Five Useful Tips for Creating an Outstanding Business Name

Naming your company is one of the most important decisions you can make. Your business name sets the tone for your entire brand and influences the first impression potential customers’ first impression of your business. 

As an entrepreneur, ensuring your brand name resonates with your target audience is critical. Failure to give your company a proper name can have serious branding consequences. 

So, to help, we’ll provide six quick tips on creating a memorable brand name that aligns with your brand positioning and resonates with the right people.

Six Quick Steps to Building the Perfect Brand Name

1. Understand Your Brand’s Positioning 

Before you begin brainstorming, it’s essential to consider how your brand positioning will influence your name. Ask yourself, what is the purpose of your brand? Who is your primary audience? What do you want to communicate to your target audience? 

Once you clearly understand your business and its brand positioning, you’ll be in a better position to find words and phrases that align with your brand’s message. Aligning your name with your brand is crucial to ensure that your brand name suggestions perfectly fit your business.

2. Consider Using Metaphors, Visual Imagery, and Emotionally Charged Words

When creating a powerful brand name, metaphors, visual imagery, and emotionally charged words can be your best friends. 

Metaphors are great for conveying complex ideas in a simple way, and visual imagery can help create a solid mental picture in the minds of your target audience. 

Emotions are also powerful because they are the driving force behind many decisions people make. When brainstorming names, think about using metaphors, visual imagery, and emotions to create an impactful brand name. 

A great example is how the brand name Apple evokes a sense of simplicity, while the brand name Amazon communicates vastness. These names are highly effective because they are associated with powerful metaphors and emotions. 

3. Brainstorm Names 

Once you’ve considered how your brand positioning will influence your name and how you make the most of metaphors, visual imagery, and emotionally charged words, start brainstorming. 

Embrace your entrepreneurial creativity and generate as many ideas as possible. One quick way to achieve this is to use a thesaurus and look for words that communicate your brand’s message. 

You can also use brainstorming techniques such as word association and mind mapping to find catchy, unique, and memorable brand names. 

Crowdsourcing is another excellent way to generate ideas. You can get expert help on platforms like Squadhelp, where experienced professionals can help you craft brilliant name ideas. Following this path is a great way to get many ideas quickly, and you can even use Squadhelp’s audience testing services to validate the names you find. 

4. Pay Attention to Existing Brand Names

Before making your final decision, it’s always helpful to study some top brands and analyze their names. Here are the top ten brands and how they’ve used metaphors, visual imagery, and emotions to create powerful names: 

• Apple: Simple, modern, and iconic 
• Amazon: Vastness, convenience, and speed 
• Nike: Speed, power, and greatness 
• Microsoft: Reliability, security, and efficiency 
• Samsung: Quality, innovation, and trust 
• Coca-Cola: Happiness, refreshment, and fun 
• McDonald’s: Affordable and convenient 
• Starbucks: Comfort and luxury
• Walmart: Low prices and value 
• Disney: Magic, wonder, and imagination 

Note that these brands built their brands around these names, giving them meaning or extra meaning that best suits their brand positioning.

5. Conduct Audience Testing Before Making Your Final Decision 

Ensure you test the names you discovered with a sample audience of your primary audience. This will help you check if the name resonates with your target audience. 

But, while audience testing, it’s vital to be careful what questions you ask. Instead of asking which name they like, you should ask which names draw attention and inspire actions, as well as which names best align with your brand ideas.

6. Validate Your Name Ideas by Conducting Trademark Research 

Once you’ve generated a list of potential names and tested them with your primary audience, validate them by conducting trademark research. Validating your brand name will help ensure that another company is not already using your possible brand name. 

If you find that your name is already registered, you will have to choose a different name. 

Trademarking comes with unique challenges, and getting help from an experienced trademark lawyer can help you immensely when securing your chosen name.

Conclusion 

Naming your brand is an important decision, and it’s essential to do your research and brainstorm a lot of ideas. Once you’ve created a list of potential names for your business, ensure you get them audience-tested. 

We’re sure that with these tips in mind, you’ll be able to create a memorable brand name that resonates with your target audience.

Looking for a tool to help with Brand Names?

Grant Polachek is the head of branding at Squadhelp, a 3X Inc. 5000 company that creates short, memorable, and unique brand names for established Fortune 500 corporations and growing brands. As a top naming agency, we researched over a million names and compiled the ultimate selection of innovative business and domain names.