Choosing a name for a product

[northernt]

This is something that I read in one good book + my own observations.
The name of a company and its trademarks can be truly considered the company’s biggest assets. Today companies launch more trademarks than three years ago, find more ways of supporting them and face much more difficulties. Today the problem #1 is a name’s accessibility. Only in the USA there are 1.6 mln trademarks registered. In Europe it’s 3 mln. Nine of ten names are already taken. We just don’t have enough words and word combinations for everyone!
Some companies take the easy way: abbreviations. But this is just a trap, one of the worst enemies of successful positioning. Ordinary words or even made-up words are much easier to remember than an illogical combination of letters.
Names should not only look good, but also sound good. (pronounce and compare: UNUM and Union Mutual).
One of the ways out when looking for a name might be buying a name. Yves St.Laurent bought the name for it’s famous perfume “Opium” from a couple of elderly perfumers only for 200$. And this is not the only example of a name’s second life.
One more thing to consider when choosing a name for a product is its meaning in other languages. One Chinese company named their dried milk “creap” and in Russia there’s a restaurant “Fart”(sorry for the examples, but it’s true).

Hi Jenny

This is a very similar problem in Australia. When i went to register my business name i found i went through about 12 different names before i got one they would allow and wasnt to close to another name. To top that off i later was looking and found that one of the words in my name had 68 trademarks on it. Luckily none of them were directly related to the type of business i was doing.

Make up a word.

Exxon was not in any dictionary. Nor was Esso before it, although it was derived from Standard Oil. (SO)

There are many companies with made-up or un-related names. How about google? yahoo? Enron?

[pmoores]

I would say work on a good product and the name will eventually gain a reputation of its own. While it is true that you want something unique and that stands out, something catchy and that someone will always remember, put the product/service first, and loyal customers will surely follow behind. The biggest marketing that you could ever dream of, is good "word of mouth."

Some companies, because it has been doing business for awhile, has a certain degree of trust, especially for its quality, if not customer service, and that takes time to build. No matter how good of a name you conjure up, it will never matter as much as to how the potential customer responds to what you have to offer.

[Lins]

... and then when you think you have the perfect name for your company, you want to have it as your domain name... and it has been taken! it took me a good two months to find a name for my company. It is not the first option, it is not the second, but all in all I'm quite happy with it: Let's go rural! I let rural houses in Spain so I thought it was quite graphic after all.