Think about this. What in the event you had been to strip away every little thing out of your model, abandoning its single most seen element? What would you’ve?
No, it’s not your emblem. It’s your identify.
After all, a brand is a lot more than your identify (or your emblem). At its essence, your model is what prospects and purchasers suppose and say about you. It’s your popularity magnified by your visibility. And it’s the factor (or issues) individuals affiliate together with your agency of their minds.
However to unleash these associations requires a set off. And for many companies there is only one set off. You guessed it—your identify.
Your identify is a proxy in your agency and every little thing your corporation represents within the minds of your audiences.
As a logo of every little thing you symbolize, then, it carries numerous weight. But many companies give their identify little or no love or thought.
Why is that? And the way can a reputation have an effect on a agency’s fortunes?
These are the questions I wish to reply right this moment.
Why Your Title Issues
Give it some thought. You possibly can’t have a enterprise with out a identify. With out a identify, individuals can’t take into consideration or discuss you. You’d don’t have any referrals. No enterprise. No future.
After all each agency has a reputation. However some names are higher than others.
What does a foul identify appear to be? I don’t wish to embarrass anybody, so let me provide you with a couple of fictional examples*:
An accounting or regulation agency:
Delgado, Roderick, Cannon, Nguyen & Munoz
A consulting agency:
SHM Associates
A expertise agency:
The Digital Transformation Group
What’s unsuitable with these names? All of it boils all the way down to the best way individuals’s minds work. Individuals don’t like complexity. They’re drawn to easy ideas and phrases. In a world cluttered with hundreds of companies and advertising messages, individuals can even have hassle recalling names. So any assist we may give them could make an enormous distinction.
Within the case of the agency Delgado, Roderick, Cannon, Nguyen & Munoz, no person goes to recollect this lengthy string of companion names. Shoppers and prospects do what any of us would do: they lop off every little thing after the primary identify. They name it Delgado. Individuals will simplify each time. It’d as properly be a regulation of physics. I’ll name it the Regulation of Discount.
In a scenario like this, a agency can be good to observe the lead set by their purchasers. Change the identify—or register a fictitious identify (also referred to as a “dba”)—to a single companion’s identify. It doesn’t need to be the primary one within the string, although that could be the best in your purchasers to acknowledge. You would possibly, as a substitute, go for essentially the most attention-grabbing identify within the record.
If all the named companions have retired or died, shortening the identify may be straightforward. Many companies have taken this route, and it makes a ton of sense. A multi-word identify is complicated and tough to recollect. A brief identify, however, matches readily into individuals’s crowded minds.
What about SHM Associates?
Initially, let’s take a second to understand what’s occurred right here already. Clearly, the Regulation of Discount has been at work. That SHM stood for one thing at one time. Perhaps it was a string of names. Perhaps three descriptive phrases. Sooner or later, individuals stopped calling the agency by its full identify, collapsing it like an accordion right into a compact initialism. Earlier than lengthy, the agency began calling itself that, too.
However there’s an issue with initialisms. They’re onerous to maintain straight. “Was it SHM or SMH?” This could result in some embarrassing mixups. And when events kind the URL into their internet browser, a transposed letter can cease them of their tracks. Lead move suffers. Initialisms are additionally boring and simple to confuse with similar-looking names. (What number of three-letter rivals are you able to consider?) There may be nothing about SHM that’s memorable or attention-grabbing.
Then there’s that “Associates” dangling on the tip like a unfastened muffler. It too will fall away and everybody will name the corporate SHM. Appendages—normally added to make a agency sound extra substantial—simply detract from a reputation and are virtually universally ignored.
Lastly, let’s think about The Digital Transformation Group.
At first blush, you would possibly suppose this can be a good identify. In spite of everything, it says precisely what the group does. However there’s an issue. Let’s name it The Regulation of the Generic.
Descriptive names are generic. Whereas they do a great job of describing the enterprise they’re in, they do a really poor job of distinguishing themselves from the ocean of different generic names within the market. As a result of they describe, in addition they are typically lengthy. Once more, that makes them much less attention-grabbing and tougher to recollect.
And bear in mind what inevitably occurs to lengthy names? Yep. The Regulation of Discount kicks in. Earlier than lengthy, The Digital Transformation Group will change into TDTG or, as a result of it’s shorter, DTG. That descriptive identify has simply change into an inscrutable initialism.
There’s one more reason generic names are normally a poor alternative. They don’t age properly. Chances are high, the phrases “digital transformation” will really feel dated in a couple of years as some newer, extra swanky time period takes its place. Additionally, companies evolve. Names aren’t so versatile. Many companies that outgrow their generic, descriptive names flip them into initialisms to keep away from complicated their purchasers and prospects.
Subsequent Steps
Take a tough have a look at your agency’s identify. Is it brief, memorable and simple to pronounce? Is it properly differentiated out of your rivals? Or does it fall into one of many classes above?
It’s by no means too late to alter your identify, and lots of companies undergo the method with nice success. The payoff? Improved model retention, tighter differentiation and larger model loyalty. Not dangerous for a alternative phrase or two!
If you happen to’d wish to be taught extra concerning the sorts of names a agency can have and the way to decide on a great one, try this short blog post.
Completely happy Advertising!
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