{"id":2757,"date":"2021-05-10T10:00:04","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T08:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sortlist.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2757"},"modified":"2025-04-01T11:15:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T09:15:23","slug":"choosing-a-brand-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sortlist.co.uk\/blog\/choosing-a-brand-name\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Secrets to Choosing the Perfect Brand Name"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you have an idea for a brand<\/b> and are you planning on becoming an entrepreneur?\u00a0 <\/span>One of the challenges you will face is creating and choosing a brand name<\/b>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Choosing a brand name can be complex and time-consuming.\u00a0 <\/span>In this article, we share with you the secrets to having an original and striking name that reflects the image you want to give of your company. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The main rules of \u2018Naming\u2019<\/b><\/h2>\n

Creating a brand name is far from trivial.\u00a0 <\/span>This name will follow you everywhere, all the time, and will have a key role to play in the notoriety of your brand.\u00a0 <\/span>To get an idea of a brand name<\/b>, and to choose your name, you will have to resort to naming. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is naming?<\/h3>\n

Naming is an activity that consists of creating a brand name, through which you can communicate.\u00a0 <\/span>Before we get into the nitty-gritty details of branding, it is important to know that creating a brand requires a lot of skill.\u00a0 <\/span>We can put you in touch with branding professionals<\/b><\/span><\/a> who can help you with your creative work. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Know your business and your customers<\/h3>\n

The first thing to do is to make sure you know your brand inside out before choosing a name. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This means not only knowing your mission, vision, and values by heart but also the audience you are going to address.\u00a0 <\/span>Your brand name<\/b> must appeal to your audience, so you need to know what they will respond to before you choose your company name. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, there are two questions you face:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. <\/i>How do you determine your vision, mission, and values?<\/li>\n
  2. <\/i>How do you get to know your audience thoroughly?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Determine your vision, mission, and values<\/h3>\n

    These are three elements that come up again and again in branding.\u00a0 <\/span>They will help you come up with a brand-name idea and keep you on track with your strategy. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Your company\u2019s mission <\/b>is its \u2018raison d\u2019\u00eatre\u2019, otherwise known as its reason of being.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s what it stands for every day and the problem it wants to solve<\/p>\n

    Your company\u2019s vision<\/b> explains the impact it wants to have on the world by achieving its mission.\u00a0 <\/span>What is the result you are seeking to achieve in carrying out your mission?<\/p>\n

    The values<\/b> of your organisation define what is important to it.\u00a0 <\/span>Values provide insight into the priorities of an organisation and guide its decisions. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s see how Microsoft applies these three elements. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"microsoft\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Microsoft\u2019s mission<\/strong> is as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n

    Our mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Microsoft strives to make everyone more productive and effective.\u00a0 <\/span>This mission guides the company\u2019s actions.\u00a0 <\/span>If it succeeds, the world will be impacted in some way and the company\u2019s vision <\/b>will be realised:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n

    To help people and business throughout the world realise their full potential.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Here we see that the vision <\/b>is perfectly connected to Microsoft\u2019s mission<\/b>.\u00a0 <\/span>If the company succeeds in helping organisation to become more effective, they are more likely to reach their full potential. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    And finally, to achieve its mission<\/b> and vision<\/b>, Microsoft lives by its three core values:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • <\/i><\/b>Respect<\/li>\n
    • <\/i><\/b>Integrity<\/li>\n
    • <\/i><\/b>Responsibility<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      It is important that you ask yourself these questions. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      Your brand name is the first thing your audience will see.\u00a0 <\/span>It is crucial that this name is aligned with your mission, vision, and values.\u00a0 <\/span>If it is not, your customers will not be fully convinced by your brand.\u00a0 <\/span>You will feel that you have a name that does not convey the identity of your company.\u00a0 <\/span>It is therefore crucial that you know your mission, vision, and values before you choose your brand name.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      Know your audience inside out<\/h3>\n

      If you are currently looking for a brand name idea, chances are you are at the very beginning of your entrepreneurial journey and your customer base is not yet too big. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      There are different strategies you can use to find out more about your audience, depending on the information you are looking for.\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, acquiring the demographics<\/b> of your target audience will require a different strategy than finding out the real reason why your clients would\/will use your services<\/b>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      The first type of information listed above is relatively easy to find, and there are three strategies you can use to find out the age, gender, mother tongue, and location of your customers:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      The first one is simple<\/b>: just talk to your first customers and determine your personas on the basis of these conversations. It is common for the founder of a company to develop a special relationship with his or her first customers because they are testing a product or service that is still in its infancy and their feedback enables the entrepreneur to improve his or her offer.\u00a0 <\/span>It is, therefore, an advantage to you to talk to your first customers, as this will give you valuable information and allow you to develop a strong relationship with them. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      Tip: developing a strong relationship with your early adopters will allow you to make them your first brand ambassadors, and if you take care of them, they could become one of your best assets in your brand-building efforts \ud83d\udd25<\/span><\/p>\n

      The second strategy<\/b> will require you to already have a small community.\u00a0 <\/span>Specifically, if you have a Facebook page, knowing the demographics of your users is a breeze. Just fo the \u201cStatistics\u201d tab and click on \u201cPeople\u201d (\u2018Vos fans\u201d in the image below) to see all the demographics of your audience: age, gender, location, language spoken. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      \"facebook\"\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      We can see here that the majority of the audience of this Facebook page is made up of men (hommes) and women (femmes) between 25 and 34, and that they are mainly based in Brussels (Bruxelles).\u00a0 <\/span>The power of this tool lies in the fact that in just 2 clicks you can get a better idea of the audience you are addressing, which allows you to adapt your speech according to this information, and therefore be more effective. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      The only problem with this second strategy is that it requires you to already have a small community, and therefore to already have an established name to create your Facebook page.\u00a0 <\/span>But you are in the process of choosing your name.\u00a0 <\/span>How do you solve this paradox?<\/p>\n

      The third strategy<\/b> will not only allow you to get to know your existing audience better but will also help it to grow by allowing you to acquire a maximum number of e-mail addresses and therefore potential customers.\u00a0 <\/span>The idea is as follows, and we will illustrate it with a specific case:<\/p>\n

      \"Charles.co<\/span><\/p>\n

      Charles.co<\/span> is an online service that aims to digitalise men\u2019s health.\u00a0 <\/span>In short, men can go to this platform, describe their symptoms, receive an online consultation with one of Charles\u2019 partnering doctors, and receive their treatment by post.\u00a0 <\/span>The question for the two founders of the company is \u2018how to develop their customer base and make themselves known\u2019. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      The two founders put a quirky questionnaire online on the subject of men\u2019s heath, and added two very important elements.<\/p>\n

      Firstly,<\/span><\/em> the questionnaire was gasified.\u00a0 <\/span>This means that there was a scoring system associated with it, and respondents were encouraged to challenge their friends to see who knew the most about men\u2019s health.\u00a0 <\/span>As the questions were child-friendly, respondents shared the questionnaire with they friends without any hesitation.\u00a0 <\/span>This gave the two founders a large number of respondents and therefore potential customers. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      Secondly<\/span>,<\/em> it was necessary to gather the contact information of all these respondents, and the stroke of genius is that in order to find out how you scored on the questionnaire, you had to enter your email address.\u00a0 <\/span>Since the questionnaire was fun, respondents wanted to know their score (also to compare with their friends\u2019 scores) and the two founders of the company thus replenished their mailing list. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      This gave them a better understanding of the mindset of their customer segment and therefore a name that would speak to them.\u00a0 <\/span>As a result of the questionnaire, their Facebook fan base increased and the demographic data provided by the platform was then able to validate the information that came out of the questionnaire. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      These are the three strategies you can use to get to know your customers and determine their age, gender, location, and language. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      But knowing your target audience is not just about having this information.\u00a0 <\/span>It also means knowing why they would\/will use your services,<\/b> and the dynamic here is different: instead of listening to what your customers say, you need to look at what your customers do. \u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

      Let\u2019s take Charles\u2019 example again.\u00a0 <\/span>What is interesting here is not so much the answers their prospects gave in the questionnaire, but rather the fact that they answered the questionnaire itself.\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, this allowed the two founders of the company to confirm that men were potentially willing to answer questions online, and it gave them some clues as to how they should develop their product. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      You can therefore test your users‘<\/span> behaviour, but you also have the possibility of observing it in order to improve your offer, and therefore to make your customers loyal to your brand.<\/p>\n

      Let’s take a concrete example:<\/p>\n

      \"mano<\/span><\/p>\n

      Mano Mano is an online shop for hand tools and objects. In The Jungle Book, written by Annabelle Bignon and Youn\u00e8s Rharbaoui, it is explained that Mano Mano organised PopCorn Time<\/em> sessions to better understand its customers and therefore improve its offer.<\/p>\n

      In short, the whole product team would meet and watch Hotjar sessions to understand how users were using the Mano Mano site. Here’s an overview of what’s possible with Hotjar \ud83d\udc47<\/span><\/p>\n