In short, it probably won’t!
There’s nothing like a novel noble cause to inspire and capture the imaginations of millenials – something I know first hand. In an increasingly collaborative and tech savvy world, the name of the game for entrepreneurs is to make things that are simpler, more accessible, cheaper, and more customer centric… and we millenials expect nothing less.
But in an age where content is being shoved down our throats at an unprecedented rate through every conceivable channel, entrepreneurs like myself face a new challenge – how do we reach our customers and make our offerings stand out amidst all the noise?
Obviously this is a complicated question that can be attacked from a number of different angles, and an integrated and multi-faceted internet marketing strategy is almost certainly necessary for any company wishing to get its product in the hands (and eyes) of millions of mainstream customers.
In the past year, I’ve worked with and followed a number of early stage FinTech companies that assume their products are inherently viral, and I’m starting to see a pattern; many brilliant entrepreneurs in sector of the start up world erroneously assume their company’s value proposition will speak for itself. In other words:
Many entrepreneurs fail to recognize the importance of defining and developing consistent messaging on the company’s values, customer experience, and the grand vision that underpins everything.
I believe any entrepreneur wishing to be successful needs to understand that their target market (especially if it’s millenials) is unlikely to adopt, share, and become ambassadors for new products and services if they don’t identify with the name, the brand, and what it all stands for.
I’ve recently accepted a new challenge as VP of Marketing at an early stage tech company and have spent a significant amount of time in my first few weeks working with the team to define our brand vision. More specifically, there are concerns that we are going to market with a company name that doesn’t resonate with the target market.
I’ve conducted a significant amount of primary and secondary research to inform our decision, which I’ve compiled into a reflection and 4 step guide that I hope will help other entrepreneurs tackle this challenge in the future.
Step 1: Start with Brand Self-Awareness
Before selecting a name and attempting to build a brand, you should be able to answer the following questions:
1) Who are my customers and what do they value?
2) Where does my company come from and what are its ambitions?
3) Who will be our influencers and advocates?
4) What’s my brands personality and attitude?
5) What does my brand stand for and what makes it special?
If you haven’t thought this stuff through, then you aren’t ready to select a name that will resonate with your target market and energize your team. Do this work first!
Step 2: The Exploratory Stage
Unless you’re really lucky, you probably won’t come up with the perfect name and brand concept by sitting around with your colleagues over a few beers and some unstructured brainstorming.
Your goal at the beginning should be quantity, not quality – you’ll want to cast a wide net and come up with a wide range of possible concepts before you start narrowing it down. Fortunately, there are a number of online tools you can use to help you automatically generate synonyms, rhymes, prefix/suffix combinations, and puns that can provide good inspiration and stimulate further discussion. The graphic below provides a quick summary of a few notable ones.
http://www.slideshare.net/purewest/howto-namethings
I highly recommend that you conduct a couple idea-generation sessions – I found that 6 to 8 people works pretty well. Keep it somewhat structured (I get a lot of my brainstorming techniques from IDEO) and make sure you talk about who your customers are and the value proposition. Once everyone has the appropriate context, put them to work on proposing some name concepts and selectively use some of the language generated from the 10 tools mentioned about to stimulate discussion. Encourage crazy ideas and keep the focus on quantity – you should endeavor cover the wall in 100+ sticky notes.
Step 3: Think about deal breakers
Before you get too excited about some of the name possibilities you’ve come up with, you’ll want to think through a few key considerations (many of which are technical). I’ve developed the following checklist based on a collection of Internet articles that discuss the DO’s and DON’T’s of naming a company.
| Naming your company – checklist | |
| Limited number of Apps with similar names in App Stores | ✓ |
| Good domain name is available or for sale | ✓ |
| No trademark issues | ✓ |
| Social media accounts are available | ✓ |
| Limited ‘noise’ in Google search | ✓ |
| It’s classy (i.e. not conspicuously close to other popular names) | ✓ |
| Name is clear and recognizable | ✓ |
| Name is pronounceable | ✓ |
| Name is not more than 15 characters | ✓ |
| Name consistent with our company’s values, vision, and culture | ✓ |
| Name lends itself to a good tagline? | ✓ |
Step 4: The Confirmatory Stage
Ultimately you want everyone in your team to live the brand, so of course it matters to have a name that the founders and the team love that meets all the requirements of the above checklist. Creating a vibrant, dynamic, and authentic organizational culture will help you attract and retain the best talent and is arguably critical to ensuring your company can go the distance.
However, when it comes to your customers, the effectiveness of your name and the response it evokes is an empirical question. Once you’ve arrived at a short-list of names, why not consult your target market and see which name they like best? Instead of guessing, why not validate which name is most likely to maximize your exposure and corresponding success? There are countless ways to get quick and meaningful feedback without spending any money at all – free survey tools, starting a Reddit thread, or crowdsourcing feedback through a forum frequented by your target market are just a few examples.
Despite all the tools, resources, and wisdom available to you, naming your company and building a brand, particularly in the world of tech startups and Apps, is extremely daunting and time consuming. However, if you are tech entrepreneur responsible for marketing a new product, or service, don’t make the potentially fatal mistake of assuming your value proposition will speak for itself.
There are always exceptions. Perhaps there’s some obscure possibility that your product will reach your customers and be overwhelmingly successful even with a name that doesn’t resonate with your target customers. But why take the chance? Do you really want to say you think you will be successful in spite of your name and branding?
References:
http://www.slideshare.net/purewest/howto-namethings
http://mashable.com/2012/10/04/startup-naming/
http://www.creativebloq.com/tips-naming-app-9112818
https://blog.sensortower.com/blog/2013/07/10/5-mistakes-to-avoid-when-naming-your-app/