Things to absolutely avoid when naming your company…

When people hear your company name, they quickly and often subconsciously make certain perceptions about your company.

Those perceptions influence how they think, feel and react to your company. Those perceptions define your brand.

Your name, logo, marketing messages, and everything else that people see and hear about your business make powerful impressions on people.

Every time someone picks up your business card, walks into your business, visits your web site, meets an employee, sees one of your ads, they form a perception about your business.

1. Use the family name

Nice idea – forget it!

Naming your new commercial venture after your family name or the names of the 2 grandkids joined together (yes, my mother did that with my kids names – oh dear!) means you could run into a few problems down the track. Bad marketing and my kids hated it too!

A family name is not easy to trademark or register. It can easily be copied. And, what if you wanted to sell the Jones Company to the Smith family in a few years, and.. what possible benefit has does naming a company ‘Jones Company ‘have anyway?

2. Describe your product or service

Like Cool Air-Conditioning’… Again – oh dear!

This is so bad – almost as bad as Smiths Air-Conditioning. Think about it.

Don’t just describe your product as it could apply to a whole host of similar ones too. Get creative, employ a professional to do it for you but for goodness sake be unique and show some initiative like Nike, Coca Cola, Apple, Virgin… need more?

Just think Virgin could just be Richard’s Records.. aiiiaaa!

3. Copying another company’s brand

An absolute no-no! No advantage to you and it’s illegal.

4. Suits in session

Having the managers sit and ‘brainstorm’ ideas for naming the company. Really, how costly is that? Aren’t management better off doing what they do best and managing? Employ a professional to name the company for you – after all, branding your company correctly can make the difference between success and failure. Start right.

5. Leave it to the workers

I’ve heard of a company who held an in-house competition to name a new brand – which is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
And another company had an employee competition to come up with a new company tagline – eeeekkkkkk !

6. It’s all about the customer

Branding your company needs to focus on your customer and inspire and motivate them to remember you.

It’s not about your company, your professionalism, how good you are – that’s all a given, surely. You, as a company owner are too close, too emotionally attached to be objective. Get out the way of your success, leave your ego behind, and leave your branding to a professional. Show off that ego with a nice new yacht once the business is successful, hehe!

7. Even if you have found the cure for cancer…

They did it – made up a punchy, memorable, easy to say new word, never been in the dictionary before – Kodak. How good is that!

New technology, new products are coming out every day but if you are a scientist or engineer, please don’t name your company something most of us lesser mortals can’t even pronounce like Ciberglasczmaje Inc. – your potential customers just wont’ go for it

8. Choosing availability over exclusivity

So you can’t name your new men’s aftershave company… Mars or Jupiter – because they are already registered – but Uranus is available…?

Think again.

9. Don’t rely on images

A great logo enhances your company name and it is not your company name or identity. Name first, then logo.

10. Use protection

You must register your company name and follow all trademark laws too – or risk losing it all.

Our sister company Hipfish IP Services can help you with this