Naming is integral to branding and to your overall strategy and mission, and this is no easy task. With a financial crisis looming, doing it right is critical to your success.

Before you name your business, products or services, it’s wise to have the answers to many questions – most of which you have already dealt with if you’ve written a business and/or marketing plan.

You’ll need to have all your major stakeholders in mind: customers, the public, investors, etc. Once you’re narrowed your list of potential names, remember that just because one of your benefactors does not like the name you’ve selected, unless they have concrete reasons why (e.g., it evokes something negative), it’s better to listen to and focus on customers and the opinions of specialized researchers and agencies that do this all the time.

Questions you should ask yourself:

·          What are we naming? 

·          What is the offering and will the name enhance our strategy?

·          What image should the name convey?

·          How unique is it (or are we) and can it even be trademarked?

·          Will the name help me communicate my strongest marketing message to my customer?

·          Will the name enhance the way my customer feels about me or my product or service?

·          Will my customers be confused or reminded of another vendor's product when they hear it?

·          What is our investment in this? 

·          How much will we spend in promotions and will this suffice for name recognition?

·          How much visibility will this receive? 

·          How are we planning to use it--as a business name, domain name, or tied to a tag line?

·          Just how valuable is the name to us, and what are the consequences of not protecting it?

·          Are we prepared for trademarking, i.e., name searches and a lengthy registration process?

·          Will this be used only in the U.S. or will it be used in other countries?

·          What’s our competition doing?

Some of the most important considerations to think about when you’re coming up with a name are:

·          Is the name easy to write and read?

·          Is it easy to pronounce without a big learning curve or heavy advertising?

·          Is there more than one pronunciation?

·          What associations will be customer have when they hear the name? 

·          Does it evoke any negative thoughts, either by its meaning or because of how it sounds?

·          How well does it fit the concept or business objective? (high tech v. pharmaceutical sounding)

·          Does the name clearly communicate main attributes or benefits?  

·          An hour after hearing the name, will the customer remember it?

Going down another layer, there are other considerations: how the name looks visually, how is sounds phonetically, does it work with other words that will be preceding or following it, how many syllables does it have, and is it business-like, bold or innovative?

Coming up with a name and getting a name trademarked are other major undertakings. And if the name will be used in other countries or even in the U.S. by groups that speak other languages or are culturally different than the mainstream, it will have to be evaluated linguistically.If you need more information before then, feel free to contact me at pat@lovenhart.com.