Take Your Company Name Seriously, But Have Fun

A great company name or, perhaps more commonly, a great name and tagline in combination, due to their prominence, exert a marketing influence more powerful than pretty much anything else in your marketing arsenal. It should surprise no one that the companies who haven’t invested in marketing’s dynamic duo, Positioning & Messaging, tend to also be the ones who struggle in the company naming department. (On a similar note, those who struggle with their messaging need to go back to the creative brief stage. In politics, it may be “It’s the economy, stupid,” but in business and marketing, in my experience, “It’s the brief, stupid!” It’s the brief. It’s the brief. It’s the brief.)

The process for creating a vibrant and enduring company name is far more than an exercise in vanity. It is not only a matter of a good first impression. It is also a matter of a dynamic and consistent second, third and fourth impression. Remember, healthy brands are constantly in the process of making and keeping promises. How many opportunities does an enterprise get to make those core emotional promises and to set those expectations high at such a fundamental level? Precious few. That’s why you’ve got to get your company name and your company tagline right.

Just what separates the powerful company names from the meek?

Done well, which means to me both strategically and creatively, a company’s name and its supporting tagline proudly and personally announce its arrival into the target customer’s world.

“Hello, there, you fellow human and lover of all things valuable. We’re one of a kind, we represent a unique point of view, and our shared values render us worthy of your attention and a deeper relationship.”

Those who truly understand today’s competitive forces embrace creative naming wholeheartedly.

Remember, these days, we fight not only for revenue and market share against the literal competition. Rather, we must compete at an even more fundamental level, for time and attention – our noisy, media-rich, choice-saturated world demands levels of strategic positioning, communications creativity and messaging relevance which were previously the sophisticated pursuits of only the big companies.

Name your company well (or name your products and name your services well, for that matter), and you will thank yourself for years, possibly decades to come.

Not so thrilled in the company name department?

Rename. Do it over. As mentioned in a previous blog post, the new opportunities created, provided you’re working with the right business-minded company naming firm or branding agency, will far outweigh any lingering concerns you may have regarding equity in your current company name. Unless you’re Coke® or Pepsi®, who should really call me, it’s the arguments for keeping the current name that are obvious and get expressed. But who on your team is making the convincing counterargument? Your “Outsourced Chief Branding Officer,” that’s who. And that’s me! Call me on it.