A brand name tells people a lot about what your business does. When a prospect sees your brand name, he can tell what kind of products or services to expect from your business. Customers have much to do with your brand name. It should be easy for them to identify with it and even discuss it. So we need to look at how to create a brand name that will stand out!
Put yourself in the position of a customer. How well does a unique name appeal to you? If you did not know much about a company, can an attractive name encourage you to try it out? Or are you someone that does not care about what a company name sounds like?
If you cannot tell what a company does by its name, will you still be willing to approach it for business? This shows that the first impression about the company matters. This means that when you name a brand, you do not just pick any name for it. Even if you decide to use a name generator, you may not be able to pick a name that well represents your brand.
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Stand Out With a Memorable Brand Name
More than 24 million businesses operate in the United States and the trademark law is used to protect the names of these businesses. If your business uses the same trademark as another company, you have to change it. If you have already made financial investments, you may lose it as well.
On the internet too, there are over 860 million registered domain names. You will need to have your own URL too to achieve your internet marketing goals.
Deciding on the Right Brand Name
- A good brand name should be able to communicate what your company is all about. A prospect should be able to imagine what to expect if he relates to your brand.
- A good brand name should distinguish the brand, be easy to remember, and should be different from other competitive brands in the industry.
- People should not experience difficulty trying to say it or spell it.
- It should be unique so that you can easily trademark it. It should also make getting a domain for it not difficult. This means that your company should be able to own the name.
- As the company expands, the name should still be able to stand for what it represents.
- It should be easy to design a logo for it and choose icons and designs that will suit the outlook of your company.
Planning for the Right Name
Finding the right name for your brand should not happen in a rush. But choosing one yourself makes it easy to capture the whole essence of your brand in the name. Before you choose a name, clearly state the purpose of your brand. Write down the mission and vision. Then state the values that the brand will represent.
You also need to state what will distinguish your brand from the other competitors. There should be something unique about your brand that will make your customers prefer it to other brands.
Brainstorming
As you work with your team, you should be able to discuss the points mentioned above. You should ask them questions to get their opinions and different views from what you think. You and your team should be able to find the right adjectives that will describe your brand.
You should be able to visualize what you want your customers to see about your brand. You should also be able to describe how they are expected to feel after using your brand.
You can work with your team in these ways:
- Using a description as your brand name like Infant Clothes Line
- Joining two or three words together like Organicbuzz
- Fabricating a new name such as Oscol
- Using an acronym like Treasure Bakers and Fast Food (TBFF)
- Exploring Metaphoric words like names of people, animals, or processes for instance cheetah sports gear.
- Or Wealthy Affiliate, this explains exactly what they teach.
You can come up with as many names as possible. There are apps that can help you generate names such as Onym and Panabee.
Vetting the Chosen Name
Trying to ensure that the name you choose for your brand is not already taken can be a very time-consuming task. Check the database of registered trademarks to find out available names among the ones you have chosen.
Beginning from your favorite name, you can check if your choice has already been taken. If it has, you go back to the list of names and select the next favorite. Check them until you find a few of them that have not been taken.
Testing the Names
After the difficulty of choosing a brand name, you can now test the names to get the one that is most suitable for your brand. Try to make mock designs, packages, and logos for each of the names that you have chosen.
You can test by building a landing page for each of the names. Let the landing page be similar but put a different name, logo for each of the pages.
Now, use each of the landing pages that you have created to run a Facebook ad for your targeted customers. Take note of the pages that get higher conversions. If you get more than one page with high conversions, you and your team can decide on which will be the best for your brand.
When you have chosen the right name for your brand, you need to apply for a trademark so that you will be able to protect your brand name too. If your brand name is protected, no one has the right to use it for their business except you.
Conclusion
There are many steps that go into choosing the right name for your brand. Although there are apps that can give you several options, these may not capture the essence of your business. It is better for you to work with your team to evaluate your business so that you come up with a suitable brand name for your business.
When you have done that, remember to apply for a trademark so that you do not lose the name to someone else.
All these steps should lead you to the perfect name for your company. Let people know who you are and what you do.
If this has helped you in your research, I would love you to leave a comment, or a like and share.
Thanks for visiting.
LILY
Thanks for providing great information on how to create a brand name. The steps you’ve outlined are clear and simple to follow. I’ve never used the name generator apps or thought about applying for trademark once I decide on a brand name. Great suggestions I plan to use going forward!
I’m in the process of building a new site this weekend and will try the generator apps and putting up some landing pages.
Thanks,
~Tamara
Hi Tamara, that’s great news that you are getting started this weekend. It’s a big process but super fun. I’m so pleased that my information will help you to get started the right way. Let me know if I can help in any way.
Thank you for sharing this info with us. This is really great that I had found this article now because I am in the first stages of branding and was to excited to think about the trademark. I have got to go back and see if I am able to keep my brand rolling on or if I need to choose something else. So, I thank you very much and have a great day.
It is great to hear that this came at a perfect time for you Justin. Branding is so important and we can sometimes not realize until it is too late to change the branding. Wishing you great success.
I am in that phase right now. I have started a couple of online projects before this one I am brainstorming currently. And back then, I would not think much in the brand name. But later, I thought I could have done better if I had stopped to think in a brandable name. I am not sure what name I’ll choose, but I am sure I’ll filter it until gold comes out.
I guess we take it for granted Paolo that people will recognize us and follow us no matter what we call ourselves but that just isn’t the case and there is a lot of competition out there. Have a good think about which niche you want to be in and then look at setting a brand name and look, once you have selected the products that interest you.