After getting a great idea for a product or service and a good business strategy for the market you want to enter, the next crucial thing to do is to name your company and its products.
And while some might not think so much about it, it’s a process that can easily be gotten wrong. Therefore, it shouldn’t be rushed or undergone without proper knowledge.
One of the difficulties business owners suffer is coming up with catchy company names to uniquely identify their business. Your brand’s name is essential in determining whether your business or product will succeed or falter in the market because it affects how much people pay attention to your company.
We’ve outlined three simple steps to make the process of selecting outstanding business name ideas from either brainstorming or using a naming agency.
Steps to Take to Choose the Best Business Name for Your Brand
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Discover and Learn About Your Brand
The most crucial elements of your company are your brand‘s tone, personality, and image since they control how customers engage with your product and company.
While naming your business, remember that your brand should be your top priority. Before you start looking for a name to represent your brand, think about its values, identity, tone, and emotions. Think about what you want your clientele to associate your business with.
Like the tech giant Microsoft, whose name is consistent with its tech brand, your company name should perfectly reflect its brand and branding components. Giving Microsoft a brand like Sephora, a cosmetics store, wouldn’t be a good idea as their brand components don’t match.
Finding a name that matches your brand comes after you have completely fleshed it out.
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Begin Finding Brand Name Options
If you’ve gathered up a team of people to help you come up with names, describe your brand to them, along with its tone and values, and give them the task of coming up with names that fit your naming requirements.
Your objective should be to generate up to 200 unique, memorable, short, and appealing business names that accurately represent your brand. No matter how unusual or odd the words appear, you will find out what they are really capable of when you assess them in the next step.
Additionally, resist the need to criticize the names that come to mind during the brainstorming process, as this could disrupt the flow of ideas for both you and your team.
Use the following resources to assist you in coming up with ideas:
- Thesauruses and dictionaries
- Words used in your field
- Rhymes
- Name generators for businesses
- Visual names like those relating to color
After your brainstorming session is completed, we’ll move on to the next step, which involves screening the names to find the best one for your business.
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Examine the Potential Names
After your brainstorming session, you’d have 200 or fewer name suggestions with an equal chance of representing your business to your market.
Make a list of your best suggestions, and check to see whether they meet these crucial criteria for validation before deciding on any of them as your company name. Rank the names based on the following standards:
- Feedback and Opinions From Customers: This is a crucial assessment since it will show you how successfully the name catches your audience’s attention.
Conduct surveys and request input from members of your target population, who may be family, friends, clients, or total strangers. Use their responses to rate your names.
- Existence of an Equivalent “.com” Domain Name: With the internet playing such an essential role in today’s market, your company name needs a matching domain name, an eye-catching website, and a strong social media presence to go with it in order to thrive in the online space.
Therefore make sure you can get these before deciding on a company name.
- Trademark Registration Status: One sure way to stay out of trademark issues and legal troubles in the future is to register your business name as a trademark with the USPTO.
We suggest getting a trademark lawyer’s help because the trademark registration process is usually challenging and stressful for startup business owners.
After completing these validation processes, you can select the best name to represent your business.
Conclusion
Your brand’s name is essential to its success in the market because it boosts sales, productivity, and brand awareness.
Therefore, you must choose a name that accurately represents your company’s brand while also being intriguing enough to grab the attention of your target customers and convince them to patronize you.
Grant Polachek is the head of branding at Squadhelp.com, a 3X Inc. 5000 startup and trailblazer in the naming industry. Squadhelp has analyzed over 1 million company names and established a list of the highest-ranking domain names on the internet right now. As the world’s best crowdsourcing platform, we’ve served clients ranging from fledgling startups to Fortune 500 companies.
