Today’s biggest question of image expansion is not how and where you got your name from, but rather if it is still producing orchestrated music by ringing cash registers or making choking noises. Let’s be honest, is your name identity shooting straight like an arrow or is it a dead horse being dragged by creative teams? Here are some answers.
There was a time when businesses’ names were simply picked out of a hat, literally, and at times very successfully. Later, the complexity of the marketplace boosted the name lists to such huge quantities that they had to use larger drums, truly. This is how most businesses’ names came about, and on that note, there are hundreds of articles relating to their grand successes and mega failures. Today’s biggest question of image expansion is not how and where you got your name from, but rather if it is still producing orchestrated music by ringing cash registers or making choking noises. Let’s be honest, is your name identity shooting straight like an arrow or is it a dead horse being dragged by creative teams? Here are some answers.
Name evaluation challenges
The rapid invention of global cyber branding, social and mobile media compounded by new gTLD platforms from ICANN has made the ‘name evaluation report’ the most powerful play of rational argument during any image expansion strategy in any organization in the world. To name a few trends, the most common challenge is when the combination of two words compressed into a single name shoots an entirely different meaning and no longer projects the original double barrel theme.
When several words are forced into creating one highly condensed telescoped name, this only creates a monstrosity only understood by its creators but not the public at large. Management stays convinced of combining words into one while the customer has no idea of the creative force behind and sees the oddity through an entirely different lens. If your name is emulating multiple perceptions it will also cut your sales and profits in equal multiples.
Organizations are also simply not aware that an extra letter added or chopped off from their name may have already shifted the force of the desired message into some unknown confused meaning and turning customers off.
Organizations only see their name identity always surrounded by a full blown graphic package. But in reality, most names came across naked and stripped of all the fancy dressage, they pop-up either in conversations or on the internet where they look and sound very different in the rhythm of the language and so often lose their desired meaning and perceptions.
Higher costs of customer acquisition are forcing businesses to discover both the obvious and the hidden messages in styles and mixed personalities embedded in the alpha-structures of their names. After all when a name is supposed to act as an important umbrella it must clearly project, attract and sell, otherwise names become the destroyer of good projects. Start ups, always use up most of their initial funding in an aggressive launch but get shocked when their name identity fails to connect with potential buyers.
When an international mandate erupts into foreign sounding names, by desire or by accident, depending on the markets and goals the name expansion so often becomes a major embarrassment. Organizations, using single or dozens of names must streamline their portfolio based on sound analysis. Are there too few or too many names, are they helping or destroying each other’s turf?
Name evaluation benefits
If business expansion and image visibility is your goal than you have be very bold to face the real name evaluation. As a name evaluation report will answer what secret messages of love, hate or profanity is your name identity emulating? Therefore, always drive your campaigns based on the true profile and with full awareness of hidden meanings of your name. Or else, your campaigns are a shot in the dark.
You obviously started out by selecting the best name with the best intentions and it may have worked wonders in the past, but with intense shifting trends, the best of the best names lose their power. Meanings are washed aside by new perceptions, new values and trends under the impact of new technologies. Without a solid name identity, you have no real brand. Without a far reaching cyber-presence you may be out of e-commerce dynamics. Without absolute 100% name ownership, you are not in the image building game on a grand scale. You must attempt to have all such uncertainties fully resolved.
List all the names currently in use and measure all the direct and indirect marketing and adverting costs as you begin an internal audit to address your naming architecture. Open a bold discussion and seek out non-biased professional name evaluation with authoritative analysis and solid recommendations. Do not confuse this with a typical re-branding exercise as this one is all about the black and white issues of global corporate nomenclature and not the logos and graphics.
Advertising and branding services can introduce such name evaluation reports to their clients and energize their image strategy based on factual and third party evaluations. The more the clients know about their name problems the more they would be open to embrace changes on the corporate image front.
These power play name evaluation reports clarify lingering opinions or emotionally charged colloquial expressions stemming from historical attachments. These issues often prohibit the corporate culture from constructive and logical discussion about the core of the naming problems and their impact on image expansion plans. After all name evaluation report places the teams on the right track and provides that high level rational required for solid decisions therefore the sooner you know the real truth behind your business names the better.
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Naseem Javed, is recognized as a world authority on global naming complexities. He is currently helping corporations on ICANN’s new gTLD cyber-platforms and lecturing on corporate nomenclature frontiers and global cyber-branding. Naseem is also conducting series of exclusive webinars on how to evaluate and achieve iconic name status worldwide.
