After developing a brilliant business concept and a solid business plan for the industry you’re planning on entering, the next most crucial step is to name your business and its services. And this process should not be taken lightly.
Naming a company is one of the critical challenges business owners encounter when starting their businesses. Finding an attractive name is essential because it can determine whether a company or product will thrive or fail in the market. And that’s because brand names are the first thing your potential clients see.
A good name is a powerful asset to businesses and one that every company must have. And that’s why, to assist you with this crucial procedure, we’ve developed three straightforward steps to make the process of choosing great names and premium domains for your business easier.
1. Study Your Brand
Your brand’s tone, mood, and image are the most critical parts of your business since they dictate how people interact with your company and interpret its name. Thereby making your brand the most important factor to consider while naming your business.
Before creating a name for your company, consider the values, identity, tone, and feelings you want to imprint on your clients.
Your company name should reflect the above branding elements, much like the tech company Microsoft, whose name is in line with its tech brand. Giving Microsoft a name like that of a beauty business, Sephora, won’t be a good choice cause it wouldn’t match the business.
When you’ve finished developing your brand, the next step involves giving it a fitting name.
2. Begin Looking for the Right Brand Names
If you have a group of individuals who can assist you in coming up with names, give them a description of your brand, including its tone and values, and assign them the duty of brainstorming names that match your naming criteria.
Your main aim should be to come up with up to 200 distinct and memorable potential business name ideas that are short and attractive while correctly describing your brand. Avoid the temptation to critique the names you come up with during the brainstorming process since this will disrupt your and your team’s idea flow.
Regardless of how unique or strange the words look, their actual potential will be unveiled when you evaluate them in the following stage.
To help you produce ideas, use the following resources:
- Thesauruses and dictionaries
- Slang in your field
- Rhymes
- Business name generators
- Color-related names
The large number of names you generate during this brainstorming session will provide you with many good possibilities to work within the final stage.
3. Review the Possible Names
If you disregard individual preferences from you or your team, you should have 200 or fewer name options with an equal probability of representing your company’s identity after your brainstorming session.
Make a list of your most promising ideas, but before you choose any of them as your business name, make sure they match these important validation requirements. Test the names using the following criteria:
- Customer Feedback and Ratings: This is a vital evaluation since it will tell you how well the name will excite the interest of your clientele to your business.
You can accomplish this by surveying and asking for feedback from family, friends, clients, and even strangers that are part of your target demographic.
- Availability of a Premium ‘.com’ Domain Name: Because the internet has become such a crucial element of today’s market, your company name is unlikely to have the same impact if it lacks an equivalent domain name, a powerful social media presence, and a visually appealing website.
Before settling on a company name, be sure you can obtain these.
- Trademark Registration Status: Registering your company name as a trademark with the USPTO is one guaranteed way to avoid future legal problems.
We propose contacting a trademark attorney because, for new business owners, trademark registration is a pretty complicated and stressful procedure.
After validating your name options, you can pick the most appropriate and beneficial one to use as your company name.
Conclusion
The name of your brand is crucial to its success because it allows you to stand out in the market and make potential clients try your brand and its products, thereby increasing brand sales, productivity, and recognition.
To attract new customers, you must select a name that truly expresses your brand identity while also being interesting enough to spark their interest and persuade them to choose your brand instead of the competition.
Grant Polachek is the head of branding for Squadhelp.com, 3X Inc 5000 startup and disruptive naming agency. Squadhelp has reviewed more than 1 million names and curated a collection of the best available names on the web today. We are also the world’s leading crowdsource naming platform, supporting clients from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies.
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