Business Naming Basics

Using a descriptive business name, as I wrote yesterday, leads to a dead-end for rapidly growing companies.

But that’s just one problem when trying to morph a description into a corporate name.

Another major problem is that to truly describe a business usually takes at least three words. Not only that, they are usually multi-syllable words. The names are too long and too “intellectual”.

Here are four such company names from the latest list of INC 500 Rapidly Growing Companies:

Advanced Planning Services
Ancillary Care Management
Apex Facility Resources
Assured Information Security

Each is certainly a mouthful. But besides being hard to remember because of word-length, there’s nothing with a spark. Nothing “grabs” you.

And I’ll bet by now stakeholders within and outside the respective companies have resorted to calling the companies by their initials: APS, ACM, AFR, AIS.

And pretty soon, one or more will officially change their name to those initials and believe they’re making a wise choice.

But as I’ve stated more than once (my blog entitled Business naming with three initials – bad branding, for instance), initials have no personality or vitality. The name becomes a liability instead of an asset.

So for a multitude of reasons, descriptive names are bad names and should be avoided.

Related business naming posts:

1. Descriptive Business Names are Dead-end Names There’s a great danger that you will outgrow a descriptive name. The problem is that entrepreneurs don’t see business naming...
2. Business Naming with Three Initials – Bad Branding IBM, RCA, AIG and MSN are recognized corporate names, but I wouldn’t follow their lead when naming a company. That's...
3. Naming Basics: Why Companies Shouldn’t Name with Initials When a lot of company name are just three letters, many think that would be a cool way to name...
4. Coined Business Names Grow on You Business naming: as with everything unfamiliar, the coined name is suspect, but once people get used to pronouncing the new...
5. Business Naming Practiced By America’s Fastest Growing Companies: the INC 500 I analyzed the company naming practices of the fast growing private companies listed in the annual INC 500 issue of...

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