BRAND STORY: 05
How to Succeed at the Name Game
More science than art — here’s how to select the perfect business name when every domain is taken.
Bo-na-na fanna fo-fanna! … Finding the perfect name for your business is like playing The Name Game.
Your business name can draw on your vanity (a family name), pragmatism (the name explains what you do), or kismet (the name came to you in a dream). As any parent will attest, naming your offspring is usually a mix of serendipity and research.
Long before the Internet, my pregnant mom made it her practice to study movie credits as the names scrolled by. With the theater emptied, she scrutinized the screen and considered names from the best boy, key grip, gaffer, and all. I’m named after — drum roll — King Kong supporting actor, Bruce Cabot.
Michael and I named our brand agency under different circumstances and with a different Kong:
As I explained in the Introduction Part II, Michael and I met while running the creative department at CheckFree Corporation. We gave CheckFree the tagline: “The Leader in Electronic Commerce,” and to my absolute wonderment, the marketplace accepted this audacious claim as fact — my first eye-opener to the power of brand positioning.
Unfortunately, our burgeoning enthusiasm for brand strategy was routinely squelched by our King Kong boss, a CMO who would steal creative from trade magazine ads and direct us to copy it. Mr. Kong would call us into his office at 2 pm, show us the ripped creative, and then send us back to our desks.
“Oh, by the way,” he’d announce. “Tight deadline; need an ad this afternoon.”
It was a control tactic. Instead of grumbling, “Eff you and the horse you rode in on,” we’d announce, “Time for a design coup!” and then do our own thing.
Eventually, CheckFree fired our department to bring in an outside agency. Michael and I launched our new agency, Design Coup — with CheckFree as our first big client. Touché!
We invested $250 each and set up our renegade business in the back of my house — an experience that gives me undying enthusiasm for fortuitously-named startups like these:
Away
Jen Rubio, co-founder of Away, the luggage brand, described the fluke that named her company:
“As I was doing my research, I tried to stay organized, so I made a folder on my computer named ‘TBD Luggage Brand.’ One day, I opened my computer and typed in “Away” as a placeholder — it just came to me. I thought, “There’s no way we could use Away as a brand name. It’s such a simple four-letter word and extremely common. We spent a lot of time brainstorming names but never came up with anything as good. My partner, Steph Korey asked a law firm if we could trademark Away. They laughed in our face, but she insisted. A week later, they called us, saying, ‘You have been given a gift from the marketing gods.’”
Craigslist
In 1995, a streak of providence christened Craigslist. Craig Newmark remembered the moment:
“When the mailing list I was running needed to have a name — (I’m very literal as a nerd and I was gonna call it ‘San Francisco Events’) — people around me told me they already called it ‘Craig’s List’.
I had inadvertently created a brand.”
Airbnb
In 2007, Brian Cheske and Joe Gebbia, (recent grads from the Rhode Island School of Design), reached the pinnacle of brand serendipity while struggling to make their rent.
A bunch of techies were coming to San Francisco’s IDSA design conference but faced sold-out hotels. Brian and Joe bought inflatable air mattresses and rented floor space in their apartment to host visitors. Their ingenuity birthed the oddly-named Air Bed and Breakfast, which quickly became Airbnb. They later adorned the brand with “Bélo,” the company’s “universal symbol for belonging.” Today, Airbnb is worth $31 billion.
The marketing gods will be kind to you too.
You’ve put in the hard work to identify your brand position, so let’s play The Name Game by following the gold standard for company names and domains.
The Gold Standard for Company Names
Names fall into three categories; decide where you want to be:
1. Vanity Names — Using your personal name for your business connects your enterprise to a real person. Freelancers, professionals, and one-person companies gain credibility when they proclaim: “I stake my reputation by branding my name.”
Many of the most famous brands pay homage to their founders, (Conrad Hilton, Henry Ford, Bill Marriott), as do fashion brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren. As a practical matter, if you want to attract talent and build your company, a vanity brand may limit your growth. Consider the difference in attracting talent between Joe’s Fresh Fish and Sustainable Seas Inc.
2. Descriptive Names — This is the default choice for most new businesses, and it makes sense: A-1 Driveway Replacement, Doggie Dips and Dos, and Perfect Wedding Cake all tell customers exactly what the business offers. During the 1990s Web frenzy, generic descriptive domains became the rage. Investors scooped up Pets.com, Furniture.com, Shoes.com, and Webvan in a gold rush of IPOs, but all ultimately failed.
Descriptive names offer clarity in explaining your product or service but can limit your potential. Imagine if Jeff Bezos had branded his online book business Bookstore.com. He would have never built the retail/entertainment/tech juggernaut that Amazon.com has become. Consider Burlington Coat Factory, which did not have Bezos’ foresight. When Burlington expanded its product line, the company had to add the clunky tagline, “We’re more than just coats.” Finally, in 2013 they dropped “Coat Factory” altogether.
3. Lyrical Names— Unlike descriptive names, lyrical names communicate brand qualities. Apple Computer has nothing to do with fruit but suggests friendly technology. Many great brands have lyrical names:
- Starbucks was named after a character in Moby-Dick,
- Google came from an accidental misspelling of the number “googol,”
- Nike is the Greek goddess of victory,
- Zappos is derived from the Spanish word zapatos, meaning shoes, and
- Twitter is derived from the dictionary definition: ‘a short burst of inconsequential information’ and ‘chirps from birds.’
The ideal name works three ways: It’s descriptive, lyrical, and it communicates your brand position.
The most successful names speak to your brand position
Your name should punctuate your position without sounding generic. Snappy lyrical names with clear positions include:
- SmartWater: Just like spring water, but smarter and better.
- Dropbox suggests a no-brainer way to store your files. They could have chosen, “Cloud-Based Data Storage Inc.,” but instead, they coined a product name that sounds tech-easy to use.
- Netflix is self-descriptive (rent flix over the net). Originally a way to rent DVDs through the mail, today, the company streams and produces original films.
- OneBlade is a non-cartridge, high-end razor company with the brand position: Award-winning, single-blade razors.
- Farm Burger is an Atlanta-based burger chain that serves farm-to-table grass-fed beef.
- Kids Fly Safe sells FAA-approved seat harnesses for children on airplanes. It’s not the slickest brand, but the name directly addresses a parent’s concern.
- UNTUCKit sells shirts designed to be worn untucked. I wonder if my school principal would have approved.
- The Farmer’s Dog suggests Fido savoring fresh-slaughtered meat after a romp in the pasture.
Granola bars deserve special mention for weaving brand positions into their names:
- Luna is a nutrition bar aimed at women.
- Clif Bar targets wannabe rock-climbing men.
- Kind suggests “Doing kind things for your body.”
Go For Short!
One to two words is the ideal length. The gold medals go to companies that boil their brands down to two letters: (GE, GM, and HP). Platinum goes to Oprah, who nails it with a single letter for her brand: (O).
Long names create challenges for logo designers. Ultimately, successful brands shorten their names:
- PricewaterhouseCoopers became PwC,
- Federal Express became FedEx,
- Dunkin’ Donuts dropped the donuts,
- Home Box Office became HBO,
- Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC, and
- Weight Watchers is now WW.
Avoid Creative Spellings
Lyft, Tumblr, and Grindr get away with odd spellings because they invested millions in building brand recognition. Funky spellings create trouble when you're forced to spell out the name over the phone or before the elevator stops at your floor. You may even discover (too late) that Siri is misdirecting your customers to someone’s correctly-spelled site. For example:
- Flickr — One of the most famous high-cost screw-ups from cutesy spelling is Flickr. When Caterina Fake launched her company, the Flicker.com domain belonged to Flicker Beer, so Caterina dropped the “e.” As Flickr grew, so did the mistyped Web traffic going to flicker instead of flickr — an estimated loss of 3.6 million visitors per year. At one point, Yahoo! (the new owner of Flickr) offered to pay $600,000 for flicker.com — a very expensive 301 redirect.
- Kabbage.com — If you choose a creative spelling and become wildly successful, you may need to fork over big bucks for the correct spelling — but that would be a wonderful problem to have. Witness Kabbage.com (small business loans online), which ultimately bought cabbage.com (for an undisclosed sum) to avoid Web spelling confusion.
Great brands often break the rules
Fake words that are neither descriptive, fanciful, spellable, nor even pronounceable are normally a no-no.
- Iggli.com died a quick death as a travel startup.
- Geniqe is one of 1500 ready-to-go fake names you can buy ($3612) with matching domains from Novanym.
Fake words achieve the goal of being short and available as dot-coms, but shoestring startups should try to avoid them. They require bigger bucks to build awareness and cement the spelling. Here are some notable fake-word brands:
- Blinkist — lets you read key ideas from nonfiction books in 15 minutes or less. Okay, “blink” is a word.
- Fiverr — online freelance services
- Qdoba — Mexican food chain
- Kiip — Mobile advertising.
- Zumper — Apartments for rent
- Zillow — Yes, a fake word can become a huge multinational brand, but it took serious investments to propel it to its $4 billion market valuation.
- Trulia — Tons of TV advertising made Trulia a national brand. Zillow acquired it in 2015 for $3.5 billion.
- BHLDN — Vowels are so passé for hipster weddings from Anthropologie.
- Xobni — “Inbox” spelled backward. This utterly unpronounceable software company ceased operations — and maybe for that reason.
- And what about Spotify? This great name for a laundry spot-remover proves that a global music brand can emerge from a made-up word.
The Gold Standard for your Domain Name
Choosing a well-positioned brand name is the easy part; getting the domain is hard. With over 220 million domains currently registered, finding a domain to match your company name requires creativity and perseverance. If you visit dotweekly.com, you will find a pricey market for lucrative domains. For this reason, fake names and spellings have become workarounds for the scarcity of single-word, unique URLs that end in dot-com.
Since we’re following the progress of Donnie’s Lilliputian Lawn Care, I can report that Donnie is excited to build his Web site. He checked GoDaddy.com and discovered that lilliputian.com is available — for $9,880! If it’s any consolation, the URL was reduced from $27,300 the week before. Fortunately, Donnie can register LilliputianLawns.com for $11.99, so he buys it. Donnie plans to paint the Web domain on his truck and market to the neighborhood.
After spending his $11.99, Donnie has second thoughts. LilliputianLawns.com is a mouthful. “And, who can spell “Lilliputian?” he wonders. “How about LilliputLawns.com — named after the island of the little people?”
When Donnie shares the idea with his friends, he learns that none have read Gulliver’s Travels, nor watched the 1939 movie or the 1977 and 2010 remakes. “Maybe, I’m a literary outlier,” he laments.
Donnie remembers that his brand position focused on “sustainable lawn care,” so he rethinks his name. He searches a long list of URLs with “Sustainable,” “Earth Friendly,” “GreenPlanet,” and so on. None captures his quirky idea.
Finally, Donnie settles on “Carbon Free Lawns.” It’s hardly poetic, but it offers differentiation and clarity. Importantly, CarbonFreeLawns.com was available for $11.99.
The brand also allows Donnie to advertise manure-based lawn-feeding as an alternative to petroleum-based synthetic fertilizers.
The Domain Name Checklist
Before you freak out, “Everything’s taken!” Realize that a tight, catchy domain name that is identical to your company name (example: Bombas.com) is only necessary if you are building a brand — which is the premise of this book!
If you’re starting Allentown Orthopaedic Medical or South Kingsboro Pest Control, finding a dot-com should be easy. Your customers will be able to find you on Google just fine. But, if you want a memorable brand that conveys substance and authority (for example, Pest1.com — available for $300 which is a steal! — instead of SouthKingsboroPestControl.com) you will need to go through the domain drill below. Ready?
Let’s start:
☑ The Gold Standard = Alignment
When your company name and domain match exactly, your domain becomes “aligned” or unified with your brand. Alignment is a must with “pure-play” online brands, like Bombas, and pretty much every major national brand meets this standard. Examples:
- Aligned National brands — Facebook.com, McDonalds.com, Wholefoods.com, Amazon.com, Walgreens.com, and pretty much every big company paid what it took to get a matching dot-com, or they got in early.
- Shortened Names — Domains that shorten the company name especially meet the gold standard. Examples: Experian Information Systems = experian.com. Hyatt Hotels = hyatt.com. Sunkist Growers = sunkist.com. In each case, the brand became known by its shortened name.
☑ Add a Descriptor
The single-word domain you desire probably won’t be available unless you create a fake or made-up spelling. A better approach is to add a second word as a descriptor. Examples:
☑ Add a Suffix
Adding ify can turn your noun into a verb.
- Example: Shop becomes Shopify.com. Adding “vine,” spawned Bridgevine.com. But, to avoid an awkward spelling moment in the elevator, I don’t recommend using a domain extension to spell out the word. For example:
- Bit.ly and Mother.ly require some help from Libya (.ly) to spell out the domain.
☑ Sneak in Initials
If JoesPlumbingandHeating.com is too clunky, consider JoesPH.com.
- Initials can add clout (Bryn Mawr Trust is BMT.com), but dot-coms with all initials can be hard to find.
☑ Invent a Proper Name
An entirely fictitious proper name is not out of the question.
- When the CEO founder of the “digitally-native vertical” underwear brand, Mack Weldon, introduces himself at meetings, you must first process the fact that his name isn’t Mack. CEO Brian Berger sought to reinvent the way men’s underwear was designed, marketed, and sold, so he created “Mack Weldon,” a fictitious name that connotes masculinity and practicality. It was also an easy dot-com to acquire. Mack, rather, Brian, riffed off “Weldon,” a sleepwear brand from the 1940s to create his brand, but without the forties masculinity.
☑ Don’t add a Hyphen
If PythonPublishing.com isn’t available, don’t succumb to a hyphen (python-publishing.com) between the two words, even if it seems an easy fix.
- Warning. You will endure the rest of your days in business reciting, “Python hyphen Publishing dot com.” No hyphens, ever.
☑ Avoid extreme misalignment
Customers expect the domain name to match, yet even large companies can go off the deep end with non-matching domains such as these:
- Google’s parent company, Alphabet, uses the extremely-misaligned abc.xyz as its domain. Huh?
- Until 2012, the web address for software-maker, 37Signals, was the misaligned BasecampHQ.com (their lead product is Basecamp). Later, they achieved perfect alignment when they paid big bucks for Basecamp.com and renamed the company to Basecamp.
- Advanced Plan for Health offers a proprietary healthcare analytics system, called Poindexter (named after the nerdy scientist character in the Felix the Cat cartoon). Their Web domain, MyPoindexter.com, takes misalignment to the extreme. I encouraged them to follow the example of 37Signals and change the entire brand to the quirky, but memorable, Poindexter. Alas, perfect alignment was a bridge too far.
- Extreme-mismatch is appropriate when the brand stands on its own apart from the company name. Example: Stokely-Van Camp, Inc. promotes its sports drink at the perfectly-aligned gatorade.com.
☑ Extensions — Choose wisely because dot-com still rules the Web.
- According to statistics, 47.1% of all websites use a domain that ends with “.com.” A new round of alternative URL extensions came out in 2014 to solve the scarcity of dot-coms. Domain purchasers could register legal.guru, brucemiller.agency, and fridaynightpoker.club. Ultimately, the market spoke, and the new extensions tanked. Dot-coms still rule.
- Cute country extensions — Don’t even consider using country extensions like eat.me (Montenegro) or Smart.ly (Libya). But, the extension .io (British Indian Ocean Territory) is hugely popular with multiplayer games and online applications. And what about Notion, the all-in-one productivity app? Business users log in at notion.so (Somalia) — huh?
- When to use other top-level domains — .Net is a legitimate option if dot-com isn’t available. Example: Stitch.net (Services for seniors). Dot-Org works well for non-profits, but edu is reserved for legitimate schools. Of the new domain extensions, dot-co (company) seems to have the most credibility.
☑ When to Pay a Premium
- Registering a dot-com typically costs around $10 — $12. Domain registration often comes free with a web hosting plan. When registrars like GoDaddy ask a premium price (example: $9,800 for lilliputian.com), they are acting as a broker for a privately-owned domain. Should you pay a premium price?
- Example — My client, Sara Anderson, was starting a shoestring brand for her original fashion designs. Through a brand story workshop, we positioned the brand for women who embody feminine sophistication but identify with a free-spirited ethos. In the spirit of Martha Stewart, Donna Karan, and Laura Ashely, Sara wanted Sara Anderson for her brand. We searched for domains: She could choose SaraAndersonDesign.com for $11.99 or SaraAnderson.com for $2400. Sara was a stay-at-home mom looking to reinvent herself but wasn’t ready to make a big investment. She thought long and hard, “Do I have what it takes to become a fashion brand, or is this a hobby?” Once Sara visualized the label, spending $2400 was a no-brainer.
☑ What if the domain is not for sale?
Suppose you want PythonPublishing.com. You search and get: “This domain is not available.” All is not lost.
- First, check usage — In this example, I typed pythonpublishing.com into my browser, and a shell of a Web site appeared. As of this writing, Python Publishing does not appear to be fully in business.
- Check the ownership — Whois (whois.icann.org) lets you search ownership of the domain. Sometimes the administrative contact (owner) is listed and you can contact them directly. You may also find that the registrar is a reseller. In the above example, NameSilo.com (a reseller) is offering pythonpublishing.com via auction for a premium price.
- Contact the registrar– If there isn’t a reseller, you will need to go to the registrar’s website and contact support. Tell them you wish to purchase a domain they host and ask them to forward your message to the domain owner. Include your name, company, email, phone, and Web site if you have one. Your credibility and willingness to offer a price will help you get through to the owner.
- Make an offer — If the owner is interested and you are serious, offer an amount that is more than $500 and under $1000 for a low-value name, and between $1500 and $2500 for a high-value name. They may come back with a $5000 price. At that point, you need to know what the domain is worth to you. If you are like Sara, $2400 may be a good deal.
- Use escrow or a broker — If you negotiate directly with the owner, you will need to use an escrow service (example: escrow.com) to handle the transaction. If you purchase through a service like GoDaddy, they will manage the sale. You can also use the broker afternic.com to negotiate on your behalf.
Go for the Gold! Or maybe Silver or Bronze?
- Yes, you want a cool, two-word, two-syllable dot-com that uses real words to express your brand position and is identical to your company name (for $11.99 please). I hope I’ve given you every tool to get there, but don’t lose sleep over this because you will never start your business.
- In the end, your customers are hiring you. Whatever Uniform Resource Locator (URL) you choose, your domain is pointing, not to an IP address in the cloud, but to you — the Unique Real Living expression of the universe that you are!
Before you go: Product Names
- The Name Game goes beyond your Web domain and company name. You can also brand (and trademark) products, services, processes, methods, and formulations.
- For example: Adding a TM symbol to Name Game™ suggests a proprietary naming service. The next chapter discusses trademarks.
- “The Name Game” was also a 1964 novelty hit that — like a perfectly-positioned brand — snuck its way to the top of the pop charts.
TM = Too Many Names
- Like an apprentice donning the wizard’s hat, once you start anointing products and processes with TMs, your brand universe can quickly run amok. You will confront the thorny dilemma between a House of Brands and a House Brand. Here’s the difference:
- A House of Brands — GM famously tried to juggle Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saturn, and Geo in an unmanageable House of Brands.
- Microsoft, with its suite of distinct products, is also a House of Brands. The downside: Every Microsoft brand must be individually managed and marketed.
- A House Brand — With a House Brand, you have only one brand to build, manage, and promote. Google is a case in point. Compare Google versus Microsoft. A House Brand suggests an integrated product ecosystem (examples: Google, Apple, Ryobi Tools, Prime, Salesforce, etc.).
Brand Nirvana
If your company name, key product, brand position, and secret sauce merge into oneness, you attain brand nirvana.
Gusto!, a hip and healthy bowl restaurant in Atlanta, achieves nirvana. Gusto! offers a choice of seven “gustos” — seven secret sauces to top your meal. The tag line proudly asks,
“What’s your gusto?”
