Top 5 tips for choosing the right business name

Find out what are the five rules you need to work through when choosing an appropriate name for your business as laid down by Stefan Liute, strategy director at Grapefruit, branding and interactive design consultancy that serves a number of brands and institutions worldwide.

Walk in the shoes of your client

According to Stefan Liute, this is the most important step in the process of searching and choosing of the right business name.

The name of a company must be liked, and must be remembered by your potential customers and clients.

“Choose a name that your potential clients would both like and remember. And this is a not a one man’s job. If you don’t think about it that way, you’re not developing a client-oriented approach, and starting out with a weak business name is starting out on a wrong foot”, said Liute.

Choose an easy-to-spell name

An important generally applicable guideline is simplicity. It also works when choosing the right name for your business.

“Choose a name that is easier to understand, pronounce and spell, easier than you are inclined to. You will always see your company name from a largely subjective point of view than your customers”, Grapefruit director pointed out.

Be original

“Be original”, Liute says.

“Don’t try to be someone else than what you really are”, he added.

This approach is often seen as a sign of foolishness, ridicule or incompetence by today’s customers.

Company name versus owner�s name

Don’t mistake the company name with the name of the entrepreneur.

“The two DON’Ts are one and the same thing, and what matters for the customer is the company name, instead of the owner’s name. Your company name must meet the eligibility criteria for the registration as trademark, at least in Romania, at OSIM”.

For that, you have to make sure that the name you have chosen is available to use, and that any of your peer hasn’t taken it already. So when you have a list of options, you will also have to do some background check”, he explained.

Only for those who matter most

“Don’t try to please everybody with your name, but only those who matter most”, says Liute.

In order to please everybody, the creative elements such as the name and the logo should most often be boring and mediocre.

“Great names have fans, but also detractors”, Liute pointed out. Stefan Liute set up in Iasi in 1999 a partnership with Marius Ursache and Laurian Gridinoc a small branding and interactive design consultancy agency, Grepfruit.