A brand name is one of the first few things you, the entrepreneur, has to come up with for your business.
For those who come in contact with your business for the very first time, it serves as an identifier, like your name is to your person.
Getting your brand name right is important as your business is new and people do not know what your business is all about or what you have to offer.
It is unlikely you will always have an opportunity to communicate what your brand is all about. Hence your brand as much as it possibly can communicate your business it on its own.
A brand and its essence if well-crafted can mitigate this ambiguity and be an asset to your business.
Do it right and it will work for you. Do it wrong and you will have to work for it.
What do we mean? Instead of your brand name helping to convey your business. You would now have to spend advertising dollars to educate people what your brand is all about if you do not choose a good brand name.
As a start-up fund is a limited resource, you don’t want to be spending needlessly educating people about your brand.
Below are the 7 essentials you need to keep in mind when crafting out your brand name.
1. Keep it simple and easy to pronounce
You want to make it easier for your potential customers to recall your brand. That is why China ’s most influential entrepreneur, Jack Ma, decided to go with “Alibaba” as a brand name for his company. It is simple, familiar and easy to pronounce.
If your brand is complex and hard to pronounce, the likelihood of communicating your brand to others let alone recalling it will be very low. In certain circles, it might even be ridiculed.
2. Make it unique
Your brand has to be unique. In business, you need a competitive edge whenever you can. If the business you are in is lucrative or have a low barrier to entry, your brand and brand promise would be the key differentiator.
3. Make it relatable to your business
Having a brand name that reflects your business remove the ambiguity of your brand to those who come in contact with it.
Take for example the U.S. toy company “ToysRUs”, from just one look at its brand name and you know with certainty they are in the toys business
4. Choose the right colors and typeface
The color and typeface you select for your brand will have an effect on the consumer’s perception of your brand.
For example, for colors, if you want to convey a more playful tone, then you should adopt brighter colors like yellow and orange, even perhaps pink. We wouldn’t recommend that you use sober colors like black or blue.
The same with the typeface, choose one that is somewhat playful, rather than one like Arial or Times New Roman, which is a typical font used in business communications.
5. Do not use a personal or family name
Historically many businesses have family names. Some even have personal names. Businesses in the past was largely created by an individual and owned by the family. The direction then was to have the business kept and managed by the family and be passed down from one generation to the next.
In today’s fast-paced world, in most instances, the situation is somewhat different as the direction is to take the company public rather than keeping it within the family.
Also in the event that you need to sell off the company, you will not be too emotionally attached to it as it bears part of your name.
6. Make sure your brand name is culturally correct
In the markets you plan to serve, you want to ensure that your brand name doesn’t take on a different meaning in those markets. This may work against you.
So it is best that you do your homework – check with a local or validate with Google translate, before finalizing your brand name.
Rebranding can be a costly and painful exercise if you decide to embark on it later.
7. Web Domain and social media pages
Lastly and definitely not least whatever name you choose, you want to make sure its domain name and social media pages are not already taken.
You don’t want to confirm a brand name and later realizing its web domain or social media pages are not available.
You will be driving traffic and business to the domain and not benefitting from the traffic. Also, your site visitors will be surprised that the web domain they have arrived at is not about your brand. So you want to check out the web domain name and related social media pages are all available before you go confirm your brand name.
The need to craft your brand well on the on start is important as the brand will be with you for a while. Any rebranding exercise is costly, not in terms of money but also goodwill lost in the rebranding exercise.
Hence it is important from the on-start to get your brand name and its essence right.
A well-chosen brand name will go far with your customers.
If you need help in coming up with a good brand name for your business or product, we can help.
Drop us a mail, let us have a cuppa coffee and we can take it from there.