A good name must meet at least 3 conditions:
Of course, a naming brief will contain a lot of information and try to provide many selection criteria for a good name, but these three qualities are indispensable. Without them, your company name will be non-functional.
Ideally, the company name should be short, but this is not the condition to achieve memorability. I remember the name of The Flying Pig hostel more easily than a short but impersonal name.
It would be nice if the business name also gives the web domain name, but this is not always possible, and if you have found a good name but do not have a free web domain, there are certain solutions.
Let's take the 3 criteria proposed by me in turn and detail them.
Because a name that sticks in your head is a good name. A creative name will help you exist in the minds of consumers and that means a lot.
When we make a purchase decision, the fact that we know a brand is decisive. Knowing the brand, more often than not, means trusting that brand.
Our memory is limited, a normal person will remember a maximum of 10 brands from a product category. Try to say more than 10 brands of juices or detergents. You will see that it is difficult. And juices or detergents are product categories that communicate a lot. Chances are you've been exposed to several juice or detergent ads today.
A memorable name is friendly to the communication budget. You will need fewer ads for a product with a memorable name than when you want to impose a less happy name on consumers' minds. Better to start with a name that is easy to remember than to make huge efforts to impose it. These efforts mean time and money invested. Better invest this time in the naming phase of your business.
The relevance of the name is very important for the success of your business. It is in vain that you communicate with your audience in a language they do not know. It is the same as when we adapt the way we speak, depending on the interlocutor. In one way we are talking to a 3-year-old child and in another, we are addressing a doctor or a policeman.
To speak the language of your customers, you must make the effort to know them. I recommend that you talk to your customers. The way they talk about your services will be a big help in choosing your business name.
I have a very good example of an entrepreneur who created his business name using customer phrases. When I was a young art director I often heard the expression: I like your idea, but please make my logo bigger!
I used this feedback when I decided to start my own branding agency. Over time I also understood why the texts must be written larger when the readers are over 40 years old…
A good name is a name that tells a story, that gives you familiarity and confidence. That's why names are created with their audience in mind.
Because you are running a business and you want your investment to be protected. A good name becomes a trademark. This way you will be sure that you have the right to use that name and that no one else, in your business category, can use that name.
In the naming creation process, there are many good names that fail the registration test. I'm already someone else's property. There is no point in starting to build a successful business without a solid foundation. This secure foundation is protecting the wordmark you want to associate with your business.
The process of registering a trademark is technical and it can be frustrating, but by no means do I recommend you skip it. I have seen clients in my career who skipped this step and started brand-building from scratch.
Finally, I invite you to see some naming examples from the Logo Bigger portfolio and contact us if you want to build a memorable, relevant, and protectable brand together.
