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Branding a Company

Recently, I have been considering doing another Seminar Company. Therefore, thinking about: 

  • Mission of the company. 
  • Domain names. 
  • Company name. 
  • Direct and indirect messages. 
  • USP. Unique Selling Principle. 
  • Distinction.
  • Legal protection. 
  • Potential logo (images). 
  • Position in the market. 

That’s a lot for a company name, logo and domain name to convey. J

So. Going over my notes, cheat sheets, and name game, to come up with the perfect name.  OK. Maybe version one names. Things do change over time. 

Naming a company usually means one of the following strategies:

  1. Acronyms: A short version of a bigger message.  Examples are: KFC, HSBC, IBM, NBC, or CVS. They have a much longer name. But the short version is convenient. And can be reinforced. 
  2. Descriptions. This is the base of my Name Game exercise, learned from one of my mentors Charles J Givens. Take the Result and some action word and combined them. To convey what your company, product, or service does. Some of mine based on this exercises were: Financial Success, Financial Edge, Click and Grow Rich, Credit Spread System, and many more. Big companies like Facebook, Insurance Quote, Citibank, Office Depot, or Groupon fall under this strategy. 
  3. Metaphor. There are lots of existing terms, phrases, or words, we can use for a company name that have a direct or indirect message. They can tell a story without ever conveying a word. Think of: Amazon the lush green jungle, where every plant leaves. Or Nike, a GREEK god of victory. Trojan, Ajax, Mars, EOS, Olympus all mythological gods.  My brother and I had (he still does), have a tree and landscape business in Toronto, Canada. It was first names Titan Tree Service (after the Titians). Later, I came up with Amazing Tree. It was a deliberate strategy, for yellow page advertising, as they are listed alphabetically, but had a nice IMAGE message (amazing). He has done well in that biz. 
  4. Make it up. Perhaps consider a fabrication. A mix of word that suggest a message. KODAK. Did not mean anything before they branded it. OR EXXON gas. They actually made up a word that was NOT in dictionaries around the world. Of course you can take a look at existing words, and mash them together to come up with some creative.  For example: VITOL, ACCENTURE, XEROX, MICROSOFT, or PANTONE. 
  5. Dictionary. Real word you borrow. UBER means “outstanding example”. Not bad for a new company with a new concept.  Sharp a product seller has a unique position in the market place. TARGET stores. Where you will find what you are looking for every time. The Target. 
  6. Founders. The owner of the company becomes the BRAND. Tommy Hilfiger, Lauren, Ben and Jerry’s to name a few. Of course if the founder has issues (legal, personal, professional or moral). The brand can die easily. 
  7. Change the Meaning.Taking an existing word, or image and re branding it to mean your company. The best example of this would be APPLE. 

One of the major challenges now a days, is the vast number of companies, and limited names available. You might go through 10 to 100 names, before you find a domain name or company name that is not in use. Time consuming but worth it in the end, if you find a unique name or message. 

For help you might consider: 

Mixwords: Too that takes source words and generate random combinations. 

Wordoid: A power word random generator. 

Godaddy: Put your name in and see other versions. 

Good Luck. 

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