Did you know people tend to make emotional attachments with your brand name? To keep them attached to your brand name and make a loyal customer crowd around your business, your brand name has to be errorless/ perfect. For that, all you need to do is identify the “brand name mistakes” and avoid them from happening. Easy as that!.
In this article we are discussing the common branding mistakes people often make, why they make mistakes and how to avoid them. Getting a perfect brand name is everyone’s dream. By avoiding these simple common brand name mistakes, you can easily get a brandable brand name.
Why do you make mistakes when branding?
Lack of knowledge
If you have good knowledge about branding, it will be very easy for you to nail the task. Same as that, the main reason for mistakes is lack of knowledge. That can affect all your future plans as well.
So the first thing that we want to do is gain more knowledge about branding to avoid making mistakes.
Not understanding the brand strategy
Branding is a complex and time consuming process; understanding its every corner is necessary. Brand strategy is what your brand name is based on, the objectives of your business. You need to have a clear idea about the brand strategy. Not having an idea about brand strategy is a big mistake.
Not following the right naming trend
Naming trends are very temporary. So not selecting the correct and the best naming trend for your business is an issue. A popular naming trend may not work out very well for your business. Some startup naming trends last for a very short period of time and they are always changing. For example, 2012 google informed there will not be a benefit of using keywords anymore. So analyze the startup naming trends before selecting one!!!
Not choosing the right domain extension
Not considering the right domain extension is also a huge mistake that you make when naming your business. Before finalizing your name make sure that a suitable domain extension is available.
Not getting the help of logo and slogan
Always make sure to get the help of these two when naming your company, it is important to give a great impression to customers.
What Are The Common Mistakes
01. Taking naming as a simple task
You need to have a perfect brand name if you want to survive in the field. Your brand name is an investment you do for the business. You have to give it proper attention. Many famous companies had to rebrand their name spending millions of dollars to get a name with all the brand name qualities.
How to avoid it?
Before naming your business or startup, invest your time to learn how to choose the perfect name for your startup. If you choose the wrong one, it will affect the future and growth of your company. Always keep in mind not to give space to a rebranding. Brinso free evaluation tool is the best way to solve that problem.
02. Trying to describe your business using the Brand Name
Using keywords is unhealthy for search engines. Including describing keywords in your brand name creates a negative effect on your SEO process.
How to avoid it?
- Try to think of something new and unique. Avoid trying to explain your business through the business name. You can use your logo or tagline to give a hint about your business.
- Avoid using keywords to stay safe from the filterings of Search Engines
Look into the world’s biggest SEO company. Previously they were known as SEOmoz, but then they relaunched as MOZ. It’s because they understood the disadvantages of using a keyword in their Brand Name.
03. Mismatching of the Brand Name and Domain Name
Almost everyone is trying to go for a different domain Name if the chosen Brand name is not available. That is not something that should happen.
Ex- Think your company name is Marvel technologies. If you choose your brand name as Themarvel.com is not something sensible.
How to avoid it?
- Do not get a domain name that will mismatch your brand name.
- If your brand name is taken, go for another brand name without hesitation or try professional ways to overcome it.
04. Use Of A Brand Name Without Having .com Ownership
The point you need to know is that only the name with a .com extension can be distinguished as brand names. So without the .com, your brand name can lose its value and trust. Always remember to use the .com as your TLD. It is the only one that makes you the original owner of the brand name.
How to avoid it?
Don’t try to use common words or combinations for your brand name. You can think out of the box. Try to find unique Brand name ideas.
Ex :- Google.com, Microsoft.com, Apple.com, Amazon.com
Using domain extension can be changed in these scenarios.
- If you are starting up a non-profit organization, you can use .org
- If you are starting up something related to education, you can use .edu
- If you are starting up something targeting a specific region, you can use the region domain extension. (But if you have an idea to expand your business in the future, go for .com)
Ex-: The United Kingdom – .uk, The United States – .us
Consider the above facts that will help you avoid the mistake while choosing the best domain extension for your startup. Some people buy multiple domains with other extensions for the same name without having the .com. But if you own the .com there is no need to do that.
05. Using a brand Name with a History
Selecting a brand name with a History will impact your business in many ways and it will be a mistake you can not correct.
Think your company is in the field of Advertising but the brand name you choose used for a soap company earlier. Then definitely you have to make an extra effort and spend more to repromote your brand or else think the specific brand name is named as spam earlier then again you have to rebuild the trust among users.
How to avoid it?
- Always try to choose a brand name with a clear history. There are many websites available to check the history of a brand name. So better consider more about it so that you will not make that mistake.
You can use the site tessera.bz to check the availability of the brand names.
06. Choosing a Brand Name that is similar to another popular Brand
Always try to come up with a unique name.
Many users think that imitating something similar to another popular brand will bring your business an advantage. According to surveys users don’t trust this kind of brand name. The search engine always tries to correct these kinds of words. And finally, you will have to end up with no search traffic.
How to avoid it?
It will be a big mistake if your brand name has been already registered by somebody else and also in the future when you are going to register your business, it will negatively affect you.
Before you purchase or register, search for your new brand name (or Brand name idea) using the Google search engine. Immediately change it if google shows a very similar brand name as a suggestion.
You can Search Google images to get an idea about the existing brand name and logos.
Use knowem.com to check for the use of your brand, product, personal name, or username instantly.
Whois is also a site that can be used to find if there is an owner already.
07. Using Special Characters
You may think using special characters or numbers will make your brand unique and different. But it will end up making the customers confused. In the competitive world today the customers never give much effort to type or remember your name. The misspellings will direct your customers to another separate site and you will make a loss in the search traffic.
How to avoid it?
- Use only English letters for your brand name.
- Use neither special characters nor numbers to your brand unless you are targeting the Chinese, Japanese or Korean markets.
08. Expressing a negative meaning
Always think about the future of your company and make sure the brand name will not affect it. When you are choosing a brand try to check if there is any negative meaning in it because it may lead to a huge problem in the future when you expand your business.
This matter not only comes with the English language. That means you should check carefully that any country’s language has a negative connotation for your brand name.
*The best example is the problem faced by the United States Soda company. When they tried their product 7up in China, they got to know that the word 7up means “death through drinking” in Shanghai. So they had made an extra effort to prove it is not a bad product as it meant.
*When Parker pens launched in Spain it came up with a slogan as “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you” but the translation came as “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant”.
*Mercedes Benz came to the Chinese market under the name of “Bensi” which the meaning expressed as “Rush to die”
- Some brand names have a meaning but there are cases in which the meaning does not match with the industry you are engaged with.
- To avoid this kind of case you must look into the described meaning of the brand name before purchasing.
09. Selecting A Brand Name Without Checking It’s Trademark Availability
This is also a common mistake most entrepreneurs and startup founders often make. This can happen due to the lack of knowledge of branding. Branding experts always insist on checking the availability right after you select a brand name. This step is a must and saves you from many legal and other troubles to come.
How to avoid it?
Check your brand name’s trademark availability to make sure you can get the legal ownership of the brand name. You can check it from the United States Patent and trademark office.
10. Not Checking The Social Media Availability
Social media presence is very important to engage with the customers who prefer shopping online and having an official page or account in the social media is like a trend in the online business culture. Most popular social media for businesses are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Sometimes your brand name can be known in social media for another product or service. Not checking this before finalizing a brand name is a huge mistake. To avoid this all you have to do is take some time and check whether it is available or not on social media!!!
11.Not Interacting With Your Target Audience
Most entrepreneurs miss this important point when naming their business. A brand name needs to be customer friendly. Customer is the center of your business. Knowing the customer well is the key for your business’s success. When it comes to selecting a brand name, this is no different. So when you select a brand name, sample your target audience and know their suggestions on your brand name. Whether it is easy to read, pronounce, spell, memorize etc.
If your brand name fails to communicate with your customers, it is a brand name mistake.
12. Not Understanding The Value Of The Brand Identity
Brand identity is the visible details of a brand name; the color, the design and the shapes. These visible features are very important in developing a significant image about your brand name in the minds of your customers. It is about how you present your brand name to your customers. Make sure to create a strong brand identity, avoiding this is another brand mistake.
13. Following Trends Without Knowing Them Well
This is also one of the common mistakes entrepreneurs make in the naming process. Following trends without knowing them well. Most of the trends are short term. Using words from a trending song or a video that went viral on the internet, or a word pattern, using these in your brand name to catch the attention of your target customers is a wrong branding decision. You’ll get attention during the particular time period and be forgotten as the trend gets old. So be careful with trends. And also do not follow naming trends of brand names that have been founded decades ago. For example, the founder’s name or a city name. Think of a future ready naming trend. Consider brand name qualities.
14. Trusting Brand Name Generators
Most people use and trust brand name generators to select their brand name. But as the competition is fierce, auto generated brand names are not competitive enough. To beat the competition, you need a strong brand name. You cannot trust merely a tool to give the best brand name for your business, you are the owner of your business, you are the one who knows your business to the core. So do not trust brand name generators to select a brand name for your business, you can ask brand name consultants to help.
Mistakes After Naming Your Brand
What are the mistakes you can make after you came up with a perfect brand name? Is this confusing? But yeah, there are few common mistakes you can make even after the naming is done. We already discussed one, not purchasing the .com ownership. Here are some others to avoid,
- Not registering your brand with a trademark – This can lead you to face troubles in the future because you can not protect your brand from infringements.
- Not creating necessary social media accounts – This is another important step you can forget. You have to create the necessary social media accounts to get the same username for your brand before it becomes too late. As an example, if your brand name is already taken on Instagram, even trademarks or copyrights can not help you get it back. Unless the current user directly imitates your brand rather than using the username.
How does Brinso help you avoid these mistakes?
Brinso scans every name suggestion carefully before finalizing it. Now you will not have to visit hundreds of websites and check millions of domains to choose the best.
- Brinso only presents super brand names(vocabulary score above 8)
- Brinso only put forward the brand names below $500
- Brinso lists out only the brand names which consist of all the brand name qualities.
- All the names in Brinso have a perfect meaning that is matching with the industry in which they have been categorized to.
- Brinso provides the best tool for the evaluation process.
- The tool is completely a free service
- From the evaluation tool, you can get a full report on the pros and cons of your brand name.
How Analyzing Competitors Can Help You Avoid Mistakes
Before you start brainstorming business name ideas, you have to explore the brand names of your competitors. A proper competitor analysis can help you in several ways.
- Help you understand their strengths to apply in your ideas
- Help you notice the weaknesses to avoid while searching your ideas
These are two benefits you can have by analyzing the business names of competitors. But the main advantage is, proper knowledge about the industry names helps you avoid accidentally imitating other business names.
List Of Companies Who Failed In Their Rebranding Attempts
Rebranding a company doesn’t mean that only changing the name of the company. It can be changing their names, logos, slogans, vision, strategy. Here are a few companies that went for rebranding attempts and failed. In the process of rebranding, they lost millions of dollars.
- Mercedes-Benz
This famous and well-known luxury vehicle company entered the Chinese market with the name of “Bensi”. They had no idea that in the Chinese language the brand name Bensi would represent the phrase “Rush To Die”.
When naming a product, companies make sure that it does not contain any negative connotation. Because you will not have enough capital to recover from a mistake like this as the company Mercedes-Benz had.
- Radio Shack
Radio Shack is one of the well-known retailing companies in the world. In 2009 they rebranded their name into “The Shack”. With this rebranding, they lost nearly 200 million dollars as it failed.
- Coca -Cola
Coca -Cola rebranded the name of the product Coca -Cola in 1985 with the name of “New Coke”. This change was not accepted by the previous Coke users and the company had to reverse the step they took forward within less than 3 months. It faced nearly 35 million dollars lost due to this rebranding attempt.
And also when Coca-cola moved into the Chinese market the translation of it became “bite the wax tadpole” and they had to change it for an alternative phrase. This is also the best example of negative connotation.
- Royal Mail
The postal service Royal Mail rebranded their name into Consignia. The users were confused and the new name was difficult to remember and pronounce. So the company had to go back to the old name.
- Colgate
The company Colgate launched a toothpaste from the name of “Cue” targeting the French market but later they got to know that Cue is a French pornographic magazine name.
- Ford
The company Ford launched a product named Pinto in Brazil. It did not become successful because in Brazilian Portuguese Pinto means “tiny male genitals.”
Simple tips that will help you to find the best brand name
- Brand Name qualities
There are main ten qualities we can define when we are taking a brand name. Considering those brand name qualities will help you to get an idea about which brand name you should choose. It will help you to skip making mistakes.
- Check the vocabulary score
When you are choosing a brand, always check the vocabulary score. Because the main thing we should consider while branding is to check whether it can be pronounced easily and memorize easily. If the vocabulary score is above 6 then you have got a good brand name in your hand and if it is above 8 you will have the greatest advantage of using a brand name.
- Price
As per the research was done by Brinso, paying more than $500 per Brand Name is useless. A real brand name can be defined with memorization and pronunciation value. The length of it is not something we should consider anymore. Shortest with the character count 4,5 & 6 are the only recommended.
Ex:
- Google – 6 Letters – vocabulary score 8.35
- Yahoo – 5 Letters – vocabulary score 8.78
- Microsoft -9 Letters – Vocabulary score 8.22
Look, all the popular brands have not considered the length of the brand but they have considered the vocabulary score.
- Evaluation
Evaluate your brand name idea or the brand name you choose from a reselling site by using a free tool available.
Then only we can say that the “process” of brand naming is finished.