Michael Kanellos, editor at large at CNET News.com, has an interesting article providing some advices for nowadays business naming, that even if is focused on tech companies, is still useful for businesses at large:
In any event, for you start-up execs, here’s a handy guideline for how not to name your company:
1. Avoid redundancies. This was a lesson lost on Internet Gold-Golden Lines of Petach Tiva, Israel.2. Don’t sound like you may have a criminal or shady past. This one’s for you, DepoMed. It sounds like you’re going to sell vitamins out of the trunk of your car, not like you’re a developer of advanced medical technology for gastric conditions.
3. Don’t be lurid. Hello, XenoPort, NuVasive, and WiderThan. If you can spare the money, hire a focus group of 13-year-old boys to give you their reactions to all name suggestions.
4. Triple words are out. Yes, that’s you, VendareNetblue. It didn’t help PriceWaterhouseCooper. Even the Germans try to limit the combining of words to two.
5. Don’t sound desperate or obvious. Good Technology. KnowFat. Though, sometimes it works. Hurray Holding: Enthusiasm makes up for a lot.
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1 9 Things To Consider When Naming Your Brand | brandXpress blog // Sep 26, 2006 at 1:48 pm
[…] Since we talked here earlier about Naming Don’ts, let’s see some DO’s on the matter. Without any doubts, choosing a name is one of the most important decisions a company can make when launching a brand. More than that, when we’re talking about small businesses it seems that the most stressful thing about starting a new company was not manufacturing of products or advertising to customers, but coming up with a name. […]
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