Think about this. What when you had been to strip away every thing out of your model, abandoning its single most seen part? What would you’ve?
No, it’s not your emblem. It’s your title.
In fact, a model is much more than your title (or your emblem). At its essence, your model is what prospects and shoppers suppose and say about you. It’s your fame magnified by your visibility. And it’s the factor (or issues) folks affiliate along 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 to 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 a number 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 in the present day.
Why Your Title Issues
Give it some thought. You possibly can’t have a enterprise and not using a title. And not using a title, folks can’t take into consideration or discuss you. You’ll don’t have any referrals. No enterprise. No future.
In fact each agency has a reputation. However some names are higher than others.
What does a foul title appear like? I don’t wish to embarrass anybody, so let me provide you with a number of fictional examples*:
An accounting or regulation agency:
Delgado, Roderick, Cannon, Nguyen & Munoz
A consulting agency:
SHM Associates
A expertise agency:
The Digital Transformation Group
What’s improper with these names? All of it boils all the way down to the best way folks’s minds work. Folks don’t like complexity. They’re drawn to easy ideas and phrases. In a world cluttered with hundreds of companies and advertising and marketing messages, folks may have bother recalling names. So any assist we may give 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 associate 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 would as properly be a regulation of physics. I’ll name it the Legislation of Discount.
In a scenario like this, a agency could be sensible to observe the lead set by their shoppers. Change the title—or register a fictitious title (also called a “dba”)—to a single associate’s title. It doesn’t must be the primary one within the string, although that could be the simplest to your shoppers to acknowledge. You may, as a substitute, go for probably the most attention-grabbing title within the checklist.
If all the named companions have retired or died, shortening the title could be straightforward. Many companies have taken this route, and it makes a ton of sense. A multi-word title is complicated and tough 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 onerous to maintain straight. “Was it SHM or SMH?” This will result in some embarrassing mixups. And when events sort the URL into their internet browser, a transposed letter can cease them of their tracks. Lead movement suffers. Initialisms are additionally boring and straightforward to confuse with similar-looking names. (What number of three-letter rivals are you able to consider?) There may be nothing about SHM that’s memorable or attention-grabbing.
Then there’s that “Associates” dangling on the tip like a unfastened 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 virtually universally ignored.
Lastly, let’s think about The Digital Transformation Group.
At first blush, you may suppose this can be 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 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, additionally they are usually lengthy. Once more, that makes them much less attention-grabbing and tougher to recollect.
And keep in mind what inevitably occurs to lengthy names? Yep. The Legislation of Discount kicks in. Earlier than lengthy, The Digital Transformation Group will develop into TDTG or, as a result of it’s shorter, DTG. That descriptive title has simply develop into 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 a number of 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 shoppers and prospects.
Subsequent Steps
Take a tough take a look at your agency’s title. Is it quick, memorable and straightforward to pronounce? Is it properly differentiated out of your rivals? Or does it fall into one of many classes above?
It’s by no means too late to alter your title, and lots 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!
In case you’d wish to study extra concerning the sorts of names a agency can have and the way to decide on one, try this quick weblog publish.
Blissful Advertising!
