Your Company Name Doesn’t Matter

OK – I lied a little bit. Your company name does matter some – just not as much as other aspects of a business. I have seen start up businesses come to a grinding halt over their inability to come up with what they considered to be the perfect name, and I watched companies with inspiring, well crafted names go out of business. The reason a company’s name doesn’t matter all that much is because it is the company’s values, purpose, strategy and focused action that matters far more.

Learn from My Mistake

Back before the Internet had really taken off, in 1997, I started my first agency, The Wow Factory. It was a great name. I know, because clients, prospects and rank strangers all wanted to comment on it, and gushed about what a great name it was. They wanted to know what we did. I didn’t even need an elevator pitch.

I initially developed the fun, intriguing name based on what clients kept saying they wanted – a “wow” factor – in their marketing materials. But there was a problem I didn’t consider: although the play on words was great, the word “factory” implied churning out widgets at a rapid rate. We began to compete on price and commoditized ourselves. After about 3 years of this, we were all burned out, overwhelmed and exhausted. We weren’t a factory – we were a turn-of-the-century sweatshop (with no union to protect us from ourselves.)

Luckily, we realized what was happening before it was too late. We did not change our name, however. We took out the retro factory gear icon featured in our original logo, and made the word “wow” much bigger and bolder than the other words. We began to refer to ourselves in shorthand as simply “WOW” – and soon our clients did as well.

As a result of this shift in focus, and how we spoke about our selves and our work, our revenues and profit nearly doubled. Our name never changed.

What Makes A Good Name Anyway?

There are endless opinions about what makes a good company name. Here are the top considerations:

1. It’s Unique. Good luck with this one. Given that there are over 60,000 new websites launching every day, your odds of creating a unique name, never before thought of in the history of humankind, are dwindling. This is really about grabbing SEO real estate and minimizing confusion. Even back in my WOW Factory days, there was another company in the same city called The Wow Factor, which sold party décor. It didn’t stop our ability to thrive – or theirs.

2. It’s Short, Easy to Pronounce and Memorable. Interestingly, it is the pronunciation part of this that a lot of companies struggle with. Spelling is also a consideration. Given the challenge of uniqueness, alternate spellings are growing, as are obscure and invented words. While this can be leveraged as an advantage to a certain degree, be very careful to make your website impossible to find as a result of your creative naming.
   

3. It Represents What You Do. Home Depot. Now it’s your turn – you will be able to think of major and local companies that fit this model and have great names.

4. It Doesn’t Represent What You Do.Now it’s your turn – you will be able to think of major and local companies that fit this model and have great names.

5. It Avoids Unfortunate Implications. This is intended to address global audiences and the perverse meaning created through translation, but (true story) a lake resort named Walter’s Private Parts would have benefited from this consideration on a local level.

6. It Should Not Be An Acronym. Oh, really? UPS. NCR. ADP.

7. It Should Not Include the Founder’s Name. Seriously??? You don’t even need my help on this one.

Ultimately, the decision about what makes a good name is an individual one. For any consideration listed above, or the countless others, there are successful companies whose names fit, and successful companies whose names absolutely do not fit.

If you are in the process of naming your business, here are some popular naming sites. Note that today, more than ever, it is important to look at the associated URLs at the same time you are generating creative names. Typically a down-and-dirty start-up naming process costs between $1,200-$3,600, inclusive of logo design and URL search.

Oberlo.com (free)

SquadHelp.com (includes logo, URL and name – ask for and receive independent creatives to bid)

Shopify.com (free)

Namelix.com (free)

BusinessNameGenerator.com (free)

Why We Place So Much Importance On Our Company Name

Words matter symbolically. They have energy. This is true. They can capture attention of prospective customers and inspire employees … or not. However, if we care deeply about our company’s name, it is because we want it to embody the spirit of our brand.

We ask ourselves: Is it creating the right emotional response in our customers? Do they see the name and want to connect with it? Will they like me because of my name? Will it explain what I do to them before they even reach out to me (so I don’t have to work so hard)?

While all this is reasonable to consider, it isn’t driving the customers’ initial buying process. We buy for the first time based on trust in the product, not on the company’s name. Trust is built over time, through referrals, visibility, helpful content, delivering on the brand’s promise.

Although there is a tremendous amount of research that indicates between 71-77% of consumers prefer to buy from a brand name that they know and trust, the brands they are measuring are mature. Trust has already been established. We are not talking about first time purchases either.

So, as someone once said, “MicroSoft is a relatively awful name. But Bill Gates put his time and effort into getting placement on IBM’s platform, instead of trying to dream up the perfect name.” Sure, he could have named MicroSoft a lot of things, regardless of whether you think it is a good name or not, but in the end, it was irrelevant to the company’s success.

If we are conceiving a company’s name, it can be tempting to infuse it with our own ego, reflecting how we want to be seen, instead of focusing inward on the living company. Companies succeed when we nurture and manage them in every aspect, from finance, to sales, process, systems, innovation and expansion.

A company is an expression of the founder’s values, purpose and beliefs. Names can be changed, and often are. It is far more important to focus on what you do, who you serve, and how you do it, that what you will call it. So, you can talk a good game (or name) but as your customer, don’t tell me. Show me.