Articles

Marketing: Creating a Company's 'Good Name'

March 20, 1985

Editor's Note: The Name Works was a Long Island company founded by Daniel Oromaner and Sharon Hollander in 1983. Daniel Oromaner is currently President of The Qualitative Difference.

The wrong name applied to a business, service, or product line could seriously hurt the chances for success in today's competitive marketplace.

"The public has become jaded by massive doses of advertising," explains Daniel Oromaner, executive vice president of The Name Works, a Locust Valley company that specializes in helping executives create appropriate names for their company, products, or services. "To penetrate the target market it is essential that the name used by a company command attention, promote visibility and inspire retention."

Until recently, most of The Name Works clients--Burger King, American Express, Warner-Lambert, Hills Bros, and the Bradford Schools, for example--have been national corporations headquartered throughout the country. As Long Island firms are discovering the value of hiring marketing, advertising and public relations specialists to help them gain wider public recognition, they are also becoming aware that a significant factor in shrewd market positioning has to do with the memorability of company's name and the names of its products and services. As a result, many Nassau and Suffolk businesses are now hiring professional name-generators to provide company and product names that will give a competitive edge.

Cycle Products Co. (Commack), a leader in bicycle equipment and accessories is one of the organizations that hired The Name Works.

Ron Jarush, Cycle vice president of marketing, describes the situation that prompted him to call in The Name Works. "Our market research indicated that there was a lack of consumer awareness of one of our product lines and we thought that a name change might be part of our strategy to heighten market response."

Cost Effective

Hiring a professional to help create a name is not inexpensive, but it could be a cost-effective expenditure. The right name has been known to increase sales and the value of a firm's stock. Conversely, the wrong name can significantly diminish a product or company's market appeal.

"Generally, a number of years are devoted to the development of a company, service, or product idea--usually culminating in an extensive advertising campaign," explains Sharon Hollander, president of The Name Works. "Given the enormous investment, the last thing a company can afford is a lackluster name."

Hollander and Oromaner have established certain criteria for effective company and product names. A name, they say, should be attention getting, appropriate to its market category, and readily advertisable. It should also inspire positive associations. Hollander and Oromaner cited a few examples of names that work.

"'Minute Man Press' works very well," says Oromaner, "as long as it lives up to the speedy service its name so effectively implies." He also likes, "The Byte Shop" because it sounds like a friendly and unintimidating place to buy a computer. "The name also lends itself to punning, which makes it easy to advertise."

Hollander gave "Verbatim," a school for court reporting, and "Liquiflo" a distributor of fluid handling systems and parts for pumps, as two of her favorites. "Each of these names is very positive. They say, 'We do our job well.'"

The Name Works does not recommend naming a firm after its founder. "That might have been okay years ago, but there has been a complete change in the business environment," Oromaner says. "Where a company once may have had one or two competitors, it now has hundreds, and the name must stick in the public's mind. Unless you are Paul Newman marketing salad dressing, the name of the founder will mean nothing to the consumer."

A small company, named after the owner, may experience a problem after the firm has grown. Hollander explains, "Clients might feel neglected if they aren't dealing directly with the person whose name the company bears."

Since most companies do not have the prestige of an IBM, The Name Works discourages the use of initials. Hollander and Oromaner also counsel against being so specific that a business region or product line becomes limited by the name.

Long Island Sound Systems, a telecommunications equipment firm headquartered in Hauppauge, is a perfect example. The company name became inappropriate once it was decided to expand geographically. The new name will have no regional associations.

The Name Works method of name generation differs significantly from the methods used by its competitors. Instead of inventing the name on their own, The Name Works staff assists the client company's executive team in the creative process.

"No one understands the business and target market better than a company's executives," explains Oromaner. "And no one else can fully appreciate the nuances they wish to convey. That is why it should be the key people in a corporation--not a computer, not an outside consultant--who create the name that is used."

Executives--usually after concocting list after list of their own name suggestions--are finding that name-generating services can eliminate internal stalemates and introduce a breath of fresh air. And when the name that is generated effectively sells a product or service and promotes a company's visibility, the service makes good business sense.

"When the name works," Sharon Hollander adds, "People react and remember."

Copyright 1985 Long Island Business News (www.libn.com) all rights reserved.