This post is part 3 of a 4 part series.
When considering names, you will also want to make sure it is not a name to avoid. Below is a list of what to avoid and reasons why.
Avoid Trademark infringement. It’s always good to remain nice and legal. So before you commit to a name, it may be good to make sure it is not trademarked. http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp
Avoid names not available as a domain name. If the .com version of your name is available, snag that up RIGHT NOW at DomainDad.com.
Avoid names not available at social networking sites. You can check this at http://namechk.com/.
Avoid negative double meaning names. Recently, a friend told me about a friend of his, who is starting a iPhone screen replacement business. A name they are considering is “iCrack”. When my friend asked me what I thought about the name, I laughed. I believe this name has little to be desired for several reasons. My first thought is the drug reference. I suppose it could lead to some colorful commercials.
Commercial Script
Teenager 1 takes something out of his pocket
Teenager 1 : Pssst, Hey man… I got crack.
Teenager 2 : You needa fix?
Teenager 1: Yeah man. Let’s get a fix!
Teenager 2: Yo, I know a place….It’s called iCrack.
Title screen “Get your fix at iCrack”
Of course the word ‘crack’ can be related to a certain body part also. I suppose a colorful commercial can be written about someone with an iPhone in their back pocket and they sit down therefore cracking the phone by their crack. For now, I will leave that one alone.
An actual advantage of the name is that it does lead to some creativity, however I believe that the negative implications are much greater then the edgy creativity advantages. Many companies go very far to avoid advertising or relating any drug references and with good reason. Many customers WILL NOT BUY if there are drug related references. It does not matter how good the product is, people will not buy if they lose respect. Take Michael Phelps for example, he won 16 Olympic Medals and had won the admiration and respect and became an inspiration for millions. Later however, one photo of him with drugs and Kellogg drops the sponsorship and he loses the respect of too many to recover to where he was. I think he would have a harder time being a motivational speaker now that people view him as that Olympic kid that does dope. Without doubt, Phelps has lost millions of dollars. As a side note, I personally still believe his Gold Medal accomplishments are nothing short of amazing, but my point is a large amount of people do not look past the mistakes.
With a cell phone repair business, it is important to build trust since customers will be handing over the phone to the business for repair. I do not believe iCrack sounds like a trustworthy name.
So what would be a better name for an iPhone screen repair business? Well that’s what brainstorming is for, but for sake of the blog and my promise to myself to offer solutions instead of just problems – here are some ideas: JiffyPhone, FastScreenRepair, and NewPhoneScreen. All of them currently have the .com version available on DomainDad.com and JiffyPhone has the advantage of communicating the message of ‘quick’, (as in quick repair) .
Ask yourself what is the first thing people generally think of when they hear the name. Is it in anyway negative? Years ago, in my hometown there was a christian music store that the owner choose to name ‘Brainwash’. To this day, I believe that the name probably hurt sales. We as a society believe brainwashing is a bad thing and although she had intended ‘brainwash’ in a biblical, Christian way (Ephesians 5:26), I think first impressions mean a lot.
Avoid complicated or hard to communicate names. Imagine you are a real estate agent and you are on the phone with a potential client and want to show them a house listed on your website. You ask them to go to LouisianaHomes4U.com. This is asking for a disaster. You will need to specify each time that it is the number for and just the letter U and not YOU spelled out. With a complicated name such as this, you are highly risking the customer going to a different website than you intended.
Use common sense when selecting a name. If you think it might be edgy, ask a few Professional friends what they think about the name before you commit to it.