Naming Your Business or Product

The business of naming your business is tricky business.

URL's have been snatched by brokers or opportunists. I can't blame them. Recently a speculator bought beer.com from a college student for (reportedly) $50,000 -- and what college student wouldn't love $50,000 -- and after the internet equivalent of a makeover, resold it for millions.

So any good name has already been URL'd.

That is why companies have fallen to fabricating names. Viagra. Lexus. Accenture.

So, as a small business with the next great idea, what do you do? Can you afford the $50,000 + in fees that the average name consultant will charge? I thought not.

I'm about to save you $50,000.

Here are my 3 simple rules to naming your business or product. (donate the $50k to your favorite charity or political cause!).

Rob Rutkowski's Fierce Selling Rules for...
Naming Your Business or Product


Rule 1 for Naming Your Business: Say what you make

David Ogilvy nailed it: "Descriptive names like 3-IN-ONE OIL, BAND-AID, and JANITOR IN A DRUM...start with sales appeal. But they can be too specific to be used for subsequent line-extensions."

That said, unless you plan on launching a multinational, billion dollar brand, this is the way to go. You'll cut your marketing effort, capitalize on search engine traffic, and your prospects will 'get it' instantly.

Rule 2 for Naming Your Business: Repeat hard consonants or rhyme syllables

Barb's Boots, Super Dupers, Cozy Toes...really look for these hard sounds at the start.

A good place to see this phonetics in action is with celebrities:

Robert Redford
Cary Grant
Brittany Spears
Tom Cruise


Rule 3 for Naming Your Business: Strive for 1-2 or 2-1 combinations of syllables

Think of phrases with this pleasing 1-2 combo-

Honky Tonk
Tonka Truck
Rock Lobster
CitiBank
BearStearns

It just sounds right.

Good luck to you.

Marketing Coaching by Robert 'Fierce' Rutkowski starts as low as $497 per month. See
http://www.fierceselling.com/pages/coaching-check-out.htm