Page 336 - Duct Tape Marketing

320 Part VI: The Part of Tens

ߜ A descriptive name: This type of name tells what you do and how you
do it. A consulting firm specializing in business turnarounds might call
itself U-Turn Strategies to convey its offerings and promise to clients.

ߜ A borrowed interest name: This type of name bears no direct relation-
ship to the company or product. Borrowed interest names require heavy
marketing to link the name to a business image, but done right they can
work marketing magic. Just look at Apple, Nike, or Infinity.

ߜ A fabricated name: You can create a name from an acronym, from words
or syllables linked to form a new word, or by stringing together letters
that result in a pleasant sound with no dictionary meaning, for example
Verizon, Kodak, or the Toyota Ciera.

A fabricated name is likely to be available and protectable, and because
the word doesn’t yet exist, the Internet domain name probably hasn’t
yet been taken.

What Do You Want the Name to Convey?

Choose a name that depicts or supports your desired business image and
position (see Chapter 7).

Attributes you may want your name to convey include service, speed, qual-
ity, skill, expertise, convenience, efficiency, creativity, professionalism, and
unique knowledge.

Avoid words like quality, creative, or premier, even if they define your offering
well. Fair or not, there’s an inverse relationship between companies that
claim that they’re the best and consumers who believe that they are.

Is the Name You Want Available?

The law will stop you from using a name that is too close to an existing busi-
ness name or trademark, so before falling in love with a name, see whether
it’s available. If it is, move quickly to protect it for your use.

ߜ Screen the name. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has an online
database of registered and pending trademarks. Go to www.uspto.gov to
conduct an online search to see whether the name you want is available.

ߜ See whether the name is available as a domain name. Search for the
name using at least three major search engines to see whether it is
already part of a domain name. Or conduct a free search at www.
networksolutions.com, following the instructions for registering
a domain name.