What is in a name?
“All that matters is the quality of the product that I develop.
I can name my product after myself; it would not make much of a difference.”
These are the things you might think to yourself when starting off on a business venture. At start, it may seem insignificant to spend time on choosing a name for your company/product, but when you step in the market; you do realize that at least 40% of your market value lies in your brand name. Here we suggest some of the tips that might help in coming up with a timeless name.
1. Keep It Short
Is it easier to remember CallYourFriendsAndFamilyForFree.com or Skype.com? Our mind retains information in pieces than in paragraphs or long phrases. So, for people to remember your brand when they need to, a short and sharp name will keep you at advantage.
2. Meaningful or Meaningless
There are two ways that you can go about when brainstorming the dimensions you want to take with your name. It can be meaningful; a keyword that describes the services and products that you aim to offer or something completely meaningless. Not as meaningless that it stops making sense but as meaningless that it seems pretty or is a smart derivation of a word. For example ‘ Whatsapp’ sounds like What’s up, but since it is an app, so Whatsapp.
3. It Should Be Easy To Be Pronounce
As a fledgling product-developer, you would want to stand out. So you will seek to choose a name hard to pronounce; sometimes it works, otherwise it does not. One should always think globally and pick a name that would be easier to pronounce for a person whose native language is not same as yours. In general, people prefer to be at ease; attracting market requires something that is unique but not over the top.
4. Check For Availability
After you have spent days or hours inventing your brand name, the first and foremost thing that you should do is check whether it is legal. By that we mean, check if the domain or brand name does not already exist. There are several websites that can help you with searching for available domains and generate unique names: NameMesh and BustAName.
5. Get Opinions
If you have successfully gone through the above four steps then you are almost done. The last thing you need to do is take an insight from your friends, colleagues, frenemies or family members about your chosen name. They would help you develop a perspective about how it would be welcomed in the market.
Lastly, do not forget to ask yourself: Is the name T-shirt worthy? Would your friend like to wear a shirt with that brand name on it?
