Think about this. What if you happen to had been to strip away all the things out of your model, forsaking its single most seen part? What would you will have?
No, it’s not your emblem. It’s your identify.
In fact, a model is much more than your identify (or your emblem). At its essence, your model is what prospects and purchasers suppose and say about you. It’s your status magnified by your visibility. And it’s the factor (or issues) individuals affiliate along with your agency of their minds.
However to unleash these associations requires a set off. And for many corporations there is only one set off. You guessed it—your identify.
Your identify is a proxy on your agency and all the things your online business represents within the minds of your audiences.
As a logo of all the things you characterize, then, it carries numerous weight. But many corporations give their identify little or no love or thought.
Why is that? And the way can a reputation have an effect on a agency’s fortunes?
These are the questions I wish to reply right this moment.
Why Your Identify Issues
Give it some thought. You’ll be able to’t have a enterprise and not using a identify. With no identify, individuals can’t take into consideration or speak about you. You’d haven’t any referrals. No enterprise. No future.
In fact each agency has a reputation. However some names are higher than others.
What does a foul identify seem like? I don’t wish to embarrass anybody, so let me offer you a number of fictional examples*:
An accounting or legislation agency:
Delgado, Roderick, Cannon, Nguyen & Munoz
A consulting agency:
SHM Associates
A expertise agency:
The Digital Transformation Group
What’s unsuitable with these names? All of it boils all the way down to the way in which individuals’s minds work. Folks don’t like complexity. They’re drawn to easy ideas and phrases. In a world cluttered with 1000’s of companies and advertising messages, individuals also can have bother recalling names. So any assist we can provide them could make an enormous distinction.
Within the case of the agency Delgado, Roderick, Cannon, Nguyen & Munoz, no one goes to recollect this lengthy string of accomplice names. Purchasers and prospects do what any of us would do: they lop off all the things after the primary identify. They name it Delgado. Folks will simplify each time. It would as effectively be a legislation of physics. I’ll name it the Regulation of Discount.
In a state of affairs like this, a agency can be sensible to observe the lead set by their purchasers. Change the identify—or register a fictitious identify (also referred to as a “dba”)—to a single accomplice’s identify. It doesn’t must be the primary one within the string, although that is likely to be the best on your purchasers to acknowledge. You would possibly, as a substitute, go for probably the most fascinating identify within the listing.
If the entire named companions have retired or died, shortening the identify will be simple. Many corporations have taken this route, and it makes a ton of sense. A multi-word identify is complicated and tough to recollect. A brief identify, then again, matches readily into individuals’s crowded minds.
What about SHM Associates?
Initially, let’s take a second to understand what’s occurred right here already. Clearly, the Regulation of Discount has been at work. That SHM stood for one thing at one time. Perhaps it was a string of names. Perhaps three descriptive phrases. Sooner or later, individuals stopped calling the agency by its full identify, collapsing it like an accordion right into a compact initialism. Earlier than lengthy, the agency began calling itself that, too.
However there’s an issue with initialisms. They’re exhausting to maintain straight. “Was it SHM or SMH?” This may result in some embarrassing mixups. And when events sort the URL into their internet browser, a transposed letter can cease them of their tracks. Lead circulation suffers. Initialisms are additionally boring and straightforward to confuse with similar-looking names. (What number of three-letter rivals are you able to consider?) There’s nothing about SHM that’s memorable or fascinating.
Then there’s that “Associates” dangling on the tip like a free muffler. It too will fall away and everybody will name the corporate SHM. Appendages—normally added to make a agency sound extra substantial—simply detract from a reputation and are virtually universally ignored.
Lastly, let’s take into account The Digital Transformation Group.
At first blush, you would possibly suppose it is a good identify. In any case, it says precisely what the group does. However there’s an issue. Let’s name it The Regulation of the Generic.
Descriptive names are generic. Whereas they do an excellent job of describing the enterprise they’re in, they do a really poor job of distinguishing themselves from the ocean of different generic names within the market. As a result of they describe, additionally they are typically lengthy. Once more, that makes them much less fascinating and more durable to recollect.
And keep in mind what inevitably occurs to lengthy names? Yep. The Regulation of Discount kicks in. Earlier than lengthy, The Digital Transformation Group will grow to be TDTG or, as a result of it’s shorter, DTG. That descriptive identify has simply grow to be an inscrutable initialism.
There’s another excuse generic names are normally a poor selection. They don’t age effectively. Chances are high, the phrases “digital transformation” will really feel dated in a number of years as some newer, extra swanky time period takes its place. Additionally, companies evolve. Names aren’t so versatile. Many corporations that outgrow their generic, descriptive names flip them into initialisms to keep away from complicated their purchasers and prospects.
Subsequent Steps
Take a tough have a look at your agency’s identify. Is it brief, memorable and straightforward to pronounce? Is it effectively differentiated out of your rivals? Or does it fall into one of many classes above?
It’s by no means too late to alter your identify, and lots of corporations undergo the method with nice success. The payoff? Improved model retention, tighter differentiation and better model loyalty. Not dangerous for a selection phrase or two!
When you’d prefer to study extra concerning the forms of names a agency can have and the way to decide on an excellent one, take a look at this brief weblog put up.
Glad Advertising!
