by ScamperBranding - 03/08/2009

One of the first and most important things that everyone needs to do when you go into business is name your company.

Depending on your nature and the people you have available within your team, this can range from an exciting and fun creative exercise to a frustrating and stressful nightmare. So here are a few tips to help make it a success:

1. Know Yourself

Start off by asking yourself in simple terms what your company does. Is it simple and easy to define, or is it a wide range of loosely connected activities.

If your company’s products and services have a clear focus then a desciptive (full cup) name is a good bet, as it will allow you to clearly communicate what you do.

On the other hand, if you have varied activities and even a range of different target markets then a more abstract name (empty cup) will allow you more scope to pursue your varied activities. In this case though, you should also consider creating more than one specific ‘full cup’ brand name to market your different products and services.

For example, ‘Home Delivery Network’ has a full cup name that is predominantly a description of what they do, while ‘Siemens’ has an empty cup name that allows them to attach it to a much wider range of products and services.

If in doubt, then your safest bet is a brand name that’s half full, aiming to strike a good balance between being descriptive and unique.  There are many other types of brand name, but we’re just covering the basics here so the full cup/empty cup issue is what you really need to focus on.

2. Business Name or Brand Name?

This point is really an extension of point 1.  Your actual registered company name doesn’t have to be much more than an administrative issue for your files, bank accounts and legal documents.  Its your specific brand names that really matter as that is what your customers will know you as, so try to be clear about who your name is for.  Your company name and brand name might be the same, but if you have several different business activities you may want to create multiple brands to target different markets.

For example, the supermarket ‘Sainsbury’s’ is actually officially ‘Sainsbury’s Plc’ and sells almost everything under that name, but ‘Proctor & Gamble’ have a huge range of different brands that are actually much better known than the company itself such as Crest, Fairy, Febreze, Hugo Boss, Gillette and Tampax.

3. Define who your customers are

It sounds obvious, but have a think about who your customers are, not just as demographics, but also as real people. What will turn them on and what will switch them off? Don’t try to appeal to everyone, but focus on finding a name that your target customers will love.

For example, the digital TV Channel ‘Dave’ has what many feel a ridiculous name, but as ‘The home of witty banter’, its name perfectly appeals to the target audience of quirky comedy fans.

Basically, if your customers love it, then its a good name, so get inside their hearts.

4. Be Creative

This is the bit that many people find really hard, as coming up with a great company name is not always as easy as it sounds. Sometimes great company names are stumbled upon in a moment of genius, but equally often people can go for days, weeks or even months without that moment of inspiration.

If you’re struggling, get yourself a blank sheet of paper and just start writing down words and phrases relating to your business, products and services. Don’t worry about names – just get your mind flowing with all the possible features, qualities, analogies etc that you can think of. Before you know it, you’ll have a pool of words and ideas on the page that you can search through as a starting point for names, and you can now play with them by combining them in different ways, inventing new variations or spotting clever play on words.

Whatever you, keep an open mind and try not to criticise ’stupid’ ideas as these can often trigger more creative and distinctive ideas.

When we get time we’ll write a specific post on creative naming techniques.

4. Shortlist

You should try to draw up a list of potential names for your company and before you get to emotionally attached to a particular one, you should do a few basic checks to see if some one else got there first.

Trust us, this will rule out most options on your shortlist, but hopefully you’ll still have a few good ones left to choose from.

See our post ‘Is your business name available‘ for some tips on checking the availability of your company name.

Hope that helps!

If you’re still struggling and would like a helping hand in a naming your company, then give us a shout and our brand naming team will be happy to help.