How companies find and select names.
DNW listeners are familiar with the process of selecting and buying a domain name. But how do companies actually go about selecting a name for their business or product? Eli Altman is Creative Director of A Hundred Monkeys, a company that has helped businesses ranging from a brewery to IBM select names. Eli explains the naming process and discusses how domain names can play a role. It’s an enlightening look into how companies settle on names.
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Richard Morris aka Bulloney says
Andrew…your interview with Eli brings to mind “What came first, the chicken or the egg?”. I feel I can comment on this because I was naming businesses (1968) long before the internet, and probably before Eli was born. No doubt the family business is doing well despite it’s name “A Hundred Monkeys”??? I think when you need to explain the title of your business, and you need to use an antiquated term like “typewriters” you may have lost half your audience because youth today don’t even know what a typewriter is?
I’m sure Eli’s Dad named the business, which is catchy by the way, but if someone were to come up to them today with this name for a business I think they may have second thoughts. Think about this…if you were choosing between “A Hundred Monkeys” and “That Name Guy” for your business name, and you were in the name business, what you choose?
Then thinking about a name for a brewery like “Standard Deviant”…it just so happens a close relative of mine has opened two brewery’s here in Va.; the first being MoMac Brewing (so named because it’s near the entrance of the Monitor Merrimack Bridge tunnel), and another brewery named Brick and Mortor Brewing (so named because it’s in an old warehouse built with bricks and mortor.).
Like with domains, this is ALL a game inho. Business names and other names were around long before domains so from that perspective I’ll say the Chicken came before the egg.
Bulloney aka ThatDomainGuy
C.S. Watch says
Mr. Altman says he’s okay with names for which they can’t get the .com. Of six ‘letter A’ companies they’ve named, it looks like one client secured the .com.
Well, one would like to run a conference room like a drum circle. But they’re not trying to bring in Kathy Bates for a mallet consult. If one can’t lock down the .com, it’s a problem.
Take the word of global branding companies—they can afford to run the numbers. From Interbrand:
“No matter the ranking order in search engine results, the brand appeal of .com web addresses helps to receive more search clicks than a new domain extension address.” “When remembering the domain extension of a web address, 94% correctly recalled .com, while only 7% correctly recalled a new domain extension.” “After seeing a recommended website with a new domain extension address 81% later assumed it was a .com address.”
https://www.interbrand.com/views/why-domain-extensions-matter-for-online-success/
Ravi says
Hi Andrew…
This episode was very useful one..and informative for those who are in Domaining.
I was expecting a question about how ngTLDs are considered when naming / securing online presence..
As it is relevant and you are asking full details with proper examples being quoted…like Seva and Brew(w)…
Thanks,
Ravi