Success in Sweatpants

One of my private coaching clients asked me about my other company yesterday.

Why did you name the company 4R Marketing?

She was asking in the context of trying to come up with a name for her own new enterprise. My answer and the conversation that followed got me thinking, and I decided to share some thoughts about company naming with you.

My two companies serve two complete different purposes in terms of how they are named:

Success in Sweatpants immediately conveys not only a sense of what the company is about, but a state that many people (and all the members of my target market) want: the ability to work from home and be successful. It also has a humorous element, which serves as a filter; people who don’t (at least) smile at the name or the bunny slippers of my site header should not work with me.

• 4R Marketing, on the other hand, is not explanatory of much besides marketing. What does 4R mean? I told my client that her question demonstrated the purpose of the name: It prompts people to ask me, which starts a conversation. I discovered this with my business back in the 1980s, a small business computer consulting company called Brandywine Associates. I named it for sentimental reasons, not really thinking about the strategic importance of a name, and stumbled on the “conversation starter” benefits that a non-straightforward moniker can have.

Here are my thoughts about naming a company:

1. DON’T name it with your name. John Doe & Associates doesn’t do anything for you (in a marketing context).
2. DON’T get super-right-brained about it. CyberBusinessSolutions … is…. booooorrrring and, again, doesn’t benefit you in any way.
3. DO think in terms what you what the hearer of your name to think or do.

BOTTOM LINE: Whether you want people to pick up right away on a particular message (as in Success in Sweatpants) or to encourage a conversation by planting a question their minds (as in 4R Marketing), strive for a name that will move your marketing efforts forward in some way.