In Christine Syquia’s latest article she explains how her company name, Charm and Luck, came into being and offers advice to help you choose a company name. As Christine’s products eventually hit mainstream stores across America, her brand was a critical piece of the puzzle.
If you’re thinking national or global representation for what you do, especially if you have a product that is physical and will be sold offline as well as online, deciding on a company name, brand strategy and logo is one of the most critical early business decisions you will make. Here’s Christine’s advice to help you…
A Little Charm and Luck
In starting a new company, deciding on a company name is the most important thing you will do to establish your brand, its identity and everything the company stands for. Don’t be careless in choosing a company name; the name will convey the story that differentiates you from competitors and will be the emotional pull that customers feel about you and your product.
Charm and Luck was the name of our handbag company and I was asked daily how the name came to be. People had a lot of different theories. Did my partner represent luck and me charm, or vice versa? Did it represent something deeper?
Actually the real story behind the name was pretty prosaic, so we would be slightly evasive when people asked us about the origins. In fact, the name was inspired by my partner’s favorite cereal: Lucky Charms. Reverse that and you get charm and lucky. Lucky is too reminiscent of the Lucky Denim brand, and so we settled on Charm and Luck. With our logo of a heart and a four-leaf clover and bright colors of pink and green, we had a simple, catchy, memorable name with eye-catching colors.
Eventually our company name and logo moved into every aspect of the business. The name was not only emblazoned on all of our company information, but we had custom lining made up for our products, we made the logo into a big buckle which adorned some of the purses and the hearts and shamrocks were cast into small metal pieces and adorned the bags. We used our logo on everything and it really defined our brand.
What Makes A Great Company Name?
Your company name signifies everything your company stands for and your brand strategy. Does it reflect your playfulness? Or should it be serious? Is it a tongue twister?
A great company name forces people to pause and it should be memorable. For instance, is it a name that people remember a day later or ponder its origins throughout the day because it was a play on words? A few memorable brand names in my opinion are Chi by Carlos Falchi (Carlos Falchi is a handbag designer and Chi is his lower-priced diffusion line), The Royal Bank of McD (a branding firm by John McDavid Lehman III), Society for Rational Dress (a women’s clothing line) or the store Opening Ceremony. Those are all smaller brands, not the huge obvious brands that we know and love such as Nike, Google, Yahoo, etc.
A name should be different, yet familiar. Charm and Luck achieved that with our name which evoked a favorite cereal and was fun and sassy. My consulting company, Accessory Business 101, is a simple reference to the basic ‘101’ courses offered in college. The name of this blog speaks to the trials and tribulations that entrepreneurs experience in their Entrepreneur’s Journey.
To come up with your company name, start brainstorming by listing the emotions you want people to feel when hearing your name. From there, pull out related words and phrases, say them out loud, and write them in different variations to test them out. Check a thesaurus for similar words. Play around with your ideas. Walk away from the project for a little bit and see if anything else pops into your head. I always take a break from my writing projects or anything else that I get stumped on. Take a walk or come back to it the next day. I guarantee you that you will have more clarity on the project.
Consider what the visual identity would be for your possible company names. Does the name lend itself easily to a logo or graphic design or even an evocative font? If you like the sound of the name and can picture it as a package with a possible logo or typeface, then you might have a real possibility.
Think about how your target market would react to your company name. Are you aiming at teens, young professionals, budget-oriented parents, or an older, more affluent crowd? For example, Charm and Luck is young, fun, and feminine. The clothing brand Façonnable is clearly European and can appeal to a more sophisticated, older shopper.
Eliminate the names you don’t love or that don’t stir an emotion from you. Then share your short list with a friend or colleague that you respect to get their honest feedback.
Some Tips To Keep In Mind
Avoid generic names. Jenny’s Hair Salon or Pete’s Bar are just not memorable enough. Even Pete’s Speakeasy or Pete’s Watering Hole would be a simple variation to distinguish you and convey a sense of the atmosphere you want to create.
In general, I would also avoid geographical names such as Poughkeepsie Pizzeria. You never know when your company will expand and if the name is not bound by a geographical locale, expansion will be easier. Don’t restrict yourself. If you want to grow your company to be a national brand, avoid using a city or state in the brand name.
Once you have narrowed down the company name to two or three options, you will need to do some research. Check the internet to make sure there is not another company out there with the same name. Do a search for URLs to see if your company name is available, preferably with a .com ending. Investigate the trademark to make sure nobody else has your name. If you are in the US, check with the United States Patent and Trade Office or go to www.uspto.gov. All of these preliminary moves take a little bit of time, but are critical steps to take. Your company will lose time, money, and brand identity if another company pops out of nowhere with the same name. Sadly, I actually hear of this a lot from my clients.
In the end, hopefully you will have a couple of names which pass your criteria. When reviewing the possible final company names, recall your original tests for the names-
Which name accurately conveys what the company will stand for?
Many entrepreneurs will go with the name that feels right. Some entrepreneurs will conduct a survey or have friends or colleagues do informal voting. Whichever name you decide to go with, start promoting it with gusto. This is the first step in building your brand’s identity.
Christine Syquia
There are many hurdles involved in choosing a real time company name. You might need to see if you would be able to get this trademark for overseas as well.
Another nice thing to do before picking your company name is doing the “phone test”: Can you tell your company name over the phone without having to spell it for people to write it down?
I always love hearing “how I named my company stories.” And I think you’ve given a lot of good points in choosing a name, particular in regards to avoiding generics. However, it’s also a good idea to make sure your company name conveys some of what you do, so your customers can find you–although I think in the fashion world, you have more leeway in that, since fashion itself has a lot to do with creativity, art, and the abstract.
Aside from looking up names on the USPTO site, you can also use http://www.Namecheck.com, which looks for available names in US trademarks, international trademarks, domain names, and social media names. It can be a handy tool for any company just starting out and brainstorming for a name.
Christine thanks for your post. I know that your contributions on Entreprenuers-Journey can be of great help to the community here.
May I suggest that you inject more of your experience into your writing? What lessons did running your company teach you? If you were to start Charm and Luck again, would you partner with family or raise capital and hire outside assistance instead?
Looking back did you manage your brand well and what obstacles did you face? How did you overcome those obstacles?
You wanted to project fun and sassy, so how did you accomplish that and to what degree did you succeed?
With limited insight into your company and seeing your bags on Ebay there seems to have been a mismatch. Sure your lining was fun but bags with a $350 MSRP project luxurious and sophisticated. I must be missing something here.
More of your personal experience both failures and successes will help us all. Thanks again Christine!
Hi Dennis-Thanks for the comments. I have many articles planned where I will discuss my journey with charm and luck. I will keep your comment in mind while writing my future articles.
To answer a couple of your questions-I would still partner with family when doing my business. Throughout the business we did hire outside consultants and employees to help out when needed. I am a huge proponent on doing what you are good at and finding someone else to do things you aren’t good at, such as accounting.
In terms of a bag with a $350 price, yes, I imagine that is a price point that is prohibitive to some however, our products were in the marketplace with products that were $400-700 for an average women’s bag. Of course that was several years ago and market conditions have drastically changed. We actually reacted to that change about 5 years ago and started a line called CALLA (charm and luck los angeles) which were non-leather handbags with a retail price not exceeding $100USD.
As far as the obstacles and managing the brand, there were many situations, and I will make sure I include some meaningful anecdotes in future posts. Thanks!
Great thoughts on choosing a business name! When I chose mine, I went with the personal identity that I had created for myself. In retrospect, I should have chosen something that didn’t include my name in the title (for reasons of scale). Then again, because I was small enough, people connected with me, the persona and thus the brand.
In regards to the ‘best’ way to reach a company name do you think in the end there’s any hardened proof that conducting surveys, voting, etc., on the name holds any amount of scalable benefits? Or do you think if you’re passionate and confident enough about a particular name and stand behind it that you could pretty much choose anything that feels right?
Thank you for good and useful tips.
I heard one more recommendation: Company name started from A, D, C. D is more preferable, then X, Y, Z. Under the same conditions first name will have priority in ranking.
It’s funny how you can never find the right company name until the single moment that a name strikes you in the head…and bingo! Company name. I enjoyed your post. A name is more than a name nowadays…it’s a brand.
Thanks for the tips. Company name is also one important part. So we should care about that.
Indeed, although there are a 1000s things that make a company successful everything starts with a simple name… I also read studies that say that a easy to pronounce name can have a more positive perception… so bring more business eventually!
Thanks to Christine for indicating great tips for choosing the name of a business. These tips must be considered before taking any step in a business.
Saif
Choosing a business name goes hand in hand with building a brand obviously, but I like your point about picking an emotion you want evoke when people hear the name. There are countless companies that have just picked a random fun-sounding name, and still been successful, but it’s tough to say if it really matters. In my opinion, if you build a great product or service oriented business and market it effectively, it matters very little in the end what your name is.
This was a helpful article. I started a blog a few weeks back and I’m thinking of buying a webdomain name to replace the this.that.com type name. I’ve been trying to think of what would be a good name for the blog. This will help.
Cool! This is a topic close to my heart as I own and design my own messengers bags line too, you can see them here http://nomuu.com
A very good book in my opinion on building brand names is this one here http://www.amazon.com/Making-Name-Inside-Story-Brands/dp/0195168720?tag=vglnk-c2-20 It looks into the psychology of famous brand names, and how they are built, such as amazon, levis, ups etc. Ultimately, what I took away from the book, and always believed myself is keep it short and sweet, the name should roll off the tongue, looking at certain letters and vowels and how they work together with the brand, for example some “sounds” are masculine, some more feminine etc, also looking to see that the letters are visually appealing. When I thought about the name, I also had in the back on my mind the domain name as well. What would be short and sweet and less then 6 letters? Would the letters be quick to learn for the end user?
And yes look at your target market as well. My market for example is young, streetware and urban wear. Something like “Charm and Luck” wouldn’t work for my brand. It’s too frilly and wordy. I had to look at all the brands that my target audience would buy, mooks, levis, stussy etc all short words, that make no sense. But visually can look rather nice and rolls off the tongue. Think about designer brands, simple words, that make no sense, but visually look appealing, gucci, prada, YSL, DKNY etc Incidentally it’s my belief that the shorter the brand name is (for fashion especially), the more brand-able it is.
Thank you for such great tips. It gave me great tips to follow through on. I have a few posts too far and I would like to ask for feedbacks on my start. They are sequential by way of introductory posts. I know that I have not been taught in any coaching programs. But The guides of Yaro’s EJ, Gideon’s roadmap and Darren’s Problogger helped me in making and establishing of my blog.
http://deksamblogger.blogspot.com
Thanks again.
I think I have a good luck because yesterday I was think to choose a brand name and today I found this article without any search.
This post is going to help me much to choose a good brand name.
Very-Very thanks Yaro, really.
Your Message
Christine,
Among the good points in this post, the best one for me is the idea of thinking and writing down the emotions you want people to feel when they hear the company name. I agree that it is also good to step away from the project to see if you would have new ideas
Thanks Christine, those are some really good, helpful ideas.
I once made the mistake of choosing a terrible name for an offline company and designing an even worse logo.
I like your idea of “listing the emotions you want people to feel when hearing your name” as a way to create a company name.
Thanks.
~ Rory