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successful marketing: Make yourself different.
The human mind associates. When we hear ordinary names like John Jones
we draw an ordinary association. When we hear distinctive names like Faith
Popcorn or Leaf Phoenix, we draw distinctive associations.
An ordinary name implies just another service. A distinctive name implies a
distinctive service—just the impression a service should make.
In a world filled with me-too company names, service companies with
distinctive names like NameLab, Federal Express, and Prodigy quickly create
the association that they are not me-too services—and profit from the
association.
Be distinctive—and sound it.
What’s in a Name?
What if LeAnn Chin’s restaurant was called Beijing?
Would LeAnn Chin have made the cover of almost every magazine in
Minnesota?
No. By naming her restaurant LeAnn Chin, she ensured that every mention of
herself was an ad for her restaurant, and vice versa.
By naming her restaurant after herself, LeAnn Chin made herself a celebrity.
Her celebrity made the restaurant more popular. So she started a chain of
restaurants. The restaurants’ increasing popularity made her more of a celebrity,
which made the restaurants even more popular, and on and on—in a not at all
vicious circle.
If you need a name for your service, start with your own.
Names: The Information-per-Inch Test
Why do many Fortune 500 companies pay over $35,000 for a name?
Because names make a company’s first impression. First impressions count—
and often convey much of the little information about you that your prospects
have.
Given what a good name is worth, how do you measure a name’s value?
Put the name to this test: How much valuable information per inch does your
name imply?
