case scenario, you lose business to whoever has your business name on those other social channels. Searching for profiles across social media platforms helps you understand how much brand fracture might be inherent in each of your shortlisted names, so pick a brand name generator that offers this facility.
- Trademark infringement - a company name doesn’t necessarily have to be a trademark, but many are and if you opt for a company name that is already trademarked by somebody else, you can be sued for trademark infringement. What’s really important to understand about this, is that John Doe in Backwater County, Nowheresville, can sue you for everything you have if he’s trademarked a name even if all he does is sell junk out of his yard for two weeks a year and you’ve become a multimillion dollar business. If he was there first, you’ll lose everything.
- Incoherence - being consistent in the use of your brand identity means that it should run like a seam of gold throughout every bit of your business landscape. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to emblazon every carton with your logo, nor that you need to shout your values through every business communication you send out, but it does mean that brand colors should link packaging, logo, uniforms and anything else that your organization commissions. It means that key messaging: “We’re fast” or “We’re fun’ or “We’re efficient” is conveyed through the language you choose and the marketing approaches you take. An incoherent business chooses a fun name and black and white logo, then opts for multicolored business cards and deeply formal and professional language … that way everything important gets lost in the rush to try something new.
Brand consistency delivers business success
Being able to be consistent across channels gives you a couple of major advantages too.
First, you’re able to market at a higher level because instead of constantly introducing yourself to your customers or explaining yourself to them, you can focus on giving them a complete brand experience so that the next time they come across you, they are already fully aware of who you are and what you do.
Second, consistent brands have a more powerful identity. They create a stronger impression on the consumer and become more memorable, customers feel more emotionally connected to the brand are are more likely to share their experiences with that brand on social media.
Develop your business name as a priority
Business name ideas are just the beginning - once you’ve picked the ideal business name for your enterprise, you need to get behind it with real conviction, marketing your brand and using your name as the central feature of a strong business identity that can be developed and exploited for the whole of the life of the organization.