How to choose Catchy Business Names?

Catchy Business Names

A catchy business name certainly goes a long way in forging the success path of a company especially when the organisation is still in its nascent stage. Brand equity elements like name, symbol, logos and website can make a huge difference in the markets that verge on perfect competition where there are a large number of sellers selling nearly the same product. To think of an attention-grabbing business name or a name that customers can relate to is however not easy when almost every word in the dictionary is trademarked. Naming a business is a very creative yet challenging process. The name is expected to capture the essence of the business and the public’s imagination. The names that seem out of the ordinary are the ones that occupy a place in consumer’s mind and remain popular for a long time.

To think of a creative name depends a lot on one’s ability to play with words. One can create an inventory of words that describes the core business and then look for word associations and synonyms using thesaurus. The word should give a sense of what you want your customers to feel about the organisation. A few start-up names exhibit popular trends in business nomenclatures like adding replacing “er” by “r” (think Flickr), combining words to form a new word like Netflix or Pricehopper or coming up with a non-words (like Vimeo, Google, Hulu) if the company has to offer really unique product or services. A memorable name should ideally be short, have minimum number of syllables, should be easy to pronounce and easy to spell. One can also consider using acronyms to name a business. For instance, if someone owns an auto-repair company, then one name to consider would be CAR, an acronym for Classic Auto Repair. Adding an adjective is another way to add colour to an otherwise prosaic and mundane expressions or business names. Adjectives may inform consumers something about your business that would help them create a mental picture of your core business offerings. The keywords can lead consumers to think of you when they need your products or services. The firms can also be named after their owners if the owners want their customers to associate their business with them.

The chosen name should sound somewhat intriguing and create excitement among potential customers even though it may mislead the consumers about its business offerings. For instance, “Apple”, “Amazon” and “Adobe” are popular brands whose names mislead the common man about what the associated products are all about.

To what extent are the names responsible for organisation’s success? A lot of companies have flourished without catchy names and plenty of companies with catchy brand names have had a very short product life cycle. Branding is extremely important and the right name surely makes the life of sales and marketing team easier, but it is the product or the service benefits and the ability to communicate its value to the customers that determines a company’s success or failure.