An embarrassing business name is like a disease, if your business gets infected, it doesn’t matter how awesome your products are, they’d all suffer the consequence. And that’s why it’s necessary that you tread carefully while crafting a name for your business. Otherwise, you might just be shooting yourself in the foot with the ‘awesome’ name you created.
The world has shifted. In the past, businesses could get away with embarrassing names like Ayds diet candy, Analtech, Cat Crap, and Urinal Drink. Not anymore. Any entrepreneur looking to start a business must know how to come up with names that wouldn’t insult their audience, or make their customers feel embarrassed for patronizing their brand.
And if you’ve just started a business and you want to find a great brand name that doesn’t shame, insult, or ignore your customers, then follow these four steps.
1. Avoiding Names Similar to Another Brand’s Name
Avoid any name that’s too similar to those of your competitors. Borrowing some brand power from a successful company may appear to be a smart idea, but it will sow seeds of confusion in the minds of your target audience, and also make your business look unoriginal and lazy. Not to mention the legal battles you’d put your business through.
So, make sure you test every name thoroughly to make sure it’s unique and not related to your competitor’s.
The fastest way to do this is by visiting the US Patent and Trademark Office and conducting a comprehensive trademark search on all the business names you’re considering. This will assist you in making sure that someone else has not already taken your brand nam
2. Avoid Complicated Brand Names
Customers always prefer short and unique brand names to lengthier ones because they’re easy to say, remember, and search on the internet. Long names provide several issues, one of which is the possibility that customers could misspell a letter when searching for your shop online.
A company like ‘Locus International Center for Entrepreneurship Development and Incubation Services Limited’ would have to craft a shorter version of their name if they want customers to refer their company to friends and family easily.
Also, avoid tongue-twisting brand names. Businesses like ‘Susan’s Special Shoe Selling Shop’ would have to opt for an easier name because customers would find it pretty annoying if they have to spend their precious time trying to say the name of your business.
Finally, keep your brand name short and simple by limiting it to fifteen characters, removing any unnecessary article, adjective, and suffixes.
3. Steer Clear of Political Issues
Making the wrong comments and taking wrong actions that offend your target audience would do massive damage to your brand irrespective of how amazing its name is.
And today, when customers have a personal interest in the brands they patronize, giving the wrong message about culture and politics will create a barrier between your business and its potential customers.
Now, even though business and politics don’t mix well, every business, at one point, would need to navigate politics’ crooked path. So pay attention to the current political climate because the wrong move could lead to a series of Boycotts from your customers, just like what happened to Mike Lindell’s company, My Pillow.
4. Avoiding Names that Ignore Your Audience
Although the existence of every business is primarily to make money, it won’t be able to achieve that goal if it doesn’t satisfy the pain points of its customers. As a result, if you want your business to succeed, avoid giving it a name that isolates it from your target market.
You need to pay special attention to how customers perceive the tone of your brand name. For a business targeting millennials, edgy names like Alienware would work because it resonates with them. But if your target audience are baby boomers, then you’d need to avoid edgy names altogether.
A recent survey by Squadhelp found that customers between the age of 25 – 34 preferred new and innovative names to historied and trusted brand names, while customers between the ages of 45 – 65 were more interested in historied and trusted names.
Know your audience demographics, and choose the best name that aligns with their needs and personality. And one way to find a short and unique name that’d be perfect for your business is by using a powerful business name generator.
Don’t Break the Link
Your brand name is a link that connects your business to its target audience, and if an embarrassing name damages or breaks this link, your audience wouldn’t just stop patronizing your business, they’d campaign against it to their friends and family.
So, find a brand name that’ll make the link between your business and its customers stronger, not one that’ll break it.
