Your business and product names are an important part of your business identity and marketing. Good names create an aura of exclusivity and entice clients by promising benefits. Good names market for you.
Do you have a hard time coming up with names? Perhaps you called your business ABC Enterprises, because you couldn’t think of anything else. What does that name say about you and what you do? Absolutely nothing. It doesn’t tell customers why they would want to do business with you, because they have no idea what it is that you do, or who you do it for.
Here’s my favorite way to come up with a name. I call it “Idea Storming.”That is a name I created to describe one of my consulting services. Brainstorming has been done to death. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt from the seminar. Idea Storming puts a different spin on it. You recognize the concept, but it has a different name, and it ties to my Idea Lady identity. See how it works?
I help my clients to Idea Storm, but here’s how you can do it on your own. Get a piece of paper and a pen, or use your computer. Write down every word or phrase you can think of to describe your business. What do you do? Who are your clients? What results do you get for them? What words would your clients use to describe what you do? How would they describe the feeling they got doing business with you? Why is your business better than others?
Scan books and magazine articles for words and phrases that jump off the page at you. Talk to friends and associates, and get them to Idea Storm with you. Ask customers to describe what you do.
Make a nice, long list, then keep going. Get out your thesaurus (or use the one in your word processor) to come up with words with meanings similar to what you wrote down. There is a great online tool to identify synonyms at http://www.visualthesaurus.com/. There is a subscription charge, but you can try it for free.
Now, take your list and start combining the words and phrases. Take this word and add it to that one. Use this phrase, but substitute that word. Take pieces of two words and make a brand new word. Your goal is to come up with words and phrases that effectively convey the unique benefits you provide to customers.
I’ve used this method to come up with lots of names and titles over the last few years. Another great benefit of Idea Storming is that even the words and phrases you don’t use in your name can be used in a slogan, on your business cards, in sales letters, in brochures and in other marketing materials.
This technique is simple, but it really works. Try it the next time you launch a new product.
