Kate Buckley is CEO of Buckley Media: Premium Domain Brokerage & Domain First Branding. She’s also a member of ICANN Business Constituency.
Branding is a critical aspect of any company’s success, and it’s even more important for companies seeking to differentiate themselves from competitors—and scale. It’s your first impression. It’s your point of distinction. It’s proof of credibility. In short, the right company name is huge.
So how does one go about finding the ideal name for their business? Many company leaders believe that naming starts with either a scribble on a napkin or a prolonged—read: expensive—naming engagement in which esoteric names, portmanteaus and misspellings of common words are presented. These names may have nothing to do with the actual brand promise, service offering and ethos—and may not resonate with their target market. Often times, after a drawn-out process is complete and a winning name selected, then—and only then—do agencies think to see if the exact match .com domain name is available. In my experience, 99 times out of 100, it is not.
Then, it’s back to the drawing board for a new crop of candidates or settling for a difficult to remember or pronounce brand name—or one that is on a subpar extension. These names can convey a lack of confidence and fail to accomplish the growth goals of the organization.
Here’s what to do instead.
Conduct a brand awareness study.
Not sure whether or not your brand name is an asset or liability? Conduct a brand awareness study. By engaging a broad swath of your target audience—both current and prospective customers—you can get real-time, valuable, data-driven insights about the perceptions of your name and brand and how closely it aligns with the value proposition of your company and the needs of this critical audience.
Brand awareness is a crucial metric for any business looking to succeed in today’s competitive market. To accurately measure how well your brand is recognized and remembered by consumers, there are two main types of research methods: aided and unaided brand awareness studies.
Unaided brand awareness studies ask consumers to recall and name brands in a specific category without any prompts or cues. For instance, a question could be, “What luxury watch brands can you think of?” This approach provides valuable insights into how well your brand is known and how easily it comes to mind for consumers, without any external influence.
On the other hand, aided brand awareness studies provide prompts or cues to help consumers remember brands. For example, a question could be, “Which of the following luxury watch brands have you heard of?” This would be followed by a list of luxury watch brands. This approach measures how well your brand is recognized when consumers are given specific prompts or cues.
Both are useful tools for understanding your brand’s recognition and recall among consumers. By conducting these types of research, you can gain valuable insights into the strength, or weakness, of your brand’s name and position in the market and make informed decisions on whether or not to invest in a rebrand.
Consider the available domains.
When considering prospective domain names, prioritize the following:
1. One word in the English dictionary; two words as a backup plan.
2. Ideally, three to eight characters in length.
3. Avoid hyphens and misspellings.
4. Look for a word or words that have positive-to-neutral meanings.
As premium domain names can be difficult to source and legacy domain name owners can be notoriously difficult to track down, you may want to consider engaging a reputable domain name brokerage. (Disclosure: My company helps with this.) Look for a brokerage that is well versed in sourcing, negotiating and acquiring domain names. If you do decide to go it alone, make sure that you use a reputable escrow service when finalizing any agreed-upon domain name transaction.
Once a short list has been identified, consider the naming candidates that have available .com domains matching both strategy and budget. Then craft meaningful origin stories that resonate with the service offering and needs of the target audience.
Lastly, qualitatively and quantitatively test the surviving candidates (don’t guess—test!), helping to ensure that you rocket out of the gate with the right name that resonates with your target market from day one. I’ve found this efficient and elegant process can shorten the branding process from months to weeks.
Great names help ensure that your brand is top-of-mind and credible, thus reducing your marketing spend. Digital competition is more intense than ever: Rebranding can give companies a competitive advantage—one that not only serves as a moat around their brand and a force multiplier for their marketing efforts, but is also an appreciating asset on their balance sheet.
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