The Perfect Business Name
Coming up with the perfect business name isn’t easy. You need to consider a broad range of things, from your target markets to building your brand identity.
Your business name is the first thing people will see or hear when they come into contact with your business. A business name should reflect something about that businesses core identity, it should in some way be relevant. It also needs to be short, original, memorable, and brandable.
Think Brand and Target Audience.
You will want to be aware of these three questions: What are the goals for your business? Who are your target audience? What are their interests?
Let’s start at the beginning. Your brand goals. Your business name isn’t just a name, it is the essence, the central point of your brand. So a long complicated name or one that is irrelevant to your industry will be harder to remember, and make business growth in the future much more challenging.
If you think of the best business names out there, Nike, Google, or even Amazon, each of these are short, easy to remember, they stand out and in some way they relate to the business. Nike – the Greek goddess of victory, the perfect name for a competitive sports brand. Google – base on a googol which is the second mathematical term, perfect for the largest internet database and search system. Amazon – the largest river in the world which relates to the largest online shopping and delivery service in the world. Think about what you want your business name to communicate to your target audience, what emotions you want it to evoke, your brand strengths and appeal.
This links nicely to the next point, taking into consideration your target audience and their interests. You want a name that your demographic can relate to and understand, something short, appealing and memorable.
For example, terminology that appeals to a younger demographic won’t have the same effect on older generations. Or if you target demographic is professionals in the city you would likely use different terminology than if your target audience was retired individuals in a small coastal village. Once you know who you want to be targeting you can work out what interests them and use relative language to appeal to their interests and create a great brandable name.
Coming Up with Ideas
The first step in getting a really good business name is brainstorming. You want to create a broad selection of keywords around central brand ideas that fit with not just how you want the business to be perceived but also fits with your target markets and demographics.
Start with a piece of paper and a pen and write down every word that comes into your mind when you think of your business goals and the industry.
For example, if you are starting a business selling gardening tools you might start with a list that looks something like this: Garden, Tool, Flower, Weed, Leaf, Compost, Fertilize, Green, Gardener, Grow, Greenfingers, Landscape, Plant, Pollinate, Sprout, Water.
Once you’ve come up with a list of relevant terminology look up synonyms, antonyms and idioms that relate to these terms.
Then try combining words and phrases and build a list of potential name ideas. For example, from this list you might come up with ‘Sprouts’ or ‘Green Fingered Tools’ as name ideas.
Use our Business Name Generator
Try using our Business Name Generator to instantly generate thousands of great name ideas. You can then also check the domain name availability of those business names in our easy to use domain name generator.
Even if none of the suggestions that are generated seem quite right it will give you a whole range of new ideas to work with and around to help you come up with that perfect name.
Conclusion
Getting a great business name isn’t easy and it will likely take a bit of time. Start by considering what your business stands for and then think about how your business name and potential brand identity are going to fit together, what’s it going to look like? What kind of emotional response are you aiming to evoke? Come up with as many ideas as possible.
Finally, remember that you, your friend and family aren’t necessarily the target demographic, so try getting feedback from relevant people on your name ideas.