Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

Euro Language School(s)
Speak European

Thank you for taking the time to read my message... but no.
"Speak European" does not sound like a name for a business; "Euro Languages" is overused and Donald Trump would not take it seriously :-)

Europe is not a country, it's a continent and at the moment there are 24 main, official languages. \Will you teach all of them, and if so, to whom? Who is your ideal client and what is the demand for your services from this client and other similar clients? There is little point in offering classes in languages for with there may be few students so in the first instance you may be better off offering fewer main languages until you've had the chance to assess and then meet any demand.

What will set your teaching style apart from other language schools and why?

What capital investment will it require to set up physical locations to teach face-to-face classes and how large will these classes be? What will you do or offer that will set your classes apart and that your competitors will not offer or that they do not do?

What is the difference between an "international brand" and a larger company?

Companies do not buy languages classes: people within those companies do. How will you appeal to HR departments and to your ideal business-based clients?

Noble names and symbols of power may appeal to you but what evidence do you have to suggest these things will appeal to your ideal client, whoever that person is?

Although Donald Trump's son Barron is reported to speak Slovenian, English, and French, there is little evidence that Donald Trump speaks any language other than North American English, so there, you may be barking up the wrong tree.

Gary, thank you very much for taking the time to write such a detailed answer. However, I have to say that your writing seems to be off-topic because I didn't ask for a business plan but for a name and I don't see any proposal on the table.

I will only comment on two ideas to save time and energy, your first and last paragraphs:

- I already stated in my introduction that "I plan to teach the main European languages to begin with".

- I said that I like Trump's use of gold on his logos/buildings. I didn't say that I like him because he is a master of languages.

Thank you but no.

It would help us address the naming issues if we better understood your target audience and the unique benefit you promise (and deliver). There are a number of options for someone who wants to learn one of the European languages. What will make yours different from, and better than, the alternatives? Why would someone choose you instead of a well-known and established competitor?

Hello mgoodman, and thanks for replying.

- We would offer test preparation courses, as well as general and specialized language courses. Students will have the opportunity to take modules: grammar, oral skills, writing etc... . I am not saying that we will not offer regular courses like anyone else does. I am saying that we will give the students the opportunity to truly choose/follow a path based on personal needs.

- The main point is that we would like to be the only private school (or one of the few) that offers language courses based on scientific criteria.

- - People learn languages because there is a need to convey a message. Do we need to speak like John Wayne? No! Like Her Majesty the Queen? Nope! We want to learn because we want to express ourselves. Is the accent important? Not really. Everyone should be happy and proud of her own accent because there is not one accent and I would rather learn Chinese from someone from the US who knows what she is doing rather than from Ms. Lee who was an accountant in Shanghai. Please note that this market is pretty unregulated. There are people making a living just because they are natives in a language. We would like, on the contrary, to educate the learners. Too often I see American and British kids working as teachers just because they speak the language. Being a native speaker of English (or any other language) does not mean anything. Have you ever tried to speak to someone from New Zealand? And from Scotland? Research in language acquisition shows that beginners, and not only beginners, need to focus on fluency, which means speaking and practicing and trying and negotiating meaning and making mistakes and autocorrecting and... All that may be achieved with any person who masters the language and who has a solid scientific preparation in SLA (Second Language Acquisition). Therefore, we would only employ people who specialize in SLA.

- Private language schools advertise that learning a language is fun and easy. That is not always the case. Now, there are people who are more talented for that and others who are less apt. Mastering a language is a process that requires hard work. More than an MBA. It is a lifelong commitment and we want people to be aware of that. One other thing that would make us different from other schools is that we are sincere.

What you asked for is one thing, What you NEED is another thing entirely. Although you asked for advice, what you really need is help. There are 24 main languages in Europe. Will you teach all of them?

Sincerity is not a competitive advantage. Nor is the inability to listen when you're asked for clarification so that those points may, in turn, be honed in order to help you offer a better experience.

Without a business plan businesses fail. You can have all the catchy, unique, classy, Donald Trump-like, authoritative names in the world, but without a solid business plan and without a detailed outline of who you will serve and why you are best equipped to serve this particular customer, the rate of failure increases.

I asked for additional information to give me background details from which to then refine my approach and from which it was my intention (as it's always been with every one of the 3,500+ questions I've answered on this forum over the last FIVE YEARS) to HELP you.

The golden embellishment of a logo won't make the slightest bit of difference in driving revenue. None. The best way to learn any new skill is through envelopment—through immersion.

In addition, and to save my time and my energy, know this: names do not brand. Read that again.

Experiences create brands; positive emotional responses that are noteworthy and that drive shareable social commentary of services rendered create brands; promises made and exceeded build brands. Not names. Not logos.

To create these experiences, to drive these emotions, you need a solid platform based on understanding the core needs, desires, and preferred outcomes of the people who are most likely to need your services and who are then most likely to help spread word of their results by dint of having done business with YOU and not with your competitors.

This platform is a business plan.

Dear Gary, thank you very much for your advise. However, this is not the place where I should make our business plan publicly available.

I have personally taught languages in seven countries. This is practice and not theory. Again, we know this market very well.

We already have a basic plan and one thing that we do not plan to do is overplanning. As I said, but that was probably not entirely conveyed by my words, we already have an idea of how the business should develop. We will try to grow it step by step, as I already stated. We already have taken into account the financial side of the project, the time and the human resources needed and we will then make adjustments on the way.

FYI: in Europe, the main languages are 4: English, German, French, and Italian. Spanish would be the fifth option, and the least popular.

I have to say that after all these messages I got two names at least.

New Language Pros
Western Language Professionals
International Language Partners
Speak Like a Native

Thank you. I spent 36 years living in and traveling around Europe.

Names:

LanguSpeak
EuroSpeak
Manuspark
Communo

Gary, and after 36 years you haven't learnt yet what the main European languages are?

I really do not understand why you are competing with me on this topic. I believe you failed to show professionalism. On the contrary, you succeeded in showing why a person shouldn't hire you.

As for the names, in general, I believe that very few of them would be suitable if we would scale the business in the future. If I look at EuroSpeak, for example, I am concerned about what could happen if one day we decide to teach Chinese.

I like Saul's "Ambassadors" and mgoodman's "International Language Partners" even though it would be difficult to combine them with other terms (school, academy... ) and to find a catching web domain (Ambassadors School? Institute? ILP? Can you imagine a conversation between two students? Like "Where do you to school? I go to International Language Partners". It does not sound catching to me. However, this is the path to follow, in my opinion.