Branding Business Marketing

How to Find the Perfect Name for your Business in 2021

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It’s a lot easier to step into success in business when you’re a professional at what you do. Your immense experience and mastery makes it a lot easier for you to do tons of amazing things like innovating on an already existing product or even creating a new one altogether. 

But while trying to start your business, don’t make the same mistake we’ve seen lots of professionals make by assuming that the experience and mastery they’ve gathered in their niche over the years is a sure guarantee of their success in business.

These people forget that there are many requirements a startup must fulfill to establish an emotional bond and win the trust of its audience because a shocking 95% of customers only buy products that they have a strong feeling for.

And one of the most effective ways of winning the hearts and minds of your audience is by getting the perfect name for your business, one that communicates your product’s superior quality, usefulness, and integrity. 

Why Get a Perfect Brand Name

Understand that getting a great name can make your business succeed despite the challenges in the market. The same way our names define us, your brand’s name can positively identify your business and provide it with a unique touch other businesses don’t have. 

We see an outstanding example of this when Oreo’s superior brand name helped the company outperform Hydrox, even though Hydrox was an older company with the first mover’s advantage.

The perfect name can help your company:

1. Attract Ideal Customers 

Getting the perfect name will help you avoid the most common blunders many entrepreneurs make by choosing a bad brand name that is too weak to attract their target audience.  

2. Get your Customers Excited 

Companies with the perfect brand name sell themselves every because they excite and enthuse customers, and these customers spread their enthusiasm throughout the market.

3. Distinguish Your Brand from Competition

The perfect brand name communicates powerful ideas that make your brand unique. For your business and products to stand out, you need an image, a living idea that can be personified in your products and services. 

Here’s how You can Find the Perfect Name for Your Business

1. Understand Your Target Audience

The level of success you’ll achieve depends on whether your audience appreciates your brand and the services it offers. CBInsights discovered that 42% of small businesses fail because their customers couldn’t see the importance of their products. 

So before starting your business, it’s important to always ensure you’ve taken the time to study your target audience and understand what their needs are, so you can balance your creativity with the expectations of your customers.

Good understanding of your core audience won’t just help you tailor your brand in a way that aligns with your audience; it will also help you determine if the tone of your brand’s name should be modern, classic, pragmatic, playful, or intriguing.

2. Get in On the Right Foot

Now that you’ve got an idea of your audience’s needs, it’s time you show them that your brand represents their best interests. And, a great way to communicate this is by capturing the essence of their needs in your brand’s name.

But don’t stop there; make sure this essence is incorporated into your company’s culture, values, and branding. This level of consistency is what makes your business authentic. 

3. Brainstorm: Search for the Perfect Name

It’s time to put on your thinking cap, switch on your creativity, and brainstorm the best name for your business. Look through dictionaries and thesauruses for words that align with the core principles of your brand, and don’t be afraid to combine and transmute words.

Brainstorming can be very demanding in terms of energy, concentration, and discipline. So prepare yourself before beginning your search for the perfect name. Get some drinks, creative music, and whatever helps you generate great ideas.

Don’t feel obligated to walk this road alone; get a team, discuss your business, your vision, your target audience, and the kind of name your business needs. 

Also, try to remove any limitations to your team’s creativity because it goes a long way in helping you unlock their potential and get the best results from them.

But, if setting up a team is too much trouble for you, then use a strong business name generator. Using a business name generator could set the spark that you need to find the perfect name for your brand.

4. Look Before You Leap

Hold on! Before you follow Mark Zuckerberg’s creed of “move fast, break things,” you need to be mindful of certain risk zones in naming. Businesses that neglect these zones face dire consequences that harm their brand, vision, tone, and mission.

So, take care to avoid:

  • Single English words: A lot of them are already trademarked
  • Generic words like icon, force, and United
  • Symbolic words like Bridge, Spring, and Rocket

Instead, stay on the safe side by making sure whatever name you chose for your business is not only easy to say and spell, but also sounds appealing.

Finally: Test your Name with an Audience

Now that you’ve gotten a quick idea of how to find the best name, it’s time to take the final step by testing your name with an audience to ensure that your customers will love and connect with it right away.

About the author

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Grant Polachek

Grant Polachek is the Head of Branding at Inc 500 company Squadhelp.com, the worlds #1 naming platform, with nearly 20,000 customers from the smallest startups across the globe to the largest corporations including Nestle, Philips, Hilton, Pepsi, and AutoNation. Get inspired by exploring these winning company name ideas.