Business COMMENTARY:A business name should be well thought-out

When starting a company or business of any sort, finding a name for the business is one of the key aspects for its future yet in many cases very little attention is paid to this bit of things. This country is blessed with an elaborate custom when it comes to naming of young children. This same culture has been extended to the world famous Mountain Gorilla culminating in the annual Gorilla naming ceremony. When it comes to choosing names for business entities one ought to remember that giving a child a bad name will certainly have an impact on the child’s relations with other people, something that is likely to dampen their self esteem as well. For a business, the owners or founders need to invest a considerable amount of time to come up with a name that will stand out and therefore benefit the business by making it competitive and most importantly attractive. What you have to remember here is that the name of the company is also its first line of defence when it comes to the war of branding. If the name a company has chosen is not good enough them the marketing team will have more afternoon headaches trying to figure out how they are going to market the brand whose name is problematic. I have a few examples of businesses whose names I find a bit disturbing to say the least. There is a restaurant in Kabeza named ABC Restaurant. To be fair, it is a simple nice eating place that offers well prepared local dishes. However my problem with the name is that if I was asked what comes to my mind when I hear the name ABC, my answer would be that it gets me thinking about a kindergarten or a children’s establishment since ABC marks the beginning of the alphabet which is one of the first things little children are taught. There is almost nothing about ABC that says food or hospitality. Then you have a school named Nu-Vision. This school actually performs very well, academically, but I honestly think its name was not well thought out. For an establishment that is set up to nurture young brains why go for the ghetto-like spelling of the word ‘new’? What was so difficult with going with New instead of Nu? Last week I saw a small pub in Karuruma named Soir @Swagga. I really find this name wrong on so many levels and if I was asked to market this place I would either ask for a prohibitive remuneration or turn down the offer altogether. First of all the name is a mixture of languages as well as words and symbols. In other words the owner assumes that clients will easily identify soir- French for evening, @ which can mean ‘at’ in sms jargon or even ‘each’ in old shorthand English, as well as Swagga which is used by hiphop loving youths to mean flamboyance. I cannot think of a more confusing name for a bar. I bet it is already confusing for you the reader. The bottom line in all of this is for you to ask yourself (and your friends), “What comes to mind when people hear or read this name?” Take time to consider many names before you settle for something that is likely to have a negative impact on your business.