Naming Your Company, Products or Services
The selection of a company name and product/brand names are among the most important marketing decisions made by an organization. This holds true whether your company is a multi-billion dollar global corporation, a local non-profit, or a small consulting firm. In today's global marketplace, competition has been turbocharged! Even the little shoe store on Main Street is now competing against shoe retailers all over the nation.
Your company name is the beginning of your brand differentiation, and your product name(s) build on that image. Brand differentiation is critical to a business's success, sometimes its very survival. How likely is it that Goldie Jean Studlendgehawn ever would have become famous? Yet, Goldie Hawn is a name known around the world. Similarly, do you think that Thomas Mapother IV could have become a great action hero, commanding millions for each movie role? Yet, Tom Cruise (his middle name) has accomplished that feat.
YOUR COMPANY NAME: is ubiquitous. It is seen on business cards, ads, promotions, letterhead, invoices, shirts, signs, directories and your website. Whether you like it or not, your company name communicates to prospects and customers. It often says or implies something about the size of the company, its specialization, geographical territory, and how long you have been in business. A great company name can inspire logos and advertising campaigns. It can encourage referrals and word of mouth advertising by being memorable and pleasing for customers to convey. An outdated or poorly chosen name can limit growth and make each sale more difficult.
YOUR PRODUCT NAME: is how your customers think of your product. It differentiates your brand from the competition, and communicates positive attributes to the prospect or customer. Would Tide be as big a seller if they called it "Proctor & Gamble Laundry Detergent"? Would Silk be the market leader if they called it "White Wave Soy Milk"? Yet, while the benefits of a great name have been shown countless times in the packaged goods world, service industries can also receive a marketing boost from the right name. What you call a workshop, fund raising event, or package of your professional services DOES matter!
At the Qualitative Difference, we have created successful names by leading teams of corporate executives through state-of-the-art brainstorming exercises, and we have used our own team for name generation when time or resources dictated that approach. While we encourage clients to launch their company or product with the right name, we have also worked on name changes when the limitations of a current name were recognized, or in merger/acquisition situations.
In all cases, since trademark and website availability issues get more challenging each year, we guarantee at least 500 name candidates for every naming project. And, to assist in your selection, we provide a list of our TOP 20 favorites based on the pre-decided evaluation criteria and our marketing judgment. You receive a report with our recommendations, and the lists of all possible names we generated.