When the weathers hot, do you enjoy a glass of Brads Drink while watching your TV made by Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, and surfing the web using a search engine called BackRub?
No? Neither do I. Thats because all these companies have changed their names.
Brads Drink is now Pepsi. The mouthful that was Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering has become, simply, Sony. And BackRub is now known as 谷歌. Though I must admit, the idea of a back massage1 does sound good right now!
Joking aside, choosing the right name for your start-up is a serious matter. Think of the case of a small Canadian company called Research in Motion, who in 1998 had just developed a high-tech2 mobile phone that could send emails.
They were torn between names like MegaMail and ProMail. Then they sought the help of consulting firm Lexicon3, who specialise in brand names. They had other ideas. They brainstormed4 words connected to enjoyment5 and freshness. Someone said strawberry. Then someone else suggested blackberry.
Lexicons boss added two capital letters, and there you have it: BlackBerry was born. Since then it has sold over 33 million handsets to customers around the world. Would it have sold as well if it was called MegaMail? Who knows?
Recently, BlackBerry sales have been overtaken by Android phones and Apples iPhone. Lexicons founder6 David Placek is a big fan of simple brand names like those Apple chooses: Take the iPhone. They took a household word and by putting one letter in front of it, it ends up being game changing.
So, for all you entrepreneurs out there, make sure you allow time to develop a catchy7 and memorable8 name. Think about what makes your company different. Whats your USP? Maybe you can reflect that in your name.
What about you? What would you call a company if you had one?
