What’s in a Name? Coming up with the Perfect Brand Name

Here at All the Frugal Ladies, we started the blog with a conundrum – what do we name our website?? We knew four things at that point, all of which were discussed in our brainstorming session:

1.  The website would be about finance, budgeting and money.
2. It must have a strong female touch.
3. The name of our ‘brand’ had to be creative and memorable.
4. The domain had to be available, preferably as a .com

So we started talking about options and at some point Jess asked: “How about a play on words on Beyonce’s song: All the Frugal Ladies?” At that very moment, we knew we had our brand! It was the right name for our site and to represent us all. It fulfilled all our needs perfectly.

The truth is that every brand, company and every site needs to put a lot of thought into their company or product’s name. A company or product can crash and burn by having the wrong name. Some companies will go so far as to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring a specialized agency to come up with a brand, name, logo and font which is then heavily tested out to ensure its success.

Obviously we don’t all have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on creating a brand. What we do have are options. Let’s go through a few ways to come up with a name below!

1) Brainstorm

This is the ‘frugal’ option of course. Brainstorm alone or with business partners and co-workers. Make a list (much like we did) of what you need your name to represent and what aspects are important (i.e. the domain). Based on that, start pitching ideas, throwing them off each other, and jotting everything down. A white board is a good addition to a brainstorming session – it will allow you to view all the suggestions and be inspired by earlier ideas.

Image courtesy of iosphere/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

2) Name generators

So we don’t all have the talent for brainstorming, or maybe you just don’t have a group to bounce ideas. That’s okay! Internet to the rescue. Brand name generators are a cool and affordable tool that can help you come up with a name just by inputting a few keywords. NameRobot is a good one because they give a bunch of options like generating basic, mixed, and fancy names. It will also check your selected name to ensure that it works for other languages which saves you a lot of guessing and checking. I always recall the infamous “Pajero” cars from Mistubishi… it’s just… not… an okay word in Spanish.

3) Competitor research

Before we detail this out, let’s make things clear… do NOT by any means, copy your competitor’s brand name. You will invoke the wrath of a trademark lawsuit. In fact – do the opposite! Ensure that your brand name is unique. Now that it’s settled… what do I mean by competitor research? Well, you’re trying to come up with a brand name that will attract the right demographics and attention in the industry. Check what your competitors have chosen… for example:

• Are the brand names longer or shorter?
• Do they have a serious, fun or artistic tone?
• What about them stands out?
• Would a regular person understand what the brand is about with zero knowledge about the company or product?

Using this information, analyze whether you want to follow a similar path as your competitors or rebel against the standard.

Have you ever dealt with naming a brand (i.e. for your website, company or product)? Tell us about your process below!

 

*Featured image courtesy of Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net