Question

Topic: Taglines/Names

Renaming Our Strategic Planning Company

Posted by Anonymous on 2/21/2009 at 9:22 PM ET 500 Points
Hi everyone -
I am the owner and founder of a boutique strategic planning consulting company. We have been in business for about 7 years, have 10 employees. Our assets include a web-application that helps company's develop and implement their strategic plans called MyStrategicPlan.com I am also the author of Strategic Planning For Dummies (the yellow and black books).

The corporate name of our company is currently M3Planning - which I hate. I'm looking for some ideas on renaming our company. I know we need to deal with URLs, copyrights, etc. - but all that aside, I'm looking for some creative ideas as I obviously messed this up the first time!

From a positioning perspective, we do strategy all day all the time - we run retreats, facilitate executive sessions, execute both market research and employee research, organize everything into an effective planning document, monitor the implementation and do it all over again the next year. The strategy part of our business is more exciting than the planning part, so to say. I really want a fun name that I can be proud of.

I'm open to real names, made up names, or whatever. Any ideas would be so very, very welcome! Thanks in advance!!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 2/22/2009 at 12:55 PM Accepted
    Hi Erica,

    Ever hear the saying "the shoemakers kids go without shoes?".

    You are a strategic planning firm and this is your statement:
    " .. positioning perspective, we do strategy all day all the time .."

    Couldn't every strategic planning firm claim this same "we do strategy all day all the time" generic phrase.

    Where's the paragraph that concisely states your market position? relative to your competitors? for which market segment? In other words, wouldn't your strategic name come from your own strategic plan?

    Here's an article that may be of help:

    https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/res_detail.asp?resID=349

    Steve
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 2/22/2009 at 12:59 PM Accepted
    I'm with Phil - keep the name unless there's a strong reason to change it other than your feelings (most importantly - what does the name mean to your prospective clients?)

    If you must, here are some ideas to play with:
    * Strategy Planners (International)
    * Strategy Outlook (Consulting)
    * Strategize (Consulting)
  • Posted by telemoxie on 2/22/2009 at 3:35 PM Accepted
    Has spent many years generating leads and sales, and I have found a really fancy and overly specific company names to be more of a problem than a help.

    For example, if a company name is extremely specific, as soon as you introduce your company by name a prospect can simply say, "we don't need that". In the past, when I have represented companies with specific names, I've traditionally introduce them by their initials rather than their name, so that the prospect needs to ask, "what do you do?". This gave me an opening to introduce the company in a way most interesting to the prospect.

    If it were my company, I would stick with the name you currently have. If I wanted to try a new brand, I might launch an initiative or a subdivision or a special offer with a specific and creative name, but I would build on your success with the current name, as others have suggested.
  • Posted on 2/23/2009 at 8:24 PM Accepted
    I agree with the input that says keep the current name and direct your resources toward explaining the benefit you provide in a more compelling way.

    Changing the name rarely solves a problem, especially when you have some equity built up in it.
  • Posted by Susan Oakes on 2/24/2009 at 1:01 AM Accepted
    As you have been in business quite a while, I would suggest you involve your customers in this decision.

    Talk to those whose input you value as we can often want change because we do not like a name or logo etc but just changing the name doesn't necessarily do anything to build or strengthen our customer relationships.

  • Posted by marketingmonk on 2/25/2009 at 2:42 PM Accepted
    I disagree with just about everyone here. M3 is a terrible name--but you already know that. Avoid any names with the word "strategy" in them too. If you think about it perceptively, strategy doesn't make a very good value proposition because 1.) it's vague and 2.) even poor strategists (the guys who have to hire you) style themselves as good ones.

    I'll post some ideas for you later.
  • Posted by saul.dobney on 3/3/2009 at 4:43 AM Accepted
    StrategicPlan

    StrategicPlanners

    Em cubed Strategists

    The Make More Money Planning company

    Monkey

    Do/Do It/Do it now

    Gameplanners

    GameChangers

    Bettering

    Leap Forwards

    Knowing to Doing

    Questions to Answers

    Route 66

    Treble

    Sherpa

    Bloom

    TaDaa

  • Posted on 3/6/2009 at 9:13 PM Accepted
    I like the idea of asking your clients for input.

    Actually, you could start by asking:

    What about doing business about us improved your life or business?

    Whatever the answers are-- could very well be your new name...
  • Posted by Mikee on 3/7/2009 at 12:40 AM Accepted
    I too vote for keeping your name, you worked hard to build its reputation.

    Come up with a catchy tagline that further differentiates what you do.

    Mike
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