Re: Business Cards and domain names

From: Cliff Kurtzman <moderator_at_o-a.com>
Date: Wed 02 Apr 2003 10:04:39 -0600

It occurred to me that there is an important additional class
of company names that work very well, and which I didn't mention
in my last post. As with names such as Exxon, Lucent, Verizon,
and Cingular, names in this class are unique, strong, and 3
syllables or less... but unlike those four names, names in this
class contain intentional embedded meanings. An example that
fits in this category is Microsoft. This is a unique name that
specifically applies to the company, and it also embeds
references to microcomputers and software... however, these
embedded references do not limit the organization should it
ever offer products and services outside of those categories.
Names of this type can be very strong, offering both the
advantages of uniqueness along with embedded meaning that is
not limiting. The last three companies that I have been
involved in naming have utilized names in this category.

Rob is certainly correct when he mentions that your long term
and exit objectives for your business are important when
selecting a name. Are you a small business and always going
to be a small business, or are you "a large business in the
formative stages" that is temporarily a small business? How
you answer that question will certainly have a bearing on what
type of name is best to select.

What is a near certainty is that the cost and headache of
changing your company name will only grow as your business
grows, and it makes a heck of a lot more sense to start with
a good name than to use a sucky one because it is convenient
and then have to change it later.

I think that over the past ten years, the Internet-driven
"digital economy" has created significant new disadvantages
for the use of descriptive names or using your own name in a
company name. In the pre-Internet days, if I had a small
company in Houston named something like "Data Management
Systems" then I didn't have to worry much about a company in
Toledo named "Computer System Management" or a company in
London named "Total Data Services" because our paths never
crossed. The same applies to "Kurtzman & Associates" in San
Francisco and "Kurtzman Brothers" in Tampa. But the Internet
has put all these companies into the same marketplace, and
branding messages from similarly named companies can become
confused. And because of that, the need for uniqueness is
more important than it ever was... and also harder to
achieve.



Best,

--Cliff


Clifford R. Kurtzman, Ph.D.
Moderator
Online Advertising Discussion List
http://www.o-a.com/
281-480-6300




Received on Wed Apr 02 2003 - 10:04:39 CST