Street Smarts: The Name Game

Few things are less important to the success of a business than figuring out what to call it.

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I've been in business long enough to have made just about every mistake at least once. I made my first right at the beginning. It was in 1979, and I had left my previous employer to start my own messenger business, and I needed a name--the right name. I thought it was critical to come up with one that projected the image I wanted for my business. First impressions are important, after all, and our name would be the first impression that most prospective customers would get. I wanted the name to convey reliability, expertise, and service. So I sat down with my wife and the four or five people I had hired to work with me, and we brainstormed.

I no longer remember most of the names we came up with. I think we wound up submitting nine to the New York secretary of state's office. One was Premier Courier. Another was Ideal Courier. I forget the rest, but I do recall the time and effort we put into the process--and the frustration we felt when our lawyer would come back and tell us that we had to keep brainstorming because the name we wanted was already taken. This went on for days and days. In retrospect, I probably spent more time searching for a name than I did planning how to get the business off the ground. By the end of the second week, I was at my wit's end. We were losing precious time and frittering away our start-up capital, and we still didn't have a name.

I guess our lawyer was growing impatient as well, because he decided on his own to submit a name that we hadn't considered: Perfect Courier. I can't say I was thrilled when he told me it was available. To suggest we were "perfect" struck me as an invitation to trouble. I could just imagine what customers would say when we made a mistake, as was bound to happen from time to time. But I didn't have any better ideas, and I was eager to move on. The lawyer said I had a choice about what to put at the end of the name: Inc., Corp., or Ltd. I chose Ltd. because I thought it gave us an international flavor. Thus did our labors finally produce what we needed to get started, namely, a name: Perfect Courier Ltd. Only much later did I come to realize that the whole exercise had been a waste of time.

I wasn't the first entrepreneur to make that mistake, of course, and I wouldn't be the last. I'm sure that almost everybody who starts a company falls into the same trap. You're particularly susceptible when it's your first business venture. You sit there knowing that you have to come up with something and that, whatever it is, you're going to be stuck with it for a long time. It's natural to conclude that choosing a name is a big deal. But it's not. If I were to make a list of the 10 most important things to do when you launch a business, selecting the right name wouldn't even be on it. Why? Because your company's name plays little, if any, role in determining your success.

Now I know some people will disagree with me about this. No doubt, they're many of the same people who took exception to last month's column about the money wasted on marketing. They'd argue that to build a powerful brand you need to give your company a memorable name. And I admit that some company names are more memorable than others. I'll never forget Tex's Chain Saw Manicure, which this magazine wrote about many years ago. Hernia Movers in Milwaukee also has a name that's easy to remember, as does the Amigone Funeral Home in Cheektowaga, N.Y., among other places, and the Atlasta Motel in Boonville, Mo. Then there's the Curl Up N Dye Hair Salon in Las Vegas. But I've long believed that Thomas S. Kavanagh had the right idea in 1975 when he started a company in Boulder, Colo., to sell office automation products and named it NBI, which stood for "nothing but initials."

Having a memorable name is no guarantee of success, and it plays no role in building a strong brand. If it did, we would never have heard of General Motors, IBM, or Oreo cookies. The strength of your brand reflects not your name but what you do and how you do it. You build a great brand by putting out great products, by providing great service, by creating a great work environment for your employees, by competing hard but fairly, and by being a great corporate citizen. If you think that sounds a lot like developing a great reputation, you're right. For most businesses, brand and reputation are indistinguishable--and would anyone seriously argue that a company's reputation depends on having a memorable name? The idea that it matters at all is a hangover from the Internet bubble years, when we heard so much about the importance of being "the first mover" and other craziness. May those concepts rest in peace.

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