Think about this. What should you had been to strip away every thing out of your model, forsaking its single most seen element? What would you will have?
No, it’s not your brand. It’s your title.
After all, a model is much more than your title (or your brand). At its essence, your model is what prospects and purchasers assume and say about you. It’s your fame magnified by your visibility. And it’s the factor (or issues) folks affiliate together with your agency of their minds.
However to unleash these associations requires a set off. And for many companies there is only one set off. You guessed it—your title.
Your title is a proxy on your agency and every thing what you are promoting represents within the minds of your audiences.
As a logo of every thing you symbolize, then, it carries lots of weight. But many companies give their title little or no love or thought.
Why is that? And the way can a reputation have an effect on a agency’s fortunes?
These are the questions I wish to reply at this time.
Why Your Title Issues
Give it some thought. You possibly can’t have a enterprise with no title. With no title, folks can’t take into consideration or discuss you. You’ll don’t have any referrals. No enterprise. No future.
After all each agency has a reputation. However some names are higher than others.
What does a foul title appear to be? I don’t wish to embarrass anybody, so let me provide you with just a few fictional examples*:
An accounting or legislation agency:
Delgado, Roderick, Cannon, Nguyen & Munoz
A consulting agency:
SHM Associates
A know-how agency:
The Digital Transformation Group
What’s fallacious with these names? All of it boils right down to the way in which folks’s minds work. Folks don’t like complexity. They’re drawn to easy ideas and phrases. In a world cluttered with 1000’s of companies and advertising messages, folks may also have bother recalling names. So any assist we can provide them could make an enormous distinction.
Within the case of the agency Delgado, Roderick, Cannon, Nguyen & Munoz, no one goes to recollect this lengthy string of accomplice names. Shoppers and prospects do what any of us would do: they lop off every thing after the primary title. They name it Delgado. Folks will simplify each time. It’d as properly be a legislation of physics. I’ll name it the Legislation of Discount.
In a state of affairs like this, a agency can be good to comply with the lead set by their purchasers. Change the title—or register a fictitious title (often known as a “dba”)—to a single accomplice’s title. It doesn’t must be the primary one within the string, although that is perhaps the simplest on your purchasers to acknowledge. You would possibly, as a substitute, go for probably the most attention-grabbing title within the record.
If the entire named companions have retired or died, shortening the title may be simple. Many companies have taken this route, and it makes a ton of sense. A multi-word title is complicated and troublesome to recollect. A brief title, however, matches readily into folks’s crowded minds.
What about SHM Associates?
To begin with, let’s take a second to understand what’s occurred right here already. Clearly, the Legislation of Discount has been at work. That SHM stood for one thing at one time. Perhaps it was a string of names. Perhaps three descriptive phrases. Sooner or later, folks stopped calling the agency by its full title, collapsing it like an accordion right into a compact initialism. Earlier than lengthy, the agency began calling itself that, too.
However there’s an issue with initialisms. They’re laborious to maintain straight. “Was it SHM or SMH?” This could result in some embarrassing mixups. And when events kind the URL into their net browser, a transposed letter can cease them of their tracks. Lead stream suffers. Initialisms are additionally boring and straightforward to confuse with similar-looking names. (What number of three-letter opponents are you able to consider?) There’s nothing about SHM that’s memorable or attention-grabbing.
Then there’s that “Associates” dangling on the tip like a free muffler. It too will fall away and everybody will name the corporate SHM. Appendages—normally added to make a agency sound extra substantial—simply detract from a reputation and are nearly universally ignored.
Lastly, let’s think about The Digital Transformation Group.
At first blush, you would possibly assume it is a good title. In any case, it says precisely what the group does. However there’s an issue. Let’s name it The Legislation of the Generic.
Descriptive names are generic. Whereas they do a great job of describing the enterprise they’re in, they do a really poor job of distinguishing themselves from the ocean of different generic names within the market. As a result of they describe, in addition they are typically lengthy. Once more, that makes them much less attention-grabbing and tougher to recollect.
And bear in mind what inevitably occurs to lengthy names? Yep. The Legislation of Discount kicks in. Earlier than lengthy, The Digital Transformation Group will turn out to be TDTG or, as a result of it’s shorter, DTG. That descriptive title has simply turn out to be an inscrutable initialism.
There’s another excuse generic names are normally a poor alternative. They don’t age properly. Likelihood is, the phrases “digital transformation” will really feel dated in just a few years as some newer, extra swanky time period takes its place. Additionally, companies evolve. Names aren’t so versatile. Many companies that outgrow their generic, descriptive names flip them into initialisms to keep away from complicated their purchasers and prospects.
Subsequent Steps
Take a tough take a look at your agency’s title. Is it brief, memorable and straightforward to pronounce? Is it properly differentiated out of your opponents? Or does it fall into one of many classes above?
It’s by no means too late to alter your title, and plenty of companies undergo the method with nice success. The payoff? Improved model retention, tighter differentiation and higher model loyalty. Not unhealthy for a alternative phrase or two!
For those who’d wish to study extra concerning the forms of names a agency can have and the way to decide on a great one, take a look at this brief weblog put up.
Completely happy Advertising!
