Business Naming Basics

There’s a great danger that you will outgrow a descriptive name.

The problem is that entrepreneurs don’t see business naming as a strategic activity. In the beginning, they just want to be identified with an industry or product category by adopting a name that describes their business. They do this without thought to the company’s future.

The last name change I was involved in would have cost the company – a regional construction supply business – around $50-thousand. Because of the expense, they opted to retain their name which identified them as a supplier of industrial staples. So their sales force must continue to explain to prospects that they can also supply re-bar, compressors, and generators even thought the company’s name just promises “staples”.

The solution is to not adopt a descriptive name. How could a company like Go-Daddy that began life selling domain names exclusively grow as rapidly as it has if their name had been ABC Domain Names, Inc.? The major players in hi-tech today have usually adopted coined word names, suggestive names or arbitrary names.

Those names types will require some getting used to by the company founders, and they will need to be promoted before they become household names. But this will pay off over time as they grow out of their original product/service niche.

Related business naming posts:

1. Business Naming with Descriptive Words: A Bad Idea Using a descriptive business name leads to a dead-end for rapidly growing companies. But that’s just one problem when trying...
2. Don’t Let Business Naming Frustrate You Into a Second-class Name Here are four major ideas that can help you adopt a “killer” name with the least amount of angst. When...
3. Business Naming Terminology Helps Identify Name Effectiveness Like almost anything else, corporate names can be classified by type or category. Why would you want to do this?...
4. Business Naming Going to the Dogs? Here’s a business name a wish I’d thought up: Wigglebutt Inn....
5. Business Naming Using Unusual Letter Combinations There are several letter combinations that are unusual for word beginnings. Unusual, but not so foreign that folks don’t know...

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