A good book always needs a catchy title to get the attention of roaming eyes of onlooker and induce him to buy and convert him to a reader. At the same time the name should also be relevant to the plot. Not all books can have “no branding” strategy as successfully exploited by author Naomi Klein. No name strategy is unlikely to fly if you are a company or product. Legal and differentiation require one to embrace a name. Like books, the name of a company should also be easy to recall and must create an interest in the minds of the people. Even in the ancient era, Kings named and also created symbols for their Kingdoms by which people recognized them and identified them for generations.
In this Start-Up era companies have come up with the most creative names which are easily recognizable. The etymology of names for a business makes the impact in the minds of the customers. Most common and famous etymologies used in names recently are the removal of vowels (Flickr, Quikr, Scribd etc.), use of most common words with unique suffixes (Spotify, Mashable etc.). There are many famous companies which have become extremely popular only when they renamed themselves. Few examples would be, Andersen Consulting which is now popularly known as Accenture, Lucky and Goldstar which is now known worldwide as LG, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation is now the famous SONY, Blue Ribbon Sports which later became the one of leaders in the sports wear industry – Adidas.
The most common reasons why most companies opt for a name change are
- Renaming dictated by merger
- Name associated with failures
- Name not appropriate for NEW world markets when it comes to GLOBALIZATION.
- Difficult to remember
- Name changes according to Vaastu and Feng Shui
- Name is outdated in terminology : Name has to appeal to a NEW & more affluent market
- Name has negative connotations in the new markets they are serving
- Name need to reposition & new the corporate brand
- Name is against cultural norms in different states
- Name is geographically restrictive
- Name is limiting in range of operations
- Name no longer fits in the businesses they are in
- Name is in trademark conflict
- Name is misleading to customers
- Difficult to pronounce
- Name is Too long
The various steps to be followed in renaming a company is 1)Define the purpose for renaming 2)List out various names according to the purpose 3) Shortlisting of the names 4)Select a winner 5) Validate the name with existing companies and domains 6) Repeat from Step 3 if validation fails.
Think both creatively and strategically when naming/renaming a company. Cool sounding names don’t always become a winner. While selecting the name, firstly the company should measure the emotional value or sensitiveness of the existing name in the minds of the customer. Secondly, check for compatibility with the product or service provided by the company and whether a customer will be able to relate the company to a product or service when he/she hears the name. Thirdly follow the basic naming rules like keep it short, unique, easily recallable and easy to pronounce. Renaming a company can open up new opportunities in the market for the company. It’s like coming in for a second innings but only to play it better with the proper strategy.
Kaarthik Shakthi R
Junior Consultant – Marketing