HOW GOOD IS YOUR NAME?—Your Name is Your Promise, So Be Clear About it!

AKINWUNMI A. ADEBAYO | #MyRevealNotes

She wanted Gold and Purple as the colours of her brand logo for her fashion business. I insisted that gold was not necessary for both brand essence and for print production-cost reasons; but the purple was just perfect especially if we created a colourful variant shades of purple. It will capture what her fashion business stood for and represent. Then with the naming of the business, it took another painstaking session to convince her to consider a more fashion-friendly name. As a creative, I am sensitive to how people can be so sentimental and out-rightly stubborn on their preferred name. So I have developed experience in handling such scenarios. I had to tactfully find a common ground so that we adopted her name but with a tweak to it to reflect the brand as a fashion business.

There’s so much joy and fun in the naming process of just about any entity. Think of a couple—first time parents—joyfully drawing up names for their baby. Naturally, they would consider quite a number of names. The sex of the child, and other things that they may hold so dear will contribute to the names they’d eventually settle for. Often, the name a child bears subconsciously conjures an image of the child’s personality or tells a story about events that surrounds the child’s birth or perhaps reflect the hope and aspirations the parents have for their child. For example, a child with the name Alexander may readily bring to mind something as significant as the iconic Greek figure Alexander the Great; the historical Alexander, a brilliant shining light, though cut short in his prime at 33, but he had conquered the known world at a tender age of 30! The name, “Alexander” means defender of the people—as it is for other variants of the name such as Alexis, Alexia, Alexandria, etc.

Similarly, the name you eventually settle for your business subconsciously creates certain imageries you should be careful and intentional about; it can play a key role in drawing potential customers to pay closer attention to your business—or it can misinform or confuse them, making them to seek alternatives elsewhere. The same way first impression matters and it’s hard to correct, your business name should do exactly same for your business as a brand. Therefore, it is important that you get it right the first time and eliminate any room for confusion or ambiguity.

To begin with, the name you choose or settle for your business should reflect the objectives of that business. A mistake common among new small businesses is that they’re too emotional about the names they choose—they always seem to just focus on personal preference rather than business strategy. The name of your business should be strategic enough to sell your business in your absence!

Sometime ago, I was given a referral by a female client to a prospective client. The conversation with this prospective client, a female by the way, was on brand development for her food business and her apparel business—two businesses she wanted to launch.

In starting and maintaining these kinds of conversations, I often have a pattern of initial engagement I adopt in order to get conceptual clarity. As we spoke and I began to offer her insights, she sounded adamant and seem sucked on using her nickname for her two businesses.?Her reasons? She claimed she had been known by that nickname for as long as she can remember by “many” who know her—and that goes back to her growing up years.

A nickname sometimes is a good brand take-off especially if you’re a very popular figure or a celebrity. But even at that, there are still basic work to be done and other things to be considered. Celebrities are famous for something for which their personal brand has become synonymous with. For example, 2baba is synonymous with music—a specific kind of music in message and style. In addition, there is a personal lifestyle closely associated with it and certain values consistently demonstrated with it. So with the name 2baba, there is shared meaning with the audience in the pop culture. Therefore, any business created with that name will be perceived as a brand extension of the name 2baba. Ideally, the business will be in the same entertainment industry or a related industry. However, operating in another industry, the traditional values of that industries must fit with what the 2baba brand name already represents—otherwise, there has to be certain structural departures so that there will be no unnecessary conflicts between what is already existent in the (2Baba) brand name and what you’re trying to build.

But really, for a new business by a regular person, all these drama is almost not needed. There are thousands of small businesses being registered every day. You’re not a celebrity—at least not in the way you would consider entertainment or sports stars. Therefore, your small business has to compete with so many businesses of similar types in the congested traffic flow of human economic interactions. You therefore need to minimize any unnecessary sentiments that wouldn’t contribute or may even cause mental roadblocks to your bottom-line. In this client’s case, I had to concede that while the nickname may still be usable for her Apparel business (if we worked well on finding a match between what are the traditional values of that industry and what her message as a business is), however for her food business, it just wasn’t workable. Clothes have a style and a luxury to them—foods and drinks on the other hand, are about yearnings, cravings and survival. So a Business name for a Food and Drinks business should speak to those generic needs

As we spoke and interacted, one thing was obvious—emotions and sentiments were doing the talking and she was not yet ready for sound reasoning.

Your business name is the first thing people encounter—it is your unique opportunity to give a message and tell a short, powerful and compelling story and you have to “permanently” grab that opportunity with intent and precision. It is good that you come up with a number of possible ideas for a name. Don’t settle for a name in a hurry. Don’t get too attached to a name either. Whatever name you think you like, there are chances that someone may already have registered a business with that name or a very similar name; so you have to check with the Corporate Affairs Commission office to ensure that the names you’re considering are free.?However, before you even get to this point, please note that the name of your business needs to have that emotionally-engaging element to it within the native values expected and embraced in the industry your business would be operating in. Think of iconic names like Guaranty Trust Bank, Fidelity Bank, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, etc.—These are financial institutions, hence they operate in the financial industry, handling and managing people’s monies and resources. Therefore, native values expected from someone entrusted with money include trust, integrity, profitability, stability, a sense of adequacy and an image of self-sufficiency, etc. So when each of these institutions or companies were formed, the founders had to factor these native values into the choice of the name they settled for—while they still took time to create their own unique message in that industry.

Sometimes, some people can just settle for their personal names. Some pundits believe one should avoid initials because it is difficult to create a warm or memorable feeling from them. Again, I’d say, consider the native values of the industry you want to operate in. Names like T.M Lewin (Fashion Industry), Dolce & Gabbana (Fashion Industry), EKO Hospital (Health Industry) SO&U (Advertising Industry), Philips Consulting (Consulting), Olakunle Soriyan Company (Consulting) are just a few of the long list of successful names of businesses that have been around for long. They each represent something memorable.

In conclusion, in choosing your business name, you must begin with the end in mind—look at your target market. Ralph Liftshitz chose Ralph Lauren as his business name because he wanted to appeal to the English Aristocracy. Perhaps in similar manner, Segun Abiona of Nicole & Giovanni has adopted Nicole & Giovanni, N&G as name for his socks company because he wants it to appeal to a global audience. Others may opt for cultural names because they’re trying to create a business that will be cultural ambassadors.

However, keep in mind that your business name should also be timeless in its appeal—times change, and you don’t want to be left behind or stuck in a time that has already passed.