Have you been named for greatness?

This company naming blog post is a brief peek at a whitepaper I wrote for Articulated Brands® back in 2015. Should you wish to read the original pdf in its entirety, I’m happy to share it with you. Just use the contact form on this site. Simply request the naming whitepaper in the comments section. You’ll have it in your inbox within 48 hours.

Company names matter.

Remarkable names can turbo-charge growth, forever setting your business apart in the marketplace. Solid positioning and professional naming ensure all of your company communications have a strong strategic center.

Skype®. Lean Cuisine®. Sympo™. Google®. Manifest Equity™. The North Face®. Amazon®. Harvest Waste™. Pandora®.

On the flipside, a company name that was hastily chosen can sabotage your business development efforts. It can handicap your launch plans even before your vision gets out of the gate.

I’m not just talking about naming start-up ventures here.

I’m also talking about anybody who has plans for the next stage of business growth. Most times such plans call for the introduction of new products, services and the entry into new markets. Not only does each represent an opportunity to go in with both barrels blazing, but the company name to which you attach to all of this…will it serve as a seal of credibility? Will you create a virtuous circle wherein the brand equity in one serves to reinforce the brand equity in the other? Or will you be like the too many companies who approach their growth plans from the inside-out instead of from the outside-in, determining who you need to be and what you need to be saying from your prospects’ perspectives?

When companies try to carve out a brave and bold new future but refuse to slough off any skins from their past, it reeks of inauthenticity… the kind buyers and prospects can smell… which wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that this is the complete opposite of what good branding and good company naming are all about: striking people (buyers) at the core of why you exist and how you are uniquely engineered to answer to their needs, now.

But legacy/owner names, acronyms and names which no longer connect to why the company exists today may be the easiest ones to spot…and gaining buy-in, though still difficult, is possible, especially with the support of a business-minded brand strategist behind you. But the most dangerous company name or product name could very well be the simply mediocre one; its presence may be so seemingly innocuous you may have never even stopped to consider the negative force it’s exerting on your business or the potential goldmine it could be obscuring. In short, most company names are so harmless they’re harmful. Most company names are so quiet and timid they’re entirely forgettable. And that’s a problem. A big one.

So, how do you know if you have a great company name or product name?

How do you know if your name is one that’s working dynamically and proactively in support of all your other marketing, sales and business development efforts? Do you need to be a brand strategist or a professional naming consultant to know if your name stinks?

Here’s a brilliant opportunity for the small to midsized business to skip the research expense. You can bypass the focus groups and the big naming agency’s fancy charts and graphs. All it takes is a simple test. Next time you meet a new prospect and tell them the name of your company or trade cards, do they comment on the name specifically? Yes or no, it’s just that simple. If even one out of every ten people take the time to comment, you’re probably in good shape. Less than that, get concerned. More than that, throw a party. (And by all means, invite me! Nothing I like better than celebrating the chutzpah it took for you to defy the common, the everyday and the literal, to flabbergast the naysayers by signing off on a memorable moniker.) A great name is one of which your ideal customers take note. End of research.

All trademarks are used for illustrative purposes only and remain the property of their respective owners. Sympo®, HarvestWaste® and Manifest Equity® are examples of small business name projects by Scott Silverman.