Three Critical Branding Mistakes Founders Must Avoid When Naming Their Brands 

Branding Mistakes To Avoid

Every entrepreneur must begin their firm with the fundamentals if they wish to compete in today's extremely competitive industry. They'd need an in-depth understanding of the market they want to join, a solid business plan, a suitable location and online platform, and a high-quality product.

But perhaps the most important of these is understanding how to create a branding plan that’ll lead your company to success and future growth. This is more important than the others since it entails developing a brand identity that impacts how clients see your organization.

But despite the fact that various business owners may employ various methods to come up with a company name for their enterprise, we found that their challenges follow a predictable pattern.

And if you know these naming mishaps, you can easily avoid them when brainstorming or getting a solid name from a brandable domain marketplace.

Therefore, before you start searching for a brand name, ensure that you know exactly what you’re looking for and what not to use as your company name. 

We’ll now discuss the three pitfalls to avoid while naming your brand.

1. Using Unwelcome or Inappropriate Business Names 

Most customers are concerned about the social, moral, health, and environmental stance of the businesses they patronize. Thus, a company that shares the same values as its core clientele will undoubtedly see increased sales and customer retention.

Choosing a name that is compatible with your target market's values is the best method to express your business's brand. A bad name can cause boycotts of your brand and unfavorable perceptions of your business, while a good name can draw in even long-term customers.

When selecting a brand name and a strong brand identity to represent your company, use extreme caution and consideration to prevent alienating your target market and restricting your company's potential.

2. Employing Names That are Overly Long

All businesses should avoid long and convoluted company names since they make it more difficult for clients to locate or recall them.

A distinctive, memorable business name makes it easier for consumers to remember it and tell their friends, family, and coworkers about it. So avoid using long words and phrases for your brand's name at all costs, and if you must, consider simplifying it to an abbreviation.

Prioritize two or fewer words when naming your firm to ensure that customers can recognize it right away.

3. Using Names With Unfavorable Translations in Other Languages

If your business has a significant online presence, it can connect with customers anywhere on the globe. However, having a worldwide identity has drawbacks. And making your brand name known to people of many cultures and languages is one.

And, even though this might not seem so serious at first, it becomes more of a problem if the name of your business sounds bad when translated into another language.

They won't feel moved to use your product if potential buyers detest your brand name. For instance, Spanish-speaking customers turned down two popular items from Mazda and Nokia because the names of the devices, Laputa and Lumia, in their dialect meant "prostitute."

To avoid this naming blunder, thoroughly study the languages most frequently spoken worldwide and in your target market. And as opposed to the situations mentioned above, carrying out this step ensures that your business's name won't upset your clients.

Be Conscious of Your Customers

You may know that social media has become a massive influence on company dynamics, and it has the potential to expose your faults to the online market, but we’re here to tell you that it isn’t always so. 

When you overcome the possible downside of it, you can start using social media to your brand’s benefit. Since customers have more access to you, you can better connect with them and cultivate trust and loyalty in your target audience.

And building customer trust through social media interaction is a powerful approach to expanding your market.

In conclusion, always remember that even seemingly little branding errors might quickly give potential customers a bad impression of your business. So, as a business owner, you should take all necessary precautions to prevent making the horrible mistake of misnaming your business.

Grant Polachek is the head of branding for Squadhelp.com, 3X Inc 5000 startup and disruptive naming agency. Squadhelp has reviewed more than 1 million names and curated a collection of the best available names on the web today. We are also the world's leading crowdsource naming platform, supporting clients from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies.