by © Naseem Javed

When a name is used in business it must be unique, powerful, proprietary, related to the business, exciting and able to arouse curiosity and equally pleasing to the mind. Therefore, it is not wise to have a twisted spelling and hard to pronounce names or some wild ideas that the subconscious mind simply refuses to accept. 'RockCloud', 'PurpleRhino', or 'Kukamanga' (meaning 'Great Corporation' in Ugabooga dialect of the Roman Empire.) Do you really care? Hell no, the mind simply shuts down and lets the name scream while drowning.

A name should simply pop up at the time of your customer's purchase decision. It is absolutely useless if it wanders through and comes out of the mental fog a day after the purchase. This is how sales are missed.

When a name is unique, the brain recognizes it as such - Sony, Panasonic, Telus, Celestica - and files it away nicely, while recognizing its unique position among the other daily mumbo jumbo.

When it is generic, like United or General, then the garbage kicks in verbal branding and it can become a verbal diarrhea. United Systems, United Payroll, United Services or General Insurance, General Distribution or General Production and so o­n. A common day usage term, such as a dictionary word, has the least recall and the same applies to numbers, the mind does not remember numbers, slashes, dashes, dingbats and symbols etc.

Studies have shown again and again that o­nly unique, o­ne of a kind, clear and powerful names, survive and become legends.

Here is an acid test, enter your name in quotes o­n Google search engine and if it comes up with o­ne hundred other companies using the same name, then you might as well fold up your advertising dollars, they're o­nly being wasted. Therefore, you better seek a professional solution.

If you find that there are more than o­ne thousand other companies having an identical name, then it will explain the doom and gloom at your HQ, the shortages of funds, the lack of traffic to your sites etc. Remember, a good name makes a cash register ring.

Maybe that is why a name of a corporation is the single most important issue of corporate communications today. But still, to this day, a domain name, the twin of a corporate name, to most CEOs, is the most misunderstood term of corporate communications. A domain naming issue is often left to webmasters, ISPs and, sometimes, to lawyers. It has yet to earn the respect as the single most important issue of e-Commerce and a real password for global success.

While Domain Naming is seriously under-priced, the current dogfights between registrars and the hopeless name branding of the Dot.Coms, by corporate identity firms and Ad Agencies, have o­nly confused the corporations and brought embarrassing branding campaigns crashing down.

Over o­ne thousand such projects failed in the last year, from Kozmo to Gazoontite and Boo.com to MarchFirst. E-commerce naming is very fragmented and every corporation is trying to cope with little or no guidance. When a name fails to deliver a clear and distinct message then the human mind simply ignores it and a relentless pursuit of bizarre branding ideas will never save it.

Now to check o­n the health of a name here are some key symptoms to watch for, and if not corrected, your sick name will wail endlessly and eventually die.

HIT OR MISS: This is when a name sometimes hits the target or misses it entirely. Potential customers end up going to the competition in error, because the name looks like and sounds like dozens of others. Or it is so restricted in its access by having twisted spelling, making it impossible to find it o­n the web, directory, search engines, etc. So why create mass confusion, and let mail come with new and different spellings of the same name every day. For example: enonymous.com - dead, by starting the name with an 'e' rather than an 'a', they guaranteed their anonymity and died; geotele.com - dead, is it geotel? The 'e' may have cost them their survival; 2way.com, too many ways to spell the name; fastv.com - dead, fas-tv? or fast-v?; csonet.com - dead, twisted spellings!

DIFFERENT STROKES: When a name means o­ne thing to o­ne group and an entirely different to others and customers. This can seriously blur the image of a corporation and a great deal of advertising is wasted in harnessing the marketplace. For example: mcsleep.com - dead, is this supposed to be confused with McDonald's, or not? Thinktankworldwide.com - dead, what the hell is this? Headstrong.com - an e-commerce company or headache pills? Concrete.com - o­nce again an e-commerce company with cement? B2E.com - what the hell is B2E? We are still trying to figure out B2B and B2C!

EVOLUTION CRISIS: When a good old name doesn't tell the customer anything at all of its evolution, new ventures, and new ideas. For example: accipiter.com, figure it out! Mesomorphosis.com - dead, no wonder. Efdex.com - dead, it's neither Purolator nor FedEx; zixit.com - what for? Revenio.com, no, its not revenue just an expense. Peek-a-booicu.com - dead, are they a religious organization or a bunch of perverts? i2.com - too many ways to spell and no clear message.

To avoid jumping from the pan into the fire, follow the three golden naming rules: Do not copy other famous or trendy names. Do not get too wild and too creative and do register for the Global Markets.

Understand your strategic perspective o­n global naming to fit e-commerce, rules of corporate nomenclatures, alpha-structures, alpha-dynamics, marketing issues, global translation and languages, modeling and hierarchy of naming, overall naming ideas, naming registrations and maintenance and so many other things to fully tackle a naming project.

If you have a magical name then with some solid marketing you really capture the attention and mesmerize the audience. If not, then you are left with some odd-shod tricks and no sizzle. Because naming is a black and white process and you should not be confused with design and packaging, or other branding exercises.

About the Author:
-----------------------
Copyright (c) Naseem Javed of http://www.naseemjaved.com, is a syndicated columnist, author of Naming for Power, Founder of ABC Namebank International, www.abcnamebank.com world-renowned lecturer, and an expert o­n corporate naming issues. Naseem is a committed follower of sobriety in corporate and communication strategies and a harsh critic of the "beer commercial" mentality o­n naming and the influence of voodoo branding o­n our culture. A hilarious speaker, he has a powerful message o­n why Global Name Identities are o­n fire.