What’s in a name? Quite a lot if you’re starting a business. From cute to goofy, serious to silly, business names can range from the ridiculous to the sublime. Perhaps hungry for opportunities to be creative, some entrepreneurs seem to have the market cornered on how to get what may be the most important aspect of marketing genius wrong: the name of the business.
It never ceases to amaze me how people come up with the names of their businesses. Many business people approach me having worked with their lawyers and accountants to set up the business, perhaps going the extra mile to incorporate, and sometimes also taking it upon themselves to design their own logo before realizing that it takes a bit more flair to create a brand than an amateur attempt at graphic design. I then have the dubious honor of taking the joint efforts of these three dedicated professionals, some of whom must have fallen asleep during business marketing to work under a sometimes troublesome name they agreed upon and create a logo or trademark that addresses the desperate need for a flashy. , definitive and effective professional image while its existence lasts.
Many people starting small businesses don’t realize that in the highly competitive field of local marketing, the name should quickly define what the business stands for. This creates two problems: the name does not describe what the business offers; or, even if it does, it usually uses too many words or the wrong combination of words to do it. And to make matters worse, this is usually after a false start with liberal spending to try to promote this new company, based on a series of inept marketing decisions and the use of poor marketing tools, a situation that makes it more difficult for me than starting from scratch.
Case in point: I was recently contacted by a relatively new organization who said they needed a marketing plan. Upon further analysis, I learned that they had been placing an ad in the regional newspaper for their geographic service area almost daily with no response. Searching for your industry through Google, I couldn’t find any mention of your group within the first ten pages of results. Only after looking up the name of the man who had contacted me was I able to locate his name on a web page about the board of directors of this organization. Literally walking in the back door, I was able to find a link to their home page which, looking at it, reminded me of the incompetent ad that had been running in the newspaper I read every day but, like everyone else, had ignored as Irrelevant. Understandably, with a nebulous business name, a poorly designed logo, a nonexistent marketing message, and an unprofessional and busy presentation, it is sad and ironic that this non-profit group that provides a valuable service to seniors has so miserably wasted their resources. limited funds trying to do everything themselves to save money. And none of the members of this internal marketing group could detect any problem with this effort, too close to the forest to see the trees.
Now, resigned to the fact that a do-it-yourself strategy is not always the most profitable, the directors were surprisingly receptive to my suggestion that, while I was expecting resistance, perhaps they could consider a business name change at this early juncture in their career. organization history. Simultaneously, I also proposed that along with the marketing plan and name change, a new professional logo would logically follow as well as a series of well-conceived advertisements that they could use for ongoing promotion. As soon as your signed contract and project deposit arrive, I will undertake this challenge as you are now eager to proceed with the sudden recognition and appreciation of your failed attempt at self-promotion.
From the perspective of my long career, I assure you that this is a common phenomenon, particularly in situations where marketing is done by a “committee,” which tragically describes most of my clients: law firms, health practices, and dentists, non-profit organizations, industrial and pharmaceutical companies, etc. And it does not matter if the company is large or small, or if it is basically run by a single professional or by a group of directors. In most cases, business leaders often lack the vision or self-confidence to make marketing decisions on their own, thus involving the opinions of everyone around them, regardless of their background. competence to judge the matter. This means that my directives come from sources as diverse as teenage children of clients, wives of clients, secretaries, summer interns, random clients of clients, anonymous emailed comments from websites, and various other “experts,” all of whom emphatically express their views. therefore, I am knowledgeable about how to do my job effectively.
Of course, I am not so stubborn that I do not see the value of such input. On the contrary, I appreciate knowing how this diverse universe processes information so that I can evaluate each strategy as it is developed to meet as many requirements as possible. It doesn’t matter if anyone realizes that this marketing method is quite impossible to pull off, since no one can measure every individual response to marketing efforts anyway. The old axiom, “You can’t please all the people all the time” may apply, but you can’t blame one person for trying.
Of the clients I have who believe there is one, and only one, way to market their business effectively, that way being their own personal way, based not on advanced studies of business marketing, crowd psychology, the elements of style or effectiveness. communication strategies, but nothing more than the pure, unadulterated and self-centered ego. I say, hey, more power to them! It is their money that they are spending and they certainly have a right to believe what they want to believe. Also, part art, part science, part luck marketing has as many guarantees as we have at the racetrack or the stock market. So who am I to disagree with my clients’ beliefs?
Well, just for the record, I chimed in with my own opinions that are backed by 35 years of hands-on marketing experience including a successful career in marketing for myself and in the businesses of my many successful clients. If my opinion differs from that of a selfish client, for example, it is enough that I have warned him despite his stubborn impulse to dismiss it and follow his own strategy despite what I think. Obviously, he has reached this stage of his illustrious career through his own sailing talents and his distinctive intelligence, so I respect him and am in no way offended by his self-confidence, above all.
However, this places a huge task on my shoulders: to market your business using a name that includes six long words, some of which are esoteric and industry-specific. This means that the logo, in addition to including an eye-catching brand, must also be made up of six words that add up to 42 letters. Add to that the need for a slogan, the entire package of which must be large enough to be read on applications as small as checks, business cards, and in the smaller units offered by the Yellow Pages both online and in print.
Compare this to business names using a short word: eBay®, Google™, Yahoo!®, Microsoft®, Apple®, etc. Of course, some of these names do not describe what the business offers. But these are all very successful businesses nonetheless. How have they done this? By allocating ample funds to build their brands so that the company name needs no definition, it becomes its own word with its own meaning. Such is the power of successful marketing.
You can say that those companies had the advantage of marketing their brands through the Internet, but today we all have the same advantage. Especially with the help of brands like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube, all four are great examples of short, punchy business names that aptly define their brand name. Reason to be. Most of the companies that come to my company for marketing help are small businesses, sometimes with geographic limitations. These companies often don’t realize how much time, money, and repetition it takes to build a brand.
One of our competitors in the New York metropolitan market recently began airing a commercial to promote their business and invite a response from the very market we serve. While I can’t mention the name of this business for legal reasons, suffice it to say that it is a short 3 word insult aimed at the very market they are trying to attract. And, moments ago, I was scolded by a telemarketer who responded to my polite statement that his offer to sell my business didn’t interest me at the moment with, “Okay…go down with the others!”
Have I missed something? Are insults the new marketing strategy? of the day? In both cases, injecting negativity, or worse, personal abuse into normally polite business protocol, in my opinion, does nothing more than send a message of disrespect, insolence, and humiliation to the very subject who is trying to endear himself.
Having been raised by a mother who was 40 years older than me, I often heard old American colloquialisms, a couple of which now occur to me: “You get more bees with honey than with vinegar” and “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!” In marketing, these two sayings are powerful guides to proper business etiquette and, by extension, to long-term business success. While you may feel like this is a milquetoast approach, the muscle is in for a heartfelt, heartfelt delivery.
How does that relate to your business name? In a few ways I’ll list as a random set of rules to follow:
1. Your company name can be your most important marketing tool if it defines what you’re offering but is distinctive enough to stand out from the crowd.
2. Keep it short and sweet, but above all, memorable.
3. Accentuate the positive, emphasizing value to the market you plan to target.
4. Don’t limit yourself too much if you need to expand in the future.
5. Remember, you may want to protect your business name by registering a trademark, incorporating, or filing for a dba (an alternative or assumed name registration for your business known as “doing business as”), so you hire a lawyer to carry out a valid process. a search may be required, which might require a list of suitable possibilities rather than a single choice of name.
With all of the above in mind, it is of the utmost importance that you realize that whatever you end up calling your business, it will be one item in a long list of vital components that together will work cumulatively to establish your business as a success. . your wish. That’s the bottom line.