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Naming A Company Against The Industry Standards
Posted By: ms* on 5/26/2005 8:39 PM (CST) 125 Points
Hi,

First of all, thank you experts for taking out time and shring your expertise. I am looking to name two of my new business. One is of paintings i.e. selling paintings online and second one is offshoring the call centre and IT.

Marketers, research and marketing science says to keep a name which reflects what a business is doing. However, when I see the top fortune 500 companies (B2C) extremely few of them have name that really reflects what they do. Infact top brand sin industry for eg. microsoft, pepsi, HP, compaq, toshiba, etc...does not reflect what they do.

So, should the name be reflective of the nature of the business? if yes, please provide your arguments.

Any input is highly appreciated.
Thanks

Posted by: StarsDie Accepted Answer
5/27/2005 7:29 AM (CST)
If you are sure you can build a strong brand, it is not necessarily to name it according to the industry standrads. If you have developed a bright, remarkable and really creative name for it - it is already half of the work. Now the main thing is to bring your service or product to the target audience and to constantly keep your customers and prospects in the know of everything you do in order to attract them to buying/using your product/service and not switching to your competitors.
If you want to make your brand the one with high name recognition, or even with the top-of-mind awareness, you need to invest in your brand. And it goes both to the brand name mentioning the industry you're working in, and to the brand that doesn't contain the industry in its name. So if you want to use some unique brand name - use it!

Good luck!
Yaroslava
 
Posted by: savialeigh* Accepted Answer
5/27/2005 10:04 PM (CST)
You're looking at companies that have been around quite a while, and many have undergone name changes. We use shortcuts - it's Compaq Computer Corporation (or was before Hewlett Packard bought them.)
Microsoft makes SOFTware for MICRO computers - micro (desktops) compared to the usual computer size of the seventies - where the computer had floors or entire buildings of its own.
Over time, the names seem to lose identifying basis', but that is because the reputations have grown to a point where the indentifiers are no longer used. Not identifying the business in the name means you have to market harder or better, or both. If the company becomes successful enough, dropping the identifier happens because the public drops it - it's common knowledge that compaq is a computer brand.

I would suggest mixing standard naming with the creative aspect - which allows the identifiers to be dropped should they no longer be needed, but allows them to answer the "what do they do?" until the company is well known.
 
Posted by: StarsDie Member Response
5/30/2005 6:23 AM (CST)
That's a good point, too ^^.

Although I would mention that many small companies tent to create names containing the hint to the industry they're working in, and it makes them similar to each other in the eyes of the customers. Like, IT companies often have "Solutions" in their names, clothing companies often have "Fashion" in their names, touristic agencies often have "Travel" in their names, different consulting companies often have "Consulting" in their names, etc. It's not so easy to distinguish them, after all. Whereas some unique name will be remembered.

Compare: two largest banks Rabobank International and Credit Agricole.
Credit Agricole has a hint to Agribusiness field in its name.
Rabobank doesn't have it.
But Rabobank International is known all over the world as one of the leading banks specializing in Food & Agribusiness, i.e. this bank provides financial services to huge amount of customers working in the field of Food & Agribusiness in many countries, such as Monsanto, Cargill, Toepfer International, etc.
 
Posted by: W.M.M.A. Accepted Answer
5/30/2005 12:23 PM (CST)
I would agree w/Rikki. Unless you have an established brand, the market must know what you do/sell.

Let's assume you call the art company DNE, and the offshore company, Waves. They mean nothing in relation to the services and products you sell.

Go with something that reflects what you do/sell.

All the best.

Randall
WMMA
 
Posted by: StarsDie Member Response
6/3/2005 4:22 AM (CST)
^^ It does sound reasonable, I agree. Especially if there is no budget or no real plans to invest in the brand.

I think, I probably judge by myself... I really remember bright and unique names better than those that have something related to the field/industry of the company.

For instance, if you ask me what companies I could recall on the local market in different fields, I will name "Blagovest" for real estate, "Addforce" for recruitment services, "Sam" (translated as "Alone" from Ukrainian) for tourism, etc. I remember their logos very well and I even clearly remember where the offices are located, even though I didn't use their services.

But we have many companies in the same fields that have the words "Real Estate" for real estate companies, "HR", "Recruitment" or "Personnel" for recruitment services, "Tour" or "Travel" for tourism in their names, and they are so numerous that I don't even try to remember them... Like, I just looked in the business directory for some touristic agencies and look what I have found: Panama Tour, Panorama Tour, Oksana Tour, Karya Tour, Extreme Tour, Delta Travel, Sky Travel, Olymp Travel, Navigator Travel, Turtess Travel, Poli Travel, Travel Time, and many more companies with these two words - "Tour" and "Travel". Frankly speaking, they look somewhat faceless to me.

Although there are many bright names that don't have the word "Travel" or "Tour", but at the same time they have clear relation to the tourism, for instance: "Gamalia", "Sindbad", "Piligrim", "Sputnik". In such cases, the relation to the field is clear, but at the same time the names are distinct and not faceless. I like this approach in choosing the name for a company.

I think if you can provide visibility on market - at least to list the company in all relevant business directories and in good searching engines (in the chapters according to the industry your company is working in), to participate in the related trade shows and exhibitions - it will help bring you the right customers and develop a strong brand. And if the name of the company doesn't imply the industry but you can find it in all the places with the info about the companies working in this industry - then unique name is a better choice.
Toshiba and Pepsi didn't start as well-known all over the world companies, you know? And same with smaller (local-level) companies with bright names.
But it's imho, sure. Just tried to explain my viewpoint...

In any case, whatever name you choose for your company - good luck with your business! :)
 
Posted by: NoStressXpress Accepted Answer
6/5/2005 11:56 AM (CST)
Hello MS,

First of all, there are NO Industry Standards for naming a company and Second of all, what you read in text books, journals, articles etc in many cases are professional opinions and as you have found out ... don't necessarily apply in ALL cases.

As you have discovered, the name doesn't say it all. Being a former naval officer I would have never thought that companies with names such as OLD NAVY or BANANA REPUBLIC sold marketed clothing products. How about SQUARE D, CUTLER-HAMMER, and ALLEN BRADLEY? They market industrial electrical and electronic equipment and systems! Or Toshiba...which manufactures and markets anything from transistors & semiconductors to Nuclear Power Plants.

Marketing and branding employ both logical and intuitive processes. Personally I like the "whatever floats your boat" approach and then do everything within resources to promote it to the maximum extent possible.

I hope this helps.

Conrad
 
Posted by: carrie77 Moderator Response
6/12/2005 7:45 AM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question since it's more than 2 weeks old. We do this to reward the contributions of participants in a timely manner + to give increased visibility to the newer questions.

Thanks for participating!
Carrie (Production Editor)
 


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