Naming Your Business
Finding a name for your new business is frustrating and time consuming for most entrepreneurs. You can come up with endless lists and then everyone around you gives you a different opinion on which ones are good. It is enough to make your tear your hair out!
The Wall Street Journal recently wrote an article on a 12-point test for naming your company, designed by Eat My Words - a San Francisco naming boutique, a San Francisco naming boutique, known for playful names including a chain of frozen yogurt stores named Spoon Me, and a home-cleaning robot named Neato. They call it the Smile and Scratch test.
A good company name should have the following qualities:
Simple - one easy to understand concept
Meaningful - customer instantly “gets it”
Imagery - creates a mental picture
Legs - carries the brand; lends itself to wordplay
Emotional - empowers, entertains, engages, enlightens
Scratch the name if it has any of these:
Spelling-challenged - you have to tell people how to spell it
Copycat - similar to your competition
Random - disconnected from your brand
Annoying - hidden meaning, forced or cutesy
Tame - flat, boring, uninspiring
Curse of Knowledge - only insiders get it
Hard to Pronounce
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woo-hoo! I think just maybe the latest on my never-ending list passes the test.
Thanks for sharing this.