10 Factors To Consider When Naming Your Business

10 Factors To Consider When Naming Your Business. Your brand name will have an impact on the success of your business. When working on your naming strategy, make sure that you cover every possible base to boost your odds of success.

1. What’s In A Name?

Start by deciding what you want your name to communicate. It should reinforce the key elements of your business. Your work in developing a niche and a mission statement will help you pinpoint the elements you want to emphasize in your name.

2. Make It Memorable

Consider pronunciation, spelling and length as a priority when entering into the naming phase of your brand development strategy. If your target audience can’t easily pronounce your name, it could lead to a branding disaster.

3. Clearly Identify

Even with a properly executed brand development strategy, your brand won’t become a household sensation overnight. You’ll want to draft a brand name that provides a hint to your target audience about what your business actually does. This property will not only give clear definition but also could make your business easier to find.

4. Be Unique

Make sure the brand name you choose doesn’t already exist. You don’t want your audience to have to choose between two companies with the same name. Duplicate brand names can also lead to legal issues, especially in related industries. Be sure to do an extensive around the name you are considering.

5. Get Creative

At a time when almost every existing word in the language has been trademarked, the option of coining a name is becoming more popular. Coined names can be more meaningful than existing words.

6. Research

As you start to build your brand, you don’t need the hassle of trying to fight the confusion of your relation with another company. Do a fuzzy search on Google and see what comes up. Chances are, those companies with names similar to yours, will have a page one listing on Google well before you get there. You don’t want your customers thinking that’s you.

6. Domain Name

You can have the greatest name chosen, but if you can’t get the domain name for it, it’s going to kill it. “.com”s are probably the most recognized domain suffix in the world. Whatever hasn’t been already used for companies, domain squatters own them in hopes that they can sell it for a big profit one day.

8. Keep It Simple

Simplicity reigns in the world of marketing, and this couldn’t be more true in regards to naming a company, service or product. Company names can be creative but should deliver a short and to-the-point message about your brand.

9. Spelling

If you have to spell your business name to someone so they can right it down, instead of just saying the whole name, then rethink it. As with the mispronunciation, you will always find yourself doing this, and it is a pain.

10. Trademark Your Name

After you’ve narrowed the field to four or five names that are memorable and expressive, you are ready to do a trademark search. Not every business name needs to be trademarked, as long as your state government gives you the go-ahead and you aren’t infringing on anyone else’s trade name.