One of the keys in any marketing effort, such as naming a product, choosing a Web site URL, designing a logo, or selecting an email tool, is to make a decision that will at the very least be neutral and at best be positive. What stalls projects, wastes time and other resources, and limits revenue opportunity is overthinking the decision. This is not to say that rash decisions are the goal -- rather, that decisions should be made in a timely manner. They don't have to be perfect, but they need to be made.
For example, naming a product can take a huge amount of time. Time loss is driven by:
- The need to get consensus. The only problem is that everyone has an opinion, and all these divergent opinions slow the process down and limit forward momentum.
- The need to consult with "experts." Many organizations rely on external PR agencies and other vendors specialized in naming products, services, or sites. Besides a huge cost -- naming issues can eat up tens of thousands of dollars in budget -- the external sources are often not that much more helpful than internal resources.
- The impossible quest for perfection. Whether relying on internal, external, or a combination of resources, the goal of having the perfect name is unattainable. The name game is a zero sum game -- some will lose, and others will win. Usually, the C-level executives have the last word anyway, and their own desires may or may not align with the advice of marketing or third parties.
Similar trouble occurs with Web site design. For example, we see this with almost every Web site project we engage in. The process gets stalled because some on the Web team want green while others want tan, some want drop-down menus and others want simplified navigation, some want a Flash animation header while others want an iconic, static graphic.
In the end, a strong product offering, solid support, well-prepared sales people, a full pipeline, and smart PR have a more beneficial impactful on sales -- and success -- than the orientation of the logo, the colors in the menu bar, or even a product name.
Success makes all decisions look better. For example, is Google a good name? For most companies, the name would never make it past the brainstorming stage. In the music world, bands spend a huge amount of time trying to select the perfect name, trying to make five people happy. Is U2 a good band name? Maybe or maybe not, but the band's success makes the name's "goodness" irrelevant. With success, people will accept almost any name. Without success, the name is unlikely to impact sales unless it is negative.
With positive unlikely, aim for neutral
A goal should be making decisions based on a three-point scale of negative to neutral to positive. Anything negative should be tossed out of consideration. In our naming example, any name that has a negative connotation, will offend or annoy a portion of the target audience, will consume PR resources as marketing tries to explain its meaning to the media, or that creates a false impression of the product should be scratched off the list. If a company stumbles upon the perfect name, than obviously that's the one to go with. But in the vast majority of cases, a neutral name is the correct choice. Neutral will allow marketing, sales, and engineering to define the product in their own collective terms. Market success will validate the choice.
Pragmatism, particularly in business-to-business technology marketing (but even with business-to-consumer activities), should be a core philosophy. It is better for most companies to quickly cap discussions and get on with the dirty but necessary work of lead generation, scheduling prospect meetings, influencing the press, and improving the product to meet current and expected client demands.
Addendum: Naming tips
A few tactical points on naming:
A few tactical points on naming:
- Domain availability. Companies should factor in the availability of the domain name before finalizing any naming decision. This applies to both the company and product name. The product name may become a better draw than the corporate name. Register the domain ASAP and start driving targeted traffic to the product.
- Avoid anything not ".com". People looking for your company or product -- whether in the role of consumers or business users -- are generally not informed about alternative domain suffixes, such as .net or .info. Rather than lose prospects to other sites with the more ubiquitous .com domain, it makes sense to spend the time upfront searching for a neutral domain with a .com suffix.
- Hold the hyphens. With use of hyphens and acceptance of alternative domain suffixes, nearly any domain is available. However, visitors are unlikely to remember the right spelling when hyphens are involved in a URL, and having a non-.com suffix will just confuse matters even worse. No one remembers domains with hyphens in them.
- Forget about taken/parked domains. If necessary, take a moment to hex the individual who is making $2 a day misdirecting traffic to the parked domain you want. But then move on. In general, domain parkers are not interested in selling the domain. By inquiring about the domain, you are simply reinforcing their notion that they should hold on to the URL.
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