Category: Choosing a Name

When there are infinite possibilities for your new brand, the one thing you do not want to do is choose a name that goes unnoticed among a sea of similar names. A lot is riding on your name: your company's uniqueness among competitors is very much linked to the name you choose, and showing creativity with your brand will help your customers build a long-term relationship with your business. A good brand name will last a lifetime, and grow with your company even if your business evolves or changes course.

You picked a name, you launched your company, sales are flying...and you get a letter via certified mail that states your name violates a federal trademark, and that you must immediately cease use, transfer the domain, and pay damages equal to all profits that you have made. Think it can't happen? It's a nightmare that can be easily avoided.

You've launched your site. Your first customers loved it...but growth has slowed. Wait...what?! Why?! Well, you've seriously disabled your word of mouth when you create a brand that people cannot pronounce correctly. It's one thing if your brand is Cartier or Louis Vuitton (those brands probably don’t even want you if you can't pronounce their names). But you want everyone (and their mother) to come use your site, so you need to make it as easy as possible for them to tell other people about it.

.com, .net. .org, .info, .us, .me, .tv... There are so many options for domain name TLDs (Top Level Domains) that trying to explain the intended purpose of each would take up this entire post.  But if you are starting a new business or building a new product and you want to reach the global Internet audience, there is only one that matters.  ".com" is the first thing that comes to mind when anyone says the word "website." 

At BrandBucket, we are consistently thinking about the various words, sounds, letter combinations and characteristics that contribute most to a good domain name. After years of building companies and watching other companies get built, we finally decided to develop a short list of the common characteristics that all good brands seem to have. We came up with ten categories or “traits” that make up a good name: Length, Real Word/Expression, Alphabet, Pronunciation, Spelling, Conflicts, Industry Match, Longevity, Uniqueness, and General Retention. We then added an extra category specific to domain names: TLD (Top Level Domain).