Naming Your Business: Identity Crisis? By Akhil Shahani At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

First child or first business, finding a nice name for it can make people work up a sweat. Looking for that perfect name which is suitable for your business, and is yet memorable and “creative sounding” could prove especially difficult. While we’re not going to run up a list of “baby” business names, we could certainly help you go about finding “the one”.

Apart from helping your business get the recall it deserves, paying enough attention to naming your business can save you from legal hassles later on. Keep a couple of things in mind:

In the beginning: What do you wish to convey through your business name? Ideally, it should say something about the nature of your business. Some tips:

• Try either a classy or a fresh and young sounding name depending on your target consumer base

• If you plan on naming your business to reflect company values, use a Thesaurus to find synonyms, or better still, search for symbolism – like “Nike” did to convey the spirit of triumph

• While using words from other languages like Latin, may sound sophisticated and original, take care that it’s not too esoteric

• Sometimes words can have a different or unsuitable meaning in another language. If expanding overseas is on your agenda, make sure that the name you choose for your business doesn’t face that kind of hurdle

• If you already have a logo in mind, then work with the theme of the design; ensure that the name and logo together are picture perfect

No tongue twisters please: Examine the names you have short-listed. Short and simple is the current fad, and won’t go out of fashion in a long time. It will also be remembered better.

Mass appeal: Your name must appeal to the crowd, or at least to a vast majority of your target audience. Try the options out on friends and family to see how they react. Work with the names which are most popular with your audience.

For the cyber audience: Planning a website for your business? First of all, check the availability of your chosen domain name. Since acquiring a domain name is so simple and inexpensive, a lot of them are taken, especially by squatters who hope to sell them at a fancy price to genuine users. Check what the search engines throw up when you look for the name of your business; that will indicate whether it’s available for the taking.

Watch your step: Protecting intellectual property is the foremost concern of business owners and you will have to be careful not to violate any trademark or copyright rules. Research the market well, there are enough and more websites offering information on registered names. Take a look at them before you finalize anything. Likewise, comprehensive data on registered names can be found at The Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries (PTDL). Naming your business means conferring on it an identity which must be unique. So, in turn, you must also see to it that you protect your business name by way of trademarks, copyrights or other such IPR provisions.

On the mandatory side, depending upon the type of ownership, you will have to use appropriate extensions along with the basic company name. Consider taking professional help if you feel there is too much to deal with. “Naming Your Business and Its Products and Services: How to Create Effective Trade Names, Trademarks, and Service Marks to Attract Customers”, by Phil Williams could be of help in creating and protecting the name of your business. “Naming for Power: Creating Successful Names for the Business World”, by Naseem Javed, is another useful resource.

What’s in a name, you may ask. Everything! Branding starts with assigning your business a smart name – what could be more important?

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