Choosing a Brand Name: Being Descriptive vs Coining a Unique Word

Brand Strategy

Anita Campbell | April 28th, 2009 - 05:40 AM
(38) Found this useful. Do you? Yes

name

Several times a year I get asked the same basic question about how to choose a brand name for your business or a product. The question (or some variation of it) is:

“Is it better to choose a descriptive name, or is it better to make up some unique word that never existed before?”

There are different schools of thought on this question. Let’s look at the pros and cons of each side.

DESCRIPTIVE NAME

A descriptive name is something like “Mary’s Bakery” or “Toledo Plumbing.” Names like these have several advantages:

Inexpensive to convey what business you are in — You don’t have to spend a lot of money on advertising to establish a brand identity that the public will come to know and recognize for the line of business you are in. With a name like “Smith’s Towing,” for instance, people will know exactly what your company does based on the name alone.

Easy to think up — You don’t typically need to go through the expense of hiring a brand naming consultant. For a small business on a tight budget, a naming consultant may be out of reach, and the task of thinking up a unique name on your own too daunting. No wonder so many small businesses opt for simplicity, choosing something like “Sally’s Candies” or a similar descriptive name.

Easier to get found in the search engines – If your business name is Toledo Plumbing, you already have a natural advantage for getting found when someone searches for Toledo plumbing companies.

But of course you have to weigh these advantages against the negatives of using a descriptive name — and there are indeed some downsides.

Descriptive names may seem unexciting — This may not be a big concern if it’s a plumbing business — after all, people don’t necessarily expect a plumber to have an exciting name. On the other hand a beauty salon or a clothing boutique or a jewelry line or a Web 2.0 business may be a different story. There, the creativeness of the brand name could make or break the business. Would Google have been nearly as memorable or intriguing had it been called “Sergei’s Search Engine”?

Tougher to establish customer benefits — When someone is searching in the phone book or in Google Local for a vendor, how do they know that Marietta Plumbing is better than Joe’s Plumbing at unclogging drains? Or that it is friendlier or faster? Can they tell what sets the business apart? One way to counter this is to use a tag line. “Service in one hour” or “We unclog drains with a smile” or some other tag line can help differentiate the business, even if the name doesn’t.

UNIQUE COINED NAME

Now let’s take a look at using a newly-coined word or phrase for your brand. Using a unique, made-up word or phrase to name your business has its advantages:

Made-up words set your brand apart — Think of some of the Web 2.0 business names: YouTube, TechCrunch, Squidoo, Gizmodo. Those words did not exist until they were made up by the brand owner — they are as unique as you can get. They are distinctive and usually easy to remember.

Flexible enough for strategic business changes — If your business is named Mary’s Bakery, but later on you decide to open a deli or develop a line of mail order gift baskets, you may find your name is too limiting. Whereas, something like “Toodleberry’s” does not limit you to a single line of business.

Easier to trademark — With a name you’ve coined, you don’t have to worry about it being so generic or descriptive that the trademark examiner refuses to pass it on the grounds that it would prevent others from using normal words in everyday parlance or just is not unique enough. In general, made-up words are easier to trademark.

Easier to get the matching domain name — Many descriptive dot-com domain names are long gone (remember — the dot com extension is the most desirable here in the United States because that is what most people trying to find a website naturally type in). It could be next to impossible to get the matching domain for a descriptive business name at this point. Or you may be reduced to purchasing it on the secondary market, and paying 5 or 6 figures for it. Worse if another company already is using that domain, they could end up siphoning off traffic that was otherwise meant for your site, or at the very least confusing the public. These days, if you want to get an exact domain name, you’ll have a much better shot if it’s for a word you just made up last week.

Of course, made-up names have their challenges, too. For instance, made-up words can require big bucks to develop brand recognition among the public for what your business does.

MORE THAN WORDS

No matter which route you go – descriptive name or unique made-up word – don’t stop with just the words. Remember that the choice of fonts, colors and graphical elements used with the words can subtly change the impression you convey with a logo.

Sales professionals will tell you that people buy based on emotions. Emotion is therefore an important element in a brand. Ask yourself about your logo, how does it make one feel? Happy? Energetic? Playful? Comforted? Confident? Emotion can be conveyed through the use of colors and fonts and graphical images, in addition to the words used.

Also, some of the disadvantages of a descriptive brand can be overcome with fresh, exciting, interesting colors and graphics to go along with the words in a logo. You can make an otherwise ordinary sounding name be more interesting by how it appears in the logo.

The opposite is also true. Drab colors or ponderous fonts or cheesy cheap graphics can cause even the most catchy coined name to miss the mark. Make sure the colors and fonts and graphics do justice to the care taken to create your name in the first place.

Your brand name will likely be with you for a long time. Make sure it suits your business needs.

HP Creative Studio can help you design that great logo to go with your new company name. Check out the resources available for creating logos.

COMMENTS

4/29/09 - limo hire midlands Says:

Nice article. A good business name is key and can play a major role in marketing.
4/29/09 - Martin Lindeskog Says:

Great list of things that you should consider. After you have decided the name of your company you end up with a hard task to convince the “companies registration office” in your country about the uniqueness of your name and that you should be able to stick with it. I had a long verbal “fight” with registration office in Sweden about my company. I wanted to have the following name: Ego International Business Coordinator. I want to build on my long standing EGO blog and use the Latin word for I. The bureaucrats thought that the word ego was too similar with other entities so I had to come up with another suggestions. I ended up with Egoist International Business Coordinator and I gave them a lesson in philology and philosophy! My company name is descriptive and has a twist to it at the same time. Could you imagine how telemarketers and other sales people have to pronounce my company name and read it out loud. I often hear a pause of silence and that they are scratching their heads on the other side of the telephone line.

In order to “hammer in” the message I have added the following tag line on my business card: “Trader in Matter & Spirit.” I have symbolic picture of a glass jar with pieces of gold inside. I have recently purchased the domain name Ego Sole Trader and I will describe my services on the site and I will give sole traders (proprietorship) and business owners moral support by writing blog posts and supply them with other types of reading and listening material.
4/29/09 - Amanda Says:

Choosing a business name is a big decision. The name often gives a consumer their very first impression of your business. It needs to convey what you’re about and draw them in. You offer some really good points to consider. I also think that a name that can be easily spelled will save your customers aggravation and help them to find you more easily.
4/29/09 - Chris Says:

Excellent breakdown of the pros and cons of choosing a brand name.

In my personal opinion, a descriptive name is nice but its the unique names that catch my attention. The unfortunate side is that they aren’t quite as descriptive and therefore, it takes a bit more effort to help people recognize and understand what your brand is and can do for them.

But I think in the long run, its worth it. Because once you establish your brand using a unique name, it can really take on a life of its own.
4/29/09 - Choosing a Brand Name: Descriptive or Unique Coined Word? | Small Business Trends Says:

[...] of both schools of thought in my latest post at the SMB Marketing Guide, called “Choosing a Brand Name: Being Descriptive vs Coining a Unique Word” which I’d like to share with you: Now let’s take a look at using a newly-coined word [...]
4/29/09 - TJ McCue Says:

Branding is so important, yet so complex. I’ve always leaned toward the descriptive, but I recognize the value of unique words. But then you have to be willing, in my opinion as a small biz owner, to invest more to make that name recognizable and help it to be found.

A recent thing I’ve discovered is when people create a unique word or term as their brand, they don’t think about the fact that few people will know how to spell it. My point is this: If they can’t spell it, then they will have trouble finding you in search engines. Your site titles and headings should then read something like: Social Networking BY Twitter… Instead of Twitter, a new social network. I’m totally making this up, of course. I am picking on twitter because the name is unique and until recently was lesser known.

Many people also seem to be fond of misspelling words and creating the same problem. And thus they won’t find you as easily.

One of my favorite branding people is a guy named Nick Bean who runs http://www.Authenticity.net in the Seattle area. His passion and energy for branding is exceptional. He is worth a conversation and I’ll see if I can get him to chime in here, too.
4/30/09 - andrew Says:

nice article – it was a good point about the need to market/advertise a coined name. we were debating on a more obscure name for our magazine but wanted to draw more folks into the sport that heard of it, but never tried it. more obscure names wouldn’t have done that… the downside is now we have squatters/copycats that are trying to take advantage of our descriptive name. it’s a lot harder to get protection for all the possible variations of descriptive names out there.
4/30/09 - TJ McCue Says:

Hi Anita, I found this site when searching a bit more related to your post here. Thought the community might want to check this company out.
TJ

http://www.thenameinspector.com/
5/1/09 - Anita Campbell Says:

Martin, keep fighting the “good fight” for your name.

Andrew, copycats are such a big problem on the Web. To some degree that’s always been the case, even before the Web. I remember all the copycats spawned by the name “Toys R Us”. But the Web makes it so much easier to copy. You really have to police your own name and not let others get a free ride on all your time, effort and expense spent branding your business.

– Anita
5/5/09 - Twitted by barneyausten Says:

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5/5/09 - Choosing a Brand Name: Descriptive or Unique Coined Word? - Collab.r.nation Says:

[...] of both schools of thought in my latest post at the SMB Marketing Guide, called “Choosing a Brand Name: Being Descriptive vs Coining a Unique Word” which I’d like to share with you: Now let’s take a look at using a newly-coined word [...]
5/11/09 - Your Business Name: Descriptive or Unique? | Richmond Blogs Says:

[...] definitely want to read through Anita’s list of the advantages and disadvantages of Descriptive vs. Unique Names before you [...]
6/15/09 - Martin Lindeskog Says:

Anita,

Thanks for your encouraging words! Yes, I will “keep fighting the “good fight”” for my name.

All the Best,

Martin
6/21/09 - David Says:

Great article. While I generally prefer more aspirational names, there are times to be much more straightforward and descriptive. Either way, its important to remember that you also have a chance to define the brand through design. Here’s a link for some more thought starters on how to create a brand name. Thanks and good luck!
6/30/09 - Elegiendo el nombre de tu marca « eldiariodiseno.cl Says:

[...] armado……¿y como lo voy a llamar? pues en el articulo de Choosing a Brand Name de Small Bussiness Marketing Guide , no entregan algunos tips. ¿Sera mejor un nombre unico o uno inventado? (traducción [...]