When starting your new business, sooner or later, you will probably get to the point where you beat your brain over choosing the right brand name for your business.
There are a lot of important steps you need to take to start your new business in the best way (see our articles), and choosing the right name for your business is one of the most important. But with 200 million brands in the world today, it’s getting harder and harder to create a unique business name.
How do you create a great brand name? What should you do? What should you absolutely avoid? Keep on reading to find it out.
How to create a brand name
CHOOSE AN ORIGINAL NAME
As a new business, you need to stand out. You should never think you’ll be the only one in the world who is offering a particular service or product. People have to notice you among the countless other resources that are available for them.
To start, generate a bunch of names. In this first step, let your ideas flow freely. Then explore keywords, shift words around, and keep iterating until you think you’ve found something unique.
Make your name future proof
One thing you don’t want is to create a name that you may grow out of one day. For example, your company is selling men’s clothes today, but eventually, you’d like to add a women’s line. That’s why you should avoid naming it Alfredo’s Men’s Clothes.
Plus, to ensure your name is and remains memorable, try to keep it simple.
CHOOSE A USER-FRIENDLY NAME
It’s important to choose a name that’s easy to say, even if it is a made-up word.
As you get deeper into your brainstorming, limit yourself to names that have only one word or only a few syllables. Think about it: what are the names of the companies that we all know, even if we’ve never bought anything from them? Apple, Nike, Oreo, Ikea, Facebook, etc.
MAKE SURE YOUR NAME IS AVAILABLE
Once you have a restricted list of names you’re happy with, check which ones among them are available. Social networks can be useful to check if your name is already taken. Most companies have their social network’s pages, so if you can’t find a company with your name there, it means you can take it.
More importantly, since you’ll want your company name in the website URL, check if a domain name with your brand name is available.
Registering a domain name is an important step in starting your new business, especially if it’s an online business. See our articles How to start your online business, A step-by-step guide to creating an online business, and How to start an online business for free step-by-step.
What to avoid
- Avoid using a name that is a close copy of a competitor.
- Avoid tame names. Being boring is never a winning marketing strategy. A descriptive, unimaginative name that says exactly what your business is or does (like CloudService if you offer cloud service) can be extremely boring.
- Avoid names that leave your potential customers in the dark. This includes alphanumeric names (E113), foreign names, and names that make sense only to you (SPQR Restaurant).
- Avoid names that are hard to pronounce.
By the way, if you really want to learn how to create a brand that sticks. I just released our free ebook on how to create a brand in our WiFi Entrepreneur Training Center. You can get FREE access to the ebook here: https://WiFiEntrepreneur.com/welcome
