What’s In A Name?
I’m not sure if Shakespeare was an entrepreneur, but he wasn’t too worried about what name you used for something. In small business, however, your business name is critical. It has many functions. It must be easy to remember, be unique, stand for something, be durable, be external, and be part of your “identity”.
Your name is an integral part of your marketing program and has little value if customers (and more importantly, potential customers) can’t remember it. If it’s a bland name (“International Consultants Co”. or “Quality Home Service”), the market does not remember or pay attention. If it’s hard to spell (“Pfeffeffer Pizza” or “Ptolomy Towing”), customers have a hard time looking it up in the phone book or other listings. Also, since word-of-mouth advertising is so important to small business, hard to spell, or hard to pronounce names are not passed along as recommendations as much.
Uniqueness in a name is important so you can stand out from all the other similar business. Small businesses have to be different or else if they are not, they have to compete on price. Part of this difference is in the uniqueness of your name. Part of this uniqueness is in the length. Usually, shorter is better than longer, in a business name.
Your name must stand for something that is meaningful in your business. It must help people understand what you do, what products or services you offer, and what market you’re in. If you are Budget Bagels of Bremerton, people know where you are, and what you offer. They also know that your emphasis is on a low-price product. Here you must be careful, since if later you want to change or grow your business into say, higher quality croissants, a name that has budget and bagels in it does not help you to do this. In this way, your name must be durable as your business expands and be a name that continually describes your business. If you later expand your market to one that is national or international, your name must work well for these different markets with different cultures.
You must have what we call an “external” name in that it must mean something to the market outside or external to your business. Some businesses that have names related to a distant uncle or childhood experience do not do this. I once knew a company called “WE Engineering” and I asked the owner what “WE” stood for. He said just we, that is, “us”, which actually meant nothing. It was an internal name.
Finally, your name must be part of your business “Identity”. This identity is a coordinated marketing effort with everything you do to have a common theme, a common color and a coordinated “look” with your stationary, logo, letterhead, brochures etc. Many names have an accompanying “tag line” below their name, which is a brief description of what the company stands for. This helps the market understand what you are all about.
So, what’s in a name? Lots! Does your business name work for you and help market your business or do you have to do extra marketing to compensate for your name?
This article was written by Seattle SCORE Chapter member Fred Parkinson for the Kitsap Sun in Bremerton.