If there is one thing I have significant experience with, it’s picking out business names. When you think of a brand, it’s usually a combination of things that you think of, but the name itself is definitely near the top of the list.
Choosing a good brand name is important, it’s what people are going to refer to you as, it’s what your domain, emails, and marketing are going to be based around, it’s going to be around you night and day, even in your sleep. So how do you choose a great name?
I usually go through a process which I have never actually defined before, so this is the first, I hope this helps you in your endeavour of creating your brand. I think it’s very, very important that you like your name. And that other people (most importantly your clients) also like it. So how do you start your probably asking. Well here we go.
The first thing I do is get a notepad, and I do research on all of the words which are related to the sector im going into, so for example if I was going into real estate, I would be writing down words like, door, house, chimney, garden and windows and steps. This list may, or may not be helpful in the future, but I like to have it available.
The next thing I do is write down obvious names, this may be a surname or the name of your pet for example, again write all of these names down. Its important to do this research upfront, because it’s very easy to get carried away later on, and find yourself choosing from a bad set of options. Now if you feel you have an obvious name that ticks all the boxes then it’s your choice if you want to go ahead with it, but first you need to look a bit deeper. Use Google to find out if anyone else is using the name, if they are you should check where they’re located and if they are likely going to conflict with your business. You don’t want to spend money on a website, logo, branding, business cards to get a cease and desist letter through the door 6 months later.
If you cant see anything which conflicts, the next step is to look at available domains. I use 123 reg for doing my searches, however I don’t buy through them because they are not the cheapest in the long run. But they have a convenient domain search tool which I use frequently. If your domain is available as a .com then that’s perfect, snap it up. Unfortunately allot of the time, it’s not available. This leaves the next step, looking at alternatives, for example, a local domain like .co.uk, or a .net domain. There are several options available.
If you ran into any issues at this point, it’s back to the drawing board. This is where I recommend using the first list we came up with. I suggest putting words together and seeing which sound good. Going with our last example, you can see how Door Steps was created and the name Purple Bricks evolved. What’s great about this technique is you are keeping the name relevant, and often these names sound very catchy. Most of the time you will find a name this way, unless your in a competitive market and other people have already used this technique.
The final think I suggest you do is write down a list of words that are more generic, but still will work with your business, here we can end up with words like ignite and rocket, these words can be merged together with more relevant words to create your brand name. For example, Rocket Internet, Ignite Technology, Ignite Brands, Ignite Coaching, Rocket Fuel and Rocket Mortgages. As you can see this strategy can work very well. Again, it’s important to check for domain availability.
If you stick with this process long enough, you will have a list of available names and domains, I usually endup with around 5 which I like at this point. Now you have to ask people what they think, make sure the people you ask include those you will selling to, as they are your target audience. I always ask a variety of people to get a rounded idea of what people think. Sometimes, someone will say, ‘aw that reminds me of the word XXX’ and you realise that actually it does, and that may be a reason not to choose that particular name.
I will put together another article on this in case after reading you don’t have a good name. I hope this has helped! If you do choose a name let us know in the comments!
