Did you know that 11% of consumers say they are unlikely to use a company if they don’t like the name? Yet 26% of businesses chose the first name they could think of and 37% of businesses would change their name if they could (according to Yell, March 2006).

So why does a name matter? Well it’s often the first thing that your customer learns about you. It is prominent in your advertising and in how you introduce yourself on the phone or when meeting people.

Your name should convey the right image to your customers. “Sue Grabit and Runne” might be the type of name you’d expect from a law firm but it doesn’t convey the right image for a café.

The name should be simple, memorable and distinct. Good examples of such names are Orange and Virgin.

Where possible it makes sense to include a reference to what you do – though for this to work you need to have a clear focus for your business, great examples are Vodafone and EasyJet.

If you’re targeting a local market it often makes sense to make your name geo-specific, as 20% of consumers would favour a company with a geo-specific name that suggests the business is local to them. Some great examples in the West Wiltshire area are Frome Self Storage, Frome Online and Warminster Press.

You should avoid names that could give the wrong impression about your business, for example “nine to five” – customers could take this to mean you’re not prepared to do any work outside your core hours and will not go the extra mile for them.

Common mistakes when picking a name include:

• vague names like Trivial Business,
• similar names to other businesses for example Abbey Mortgages, you could end up having your marketing driving people to a similar business (Abbey bank) or worse still, facing legal action,
• hard to spell or oddly spelt names such as Xpertees or Bluprint,
• misleading like ABC Investments when you offer business consultancy,
• forgettable names such as AB Consultants,
• hard on the ear like Kaplunk Kars.

The four simple rules that your name should obey:

• Identifies what you do.
• Distinguishes you from competitors.
• Is memorable.
• Simple to pronounce making it:
  a. simple to spell,
  b. simple to look-up,
  c. simple to find in the phone book or online.

However like all rules there are the inevitable exceptions. Sometimes you can’t say what you do in a simple name, or you want to build a brand that lets you develop several services or products (i.e. Google or Ebay).

In such cases you can combine the name with a tagline to clearly identify your product or service, as Google does with “Google Search” and Ebay with “Ebay – The World’s Online Marketplace”.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming an abbreviation you are familiar with is obvious to everyone else. A great example of this is the bed and breakfast search site findmeabnb.co.uk. While it seemed obvious to the us that bnb was a common abbreviation for Bed and Breakfast it turns out that users expected it to be written b and b and often searched for findmeabandb.co.uk. There were also quite a few people that saw the name and asked what a bnb was.

Strategies for developing a name

Use your own name – if you have a specific reputation in your industry then it often makes sense to use your own name and to build on your existing reputation. However this breaks rule one above, so it’s often worth combining your name with a tagline that explains what you do. For example my brother is a mortgage broker and trades as Crickett Finance using the tagline “Independent Mortgage Advice”.

Primary benefit – use your primary benefit as your name, your name then effectively works as and advert for what you do. The downside however is that the name could make it more difficult to expand into new areas in future. Trowbridge based driving instructor Kate Andrews is a great example of this trading as LwithK8, her primary benefit is a female driving instructor for those that would prefer one.

A description of your niche – describe the niche your business addresses and your name then becomes a short advert for the business, again this could potentially limit future expansion or become a liability should your niche become passé. An example of this would be The Employment Law Practice.

A made up name – simply make up a name that you like. This can work well if you think up a simple catch name, for example Kodak, Google, and Yahoo. It also allows for expansion of the product or service lines without confusing your customers. On the flipside however it will take more time and money to build the brand and give meaning to the name.

Other issues to consider when choosing a name

Once you’ve thought of your name you need to check it’s suitability, unless you’ve opted for a made up name (and possibly even then) it’s possible that someone else is already trading with that name, so you need to carry out some basic checking:

• Is there another local business using the same name? Look through the yellow pages and local chamber of commerce memberships to check.
• Is there a limited company of the same or similar name? Check online for free with Companies House.
• Are the obvious domain names that customers would use to look for you free? Use Heart Internet to check.
• Is there a registered trademark that matches your name, or will you infringe on someone else’s trademark? You can check online for free at the Patent Office.

If you are planning to build a strong brand around your name you will almost certainly want to check that the name could be registered as a trademark.

Symptoms of a bad name

Do any of the following sound familiar? If so you’ve probably chosen a bad name and it’s time you thought about changing it.

• Customers can never remember your business name, probably because it’s too unusual, abstract or hard to pronounce.
• After introducing your business people regularly ask “What do you do?”
• You’re business is constantly confused with another business.
• Your prices come as a shock as your name suggests a different pricing level.

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