A good brand name should be memorable, will help customers move through the decision-making stages, and encourage loyalty over the long term.
Follow our 8-step guide to creating your ideal business brand name.
Strategy
To select a brand name, start by looking at the overall brand strategy and vision. By strategy, look at the choices that you have made on your target audience, your brand promise, brand personality, how it will be executed and how it will be positioned.
Research
Perform some research on competitors in the target market and start identifying keywords that fit the criteria for a brand name. Remember, you are trying to differentiate yourself from competitors and create something that’s memorable with your customers. ABC Mortgages & Protection Advisers Scotland would be an example of an unimaginative brand name, however, something short and sweet such as Haysto would be an example of a memorable and differentiated brand name.
Keywords & Category
When you think of your company, a number of associated words will come to mind. Write them all down, they can be values, market, industry, aspirations. Put them all down in a word cloud. Once there is a list of options on the keywords, you should divide them into different categories.
Idea Generation
Now would be the time to put this forward to the team, employees or even your family and start generating ideas. This can be done on your own, but it can be far more effective (and more fun) to do it with others and can help your team be invested into your vision and buy into your brand.
Shortlist
After idea generation sessions have taken place, it is likely that there will be a shortlist of options.
Availability
The next step would be to check the availability of potential names to check that they don’t conflict with another brand. It is also very important to make sure that there aren’t any trademarks in existence that are registered to the name. Remember, the purpose is to be memorable and distinctive.
Having a distinctive name that isn’t like competitors will also lay the foundations for a strong presence on search engines in the future. The last thing you want is a competitor showing up on the first page of Google or Bing when a customer searches your name on the internet. Check that the website domain is available and secure them as soon as you can. You can check domain availability using websites such as 123 Reg, Fasthosts and GoDaddy.
Evaluate your shortlist
Once it is confirmed that potential names are safe, score each of the names left on your shortlist for suitability (for your business), acceptability (by your market), and feasibility (how well it can be implemented) using an index of 1-10 for each component. You can use this to evaluate your options and disregard those that don’t fit.
Test with your audience
Now the final list will be tested again by being presented to potential clients and the outcome of such sessions will result in selecting the name.
Confirm your name with HLP Compliance
Once you have finalised your business name and brand, the final stage is to advise the Compliance team at HLPartnership of your new identity. Simply email compliance@hlpartnership.co.uk with the details, and they will run a few checks just to confirm your proposed new brand meets the requirements of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) policy on trading styles.
Time to get creative
Now that you’re ready to create your brand name, I thought it would be valuable to share a story with you that has stuck in my mind. Many years ago, I once attended an entrepreneurship workshop and one of the speakers was a successful entrepreneur who had named his business ‘Garlic’.
Everyone looked a little bemused as to why this professional services firm with no relation to food was called ‘Garlic’. When asked why he named it that, his answer stuck with me. He said, you will walk away from this workshop always remembering my business. He was right. I have never forgotten it.
