People who intensely dislike your company or feel wronged by you will always find some way to complain. However, a lack of attention during the naming process can inadvertently make it easier for comedians, protesters and whiners to poke fun at your company.
Before finalizing your new company name, run it by these tests so you can tweak the name or reject it if necessary to avoid predictable problems. Also ask the funniest people you know whether they see an obvious (well, obvious to them, at least) way to make your firm a laughingstock.
1. What do the initials spell? One reason why National Skyway Freight changed its name to Flying Tigers is that “NSF” is a well-known abbreviation for “not sufficient funds.” Likewise, you wouldn’t want to discover after you’d already invested in and promoted your name that disgruntled customers were calling Condo Renovators United of Detroit, your company, “CRUD.”
2. Does the name resemble or evoke a disreputable word? Marketers coined the name Allegis as an umbrella name for United Airlines, Hertz, Hilton and Westin Hotels. However, many people who looked at the first five letters thought about “allegedly” and “allegations” rather than “allegiance.” That, together with the challenge of pronouncing it, led the corporation to abandon its $7.5 million investment in the name and go back to its previous name, UAL Corporation. Something similar happened to Allegheny Airlines, which got tagged with the nickname “Agony Airlines” until it renamed itself USAir.
3. Do the letters or anything about the way the name is spelled suggest anything negative? When Standard Oil (S.O.) of New Jersey morphed into Esso, then came in for criticism under the name Exxon, commentators sometimes latched onto the double “X” and called it the “Double Cross Company.” Likewise, you might find it cute to call your caf
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