A. Have a cool name
B. Have a hook
C. Have a fearless leader
Rock and Roll is full of bands with memorable names: Black Sabbath, The Velvet Underground and Earth, Wind and Fire. It is also full of individuals with memorable names: Iggy Pop, Jimi Hendrix, Rod Stewart and Madonna.
Have you given your business, magazine, URL or department a superstar name, or a forgettable one?
All content—video, audio, editorial and mobile—depends on a hook. Sometimes it’s the overall concept, sometimes it’s a memorable tagline. And sometimes, at its lamest, most obvious and most successful—it’s a scantily clad brunette and a giant logo.
But what about first impressions? What about the name attributed to the brand? If We Rock Hard was a rock band, you could probably take a good guess what they would sound like. But would you have any inkling what Sigur Ros sounded like? Naming content departments, your business and even a band are all very important decisions. Select a great name and the world is yours. Select a name that doesn’t have a hook and doesn’t brand well and get used to a lot of explaining and the spending of precious marketing/advertising dollars. (And your product better kick ass.) So, are you selecting a name that will generate interest or one that is giving people exactly what they expect?
Which of the three naming convention camps have you bought into?
1) Selecting a safe name that inspires confidence in your industry or very clearly identifies what you do:
Food Supply/Rage Against the Machine
or
2) Selecting a more creative name that you grow into and will uniquely identify you and only you:
or
3) Riding on the confidence the founder inspires: