Business Name: A Big Part of the Brand (Strategy)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today we are looking at brand naming conventions.

When I mention Apple, Nike, Google and Amazon, what comes to mind?  Of course, you instantly conjure up thoughts of amazing products and services offered by these top-notch brands.  The reason: these four companies are branding experts who know how to create impressions that ensure you understand the benefits of their brand and keep them top of mind.  They are branding 24/7/365 to ensure they remain global household names.

If these companies hadn't spent so much energy and resources branding you might have actually first thought of: a piece of fruit (apple), a Greek goddess (Nike), the math value 10¹⁰⁰ (google), or a large river in South America (Amazon).  This is evidence that any name will work for a brand if you are willing to put sufficient branding and marketing muscle behind it.

When selecting a name for your company, a descriptive name for what the company is all about, such as Once a Day Marketing™, ensures customers understand the goal of the business; in this case to help clients market every single day.  We could have selected Glover Consulting or XYZ Enterprises but neither of those names quickly informs customers of the services we offer.  This type of naming convention makes branding a little easier, instead of spending time generating an understanding of the brand, you can spend that time with customers.

Other attributes of a great name include it being easy to spell and remember.  This is especially true in regard to customers entering your business name into a search engine.  A challenging naming convention is going to make it difficult for a small business to become top of mind with customers who are already thinking of brands with large marketing budgets.

When you choose your brand name, give thought to how long the process will take to generate sufficient mindshare with your target audience.  Whatever naming convention you use, if it's going to take a lot of work reminding customers what your name is and then the benefits it provides, it might not be the right direction to go.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

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