How do you choose a name for your venture?

What you name your startup is one of the things that can contribute significantly to the success of your venture. Thus, choosing the best name for your business becomes very crucial.

Decide on the name for your startup very, very thoughtfully. Give it as much importance as a parent would give to naming a child. YOU will have to live with that name for life… even if the startup fails and shuts down.

Ideally, a name should give your intended users/customers a clear idea of what you do. e.g. Make My Trip or ClearTrip tell you clearly that this is something to do with travel and trips. It should be easy to pronounce for all people across geographies and it should, as best as you can research, mean the right thing in all languages. Ideally, it should be short, and should sound nice.

More importantly, the domain should be available. If not, trying to create a ‘compromise url’ (e.g. abc-info.co) is not very useful as it is difficult for people to find when they search online.

The sound should be relevant to your audience. E.g. if it is an enterprise solution, it should sound very professional and solid. If it is a fun thing for teenagers, it should sound fun.

Likewise, the logo design for that name should also reflect the personality that is relevant for the intended audience.

Once you have decided on the name, you should focus on desiging a good logo for your company

A logo is one of the most visible faces of your brand. In other words, the logo is most likely to be your most frequent and most visible brand representative. Hence, a logo should clearly state the following:

1) Who you are

2) What you do

How well the logo is designed and how well the messaging is in the tag line will create the first impressions about the brand’s personality.

Right from the time you exchange business cards, or when you release an ad – in print, TV or online, or when someone visits your site, it is often the name of the company, represented by the logo tag line  that will be noticed for the first time.

For startups, it is critical that the logo and the tag line be designed well. This is because when you are new, most people would not know what you do and who you are. Hence, when they interact with your brand for the first time, it is usually the logo unit that will set the first impressions about what you do.

While a badly designed logo may not necessarily send the wrong impression, a well-designed logo will most certainly create a favorable impression.

Similarly, with tag lines. Tag lines should be used to communicate clearly what you do. E.g. “Online fashion store”.

Often entrepreneurs make the mistake of using a tag line which is nothing but a smart set of words with no reference to what you do. This is of little use in brand management. E.g. for a healthcare brand, if the tagline said ‘We care for you”, it really means nothing to anyone and does not establish what the brand does. Instead, if the tagline were to be specific saying “Your neighborhood childcare clinic’, there is specificity in communicating what the promise is.

It will be ideal if your tag line can also communicate your value proposition. E.g. “Healthy Home-Made Meals for Kids.”