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The name of your company can and should carry some serious marketing weight.
At best, it will evoke an appropriate emotional response from your target market, at least it will clearly identify what your firm does.
Too many small business owners don’t give much thought to this tool and either come up with names that do little to help and in some cases even confuse.
If you’re getting ready to start a business choose a name that can help reinforce your core message and communicate as precisely as possible what your firm does. Simple names go a long way for most small businesses. Evocative or clever names such as MotoLogic, can be great, they just require a lot more energy to explain.
If you’re already in business and the name of your firm isn’t serving as a marketing asset, consider changing it. Changing the name of your company isn’t something you want to get in the habit of, but it often makes sense for companies that have finally figured out who they serve and what they do well. Changing direction is par for the course for small businesses, but don’t just alter your name to include more stuff. I saw a truck driving down the road yesterday with the name - Just Doors and More. I chuckled thinking of the hand wringing that hopefully went into that name selection. “We don’t want anyone to think they aren’t in our target market!”
I worked with a remodeling contractor who wanted to communicate more effectively their place in design oriented, upscale remodeling work - they changed their name from Schloegel Contracting to Schloegel Design Remodel as part of an overall rebranding. The results of that change served them very well. Changing your firm name, for all the right marketing reasons, offers an opportunity for a relaunch of sorts, particularly if done in conjunction with rebranding many elements used in your marketing.
I’ll use my company as another example. I started my business as Jantsch Communications. At the time it was a nice catch all for any type of marketing and communications oriented work. (Although occasionally people wondered if I could get them a new phone.) When I began to focus exclusively on small business and a small business marketing system it became clear that the name of my company needed to say much more about my target market and core message - and so, Duct Tape Marketing was born.
As with most things marketing related, keep your ideal client and your firm’s unique position in the market firmly in mind when choosing or rechoosing the name of your firm.
Tell me a little about how your chose your company’s name.
Comments
This entry was posted on Sunday, May 6th, 2007 at May 06, 07 | 12:04 pm and is filed under Vision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
It was easy to choose my company name because I believe in delivering the message up front with no confusion:
Build A Solo Practice, LLC
Newly Minted or Well Seasoned,
Teaching You How To Create & Grow Your Legal Practice.
With law firms there is always the desire to use your name as the business. That is the tradition and in some circles it makes perfect sense because as an attorney you are encouraging the relationship-buy, potential clients seek you out by name because a large part of your business is referral work from others and a certain intimacy is encouraged. However, with my business I needed to state in no uncertain terms what I do, what I offer. So, for attorneys they should use their name but it is important to clearly indicate in their tag line (and one should have a tag) exactly what they are going to get with you, what you offer.
John,
This should be a great discussion.
My first business name was “Sequoia Financial” - I was in the accounting/bookkeeping/Tax services. The name stunk because I always had to say what I do.
So I re-named as David Rachford & Co CPA. At least with putting the CPA in there, people know a bit more what we do. A better name would be: “Town, Accounting, Tax and Bookkeeping” - a long name but it doesn’t need explanation.
So when I spun off the Payroll Business, I didn’t want to explain myself all over again, so it became: “Payroll Pro Services” with a tag line of “local, reliable, fast’ and “makes payroll painless” as our usp. The name says what we do, and it’s been a much better name.
Finally, I launched the CPA Marketing Center providing Accountants and CPAs with marketing systems and tools to market their practice. It’s been a good name,but it could be better: it leaves out EAs and non certified accountants. If i were to re-launch today, I’d do “Marketing for Accountants” or something a little more broad. As it is, I could still do an “EAmarketingCenter” but I’m already optimized for and indexed for SEO with my keywords, and I believe the EAs an Non CPA accountants find me.
Thank you for the topic,
David Rachford, CPA
http://www.cpamarketingcenter.com
Here’s mine:
Workshop Central
I give technology courses - right now most of what I’m doing is giving workshops on computer basics - because you’d be very surprised at how many people there are that realize how high tech the world has become, but have big fear of “testing the waters”. I plan, however, to offer many other types of workshops - in fact I ‘m working on a workshop on how to take your expertise - be it furniture refinishing or MySpace page building - and creating a workshop. Most important - I’m having lots of fun with al this.
By the way, I miss the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce thing you spoke at this week - something came up, so I was very dissapointed. Hope you’ll be coming to New York again soon!
Susan,
Now if more law firms would think about that instead of Smith, Jones and Jones Jr. I love name that give you the benefit or differentiation right up front.
David,
I love the progression of thinking contained in your various names.
Henrietta,
sorry I missed you in Brooklyn, it was a very nice event. Keep having fun, that will come out no matter what the name of your business is. The market for workshop training should be great.
John,
What a great topic. Our name is “Write On Results” and we specialize in real handwriting services to increase direct mail response rates for our clients.
We started this business a couple years ago. Your topic brings back memories of the time we spent brainstorming to come up with our name.
Here were some of our requirements:
1. Have an available URL
2. Imply what we do (no acronyms)
3. Have minimal syllables
4. Be easy to say on the phone
We had many ideas, and finally Write On Results made the final cut. Is it perfect? Who knows. I couldn’t imagine being anything else. In fact, I can’t even recall the other names now!
Thanks,
Kathy Hrach
Write On Results
http://www.writeonresults.com
Kathy,
Great thoughts - shame on me for not mentioning the domain name thing. Big piece of the puzzle these days and could make or break even a great name.
The URL availability was a huge issue for me, when I came up with Impactiviti (a completely “clean” word on the web and in a trademark search). But another issue was flexibility - I wanted to get across the idea of making impact, but also have a word that would let me span markets (starting off the business in the training sector, but wanting to move also into marketing/branding).
Eventually I decided I needed to “split” the brand identity, so re-launched the marketing/branding side under the name StickyFigure, to emphasize the idea of communication that “sticks”. It’s fun, but challenging work coming up with a name that is simple, “sticky”, available, relevant, and still flexible!
Growth Grenade, this is my concept to help small businesses go green and then market it. The logo is a green apple with a grenade handle with pin. I’ve got growthgrenade.com, but have not had time to put anything there…
When I decided to leave the trade association world (as a meeting planner) years ago, friends flooded me with requests for help. “Hey, if you’re going to be home for a while, I really could use help with _________.”
Over the course of a week, I had enough work to keep me busy for months and decided to go out on my own. Every project given to me was something that someone kept meaning to get to, but more urgent issues were getting in the way.
Most of the projects were marketing projects — following up on trade show leads, writing lead-generation letters; updating/proofing Web site copy, etc.
So, ‘Backburner Projects - we handle projects you don’t have time to’ was born. I’ve had some problems with the name — it kind of says it all and it kind of doesn’t. But I’ve never had to advertise for work — in the 8 years of business I’ve actually had to turn work away.
I’m working on refining the name a bit but it’s worked for me.
Fern Dickey
201-797-8105
http://www.backburnerprojects.com
We are Magro International, which doesn’t describe exactly what we do (Internet marketing and web design), but our owner (and my husband) is from Malta and has a Maltese accent so when people call us from a referral or think of us after meeting him, the International helps explain the accent. It also fits our experience and future goals because we both have experience working overseas and are working on building overseas partnerships.
Interesting article. I used to work part time at a true value hardware store. A lot of times, places like this go by the family name, i.e. Johnson’s True Value. This place was no exception: Klein’s True Value. The only problem was nobody named Klein owned the business, managed the business, or worked for the business in any capacity. I’d answer the phone and people would ask for Mr. Klein and all I could do was say, “Sorry, there is no Mr. Klein. Would you like to speak to a manager?” How confusing was that!?
Hi,
Interesting topic.
We chose beamax as the company name for projection screens.
Reasons:
1. We could register it as a .com site (this was easier 5 years ago)
2. We thought it would sound well in English (our home market (Belgium) would never be able to support a growing company)
3. A projection screen has MAXimising the effect of a BEAmer (projector).
In theory, all great. My gut feeling was that is was going to be mis-pronounced. Unfortunately, the vote was 4 to one in favour and unfortunately, I was right.
So, we have a registered, recognised and unique name, which is always mispronounced. All in all not too bad.
One thing I would recommend is registering your name as a trade mark. We did this from the beginning and have been able to protect our name, as well as prevent companies from registering sites which have our name in it.
The cost are quite high, especially for small companies and it is limited to a product group (class) and country, so it might be worthwile to focus on keymarkets and expand from there.
Otto
Dish Restaurant is the name, which grew out of its sister business Eat!Drink!. I like simple, punchy names. So that’s what I gravitated towards. My frined and restaurant collegue picked
the Coyote Cafe (http://coyotecafe.net) because of the alleteration and the connection to the local wildlife. It’s colorful. It’s about finding inspiration anywhere.
Hi John,
thanks for your post. The name of my company is Zugunruhe Coaching LLC. Zugunruhe (pronounced ZOOG-un-roo-ee) is a German word meaning migratory restlessness; it’s a great metaphor for what people feel when they are ready for a change. It has no meaning in English (though admittedly people don’t know how to pronounce it), thus I believed it had good brand potential.
While I felt (and still do feel) that Zugunruhe was a bit of a risk, it never fails to start conversation and just about everybody loves the meaning. We’re now in the process of dropping the “coaching” part (because I’ve added a partner and new services) and will soon be Zugunruhe LLC. Like Beamax, our name is often mispronounced but is recognizable and unique.
Your feedback is appreciated.
peace be with you,
Tara
Julie and Tara:
In my humble opinion, unless you are an IBM, it does matter. You’d probaby get a lot more business if your name reflected what you do — or if you had a tagline that explained your services.
One company that sponsored an event for the Business Marketing Assoc. of NJ was Pohaku, Inc. Pohaku? Huh?!
I had a long talk with them about the name. It was very meaningful for the owner, so we worked on adding a tagline and clearer copy on their promtional material — but wow, what in the world does that mean or have to do with anything!!
So I get what Tara says about the name being a conversation starter (like mine is too) but I do think it might depress leads.
Fern Dickey
I think that the importance of the name depends on the industry or service. We first launched as CareZen but found that while we loved the name, it didn’t SIMPLY explain what our site offered. We decided to change our name to Care.com. I think that the name is VERY important in our area of service, which is literally CARE. The website offers a single destination for people seeking expert advice and practical tools for finding the best options and resources that address their specific care needs. I think that care.com says this very simply and that is our aim, to simplify what can be a pretty daunting process. http://www.care.com
Your name is important, and it should be the domain too.
Your name is important, and it should be the domain too.
I’ve received criticism for not using my actual name (Kevin Hillstrom) as the name of my consulting practice (MineThatData).
What do you folks think, should I have gone with my actual name?
I get MineThatData, I don’t know what “Kevin Hillstrom” is!
I have used all of these strategies in my various businesses. I am a lawyer, and as Susan noted, lawyers often use their own names. However, I thought it was important that the name of my business reflect what I do, so my first business is called Lisa Solomon, Esq. Legal Research & Writing. None of the .com variations of my name were available (even way back in the ’90s when I first put up a website), so my URL is http://www.QuestionOfLaw.net (which incorporates my tagline, “When it’s a question of law . . .”)
My next business (with my partner/husband) sells humorous gifts and greeting cards for lawyers. It’s named The Billable Hour Company, after our flagship product, timepeices with dials that are divided into 6-minute increments. The name made sense at the time we launched, since we didn’t really envision selling the wide range of products we now carry. However, the name does resonate with our target market, and, of course, we have the .com domain http://www.TheBillableHour.com.
Finally, I have a new business in the works that will be providing online and CD/DVD education for lawyers. As a side benefit, the courses will also carry continuing legal education credit. That business is called LexSuccess and the tagline is “Innovative Learning for Lawyers.” (Thanks to my husband for coming up with the name : - ) ).
If keywords for your market are part of the name of your business, it will also help your SEO.
Great topic!
We work with consultants and micro-businesses, and I’ve seen too many of them name their business after themselves, and then wonder why no one has a clue about what they offer!
We named our business Short-Order Marketing to reflect that, like fine dining and diner food, the basic elements are the same but how you prepare and present are different. You can go to an expensive restaurant and have a wonderful chicken dinner, with all the ala carte accompaniments. Or, you may go to the local diner and have a great chicken dinner with a salad and a side of potatoes for a fraction of the cost. Our customers can’t afford to do marketing the same way the big guys do, so, we market short order!
All,
I face an interesting dilemma. As part of a marketing refresh at the company that I currently work for I was hired as the Director of Marketing (the first ever marketing person at our company). The name of our company is The Idea Works, Inc.. We make software that uses intelligent computational strategies to assist in learning and research, such as analyzing unstructured data in marketing research and automated content based essay grading to extend the education process and create a better learning environment. Our two programs are called Qualrus and SAGrader. We have secured TMs and URLs for all of those.
This company has been around for 25 years and the name comes from, I presume, when we did mostly consulting. Is this name adequate? It is definitely catchy on the phone and easy to remember. But does it really tell what we do? I’ve shown my e-mail, so if anyone wants to help then I would be greatly obliged. Thank you!
My small business is VERY small. In 2003 I ventured out as an independent computer repair technician, marketing to help local residential customers, home based workers, and other small businesses - specifically for the Greater Rochester, NY area (my home town).
When I first considered names for my business, I wanted to convey the message that I was the right guy for the job, could show up at just the right time, and fix whatever problems you may be having.
Cavalry Computer Service was born.
Although there were a number of reasons this turned out to be a horrible marketing mistake, the first and most obvious was that it’s too long.
A not-so-obvious unintended consequence of the name was the confusion generated between the words “Cavalry” and “Calvary.” This was something I hadn’t considered before choosing that name. It wasn’t long before I realized that if I was going to survive, I needed a more recognizable and marketable name.
Cavalry Computer Service died.
I spent weeks over-analyzing every possibility, before one question stood out above all others. “What is it that I expect that people will want to buy from ME???”
The answer of-course was “ME!!!” When I saw that the domain name “http://www.SCOTTpc.com” was available, I couldn’t buy it fast enough.
Because I am truly a “one-man-band,” I was also responsible for all the site design and SEO. I had already earned top rankings on ALL the major search engines, which brought about the largest and most unexpected challenge.
I didn’t know any better at the time, and tried to work with the major search engines to “change” the name of my business. What I should have done was create a new business and compete with myself for search engine rankings. It took two years for my new business name to become top ranked in the keyword categories I wanted.
So remember this little story the next time someone asks “What’s in a name?”
Monk at Work — you know that’s one’s gotta have a story, right?
To make it brief, though: I’m a spiritual healer/intuitive-turned-business guy, so my focus is about inner and outer, bringing what’s in your heart and spirit into your work, etc.
The name itself came from posting some of my raw ideas on a marketing forum, and seeing what came back. One guy mentioned that it reminded him of the padres in the military.
Now, I’m originially from San Diego, home of the Padres, so the idea of a monk came front and center for me. 2 + 2 = Monk at Work!
Another great discussion. My company Threerooms is a design and branding company. The name links back to the formation of the company when we had three designers, three offices and three years experience in the branding business. Our brand reflects the company culture, personality and physical elements. It projects the required message and has been described as creative, fresh and youthful.
Chris
Threerooms - Design and Branding
Nottingham
http://www.threerooms.com
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