5 Important Guidelines for Choosing a Business Name
Based on my experience as a copywriter and creative director in the advertising industry, here are some useful principles when brainstorming your new business’ name:
1. Convey the specific benefit to your prospect in the name.
Rather than taking the time to build up a new business based on a branded name (you need pretty deep marketing pockets for this type of ‘money pit marketing’) e.g. Sue Smith Accounting or John’s Auto Centre, instead build the specific benefit to your target market into the name itself.
In the case of the two above examples, Instant Cash Tax Refunds and 30-Minute Tune-ups would have a lot more immediate impact and generate business from Day 1. To be blunt, if a small business is to survive, it needs to be generating business quickly and very cheaply.
This is harder in some business types than others but all marketing should focus on solving a specific problem with a specific, measurable solution. Branding TV campaigns and full-page colour spreads are for Coca-Cola and McDonald’s (and don’t actually drive any business anyway).
2. Make your business name, your web address too.
We live in the internet age now and most service-based businesses will be attracting either a lot or most of their new customers and clients through search engine traffic and/or picking up (free) ads from Craigslist and Gumtree and (not free) Yellow pages (online).
Why not start building your web presence into the business from the beginning by actually having it there, working for you immediately e.g. InstantCashTaxRefunds.com (if you are locally-oriented, putting the area in too could be beneficial though try not to make it too long).
You should also make sure that your business website is properly set up with a location map, current deals/offers, testimonials, contact details and professional presentation (learn to use a digital camera if you don’t already know – how many ebay products have terrible photos?).
3. Test, test, test. But with the right audience.
Testing is vital and should be built into all aspects of your new business marketing. You should be testing Google Adwords variations, different classifieds, colours and – if relevant – the visual appearance of your retail environment.
But even before that, join relevant forums or local groups in your niche and ask them directly about your business name and slogan – not just which one/s they like but why they like it or don’t like certain options (ask them to pick from 5 maximum at a time) and engage in an ongoing dialogue about offering specific solutions to their needs. This marketing information is priceless.
Note carefully the actual words they use and feature these in your marketing – not marketing textbook jargon. Testing names on your family is worthless if they are not in your target market and they are probably too close to you anyway to offer unbiased assessments.
Testing is free.
Advertising is not.
Advertising a great small business with a lousy name and lousy ad copy is painful, expensive and, most importantly, unnecessary.
Removing your own assumptions about your prospects and testing can be tremendously enlightening and, strangely enough, people want to freely offer their thoughts on this subject.
4. Emotional not logical.
Virtually all advertising appeals to emotions and not rationality or logic.
Why?
Because emotion is far more powerful in influencing human behaviour than logic. Besides, what we buy based on emotion, we rationalise later. If possible, try to build an emotional ‘hook’ into your business name, or if not, your slogan.
Coming back to InstantCashTaxRefunds.com, clearly the appeal here is greed. 30-Minute Tune-ups appeals to impatience.
A flat, sterile, logic-appealing name and advertising will simply not cut through the ad clutter – at least not in the short term.
5. Should you make it poetic?
This is an area of huge debate among experienced marketers.
A catchy name is obviously easy to remember.
FedEx rhymes. Krusty Kremes has alliteration. Ikea has exotic flair.
But these are massive brands with massive budgets to drive home the customer benefits of what they offer. Personally I feel that a new small business name shouldn’t be too cute or clever – nightclubs, bars and coffee joints are exceptions – and focus on a gut-level, emotion-tugging, benefit-related name that pulls customers right from the start.
Here’s the acid test for your name idea:
When a customer hears the (proposed) name of your business, do they immediately go, “I want/need that service now”? Imagine you are in a book store and see a book’s title and immediately think, “Wow, I want that book” – before you’ve even opened it. That’s the kind of reaction you’re after in testing so don’t rush it and keep testing until you’re getting that kind of reaction.
Bonus Extra Principle:
When you do build in the specific benefit into your new business name and/or slogan after testing, make sure you can actually deliver on it. Remember that you want to be creating word-of-mouth endorsement marketing ‘disciples’ and not antagonists bad-mouthing your operation.
What are your thoughts about new business names?
