5 Mistakes To Avoid When Branding Your Company

Now that you have managed to get the wheels of your business turning and it seems like everything’s falling into place, there is one more thing left to do: finding a name for your company.

Sure, it may not sound like a big deal and you might even be tempted to pay little attention to this matter, but trust me when I say that the way you choose to name your company will have a huge impact on everything you plan to do next!

Therefore, if you want to build an echoing name for your business and for yourself – and this is what you should be aiming for – here are some common mistakes you might want to stay away from:

5 Mistakes To Stay Away From

#1 Using Name Generators

As much as you could lack inspiration, never use one of these! In the end, you are telling a computer which is unable to understand linguistic matters to generate a name for you. Not to mention branding, which is a completely unknown territory for this machine. Just don’t!

#2 Voting

It’s pretty much the same situation like using a name generator, only this time there are people involved. Get this right from the very beginning: there is no room for democracy in here! Asking for people’s opinions, who don’t know a thing about branding and linguistics, won’t lead anywhere.

Why? They are most likely going to choose a name based on their personal likings and not based on well-established branding rules.

Your company’s name should be easy to remember and it should represent its very essence. Should you encounter difficulties in your search for the perfect name, ask for an expert’s opinion. Nothing to lose, but everything to gain!

#3 Mistaking Your Preferences With Your Audience’s

You are an individual creating a business from scratch. You were the one who decided to build something, so you might as well do it your way. Always keep in mind your audience’s preferences, but never confuse them with your own.

It’s a bad idea to substitute your own personal tastes with those of the audience you’re targeting. It’s lethal from any perspective you choose to look from: psychological or demographical.

#4 Overlooking Intellectual Property

Any name you come up with has to be checked on the almighty Internet. Run a quick check on domains and look for trademarks. Then, look up that name on Google and see what comes up. You never know what you can discover, so it’s best to take all those precaution measures!

#5 Being Unspecific

Whenever you find yourself brainstorming for that perfect name, focus on the essence of your business. Don’t use generic, random or common names. Instead, choose powerful words which are going to remain in the minds of the people.

What To Keep Your Focus On?

Knowing what to stay away from will make the search a lot easier, especially if you also take into consideration the following tips:

#1 Find Attributes

Find positive words which should describe your company, your products or your services. You can choose anything from cool to chic. The sky’s the limit!

Next, you do the same with the negative attributes. Look for words that do not characterize you or your business.

Simply put, describe who you are and who you are not!

#2 Start Building A Name

This is quite difficult, even for professionals in this field. It takes a lot of imagination and practice. But, if you are a natural, here’s what you can do: brainstorm and write down some names which will encompass the positive attributes, but which will not evoke the negative ones.

#3 Evaluate Names

There are 2 main ways to do it: either by linguistics criteria (in which case you look for how easy it is to spell, how fast can it be pronounced, or if there is an epithet or something obscene in it) or by branding criteria, out of which the most important the evocativeness. A name which is not evocative, is empty. It does not say anything at all.

A great company name is versatile. It can be used in different contexts and it holds different meanings. It is easy to remember, easy to spell and easy to pronounce. Finding the name for your business might not sound that easy after all, but like all challenges you have faced until this point, here is another one that will teach you a thing or two about branding, even though you might not be familiar with this matter at all.

 

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