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.
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