Category Archives: names

What makes a great business name?

A top name usually has edge, which means that it intrigues or even needles. Nobody can be sleepwalked into choosing a new brand.

Facebook doesn’t scare anybody now because the title is so familiar, but as business owner it would have given me butterflies.

Google likewise. Apple in its day. Virgin going back even further.

IMPUDENT

Tesla isn’t terrifying as a business name, except for the impudence that the company is in the same league as the developer of AC electricity networks.

My own brand WordMills might be viewed as big-headed, as it chooses the auspicious company of WordPress, Word and WordPerfect.

A name I really like is Pixel. It uses synecdoche, where a small part – pixel –  stands for the whole – phone. This is a tactic that takes guts.

Then there’s the opposite strategy where a big name stands for something small. You need a bunch of courage to call your rock band America.

ONE LETTER AWAY

Other attractive business names include the charmingly modest Airbus, Great Wall Motor (now sadly reduced to GWM), and the cheeky little Poss-Off (a possum deterrent) – one letter away from you-know.

When brainstorming a name, it’s good to start on the side of audacity or gall, then tweak back if the title is keeping you awake at night.

You can’t bore people into buying.

New domain appraisal tool tells you why

Is that name you’ve got your eye on any good?

Domain sales agency Atom dot com has long offered an appraisal service for domain names, awarding a score of between one and ten, and telling you other facts such as the age of a domain, its possible value, and how many extensions the name is registered in.

Now the service has jumped up a level. Atom’s Instant Domain Appraisal gives you written reasons why the domain is a good one or not.

WORD PLAY

The AI-powered evaluation does a pretty good job, although it can miss the subtleties and word-play of everyday language.

I tested the service on some of my own domains. Here’s what it said about Gignome: “Clever blend of gig and gnome, but feels playful rather than broadly brandable.” Okay, fair enough.

How about my BudgetSkil? “Misspelled second word weakens brand credibility and fails the phone test.” Hmm.

RADIO TEST

Let’s try a famous name that truly strains the radio or phone test: Nvidia. Atom’s appraisal tool overlooks that deficiency. “Iconic global tech brand; one of the most recognized dot com domains in existence.”

The tool can also check for Brand Alignment with your intended use of the domain. But here’s where a weird discrepancy shows itself.

I checked my domain GulchCountry for Brand Alignment and was informed that it’s “a compelling choice for a western clothing brand. . . .  Overall, a perfect fit.”

Great, but when I submitted the name for an Instant Domain Appraisal, I was told it’s an unlikely fit for Atom’s Premium marketplace. “Nice geographic pairing with limited commercial brand appeal.”

MORE SOBER

This pattern is repeated over and over. The Brand Alignment test talks up the domain, as if pitching for a sale, while the Domain Appraisal offers a more sober and balanced view.

Not surprisingly, the AI assessment doesn’t grasp the metaphoric subtleties of names. My domain MealCheetah is intended for a speedy dinner delivery service. The appraisal tells me that it “has an unusual animal-food pairing with limited brand appeal.”

On that basis, I suppose it might say that Facebook undermines its brand value by linking the unrelated concepts of body and print.

Overall, though, the Instant Domain Appraisal is a fair and useful tool.

No need to tell it all

A problem that often stumps people when they’re naming their business is finding a word or combo that fully describes it.

This difficulty is added to by the fact that the new company may not be sure of its eventual direction. The result can be a name that sounds broad, vague and not particularly distinctive.

Here’s the thinking: “Yes, we fly passengers, but we also do a bit of cargo, and have a sideline in emergency medical supply flights for the state. Let’s call ourselves Air General. That way we cover everything, and also insure ourselves against business changes in the future.”

Not a great idea.

JUST AN EMBLEM

Business owners fear that if the name doesn’t include or imply the whole range of services, then people won’t choose the company because it sounds too specific. This, in practice, doesn’t happen.

A name is like a badge or emblem. It creates imagery – a picture in people’s heads. It need not cover all your activities. And usually it can’t.

wells fargo

I love the name Wells Fargo, which conjures up pictures of the gold rush, stagecoaches, bank holdups and the pony express – and it doesn’t matter that the company is now a financial services giant.

London Fog is another favorite, for a similar reason. Who cares that Britain has had a clean air act since 1956?

A current trend is to adopt a business name that doesn’t mean anything much at all, like Uber or Slack. That let’s you off the hook, if you can find a word that’s still available. But you’re missing out on the imagery.

WATER HAZARD OR BUNKER

Long-established companies often reduce their names to initials, because of the belief that the original handle is too narrow or outdated. This can work okay if you’re IBM or KFC, because these companies have been able to spend enough on promotion to implant their acronyms in buyers’ minds.

It can also be effective where the business initials are actually pronounceable as a word, such as Qantas or Audi.

For the rest of us, opting for initials is like a water hazard or bunker on a golf course. VMLY&R is the result of a merger between marketing companies Young & Rubicam and VML. Any easy name to remember? No. Search for the erroneous VLMY&R and you’ll find that even the company itself gets it wrong at times.

Not much hope, then, for the struggling customer.