Answer Question
How important is a name really, to a brand's success?
Grant Polacheck just contributed a thoughtful piece on Brand Positioning and naming i.e. the positioning your company's name evokes.
I still wonder, though, how important really is a company's name to its success. Grant mentions Apple and Nike? I don't think "Apple" is a particularly distinctive name and I think Nike could be just as successful with the name "Blue Ribbon" thought not "Blue Ribbon Sports" because it is too long. The audience would likely have shortened it to "Blue Ribbon" when referring to the company.
And today we might be saying, a "blue ribbon" conjures up images of the sky above, representing elite performance : ) That is why they are successful. It is easy to come up with explanations in hindsight that have little to do with a company's success.
Just don't use a name that is too long, confusing or culturally offensive. And then get down to work. No need to hire McKinsey consultants :)
All these mega successful companies founded in the last decade or so all have pretty plain and boring names that do not connote anything in particular!
Stripe, Uber, Square, Box, Compass, Indeed, Zoom
What do you think?
I still wonder, though, how important really is a company's name to its success. Grant mentions Apple and Nike? I don't think "Apple" is a particularly distinctive name and I think Nike could be just as successful with the name "Blue Ribbon" thought not "Blue Ribbon Sports" because it is too long. The audience would likely have shortened it to "Blue Ribbon" when referring to the company.
And today we might be saying, a "blue ribbon" conjures up images of the sky above, representing elite performance : ) That is why they are successful. It is easy to come up with explanations in hindsight that have little to do with a company's success.
Just don't use a name that is too long, confusing or culturally offensive. And then get down to work. No need to hire McKinsey consultants :)
All these mega successful companies founded in the last decade or so all have pretty plain and boring names that do not connote anything in particular!
Stripe, Uber, Square, Box, Compass, Indeed, Zoom
What do you think?