What’s in a Name?

It was one of those conversations you can’t help overhearing because it was going on at a volume that was meant to be overheard: a group of three unemployed twentysomethings having a brainstorming session in a public place about an idea one of them had for an internet company that would make them all rich.  The discussion wasn’t about the product or how to best provide value to the customer, but about what the company ought to be called.   It struck me that, while it seemed puerile, I’ve been bored by the very same conversation in the meeting rooms of Fortune 500 companies.

Far too much emphasis is placed on trivial things like this, to the detriment of the more important decisions that actually create value to the customer – whether it’s the name of the firm, its logo, or what color to paint the reception area, these are simply distractions from business and aren’t as important as those who have great enthusiasm for trivial matters like to pretend.

I’m unaware of any evidence that the name of a firm is a critical factor of its success, and am meanwhile aware of many company names that make absolutely no sense in terms of the brand or the products the company provides.  Scroll through the Fortune 500 and you will find very few companies whose names are meaningful in and of themselves.

Ultimately, the name of a firm functions like the name of anything else: it is merely a mnemonic device by which something is remembered and can be spoken of.  The name of a firm doesn’t become meaningful until the brand becomes meaningful, and isn’t known to anyone unless and until they benefit from the brand enough to make it worth remembering to ask for the next time a similar need arises.

Aside of the need to avoid names that are awkward or offensive (locally or globally), or a name that is already strongly associated to something else, there is no reason to prefer one name to another.   Toss a handful of Scrabble tiles on a table and add a few vowels, and you likely have a perfectly usable name and one that stands as good a chances as any other of becoming a household word if the brand is any good.

In the end, it just doesn’t seem to matter, and it stands to reason that the more time and money spent on superficial things such as this are distractions from the more important matter of devising a way to deliver value to the customer.   And it could well be that people who are most enthusiastic about such discussions are well aware of that.