Posts Tagged Company names
When It Comes to Business Names, Acronyms Are FUBAR
Maybe you’ll read the following sentence as it was intended, but I sure didn’t. It was the lead sentence in an article in my local business journal: “CA is a fundamentally different company than it was when I arrived two years ago.” To me, “CA” means California, and that’s how I read it. But when [...]
Read moreUnderstanding Connotations in Tag Lines, Business Names and Monikers
The following closer on an email was meant to clinch my interest in an information product, but it did the opposite: “I would love for you to experience the same kind of worldwide notoriety my clients have enjoyed for years.” As a professional word person, I knew instantly that this expert had overlooked the negative [...]
Read moreChanging Your Company Name: The Good, The Bad and The Unnecessary
Wondering whether or not to change your company name? Several reasons for doing this are legitimate. Other reasons should make you stop and reconsider. Most of the time, companies that come to my naming company frantic to find a new name for their firm or for a product do so because of legal problems. They’ve [...]
Read moreNeed a New Business Name? Try an Extended Metaphor
Sometimes a business name functions simply as a name, like Constant Contact, the email service that delivers newsletters. Look at their web site and you won’t easily find any images or wordplay that take off from the words “constant” or “contact.” On the other hand, Named At Last, my company, uses the idea of storks [...]
Read moreFor a Better New Product Name or New Company Name, Create a Scorecard
Imagine being asked to judge a martial arts competition while never having studied karate, tai chi, judo or the like. You might latch on to a favorite whose moves you admire only to learn from people in the know that this competitor’s form was actually embarrassingly and even dangerously bad. Or you might feel completely [...]
Read moreFor Snazzier New Product Names, Use Creative Naming Prompts
Participants in my product development seminar recently asked me for a brainstorming session to help them come up with creative names for information product packages – multi-format products and services that might include a manual, CDs, coaching or consulting and other items. Here are the questions I posed for this group, along with some examples [...]
Read moreThe Mystique of Numbers in Company Names
While visiting the House of the Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts two weeks ago, made famous in the 1851 book by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I mentally tried out other numbers to see if they would sound as spooky and portentous. To my ear, House of the Five Gables sounds all too ordinary, while House of the [...]
Read moreFor Word of Mouth Marketing, Make Sure Your New Company Name is Sayable
Take it from someone who often has to rescue someone from mispronunciation or suffer silently when someone reads my last name out loud for the first time: There is huge value in having a name that people can look at and have no doubt about how to pronounce. That’s why I shook my head sadly [...]
Read moreLessons in Business Naming from Newspaper Headlines
Two headlines in the “Home” section of my local newspaper caught my eye the other day: “Natural floors can be knotty and nice” and “Serving cheese with ease.” Both headlines involve enjoyable wordplay of the sort that could easily figure in business names or tag lines. I can imagine “KnottyandNice.com” as the domain name for [...]
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