Before beginning the search for a great name, every business owner should have a firm understanding of the type of brand name that would be most beneficial for their startup and niche.
But what if you don’t have any idea where to begin? Or maybe you have trouble sparking up your imagination? Perhaps you spent days, weeks, or even months working on it, but your name still lacks that special glow.
Naming is an essential aspect of starting and building a brand. And from our experience, many new business owners struggle to get beyond this obstacle.
As a result, we developed this straightforward naming guide based on what we learned from helping more than 35,000 entrepreneurs find creative names for their businesses.
Let’s get into it.
Three Reliable Steps for Choosing the Perfect Brand Name
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First: Fully Understand Your Brand
To avoid misrepresenting your brand, one thing you must grasp before embarking on your naming quest is that your brand’s name is the true reflection of your company’s identity.
Now, when we say “brand,” we don’t mean your business. Your business is what you do and the services you offer, but your brand represents who you are as a company and how you want your customers to perceive and engage with you. Understanding your brand can assist you in determining which brand name best suits your goals and services.
Take Accenture, a consulting company. What feelings does the name bring out within you whenever you hear it? To us, the name communicates sophistication, elegance, and a modern feel, which is perfect for one of the most prominent consulting organizations in the world.
But a regular electronic device like the iPhone or Alexa cannot use such a sophisticated name because it wouldn’t match their corporate identity.
That said, one vital step to naming your business is accurately imagining your brand’s personality and understanding what should and shouldn’t work for it.
Brand imagination involves envisioning the personality of your brand, and you can start by knowing:
- What should my company’s brand feel and look like?
- What core values does my company have?
- What tone should it convey?
- What feelings should it arouse in my audience?
Knowing the answers to these key questions would provide you with the crucial details that are needed to start a thorough naming process.
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Second: Brainstorm
We’re about to enter the exciting part, which is the naming itself! Grab a whiteboard, some pens, a notebook, and a marker, and get your team together in a quiet area. Then ignite your imagination and start coming up with unique, catchy, and exciting words.
Keep in mind that the core objective of this brainstorming phase is only to generate catchy brand names; it is not to evaluate them. So there’s no need to start checking every word you craft. Just let your creative energy flow.
Ensure you write down every excellent and terrible name idea you create; don’t only choose the best ones. That said, make sure your list contains every idea you create, even ones you’re not sure will make sense. You never know how helpful they could end up being.
Here are some necessary tools and resources to spice up your name-generation process:
- Thesaurus
- Words that Rhyme
- Brand name generators
- Visual words, especially those relating to colors
Also, it’s crucial you have people spread across various demographics in your creative team since they’d give you multiple perspectives that’d help you decide whether your brand name should be modern and trendy or classic and traditional.
Make sure you have 200 or more prospective brand name ideas by the time the brainstorming session is over. If you do this, you will have a wide range of names to choose from in the next phase.
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Third: Validate Every Potential Brand Name
We are now concentrating on dissecting each name and reducing the list you have compiled. Go through every name on our list with your naming team and select the top ten names that fulfill your naming requirements.
When you examine each potential brand name, ask yourself the following questions:
- Does the name reflect what my brand stands for? For instance, Gmail functions well because it accurately conveys the services the company provides.
- Does it fit the tone I want for my brand? You need a name like Jollibee if you want your business to have a fun and exciting vibe.
- Does it sound sweet? Is it memorable? Consider WhatsApp and Groupon.
- Is it simple to say and spell? Consider Amazon and Apple.
- Does it allow for future expansion? Google is so adaptable that the business doesn’t need to rebrand as it grows.
You are welcome to include your unique criteria in the list; however, they must be client- and brand-focused.
Your finalist may occasionally consist of five to ten names rather than just one, but that’s good since the validation process’s last stage will further whittle it down.
When you have gathered the best ideas from your brainstorming, don’t rush to start celebrating since your perfect names still need to pass a few more tests. The final stage of the validation process ensures that the brand name(s) you selected are appropriate and available.
Therefore, proceed to validate by looking for:
- Customer Feedback: Customer feedback is crucial for establishing whether a brand name can connect with customers or not. Ensure you obtain honest feedback from people who fall into your target customer demographics—whether they be friends, family members, or total strangers.
Feel free to approach them, explain what you’re doing, and get their candid opinions. Your goal here is to find the specific brand name your target audience loves most.
- Domain Name: Getting a website with an exact match domain name (EMD) to your brand name is vital for any business. A brand name with available domain names will save you from spending a lot of cash acquiring your desired domain name from someone else.
Obtaining easy access to nameofyourbusiness.com shouldn’t be a challenge in an ideal world. However, things seldom turn out this way, and getting it may cost you a lot of money.
- Trademark Availability: While this part may not be especially fun, it could spare you a lot of future legal headaches. Trademarking is a complex and time-consuming process, and the best way to get a great result is to get the aid of a legal practitioner who can help you more appropriately analyze if your company’s brand name passes the trademark test.
Conclusion
A unique and memorable brand name can boost the performance of a company and its revenues while also giving it the advantage it requires to overcome the competition. Choosing a brand name that links with your company’s identity is an excellent method to get your target market excited about your company.
And by fully understanding your business, brainstorming, and validating each potential name, you can easily find the best name for your business.