How To Choose Your Brand Name

One of the most important things that you will need to do when starting a new business is to create the perfect name for your brand. This will be very exciting as it will feel like your company is really starting to take shape.

It can also be a daunting time though, with the pressure of choosing a name that you will hopefully be taking forward for many years to come. We have put together an easy to follow guide to help you through, breaking the process down into manageable sections that you can refer to as you go.

Create some guidelines to follow

You should take your time in deciding what your brand name should be. Putting together a list of guidelines to follow can help to ensure that you don’t lose sight of what your goal is, as it can be very easy to go down different paths to the one that you intended to be on.

• Know who you are creating your brand for - will your target audience understand what your name means?
• Keep your vision and mission in mind at all times. The brand name needs to represent what you are aiming for and not say something completely opposite to that.
• Have a length of name in mind - would you prefer one word or two? And would you like it to be a play on words or straight to the point?
• Do you need your new brand name to look visual for advertising logos and promotional materials?

Research the market

It is crucial that you do not copy someone else's brand name, even by accident. This can cause confusion to your potential customer base, as they may contact the other company by mistake. It also reduces the risk of needing to change the name later on or be at risk of a lawsuit for copyright infringements. It is also a good idea to see how similar businesses portray themselves - do they have a comical brand name for instance, or does their name actually say nothing about them at all?

Brainstorm your ideas

You should try to come up with as many ideas as you possibly can. Even if you have an idea in your head that you are certain of, sometimes you can have an epiphany if you are playing around with words and come up with something even better! Try different combinations, different lengths and a play on words, as it is best to have a variety of potential brand names in time for the testing stage. If you believe that your company may expand into other areas or add new products in the future, be sure not to include a particular item in your title. This could be very restricting as the company grows, for example, don’t include cupcakes in the name of your company if you one day intend to branch out into ice-cream!

Test out your shortlist

This is very important and should not be skipped. Choose a selection of people to ask, with different ages, genders and those who work in different professions. This should give you a general cross section of opinions and represent society at large. Draw up a short questionnaire that they can fill in, anonymously if they wish, then collate the results to see what they think. You should ask questions such as:

• Do you believe this brand name is memorable?
• Do you know what the company does just by the name?
• Does this brand name sound trustworthy?
• Can you tell what values the company has just from the brand name?
• Does the brand name evoke any emotion in you?

One of the questions should be, do you like the brand name? This is where their opinion may differ from yours, but you should listen to any criticism and take it on board, as sometimes it is easy to take things personally when it is your project. When you have narrowed down your potential names, check to see if the domain name is available for a website, as finding one to suit your business that is easy to find by customers is extremely important.

Once you have chosen your brand name, visit on our website to choose some promotional pens to print it on!

Sources

https://blog.rebrandly.com/brand-name/