Naming a company is a complex and painstaking task. The impression of the name is subjective: you like complex foreign phrases, your business partner likes sonorous and short, and clients even want it in Russian and as simple as possible. You have to look for a compromise and research. And most importantly – make sure that the name of the company will be understandable, legitimate, unambiguous and will be able to cause pleasant associations with customers.
Ways to come up with a company name
- Involve professionals
The safe, easy and expensive way is to give the job to those who know it. Branding and advertising agencies, freelancers will take from $50 for the work and make a list of 10-20 names for you, among which you can choose the appropriate one.
- Make through an online generator
This is one of the free name generation options that will help you get some interesting options that you can then apply to your business. Logoturbo is such an example of a service.
- Do it yourself
This option is just as good as the previous ones and in some cases even better. Most of the well-known brand names are invented by the entrepreneurs themselves, not by brand agencies. If you know your customers, competitors, product benefits and understand the market, you can come up with a name as well as professionals.
Independent naming for the company Collecting semantics
At this stage you need to collect words, phrases, associations which are used to describe your product or service. Read what clients write about in social networks, on forums. What your competitors talk about with your customers. Try to find out what words consumers use to search, order or use your product. This can also include technical terms, historical points.
Brainstorm
After that, you can start brainstorming. Gather everyone involved in the business around one table and start coming up with variations of the company name. There are no special rules: someone writes the alphabet and writes down several names per letter, someone approaches from the side of association, someone opens Ozhegov’s dictionary.
What can be the name of a company:
- the founder’s last name (Tinkoff, Kaspersky, Hewlett-Packard, Philips, Max Factor);
geographic names (Abrau-Durso, Winston, Fanagoria); - proper names from mythology, fairy tales and literature (Prostokvashino, Nike, Pegasus, Alibaba, Griboyedov, Pushkin);
- a type of business (Aviasales, Fix Price, Moscow jewelry factory, British American Tobacco);
sounding short words not related to the business (Apple, Orange Fitness, Sobaka); - abbreviations (IBM, KFC, IKEA, AvtoVAZ);
- alliteration – repeating identical or consonantal vowels or consonants (Chupa-Chups, Kitkat, Dodo Pizza, Chop-Chop, Seven Eleven);
- associations (Jaguar, Pony Express, Peregrine, Twitter, “Honey, I’ll call you back…” bar)
- combination of two words (Facebook, Thermodome, Uyuterra);
- nonexistent words (Google, Kwork);
- humor (event agency “Ship Happens”, farm store “Urban Cowboys”, bar “Honey, I’ll call you back…”, cafe “Rastibulka”).
The list could go on – it all depends on your imagination. At the brainstorming stage, you don’t have to bounce ideas off. Write down everything that comes to mind.
Creating options for naming the company, ranking
Further you need to arrange the array of options: by attractiveness, by the characteristics of the brand, by the degree of compliance with the market. Now you can discard unambiguously failing options.
Checking sound, spelling and perception
Check whether the names evoke negative or ambiguous emotions (a classic example is Crest toothpaste, Blue Water mineral water), how the words are spelled in Latin. It is also important that the name should be perceived visually well (e.g., Enley kitchens, written in capital letters, looks completely incomprehensible).
Choosing the right option naming the company
The final step – sometimes the most difficult – is to choose from a dozen options the very name.
How to understand that the name is suitable:
- easy to remember and easy to spell;
- it sounds good and is perceived unambiguously by ear;
- evokes pleasant associations;
- does not resemble the competitors;
- gives an idea of the company’s products and services;
- sets the right emotion and corresponds to the positioning;
- does not violate the law;
- has the potential to enter foreign markets, expand the range of products.
Conclusion
Follow one of the suggested options and you are sure to find the most perfect and creative option for the company name, which in the future will result in a rapid increase in the flow of customers and your rapid success.
