Every entrepreneur dreams of starting a business that’d be a force of renown in their niche. To make this dream a reality, they invest time exploring their imagination and developing a grand product; they prepare their disruptive strategy and find a name that represents their company and is also a perfect fit for their products and services.
And anyone who’s ever developed a business from scratch knows that finding the perfect business name can be a time-consuming and mentally exhausting process.
But what if we told you we could make the process easier so you don’t have to experience any delays while trying to establish your business?
Awesome right?
All you have to do is follow the techniques listed in this article because they’ll put you on the right track to the perfect brand name.
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Why the Perfect Name is Important to Your Business
Have you ever wondered why Brad’s Drink was rebranded to Pepsi, Burbn to Instagram, Cadabra to Amazon, Sky Peer-to-Peer to Skype, and Backrub to Google?
The reason is simple: These companies were looking for the right name because a lousy brand name stifles a company’s growth, just the same way an unpleasant name can make a person’s life more complicated than it needs to be.
As an entrepreneur, don’t ignore the importance of a perfect brand name because it can directly control your company’s financial performance by:
- Attracting loyal customers
- Connecting with your customers emotionally
- Attracting talented employees
- Creating excitement in the industry
- Increasing customer referrals
- Increasing the sales of your products
- Reducing the cost of advertisement
Now that you know why the perfect name is vital to your business, let’s get started by finding out what every perfect name must possess.
What to Look for in a Perfect Brand Name
Before we get into finding the perfect name for your business, you need to understand that what makes a name perfect is that it CAREs.
And to do that, the perfect name needs to be:
- Contextual
The perfect name has and also gives context. It serves as the company’s heart, supporting and establishing the tone for various critical components of your business.
So if you want your business to look serious and trustworthy, getting a funny name isn’t the greatest choice.
Also, make sure your name is consistent with your brand’s positioning. Putting your name in context by judging its strength and possible market potential through the lens of your company’s brand, positioning, and objective can help you assess its power and potential market impact.
- Appealing
The perfect name is appealing and can get customers fascinated about your business and eager to spread the word to their friends, family, and colleagues.
But, don’t be one of those entrepreneurs who try to make their business look unique and edgy by embracing names that are difficult to say, spell, and have little appeal with their target customers.
- Remarkable
The perfect name is memorable and lingers in a customer’s memory, making it simpler to advertise. So, pick the perfect brand name for your business because it’ll support your brand’s expansion and survival.
- Evoke an Emotional Response
To have the most impact, your company’s name must stir up a strong emotional response from your customers. As a result, you need to make sure your company’s name evokes a great emotional response or triggers a thought related to your brand’s message.
Related ==> Here are 63+ best lifestyle blog name ideas.
Let’s get into how to find the perfect name for your business.
How to Find the Perfect Name for Your Business
#1. Know what You Want Your Business to Be
If you want to create a business that provides excellent services to its customers, then you’ll need a deep understanding of your audience, your competitors, and your industry. And one quick way to do this is by gathering all of your company’s fundamental values and carefully picking the most important ones.
Get a thorough grasp of what works and what doesn’t in order to determine what your business should aim for and what it has to accomplish to win your customers’ hearts.
Remember that excellent brand names are born from strong brand concepts, and that’s simply because naming a good concept is much simpler than naming a bad one.
#2. Decide the Best Tone for Your Brand Name
Understand that a name loses its potency when it fails to connect with its target audience emotionally. And this frequently occurs because the tone of the name does not resonate with the target demographic. Remember, the tone you choose for your brand name directly influences how your customers perceive it.
However, before you chose a tone for your brand, you need first to discover who your customers are, their wants and needs, the difficulties they face, what your business offers, and why they should be interested in patronizing your products.
While you’re at it, look into your competitor’s brands, products, and services to discover what they provide and how your business can exceed them in delivering superior products and services. Knowing your customers and competitors would make selecting the appropriate tone for your business a lot easier.
#3. Understand your Brand’s Element
Don’t stop with a great tone; you should also consider your branding elements, your company’s major concepts, the emotions you want to evoke in your audience, your company’s beliefs, and the benefits your customers will receive from using your products.
These essential elements would significantly influence the name you pick for your business because when you finally start brainstorming names for your business, you will use bits of this information to generate a list of names that align with your brand.
But while brainstorming, don’t get fixated on trying to find a name that satisfies all the elements of your business. The goal is to find a name that focuses on the most important aspects.
#4. Create a Project Statement
Creating a project statement will assist you in getting a perfect business name for your company. And you’d need to do this because it offers a clearer picture of what your name should do.
Here’s a good example of a project statement:
I need a name for my tech company that communicates intelligence, fun, and perfection. It should be a strong and inviting name that attracts a younger crowd.
#5. Brainstorm
It’s time to let your imagination run wild and come up with words that fit your project statement. Understand that brainstorming can exhaust a lot of time, attention, discipline, and energy.
To make it smoother and less exhausting, assemble a team to help you brainstorm your company’s name. Tell them about your brand, its tone, target audience, competitors, and goals.
While brainstorming, your team shouldn’t hesitate to select short, modern, intriguing, or even symbolic words. Customers love brand names with deep meanings, so coming up with a unique word that radiates your brand’s identity might be your business’s winning strategy.
But let’s say you don’t have a team to help you brainstorm, and coming up with a unique name sounds difficult; then, the best option is to use a powerful business name generator.
As you brainstorm or use a business name generator, look out for:
- Real words like Target
- Misspelled words like Lyft
- Compound words like DoorDash
- Acronyms like HP
#6. Watch Out!
Keep an eye out for these danger zones while looking for the perfect business name:
- Avoid single English words because of trademark issues
- Generic words like force, icon, unity, and power
- Overused metaphors and geographical names
Also, avoid names that are:
- Difficult: If your business’s name is difficult to spell or pronounce, it can damage your referrals since your customers would have a tougher time recalling and publicizing your name.
- Obscure: Using vague, personal symbols or metaphors may not be the best solution if your business wants to achieve mass appeal.
That’s because even though a small fraction of your audience will appreciate vague and symbolic words that only they recognize, a greater percentage of your customers will not.
- Neutral: While you don’t want to choose a name that’s too technical or difficult, you also don’t want to choose something that won’t thrill customers.
A dull and uninteresting name is more difficult to remember than one that is vibrant and captivating. Stay away from generic names since they might be so similar to other names in your industry that customers will be turned off and look for a unique business.
- Taken: Picking a name that’s been trademarked by another business will not only contradict your business’s goal of being unique but can also lead to serious legal battles for your company.
So double-check with the US Patent and Trademark Office to be sure another company hasn’t already trademarked your name.
Finally, with this information at your fingertips, it’s time to grab your headphones, some cookies, a cup of coffee, and embark on a journey to finding the perfect brand name for your business.
The world is waiting to hear your brand name.
Good luck!
Author’s bio
Grant Polachek is the Head of Branding at Inc 500 company Squadhelp.com, the worlds #1 naming platform, with 30,000+ customers from early-stage startups across the globe to the largest corporations including Nestle, Philips, Hilton, Pepsi, and AutoNation. Get inspired by exploring these winning business name ideas.
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