Inclusive characteristics of an ideal brand name

The Ultimate Guide to Name Your Startup

What are the desirable qualities of brand name selection?

01. Distinctive

Which brand name should be distinctive?

A good brand name should be unique and distinctive. When applied in a business, a distinctive brand can be innovative, stylish, cool, and engaging.

Take a look and see if you can identify the brand.

Tips To Consider When Naming Your Startup - Distinctive

Here are a few examples of well-known distinctive brand assets that almost everyone will recognize.

  • Adidas stripes with three bars
  • The yellow arches of McDonalds
  • Bitten apple of apple
  • The red and white of Coca-Cola
  • Check mark shape of Nike

What are the benefits of having a distinctive brand?

When it comes to product or service names, distinctive names tend to stick out. As an example The Apple name isn’t related to smartphones or computers in any way. To attract and maintain your audience’s attention, concentrate on making your brand identity distinctive.

Customer recognition, word-of-mouth marketing, brand loyalty, enhanced reputation, and ease of purchase are just a few of the advantages of developing and sustaining a strong distinctive  brand. One of your company’s most precious assets is its brand.

A distinctive brand name should have following characteristics:

  • Your brand name needs to be a memorable brand name idea.
  • Be certain that your brand name does not contain any generic or partially generic terms.
  • Avoid dictionary words.

The Google Exact Match Domain (EMD) filters low quality sites from ranking well because of the usage of dictionary words or generic words in a startup/brand name.

The startup/brand which is named using dictionary words has higher possibilities of dropping out from rankings and at the same time it loses its identity which will result in difficulties to attain traffic. 

Therefore, while naming a startup, constantly try to avoid/ minimize the usage of dictionary words.

  • Make sure to choose a fresh startup name

Make sure to create a fresh startup business name. That way, you will not get affected by the history of that name. 

As an example, a new startup business name can lose its popularity among the customers because another company with the same brand name had lost public trust a long time ago.

  • Do not Imitate

A brand name or a startup name has to avoid imitating another brand. The search engines most probably auto-correct the word and route the traffic to other pages with similar words. So while choosing your best startup name, you have to explore the field to check the competitor names to avoid any accidental imitations. 

Apart from the disadvantage of search engines, customers can lose interest and trust if they feel you are a copy of another brand. That will make your business impossible to create your own identity.

Potential clients will remember a distinctive and unique brand name, but they will also be able to differentiate it from other similar brands. The importance of distinctive brand name examples can be brought to life by the success of companies such as: Google, Apple, Fedex, Coca Cola, BMW, Chevrolet and Nike.

02. Make it easy to memorize

How do you create a memorable brand name?

Make a Brand Name Stick in Your Mind! Name your startup should be easily remembered, say it, spell it, or look it up on the internet with no problem. Such as Google is a word that is easy to memorize according to the Phonetic loop.

What makes a company name memorable?

  • First, consider your brand identity
  • It’s simple to pronounce
  • Try to keep things simple
  • Abbreviations should be avoided
  • Ensure that it is easy to spell
  • Find out availability
  • Keep up with the latest trends
  • Better if it’s short

Explanations of complex brand names in the real world are Comme des Garcons, Saucony, Chevrolet, Louis Vuitton, etc. Super brand names that are easy to memorize are Prada, Youtube, Armani, Twitter, Apple, Nestle, Subway, etc.

Find a name idea that is straightforward and easy, simple to pronounce, as well as evocative. Unique brand name ideas are more memorable than other brand names.Brand names with numbers and special symbols make it difficult for your customers to remember your brand name.Alliteration allows your brand name idea to stick in the minds of your customers so that they remember it when the customer wants to make a purchase. To create a strong brand name, ensure that your brand name has a high memorization value.

03. Make it easy to pronounce

Why is it important that a brand name be easy to pronounce r?

When it comes to brand name qualities, the ability to pronounce is a must. Because of the difficulty in pronouncing some brand names, even if you love their product or service, it may be impossible to continue interacting with that business.

A brand’s reputation is said to be built on “word-of-mouth quality.” It’s not surprising for customers who are satisfied with your product or service to tell their friends about it or share it on social media. The word-of-mouth quality of a brand name is enhanced when your new brand can be easily pronounced by your customers. Easy-to-pronounce brand names are easier to remember.

Many advantages come with easy-to-pronounce brand names.These are some of the advantages of having a brand name that is simple to read for everybody.

  • Increased Positive Word-Of-Mouth

Customers are more likely to promote your brand name to their friends, families, and coworkers when you use a name that is easy to say and remember. This is known as word of mouth quality, and with your loyal consumers, you may market your business without spending a single.

  • Customer Engagement

Brand names that are easy to read are also easy to remember. As a result, clients will be able to recognize your brand name everytime they see it. A brand name that is easy to pronounce can help your business gain recognition among your customers. Your customers will quickly forget it if your brand name is hard to pronounce.

Names of well-known brands that are easy to say are Tesla, NIke, Sony, Apple and Gucci. 

Business branding relies heavily on proper pronunciation. On the other hand it’s also time-consuming, as there isn’t much guidance on how to get a brand name that can be pronounced smoothly. 

How to make easy to pronounce brand name?

  • If a name idea easily rolls off the tongue, it is indeed a pronounceable brand name.
  • Don’t include any tongue twisters.
  • Good word combinations.
  • The brand name is easy to say out loud because it is a pronounceable brand name.
  • Short and simple brand name ideas are easy to pronounce.

Can be spelled by Voice Assistant

More and more people are turning to voice search because it’s faster than typing a search query. As a result of these changes, search engines have optimized their algorithms for voice searches. Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana are just a few of the names for voice assistant available today.

Because it is faster and more convenient, voice search makes internet browsing much easier for users, but it can also benefit your brand. Domain.com outlined a few ways that optimizing for voice search can benefit your business. Some of the benefits they mention include increased website traffic, improved brand awareness and visibility, increased foot traffic to your stores, a stronger, more relevant connection with users, increased user engagement, and higher conversion rates.

So, how can you make your brand name idea more search engine friendly?

  • Words that are simple and short

When speaking English, Google’s speech recognition technology has a 95 percent accuracy rate. In other words, the domain name should be short and easy to spell in order to maximize the accuracy of the search engine results for your website.

  • It’s all about the pronunciation and spelling

A difficult-to-pronounce word may be harder for voice recognition to discover, even if it was a short one. This may affect voice search as well if you try different ways of spelling the word in order to come up with more creative startup names.

  • Hyphenations and numbers

When you add hyphens and numbers to your startup name, it becomes more difficult to type, so imagine what will happen when someone uses a voice search to find it.

How do you get a brand name that would be recognized by robots?

  • Some many voice assistants, including Siri, Cortana, and Google Assistant, can be used to check your brand name.
  • If a voice assistant can correctly and quickly recognize your brand name, any human can speak it.
  • If the voice assistant robots do not recognize your brand name straight away, it indicates that there will be some issues when humans pronounce it.

Why not use voice search to take your company to the next level? This is an opportunity that should be capitalized on while voice search is still on the rise. Businesses would benefit from preparing for changes in search engines and integrating the new voice recognition era.

04. Keep it short and sweet

What you name your business will surely affect how you introduce it to the world, gain publicity, and attract more customers. Brand names that are longer than one word are less attractive and harder to remember. For a recognizable brand name, the ideal character count ranges from 4 to 6. This makes it more difficult for customers to remember you if you go over your character limit. For instance,

  • Yahoo
  • Nike
  • Intel
  • Toyota
  • Disney
  • Visa

As you can see, all of these brand names are massive in the industry, and their character count falls within the ideal range of 4 to 6. This is why your brand name should have the perfect number of characters.

Look for unique business name ideas with a short character count so you can easily retain happy customers.

Character count Range according to brand qualities

❎ 1 – 3 Not Recommended

✅ 4 – 6 Best

✅ 7 – 8 Good

❎ 8 (Above) – Not Recommended

Popular brand names with Perfect Character count

✅ Uber – 4 characters

✅ Pepsi – 5 characters

✅ Intel – 5 character

✅ Amazon – 6 characters

How do you create a simple and short brand name?

Make it easy to spell and write

Good business names are simple. You have to create your business name with a simple word-formation to spell and write effortlessly. If your startup name contains tricky spellings, abbreviations, and numbers, your business name is hard to spell and write for customers. That can be a disadvantage for your business.

Avoid keywords

Using a keyword is also better to avoid while creating a catchy and unique startup name. Innovative fresh words attract more customers. 

It is not required for a brand/startup name to have a dictionary meaning. The identity you create around the startup name is everything that matters. 

While naming your business, have a keen concern to omit keywords in your brand name.

Use single word brand name

Almost all popular business names use a single word as their brand name. 

Assigning a brand name with more than one word will confuse the customers while typing it, and there is a high possibility for them to forget some words or letters when the name is lengthy and complicated. 

If you check famous brand names, most of those use a single word to represent their business. Check out these examples. Cisco.com, Google.com and Rayban.com.

Make it simple

The memorization power and the pronounceable value are an important factor to measure the simplicity of your brand name ideas.

The brand names that have higher memorization and pronounceable scores above 8 also stand as the best brand names. Apple.com, Nikon.com and Cisco.com are some of them. If the rating of the score stands high, it is claimed as a great opportunity to  make use of that specific word as it has the capability to catch up with customer satisfaction.

Whenever you are naming your business, we always suggest you check the memorization ability and pronounceability score rate for your brand/startup name so that it would grasp into the customers’ mind.

Tips To Consider When Naming Your Startup

Advantages of achieving a brand name with an ideal character count

Easy ways to get the customer’s attention

Consider two brands and see which one catches your eye first. What’s the difference between Apple and Brooks Brothers? Even though you didn’t know this before, Apple catches your attention because it only has 5 characters, while Brooks Brothers has14.

It’s easy to recall

Having your brand name fit into the perfect character count makes your brand name easier for the customer to remember

It’s easy to pronounce and spell

It is called a short brand name if it has 4 to 6 characters. When compared to long brand names consisting of more than six characters, short names are easier to say and spell.

Attractive

Readers must be captivated by your logo as well as your brand name in order for it to be successful. Someone seeing your brand name for the first time needs to have a positive impression of it.

05. Avoid Generic Words

As a generic term, it refers to any word that can be found in a dictionary and therefore any word with a definition. Books, foods, flowers, and clothes are just a few examples.

A keyword is a word that has a connection to a particular industry. What if your business is in the Fashion industry, and you name it “New Fashion “? Fashion is a keyword and New is a generic word.

The negative aspects of using generic terms or keywords In your startup name idea

A brand name that contains keywords or generic words is de-prioritized by Google

brand names with generic words or keywords are considered spam by search engines, so you should avoid using them in your brand name. It’s called EMD (Exact Match Domain Penalty) and it’s related to the keywords in the domain. Your brand name is “Foods” and therefore your domain name is www.foods.com. There is a keyword in the domain name and such websites could be deprioritized by Google because of it.

Less inspiring and difficult to remember

Using keywords in your brand name will not make your business stand out. If you’re in the clothing business, think of brands like Emma’s clothing, Lady Clothing, Happy Clothing and Prada. The question is, what will you decide on? It’s Prada, of course. As a result, when generic words are added to your brand name, your brand loses its exciting impression.

When you use generic names, you limit your business’s opportunities

A keyword or generic word cannot communicate a depth meaning that is different from the word intended to be. Most businesses begin with a single product or service, but as their profits and experience in the field grow, they expand into new areas. However, in this case, the brand name becomes a barrier because it fails to communicate what the company actually does. So, if you choose a generic word or keyword as the brand name, think twice.

It is difficult to obtain a trademark

When a brand name is too generic or contains keywords, the trademark analyst does not approve it due to its high commonality. If your brand name is too well-known, you will be unable to create a marketable trademark. As a result, this is another drawback you should consider carefully.

After realizing the impact of generic words in their brand names, most corporations relaunched their Generic brand names as Branded brand names. Here are some examples of companies that relaunched in order to get rid of their common names:

🟡 World Wrestling Federation – WWE – Year changed: 2002

🟡 Corrections Corporation of America – CoreCivic – Year changed: 2016

🟡 Restoration Hardware – RH – Year changed: 2017

🟡 Weight Watchers – WW – Year changed: 2018

06. Do not use other languages which denote negative connotations

Keep in mind the global implications. A brand name is viewable to anyone in the world. It should be able to positively communicate with any human being on the planet. As a result, a brand name becomes universal. Every brand name has a unique brand story. To share that brand story with the rest of the world, the brand name must have a positive connotation. Avoiding negative connotations is critical when creating a universal brand name.

The meaning of the brand name is a very important turning point to your business even though people do not think much about it. Each and every word carries a feeling and that’s why worm and warm generate whole different feelings. The same goes for your brand name.

In any language, make sure that your brand identity does not evoke a negative reaction. When it comes to brand naming, the meaning is everything. In order to achieve success with your brand, you must provide the customer with a meaningful and memorable experience.

Examples of negative connotation in the real world

  • Pepsi’s slogan “Pepsi Brings You Back to Life” in Chinese the meaning differs as “Pepsi Brings You Back from the Grave”
  • Braniff International’s slogan “Fly in Leather” was mistranslated into Spanish as “Fly Naked.”
  • Mercedes-Benz tried to enter the Chinese market, they use “Bensi” because it is similar to the “Benz” sound. But in chinese language the meaning for it is “rush to die”
  • KFC’s tagline “ finger-lickin’ good ” in Chinese language the meaning is “eat their fingers off ”
Tips To Consider When Naming Your Startup

How do you find out if your brand name has international implications?

It is possible to do so in two different ways: You can use the startup name evaluation tool to find out. If you want to find out if your brand name has a negative connotation in other languages, this is the easiest way to do it. You can also manually check to see if your brand name has a negative connotation.

07. Uniqueness

The name of your company is your identifier. Brand names can make or break your business, so don’t just pick anything. As a business owner, your brand name has a significant impact on almost every aspect of your business plan. As a business owner, your brand name communicates your business ethics, values, and objectives. Just choose a unique brand name with trust.

In order to determine whether or not your brand name is unique, you need to own the.com domain extension.

In almost all cases, a unique brand name is the key to success. Some people, however, equate being unique with being complex. For their brand names, they use difficult pronunciation patterns and complex word combinations. But keep in mind that this only complicates the spelling and writing of your brand name. When you introduce a new word to society, such as “Sony,” you are unique. However, if your brand name is overly complicated, your customers will never become accustomed to your brand name. Be sure to choose a brand name that is both “unique” and “easy to spell and write,” such as Google, Nike, or Toyota.

How do I create a unique business name?

  • Because it is the king of domain extensions,.com can make your brand name stand out.

The most popular domain extension in the world is.com, which accounts for 47 percent of all domain extensions. If you obtain a.com domain name, you will be the sole legal owner of your brand name. So, in order to get the most out of your brand name, it is critical to pick the optimum domain extension for your startup.

  • Your brand name must be distinct.
  • There have been no generic/partially generic words included.
  • There will be no imitations of other well-known brands.

Imitation will never be unique.The brand name is a company’s or business’s identity; if it is an imitation of another brand, you will never have your own identity.

Choosing a unique brand name for your startup has many benefits

A unique brand identity can be created

Brand names that are unique allow you to establish a distinct brand identity. To make your brand name stick in the minds of your customers, you can create a unique and meaningful brand story that is memorable to them.

Customers are attracted easily

It is easier for customers to remember and engage with unique brand names. As soon as customers are drawn to a particular brand name, they are more likely than not to recommend that brand name to their friends and family members. That also allows for free promotion of your own business.

You can easily get the domain name

Due to the fact that you stand out from many other related descriptive brands, you can easily get a domain name. For their brand name, most companies prefer to use a.com domain. With a domain name, rebranding is less possible than with a unique brand name.

08. Legal Safe

How do you legally secure a brand name?

Building a brand for your business has taken a lot of time, effort, and money. As a business owner, you’ve built a strong brand that deserves to be protected. One of your most valuable assets is definitely your brand name. In order to protect yourself and your business from anti – competitive, it makes sense to take the necessary steps to do so. Registering your trademark or service mark is one of the best ways to protect your business’s intellectual property from violation.

It is possible to avoid all of these problems if you take early steps to ensure the safety of your brand. Are the most important steps to be taken in the process?

  • Be careful when choosing your brand!
  • Use the brand consistently as a trademark.
  • Register in a trademark registration to protect your brand.

09. Domain Availability

What is the most reliable domain extension? Does it matter what domain extension you use?

How do I choose a domain extension? These are some of the most common questions asked by entrepreneurs who plan to launch a website for their businesses. When there are too many domain extensions or TLDs available, it can be difficult to make a decision.

What are the 5 most common domain extensions?

A domain name is a one-of-a-kind string of characters that identifies a particular website. In many ways, a domain name is similar to a website in the same way that a street address is similar to a house.

Even though there are over 1500 top-level domain extensions available, only about 20 are popular or widely used. The most popular TLDs are listed below.

.Com – This is the most common domain extension on the internet, with nearly half of all businesses using it for their domain name. More than 100 million businesses are said to have registered with the.com domain extension for their websites. This domain extension is popular for all types of websites, not just business websites.

.org and.net are two examples of biggest domains. TLDs were originally intended for use by businesses, organizations, and networks, but their use is completely unrestricted. The.edu,.gov, and.mil TLDs were initially meant for use by academic institutions, governments, and military organizations, respectively.

Why is .com the best domain extension?

Google prefers.com domains because they are the most established and largest.

Reliability

Numerous studies have shown that customers view the.com domain extension as more trustworthy than other domain extensions. As an example, Because users are more likely to type in yourbusiness.com than yourbusiness.co.uk or any other TDL, a website with the domain name yourbusiness.com is more likely to be given more authority by Google than yourbusiness.co.uk.

Brand memorability

.com domain names are easier to remember than those with other domain extensions. According to research,.com domain names are easier to remember than other TLDs.

Brand uniqueness

Nearly half of the websites on the internet should have the.com domain extension for their website for a variety of reasons. One of these reasons is that it gives your website a unique appearance, or, in other words, protection from the competition. 

Think of a situation where you want to start a website called style.com, but there is already a website called style.net that has the same brand name as yours but a different domain extension: With the.com extension, you become the legal owner of the brand name. As a result, it protects and distinguishes your business.

Global reach marketing

The.com can be used for any type of business, unless it has a different extension. Start a website with the country code and it becomes a local website. It’s true that with the with.com extension you can attract more visitors from all over the world to your website and increase traffic.

Customer recognition brand

The majority of people assume that when they cannot remember or are not sure of the domain name, it will end up with.com domain extension. Your domain name should have a.com extension because customers trust it more than other domain extensions.

Easy with SEO branding

Creating a website is only the beginning of the challenge of getting it ranked well in the search engine results. The.com domain extension is the one that works best with SEO. It is more likely that your website will rank well if it has a com domain extension.

If you’ve decided to go with the.com domain extension, you’ve probably determined that it is worth it. The.com domain name is especially popular when you’re just starting out and you want to be on the leading edge of the industry. Therefore,

  • Your customers believe that the domain name should end in.com, and they’re right!
  • .com domain names are trusted and memorable compared to other TLDs, and they account for half of all websites on the Internet.
  • .com is the most popular top-level domain (TLD) on the internet, which means more customers will engage with your brand.

10.  Avoid Numbers / Special Characters

When naming a brand, avoid using numbers and special characters. Knowing how to name your brand is essential to making your company stand out. Choose the right brand name and you’ve taken the first step on the road to success. In order to reach customers through word-of-mouth, your brand name must be perfect.

The drawbacks of using numbers and special characters in your brand name 

It’s a little difficult to understand

Customer confusion is a common result of using numbers or special characters in your content. In turn, customers may choose another brand over yours.

It’s difficult to remember and pronounce

An unpronounceable brand name with numbers or special characters shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. As a result, customers won’t be encouraged to share their opinions through word-of-mouth communication.

Lack of a clear brand identity

To convey more information about their products, services, or the company, some people add numbers or special characters to their brand name to make it more memorable. It’s just not logical from the customer’s point of view. Numbers and special characters aren’t looked at for their meanings by anyone else. As a result, it’s not a smart move.

Using numbers or special characters in a brand name may directly affect searches related to your brand. We advise against using numbers or special characters in your brand name. However, if you are only targeting the Japanese, Korean, or Chinese markets, it is acceptable to use related numbers or special characters in your brand name.

So Hard to Remember Brand Name

  • startupname100.com
  • startup_name.com
  • startup@name.com

Perfect Brand Name

  • tesla.com
  • ebay.com
  • Nike.com

Make sure you’re happy with it before moving forward

Every day, you’ll hear, say, write & think about your startup’s name.

The name is yours to use or not. This new business is yours. Your baby wouldn’t have a name you didn’t like, would you not?

In this case, the same concept applies. As a result, you may regret your decision, which could have a negative impact on your future performance and business processes.

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