Choosing a business name and tagline

If you have a business idea, the next thing you are considering is a brand name for your product, idea, or company. Some business names we see come across as funny, some don’t even convey the brand concept, and some others appear disjointed.

Marketing and brand communication experts will tell you that a unique brand name and tagline play a critical role in any campaign. The right name and tagline can be memorable and easy for the consumers to recall and this word.

Keep it short, simple and memorable

For a business name, 1-3 words would do just fine. I find it very clumsy when a business name is beginning to seem like a sentence trying to convey what the business does. If your business name is doing all that, what would you be doing with the tagline?

Your business name should be punchy like you want to knock the breath out of your audience. People should hear your name and be interested in what you are offering. It should be easy to remember, read and pronounce. It could be a shortened form of a name or place, just like Cisco is gotten from Francisco. It could be an acronym too like AOL. It should connect with your brand and pique one’s curiosity. Avoid generic, bland, and overused names. There are tools available online to help the search for a business name. Check them out. Don’t be afraid to tweak and modify until you find what fits.

Check for availability of the business name and domain name

You don’t want to start using a business name only to find out that it is being used by another small business. You also need to confirm that another brand is not using the domain name because you will need a website as you progress with your business idea. Also, check on social media for similar names.

Once you have established the availability, secure the names. Ensure to confirm also that you are not breaching any law or existing trademarks. You can do a name search, or better still get legal aid to help you figure out all that so that you are on the safe end of the law.

Register your .com website

When it comes to easy recall of websites, a significant number of consumers are more familiar with .com than other kinds of extensions like .net, .tv, .org, .design, etc. Get the .com website and see if you can also get the other extensions to redirect to your page. For instance, your website may be xyz.com but you can also get xyz.net and xyz.org to redirect to your page. It is not necessary, but you can do it as well.

Consider registering a trademark

You might want to consider going an extra step to protect your brand name with a trademark to give you legal protection if any other company attempts to use your name in their products or materials. Also, if you have multiple products under your brand or multiple brands under your company, this may be expedient especially in the FMCG manufacturing sector.

Extra tip

Get a punchy tagline that can excite and thrill your customers at the same time. You can add a little twist to it, or some kind of pun that makes it all the more interesting. Get very creative with it and tie it to your logo and all your branding campaigns.