When you choose brand name, it can feel like the beginning of a tell-tale storybook…or a total horror. Choose wisely with this free advice from Truth Hacking.
Relax. The name is NOT the brand, but when it comes to…
Name Tags: it matters what you write down!
Instead of picking a name that you want (& hope) your business to grow into, focus on the story FIRST and the name SECOND. Let me explain…
Choosing a name for your business is kinda like naming a baby…only backwards.
The Business-Baby Name Principle: Babies grow into their name (and their life stories too). Businesses are straight-up born from stories.
We must be patient with our business naming. Take the opportunity to make something from that story before Name Tagging anything!
If you come right out of the gate with a business name that’s basically married to SEO–to flash and popularity–you’ll fit right in…with everyone else swimming in that Sea of Beige.
IT’S ALL IN THE STORY.
It doesn’t matter what your story is–small, big, tall, or too soon to tell–as long as you’re earning something meaningful from it. Let’s scope a few examples!
Brand Name 1: APPLE
The biggest, most notable brand in the world…has one of the most simple names EVER. Apple. It’s a freaking fruit. But it’s like, THE fruit…
What does it make you think of? Monumental ideas, memories, other things you respect?
- The Big Apple…
- Adam & Eve…
- Your favorite School Teacher’s Desk…
- An apple a day…
- Johnny Appleseed…
- Snow White…
The Name Tag: Think Different.
Steve Jobs once said he chose this name while on a “fruitarian diet”. He thought the name was “fun, spirited, and not intimidating.”
It’s definitely laid back, and it really makes sense when we see it nowadays…anything with an Apple logo is simple to use, beautiful, and invitingly awesome.
Fruitarian diets probably make more sense today than back in 1976 (the year Apple was founded). But it helped framed something amazing that was happening in Steve’s mind–some excitingly DIFFERENT way of doing things…
Like a fruit based diet…
…and NOT being another company like GE, Intel, or IBM, run by meat-eating “machine-men with machine minds!”
From this odd diet and shooting star of an entrepreneur, we get this Super-Contrasting brand name, totally opposite of all the big-wig corps of the world. And what happened?
It evolved into a GIANT MIDDLE FINGER directed squarely toward the legendary IBM (in particular)…which marketed itself as this industrial, all-business goliath of successful tech companies.
As its main competitor, Microsoft, grew into the beast it is today, Apple only stood out more, and more, and more…
To me, Apple (the brand and the word) means something inviting & revolutionary…kinda like…
- New York
- The Garden of Eden
- Mrs. Dunleavy
- Warm cider on a chilly Hallow’s Eve
- Apple Orchards
- Fairy Tales
Steve Jobs (and, yeah YOU, Woz), may not have known what it was going to become. How could they have known? But we’re sure glad they trusted that instinct.
Check out their most noteworthy commercial (it says it all)…
Find out why 1984 WON’T BE like 1984.
Brand Name 2: EVENTUAL MILLIONAIRE
Jaime Masters is a badass. I love this brand name so much.
What does it make you think of?
- The Future…
- Millions…
- Possibility…
- Inevitable Success…
- Control…
- Destiny…
- The American Dream…
The Name Tag: Learn from Self-Made Millionaires.
This brand name is SO on point–and the Name Tag…it’s what we call a #Given.
It says we all have the ability to make a milli, and if you’re an entrepreneur, it is EVENTUAL, it is inevitable, it is tangible.
Her site explains:
An Eventual Millionaire is a person who knows they will be a millionaire, eventually. But they are dedicated to becoming a millionaire on their own terms. They want an enjoyable business and an enjoyable life.
She interviews millionaires…she shares their knowledge…she hustles harder than the 99%…
She is THE Eventual Millionaire.
What more is there to say? The Name’s already done all the work…
BRAND NAME 3: TESLA MOTORS
In the world of BIG, BIG OIL, carbon emissions, and a ridiculous amount of personal vehicles…only one brand really stands out from the pack.
Tesla.
What does it make you think of?
- Nikola Tesla (famed for Supercharging the dawn of electricity)…
- Lightning bolts (and other shocking currents)…
- Guitars…
- Frankenstein…
- Transformers…
Not only are most of those thoughts (also) awesome words…they’re also poetically tragic.
- Nikola Tesla was never as widely respected, accepted, or supported as he should have been.
- Lightning bolts freak people out.
- We’ll miss you, Prince. Thanks for the tunes.
- Doc Frankenstein created a brilliant and immortal monster.
- Transformers–we wouldn’t want to live next to one (in CGI or real life).
Elon Musk didn’t even choose the name…but it fits HIM so well–continuously flipping the script on mainstream energy. He’s a physicist, engineer, insanely daring entrepreneur, and truly a class-act of a world leader.
As we (too slowly) embrace the anti-oil movement, Tesla has some serious space to fill and cars to sell. What better symmetry than to fill the Dirty Oil Void…with Clean, Green Electricity?
Not to mention his SolarCity movement as well…
BRAND NAME 4: TRUTH HACKING (…come on, how could I leave us out? 🙂
Experts told us not to name our business…
But wayyy more clients than experts have told us they love it (without us ever prompting them)…
It’s not a humblebrag, I’m just sayin’. We chose it for other reasons that just what the “experts” were trying to sell us…
- It tells people exactly what we do.
- WE TRULY BELIEVE IN IT.
- We felt a genuine connection to it when the idea came about.
- We were already hacking truths…before we even had the name.
- It’s how we were raised to be.
What does it mean? Truth Hacking: getting down to the essence of a brand, an idea, a person or pitch. Doing transparent business, hacking into the extraordinary things driving our gifted clients toward success. Giving the world, its markets, and this industry More True Stories, and making the market a TRUER place to sell.
Our Story? We grew so sick of BS marketing, complete media insanity, and generally just dealing with some very blatant LIARS in the industry–that we eventually came to a decision…
Do we take our entrepreneurship elsewhere, or do we try to fix the problems we’re so upset with? Well, you know how this one ended up. Here we are!
We are profit-based, and we believe Truth is the only thing that can sell. It’s our philosophy that entrepreneurs shouldn’t have to make up something (with all those little white lies) in order to sell, create, and accomplish what they want.
Truth Hacking made sense the second it was said aloud. If you’re a gut-reaction person, you know there’s no denying The Goosebumped Moments of life. This was one of ours, and we’re very grateful for it.
If you’re a gut-reaction person, you know there’s no denying The Goosebumped Moments of life.Click To TweetSo you wanna take the Storybook Steps to YOUR Brand Name…
Let’s get moving!
- When thinking of the name for your company, it should be:
- Reflective of who you are
- Reflective of what the company stands for (represents)
- Reflective of what it does
- Write out a paragraph about who you are as a business person and human being.
Are you on a fruitarian diet right now? Did you recently book a space-flight for 2027? Have you fought for the right to party in the USA? Do you have an obsession with oldies music?
Whatever the heck characterizes you as a person…Write It Down! There are NO small, forgettable details.
I mean, who knew an Apple could grow SO GINORMOUS…
Whatever the heck characterizes you as a person...Write It Down!Click To Tweet- List the things the company stands for.
Forget [for a moment] what you’re offering people, this step focuses on what you’re GIVING. In our case, we give truth [and sell brands that make bank]. Truth is free. It’s our most core value–and the most prominent attribute of our brand, business, and team.
We also take a stand when it comes to charity, bees, pandas, elephants, trees, Kansas, and (of course) Lie-Based Marketing and Branding Efforts. There are a lot of lies out there in the world–and we will not support them.
What do you stand for? What will you NOT support? How do you do this?
- Make a list of the problems the company solves.
This is where you can list out what you’re actually selling people. Service-based? Physical product? Personal brand? Coach?
Write down EVERYTHING you do to solve people’s / the world’s / the industry’s problems. We sell branding, copywriting, profit-focused edits and revisions, and a bunch of other Truth-based services.
What do you do?
Write down EVERYTHING you do to solve people’s / the world’s / the industry’s problems.Click To Tweet- Write down ADJECTIVES that describe your brand.
I don’t care how cheesy, weird, annoying, odd, revolting, cliché, flornsome, or made-up your adjectives are…
Just write them down. Bring them into the world on paper so you can see what they look like together as a group. It should look kinda like this…
- Warm and fuzzy
- Eccentric
- Satirical
- Inspirational
- Genuine
And if you’re drawing a blank on adjectives and descriptive words…dude. We’ve been there too.
Here are a few pretty great tools for finding the words to fit your story…
- Sit back. Breathe. Sleep.
Now try to come up with a few Name Ideas…who knows, it may have already hit you!
…but if it doesn’t, THAT’S OKAY. Not everyone was meant to create brand names–and perhaps some people should not. You have other options…
A) Allow this information to marinate until it TRULY HITS YOU.
B) Hire a brander and show them the precise direction you want to go in for a brand name using this info. It makes their job easier–and ensures they’re on the same page as you.
C) Just keep working. Maybe you aren’t ready to unveil a new or fresh brand name–that’s cool! It’s a massively huge decision and you SHOULD take your time figuring it out.
- Test your options with as many people you know (who will listen).
Then take however many people you just asked…and ask the same amount of strangers.
Strangers probably don’t care about you (or your brand either), so you know you’re going to get some very unfiltered feedback. Here in Kansas, we usually give-and-get polite feedback, but it’s always honest as all get out.
You can take this a step further (and we all should), by testing in broad locations. If you’re a global brand, you gotta ask the world. If you’re local, you better ask The City People AND The Country Folks.
And after all that if you’re still not sure…
Ask some experts. Heck, I’ll give you my unfiltered, first-impression thoughts if you just shoot me an email or give me a call–it’s what I do, Tell Truths.
*If all else fails… You can always stick with your last name. I always respect a family business–and it’ll automatically Hit Home on the Local front. It’s a vulnerable and nothing-held-back expression of you as a person + how you were raised…not a bad place to start!