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Importance Of Avoiding Generic Words And Keywords From Your Brand Name...

It all begins with a great brand name!!! A brand name personalizes a business and it is the link that connects your business with your customer. According to our brand name specialists, the first impression a customer gets from your brand name is very important. How? As there are millions of brand names in the market, it is very hard for a startup brand name to come up from the competition. So as a solution for this situation brand name masterminds recommend a brandable brand name. With a generic worded brand name the chances you get to reach your target customers is very less. So why do you need to avoid generic words and keywords in your brand name?

We will be discussing,

  • What are the disadvantages of using keywords and generic words in your brand name?
  • What can I use for my brand name?
  • What are the real-world experiences and many important facts!!! 

It’s all about helping you with getting the perfect brand name…

What Is A Generic Word Or Keyword?

Generic word is known as any word which can be found in the dictionary which means any word that has a meaning. Books, foods, flowers, clothes

Keyword is any word that is related to the industry. For example, imagine you are planning to start a business in the food industry and you name it “Fresh Foods”. Here, the first word Fresh is generic and the second word, Foods is a keyword.

The Disadvantages Of Using Generic Words Or Keywords In Your Brand Name...

Brinso, always recommends brand names that do not include keywords or generic words and it is a top brand name quality. What are the opportunities you are going to miss with a brand name which breaks this rule?

  • With a generic worded brand name, you cannot stand out from the competition.

Being a recognizable brand name in the industry your business included, is one of the first things you dream of. If you use a brand name with a keyword, you will definitely miss this opportunity. You cannot be ideal with the same kind of brand names as your competitors have. So make your brand name unique which can be identified apart from the competitors.

  • Google deprioritize brand names with keywords or generic words

The second most important fact is that you should avoid generic words or keywords in your brand name as Google considers brand names with generic words or a keyword as spam. Google has a penalty called EMD penalty (Exact Match Domain Penalty) which is related to the domains included keywords. For example, you start a chair business and you name your brand name as “Chairs” which makes your domain name www.chairs.com. In this domain name, a keyword is included and such websites could be deprioritized by Google.  

  • Generic brand names are less attractive and generate “usual” vibe

Brand names with keywords do not cause your business to stand out. Think of these brand names for a clothing business, Jane’s clothing, Rose clothing, Good clothing and Gucci. What will you pick? It’s Gucci. So when generic words are included to your brand name you lose the exciting appearance of your brand name.

  • Less attractive and hard to memorize

As mentioned above, a brand name gets too usual with keywords and generic words. As there are thousands of brand names in the market that sound like your brand name, you cannot reach your customers. When your brand has a generic word or keyword, it misses the memorizing value that a brand should have.

  • Generic worded names limit your business opportunities.

A generic word or keyword cannot express a deep meaning other than the word meant to be. Most businesses start with one product or service but with the profits and the experience they get in the field they expand their businesses into other arrears. But here the brand name becomes a barrier as it fails to communicate what the business really does. So think twice when you select a generic word or keyword as the brand name.

  • You cannot communicate a powerful brand message

The brand name is a collection of business values, business ethics, business goals, business mission etc. with a creative brand name you can communicate a deep, descriptive message but with a generic word or keyword in it your brand name and the brand message becomes two different facts. 

  • Hard to get trademarked

When a brand name is too generic or includes keywords, the trademark examiner does not pass as its high commonness. If your brand name is too common, you cannot make a notable trademark in the market. So this is also a disadvantage you should consider thoroughly.

  • These types of brands require a huge marketing cost

People have their own set of feelings, definitions, interpretations and opinions about these generic words and keywords. Moving those interpretations to a good or service requires a series of marketing and promotional projects. Brand name is the key representative of any business. Making it popular is necessary to achieve the other goals of your business. So this will be a huge issue unless you have enough capital to spend on.

But What About APPLE?

You may have a problem if using generic words to a brand name cause this many issues, how APPLE became the most successful multinational technology company. By the time the installation of APPLE, they did not have many competitors in the industry. So they didn’t have as much competition and were easy to stabilize in the industry. And on the other hand, they had spent a huge capital on marketing their brand name.

If you have the great strategic planning to make a generic word a brand and the ability to spend huge capital for that, using a generic word or keyword as your brand name is not a problem anymore!!!

How To Avoid Generic Words Or Keywords In Your Brand Name?

Here are some tricks and tips to avoid generic words and keywords in your brand name and shape your brand name more creatively. 

  • Word combination- you can take two meaningful and related words and combine only halves of the words to a one readable word. By this way you can create a unique word and develop a great brand story.
  • Try to limit the number of characters- many generic worded brand names are of two words or more. Try shortening your brand name which also makes it easy for the customers to memorize it.  To shorten your brand name you can use acronyms. 
  • Get a brand name that matches your business’s future- generic words make your brand name too limited and become a barrier to its own future business possibilities. So think of your future business plans and get a name that matches with the future of your business.
  • Change the order of the characters- you can avoid generic words and keywords by changing the character order of them. It will give a unique and innovative appearance for the business as your brand name. 
  • By removing or adding the characters-  by this way, you can change the way the brand name sounds and pronounced. It makes your brand name totally different from the original generic word or key word. 
  • Acronyms- If your brand name idea has more than three generic words you can form a short and generic wordless brand name by using only the first letters of each word. For example, instead of using International Business Machines, IBM is short, attractive, memorable and generic word less.

Interesting Fact About Using Generic Words…

There is a notion in society that, unlike unique brand names, generic brand names, or brand names with common dictionary words are easy to memorize. This is true for some extent. Common dictionary words are already heard and written by most of the customers. So some people think that by including generic words, they can create memorable brand names. But this is not true when it comes to naming your brand name. As there are many common brand names in the market, using a common brand name will only make you one of them. With a common brand name you cannot build a unique and strong brand identity. So make sure to get a unique brand name for your business.

Usage of Keywords

Most of the world-famous brand names do not have a keyword that explains their business. Through hard work and providing the best service, your brand will gain recognition. So it is not necessary to have a keyword. Therefore, as Brinso, we recommend you not to include keywords in brand names.

Should Keywords Be Included in Brand Names?

When we see Apple, Pepsi, Starbucks, and eBay, we know what they are. These are the most popular brand names in the world. Look at the difference between their past names and current names. 

  • Apple Computers-Apple, Inc.
  • Brad’s Drink-Pepsi-Colal
  • Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice, I1 Giornale Coffee Company-Starbucks
  • AuctionWeb-Ebay.

Through these real-world examples, it is explained that including a keyword in the brand name is not necessary because, with its popularity, the brand name itself will explain who you are. The most important thing is that after the 2012 Google updates, the sites with the keyword included domains have been deprioritized, and including a keyword in your brand name may lead you to a negative ranking effect from search engines. So, without taking any risk, just focus on the simplicity and creativity of your brand name.

Real-life Examples

These are some thoughtful businesses that crowned in the present industry that started with this “Keyword”  issue but got recovered after realizing the per said disadvantages.

  • BackRub to Google

You may know that Google’s original name was BackRub and it includes two generic words, Back and Rub. The reason they selected this brand name; BackRub is to interpret the idea Backlink. But when they found this initial brand name is not good enough, they moved to the name Google which derived from Googol. Today it is the best search engine in the world.

  • Blue Ribbon Sports to Nike

Can you guess whose original name is this? This brand name also contains keywords, too long and hard to memorise. So they changed the name as Nike which brought a whole new era for their business, and it has an amazing meaning, “goddess of victory”. Today it’s hard to find someone who does not know this brand name.

  • PC’s Limited to Dell

This brand name has keywords and as it has no excitement in the brand name,  they changed it to a more unique, keyword less brand name as DELL, the world-known multinational computer technology company. 

  • Brad’s Drink to Pepsi

Pepsi was originally named after its founder “Caleb Bradham” as Brad’s Drink. Which is a very common name. Later, as he wanted a unique name, he created the brand name “Pepsi” using the word “Pepsin” stomach enzyme.

The human brain can remember generic word combinations easily, but it cannot be detected by correlation of words with your brands. Words like “Love birds”, “We Sell something” can be remembered easily, but users cannot correlate them with brand names.

Also, using generic words in the brand name could lead to issues with the brand name copyright. Therefore, it’s recommended to avoid generic words in your brand name.

Should Generic/Partially Generic Words Be Included In Your Brand Name?

Before 2012, Google gave priority to exact match domains when ranking, but after understanding that it was not effective, they came up with an update in 2012. So, including generic words or partially generic words in a brand name can directly affect the brand in a negative way.

Anyone can have a doubt about this factor because of the famous brand “Apple”.Of course, “apple” is a generic word that Brinso does not recommend as a brand name. But a multi-billion dollar software company is using the generic word “Apple” as the brand name, which was initiated a long time ago when there was no negative effect to using a generic word as a brand name. Now “Apple Incorporation” is one of the most popular, well-established companies that no other company can overpower, so the generic word in the brand name is not a problem.

As you are going to start a new business by purchasing the best brand name, it is not worthwhile enough to risk your brand-related searches because of a generic word. It is better not to choose a brand name that is included with a generic word when there are other good brand names that a user can purchase.

Usage of Generic Words

As the best brand advisors, we insist on avoiding generic words in a brand name. Why do we insist on it? Because, according to Google, the use of generic and partial-generic words in a brand name can directly adversely affect the brand name. If you use generic words in your brand name as everyone else, it will be difficult to compete with other competitors. The following are examples of several brand name generators that generate brand names with generic words.

  • Anadea Business Name Generator

Brand Name   Generic Word
  Link Software   Link 
  Double Software      Double 
Talk Software   Talk 

  • Biznamewiz Business Name Generator

Brand Name   Generic Word
 Mega Software  Mega
   Logic Software     Logic
 Software Rank   Rank

  • BnG Business Name Generator

Brand Name   Generic Word
Software Task   Task
 Software Vision Vision
Software Desk Desk