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How to Avoid Having a Cringey or Embarrassing Business Name

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There are certain similarities between riding a rollercoaster and establishing a company. For starters, they’re both exhilarating, full of excitement, suspense, and growth.

And, as your business expands, your brand identity will be the anchor that’ll help you stay focused and retain your integrity.

But to build a great brand identity, you need to have a great brand name because it’s the first thing customers see before engaging with your business.

Consider how humiliating it would be for consumers wanting to purchase Pee Cola, Urinal Drink, ISIS chocolate bar, or even Ayds Diet Candy.

Every startup trying to succeed must do everything possible to avoid choosing an embarrassing brand name since that’d harm their business’s reputation and ruin its ability to survive. And if you’re starting your business, we created this guide that’d help you find a name you’d be proud of.

Avoid Using Names That are Difficult to Say or Spell

Avoid using complicated brand names because—trust us when we say—no customer wants to waste time trying to say your company’s name.

If you want your target audience to admire and promote your business, avoid choosing a name like ‘Susan’s Special Shoe Selling Shop.’

Customers prefer short, memorable brand names over long ones because they’re easier to say, remember, and find online. Long names have numerous disadvantages, one of which is the possibility that customers would misspell a letter when searching for your store on the internet.

Your company’s brand name creates the critical first impression that your business needs in order to establish a solid foundation in the eyes of its consumers. So ensure you choose a powerful name that’s short, appealing, easy to say, and spell.

Take Extreme Caution When It Comes to Politics

It’s critical to remember that offending customers is a tried-and-true recipe for brand failure. Many companies have made the mistake of displaying their uniqueness by selecting a demeaning brand name, and it never ended well for them.

And in these days, when customers are much more aware of the brands they buy from, sending the wrong message about culture and politics through your brand’s name will undoubtedly create a huge gap between your brand and its customers, just as Aunt Jemima’s name did before it was renamed to Pearl Milling Company.

But don’t stop there because even if you’ve come up with a great name, you’ll also want to avoid anything that’ll make your customers uncomfortable with your brand. When dealing with political matters, every entrepreneur must exercise utmost caution.

Mike Lindell’s over-involvement in politics made it extremely difficult for customers to differentiate Mike Lindell’s business, MyPillow, from his political activities. This action split his customer base and inspired Parkland shooting victim, David Hogg, to try starting a pillow company so he could drive MyPillow out of business.

Carefully Position Your Brand

Although every company dreams of growth and profit-making, they’ll be unable to achieve this goal if they aren’t aligned to their target audience demographic. 

According to a recent Squadhelp survey, customers aged 25 to 34 prefer new and innovative brands over traditional and trusted ones; customers between the ages of 45 and 65, on the other hand, love traditional brands. 

So, if you want your company to thrive, don’t give it a name that doesn’t appeal to your target market.

Study your audience and understand the tone that’d be best for them. Edgy names like Alienware are fantastic for companies targeting young people, but if your audience is Baby Boomers, then it’s best you stick with traditional names.

To get the best from your brand, every entrepreneur must study their target market and come up with a name that matches their needs and personalities. And, when it comes to naming your business, the fastest and most reliable path you can take is using a trusted business name generator.

Test Your Brand’s Name

Failure to test your brand name with an audience is another sure way to end up with a name that’ll make your consumers cringe.

So ensure you test your name with a tiny sample of your target audience to see if it resonates with them. Testing your name will not only show you if your audience loves it but also whether it’d scale with your band.

Most successful businesses like Ayds Diet Candy did not see the necessity to regularly test their brand name to ensure that it still supported their growth. This inability to keep watch on its brand name ultimately led to the demise of the brand.

Take Proper Care of Your Brand

Your brand has a name, a voice, a mission, a set of goals, and friends—your audience. So, as an entrepreneur, if you truly want to achieve tremendous success, you must treat your brand with the respect it deserves because it’s more than just a concept; it’s the personality of your business.

There are certain similarities between riding a rollercoaster and establishing a company. For starters, they’re both exhilarating, full of excitement, suspense, and growth.

And, as your business expands, your brand identity will be the anchor that’ll help you stay focused and retain your integrity.

But to build a great brand identity, you need to have a great brand name because it’s the first thing customers see before engaging with your business.

Consider how humiliating it would be for consumers wanting to purchase Pee Cola, Urinal Drink, ISIS chocolate bar, or even Ayds Diet Candy.

Every startup trying to succeed must do everything possible to avoid choosing an embarrassing brand name since that’d harm their business’s reputation and ruin its ability to survive. And if you’re starting your business, we created this guide that’d help you find a name you’d be proud of.

Avoid Using Names That are Difficult to Say or Spell

Avoid using complicated brand names because—trust us when we say—no customer wants to waste time trying to say your company’s name.

If you want your target audience to admire and promote your business, avoid choosing a name like ‘Susan’s Special Shoe Selling Shop.’

Customers prefer short, memorable brand names over long ones because they’re easier to say, remember, and find online. Long names have numerous disadvantages, one of which is the possibility that customers would misspell a letter when searching for your store on the internet.

Your company’s brand name creates the critical first impression that your business needs in order to establish a solid foundation in the eyes of its consumers. So ensure you choose a powerful name that’s short, appealing, easy to say, and spell.

Take Extreme Caution When It Comes to Politics

It’s critical to remember that offending customers is a tried-and-true recipe for brand failure. Many companies have made the mistake of displaying their uniqueness by selecting a demeaning brand name, and it never ended well for them.

And in these days, when customers are much more aware of the brands they buy from, sending the wrong message about culture and politics through your brand’s name will undoubtedly create a huge gap between your brand and its customers, just as Aunt Jemima’s name did before it was renamed to Pearl Milling Company.

But don’t stop there because even if you’ve come up with a great name, you’ll also want to avoid anything that’ll make your customers uncomfortable with your brand. When dealing with political matters, every entrepreneur must exercise utmost caution.

Mike Lindell’s over-involvement in politics made it extremely difficult for customers to differentiate Mike Lindell’s business, MyPillow, from his political activities. This action split his customer base and inspired Parkland shooting victim, David Hogg, to try starting a pillow company so he could drive MyPillow out of business.

Carefully Position Your Brand

Although every company dreams of growth and profit-making, they’ll be unable to achieve this goal if they aren’t aligned to their target audience demographic. 

According to a recent Squadhelp survey, customers aged 25 to 34 prefer new and innovative brands over traditional and trusted ones; customers between the ages of 45 and 65, on the other hand, love traditional brands. 

So, if you want your company to thrive, don’t give it a name that doesn’t appeal to your target market.

Study your audience and understand the tone that’d be best for them. Edgy names like Alienware are fantastic for companies targeting young people, but if your audience is Baby Boomers, then it’s best you stick with traditional names.

To get the best from your brand, every entrepreneur must study their target market and come up with a name that matches their needs and personalities. And, when it comes to naming your business, the fastest and most reliable path you can take is using a trusted business name generator.

Test Your Brand’s Name

Failure to test your brand name with an audience is another sure way to end up with a name that’ll make your consumers cringe.

So ensure you test your name with a tiny sample of your target audience to see if it resonates with them. Testing your name will not only show you if your audience loves it but also whether it’d scale with your band.

Most successful businesses like Ayds Diet Candy did not see the necessity to regularly test their brand name to ensure that it still supported their growth. This inability to keep watch on its brand name ultimately led to the demise of the brand.

Take Proper Care of Your Brand

Your brand has a name, a voice, a mission, a set of goals, and friends—your audience. So, as an entrepreneur, if you truly want to achieve tremendous success, you must treat your brand with the respect it deserves because it’s more than just a concept; it’s the personality of your business.

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Grant Polachek
Grant Polachek is the Head of Branding at Inc 500 company Squadhelp.com, the worlds #1 naming platform, with 30,000+ customers from early-stage startups across the globe to the largest corporations including Nestle, Philips, Hilton, Pepsi, and AutoNation.
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