Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

Any business. Anybody with a parking lot I'll lay down the lines. Iv been striping highways for 10 years so want to move on to parking lots and do my own thing.

Well you could have come up with some names ... it's not that hard, is it? At least we'd have had a chuckle ;-)

Thankyou Saul! At least someone knows what this forum's for.

I do like "All Spaced Out"

Following that inspiration ...

Gridline [as in "gridlock"]

Evenly Spaced

King of hte White Lines

The Line King

The Whichita Linesman [or wherever you are ;-) ]

- in Soccer you have Linesmen; what are the equivalent in US Football? Perhaps this is a line for you?

Naming a business is less about being clever and more to do with relevance. A business could have the wackiest, cleverest, smartest, catchiest name on earth, but if the service its owners give stinks, or if its products, guarantees, and goods lack quality, the business will fail.

If the best thing about any business is its name there is something wrong with that business owner's business plan (if he or she has one). Do the traits, qualities, and deliverables that you as the business owner value most also matter to your customers? Are you SURE? Do you know for a fact? I'm asking these questions to point out that the cleverness of a name may not be what matters most to the people who will be hiring you.

While wit and humor can have a place in marketing, most people looking to lining services for their parking lots are not shopping for laughs and cleverness. They want lines, on their parking lot. Straight lines. Accurate lines. Clear lines.

Where, geographically do you, will you, or can you line parking lots? Is this something you only do within a specific distance of your home base? If it is, the name of your state, city, or region could become a part of your name. So, where are you? What SPECIFICALLY is it about you and your ability to deliver that sets you apart from every other line painting company?

Naming your business "The Line King" while witty, may lead you to find yourself on the wrong end of a cease and desist notice from Walt Disney on the grounds of your name being too close to the Lion King, which is a registered trademark owned by Disney. Likewise any name that's similar to any other copyrighted material (such as "The Wichita Linesman", the copyright to which is owned by Capitol Records).

While this may not be the news you want to hear, it's important to understand that naming a business—ANY business—isn't about throwing out clichés for points, nor is it about being the wittiest or the cleverest or throwing out laundry lists of content simply to give someone what they think they want. And it's certainly not about skating rather too close to an existing name and the possibility of then facing lengthy and protracted legal battles with major corporations that retain entire legal departments to protect their intellectual property interests.

It's about using careful, mindful consideration and it's about getting to the root of the needs of your ideal clients.

U guys have some great ones. I was also thinking line layers. That and stripe a lot.

Gary, there's no problem with giving some ideas and having some fun along the way, but obviously we're not going to do due diligence for anyone or try to critique a business or marketing plan, or develop a full planned and costed strategy. We suggest names and assume the questioner has sufficient wit to understand what is most appropriate to them and the business they are planning and to do any checks necessary - there's surely no need for a legal disclaimer at the bottom of every answer or suggestion, or making every answer 'visit a marketing consultant'?

Saul,

While a legal disclaimer may not be necessary, given some of the questions and responses of
late I assume nothing. Here in the United States I've had one-on-one dealings with Disney's legal department over the proposed use of the name Nemo®, so I know how protective they are.

While I'm all in favor of degrees of fun, I'm also in favor of caution and common sense on the part of the person asking the question. I'm also in favor of a reduction in the degrees of patronizing ridicule and haughty derision I've both witnessed and experienced of late from contributors whom one would think ought to know better.

It is 100% sensible that anyone choosing a name does a trademark check - in some parts of the world it's compulsory before the business can be created, and it's often the the lesser known trademarks of small or specialist companies that catch people out - famous names are much more obvious and easy to avoid.

Big companies also get it wrong from time to time despite sizeable legal teams, so no name will be without risk (eg Apple Computers vs Apple Music, or the name 'Metro' as Windows 8 UI was to be known before trademarks got in the way) and trademarks apply to categories not just words (eg AGA also has NEMO as a registered trademark but as a gas-cylinder fitting).

It's then better then to have a box of possible names and creative ideas that can be used to spark ideas and inspirations to help someone navigate the trademark issues successfully than nothing at all.

By all means, let's have boxes of possible names and creative ideas. Let's have truck loads, whole ships full and even broad sweeping landscapes of them stretching from one horizon to the other. But let's not have contributors to this forum ridiculing the efforts of others.