>Name That Business

>Gleaned from Seth Godin’s audio book: Small is the New Big

Seth had this to say about naming a business:
“A brand name is a peg on which people hang all the attributes of your business.”

Here are some business naming tips:

• The less it has to do with your category, the better.
  Examples: Starbucks, Nike, Apple.
• Pick a real English word, or a string of them.
• Be sure it’s easy to spell and pronounce.
• Don’t obsess about getting a short, web name.
• Pick a non-obvious name, such as Lemon Pie for a scuba company. Pick a cool name that means nothing and is easy to hang a good brand upon.
• Don’t forget to come up with a great tagline, such as “Lemon Pie, the easy way to learn scuba.”

Also

• Find cool pictures that fit your name, before you pick the name.
• Don’t listen to anyone else. All your friends will hate your name. Good, they would have hated Starbucks too. If your friends like it, run.

My Personal Note: I named my business The Marketing Spot back in 2001 for no reason other than it was a domain name that was available and I grabbed it. I have often thought of renaming the business but probably never will.

One name I liked was Masterminds. At the time of my epiphany I ran it by an employee and she hated it. Should have used it.

So how did you name your business?

Here is Seth’s original blog on the subject. Check back every day this week for a new entry gleaned from Seth Godin’s Small is the New Big.

For more on small business marketing, see my website: www.themarketingspot.com