Words hold meaning.  Messaging done well strikes a chord.  When it comes to naming your brand, you want to choose something that represents what you want your brand to stand for.  Therefore, it’s vital to choose the right brand name for your business.

Follow these strategies for naming your brand:

BE CLEAR

This is not the time to be mysterious.  Don’t be too clever or too cute, either. Be clear. Make sure your brand name:

• Sounds good when you say it out loud

• Is easy to say and spell

• Doesn’t have hidden meanings or mean something derogatory in another language

3 STRATEGIES TO CHOOSING A BRAND NAME

01 - Choose a name with meaning built in

There are certain names, animals, constellations, mythological figures, Latin root words and more that come with meaning already attached to them. 

NIKE is a great example.  “Nike” is the god of victory and when your company is all about serving athletes, associating victory with your brand is in alignment with what they want the brand to stand for and what their customers are striving for.  It’s inspirational and aspirational.

02 - Choose a name that describes what you do

Another great way to name your brand is choosing something that expresses what you do.  Making it quite literal can be beneficial in having your customers quickly understand what your company does and if it’s something they need.

MATCH.COM comes to mind for this example.  This company’s entire purpose for existing is to find people love matches.  This brand name is easy to say, read, spell and states clearly why they exist in the world.

03 - Choose a name that features a benefit

Customers are typically convinced to buy when they understand what’s in it for them.  If you can feature a benefit of what you offer or provide, then you’re automatically telling your audience from the get-go exactly why they should care about your business.

My own sub-brand, BRANDPOLISH ACADEMY clearly tells you the benefit you get when you go through my step-by-step brand building program: a polished brand.


MAKE SURE YOU CAN OWN THE NAME YOU CHOOSE

When you choose your brand name, you may want to have a couple other top contenders in your back pocket.  Your first choice may not always be available to you for several reasons, so here are the next steps to take to ensure you can really own the brand name you choose:

• Do your google research to see if the URL for your brand name is already taken. If not, great - grab the URL! If yes, is it a competitor or is it someone in an entirely different industry?  

• You could still potentially keep the brand name but get a little creative with the domain name you secure and social media handles (which I recommend aligning so they’re all the same).

• Make it legal.  Check to see if the brand name you want has already been trademarked.  If not, start the trademark process yourself.  If it is, move on to another back up choice you love.

You don't want to name your business something that another company is already well known for, so do your research here so you don’t have to re-brand once you’ve fully launched.

NAMING MY CLIENT’S DOG ADOPTION APP

One of my clients came to me with a dog adoption app she's been working on for a few years. She had been calling it "PAW-PER" - - - thinking it represented the idea of finding every dog a home: a paw per family.

I knew the name wasn't right for several reasons:

• A little too cute, and not too clear

• When you say it out loud it sounds like "pauper" (aka someone begging for money)

• Might be hard to spell & you have to explain it

Instead, after understanding her intention to use the app to help families search and find the dog with the right personality that matches them, I named her app: SCOUT.

• It can be a dog's actual name, giving the app a more personal touch

• Scout means looking for; or searching - - - scouting for the right dog!

Once we found the name we loved to represent her company, we moved on to the research phase: Could we secure the domain name? Was there another app already named this in the same industry? Could we grab all the social media handles?

The answer was no.  It’s a stretch these days to have a simple name or word like “scout” to have the .com available.  Here were some options we checked out:

• Home For Scout .com

• I Love Scout .com

• Scout Adoption .com

The only one that had all the social media handles plus the domain available was Scout Adoption, which still works great because it really does tell the audience exactly what the app does.  When they see the illustration of Scout the dog (the app’s icon and mascot), they’ll instantly know the SCOUT app is for dog adoption.

Here's what my client had to say:

“Your brand name is so important; it is the first thing your clients will see or hear and will oftentimes be the first impression they have of your brand. Within a day of working with Hilary, she was able to come up with the perfect brand name that strategically said everything I wanted to say about my brand in only one word. And as soon as we had the name, everything else in my brand strategy seemed to fall into place. I could finally see clearly what my brand is and where I want it to go.”

- TARYN MAISTER

Hope this helps you on your journey to name your brand, or to name your branded offers and programs!