How to Name Your Advertising Agency – 5 Tips
Deciding on a brand name might arguably be the easiest step in preparing an advertising agency business plan. But that doesn’t mean it’s a total cakewalk. There are many aspects you must look into in choosing a name for your ad agency. If you overlook one aspect, it could cause adverse ripple effects on your business. Today, we’re going to show you five effective tips in naming your agency.
How to Name Your Advertising Agency – 5 Tips
Choose Among the Five Categories of Brand Names
First of all, you should know that there are five brand name categories. You encounter these brand name categories every day. You just aren’t aware that they have a classification. Without further ado, choose among these five categories for your ad agency’s name.
Founder Names
Founder names are very common and popular. Brand names such as Ford, Chase, Ferrari, Colgate, and Onitsuka are the family names of their founders. If you want to gain direct recognition as the owner of your agency, you can name it after your first name or last name. But opting for your last name would probably sound better.
However, if you choose to name your agency after you, you need to be careful. Why? That’s because whatever reputation your agency will earn, it’ll also stipulate your persona as a businessperson. If your agency gets a bad rep, you’ll also get a bad rep. Plus, a startup business with a founder name is typically tricky to market. They don’t contribute any initial value unless the founder is already a famous person in the first place. In that case, you might want to steer away from name saking your agency after you.
Current Usage Words
These are brand names that use words that exist in the dictionary. Prime examples of these are Apple, Sprint, Amazon, Tide, and Oracle. If you’re going to choose existing words, make sure that it represents your agency, no matter how subtle. Take Sprint, for instance. Sprint is a well-known telecommunications company in the US. The company was named as it is because it prides itself on providing high-speed network services. As defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary, sprint means, “To run or go at top speed.” Hence the name Sprint.
Neologisms
If you prefer a creative name for your agency, a name that hasn’t been heard of, then what you’ll be doing is neologizing. Neologizing is the act of creating an entirely new word. That new word is called a neologism. Among the best example of neologism brand names are Kleenex, XEROX, and Google.
In neologizing, you need to make sure that your made-up name doesn’t sound awkward or obscene. That’s the only rule. According to a report by Crowdspring, 72% of the top brand or company names are neologisms or acronyms. With that fact, having neologism as a name might bode well for your agency’s marketability.
The latter part of the report mentioned acronyms. Speaking of that, let’s move on to it.
Acronyms
Acronyms are a series of letters that are put together to represent the first letter of a multiple-word name. If your agency’s name consists of three words or more, consider setting an acronym for it. For instance, the company name International Business Machines is quite long to pronounce, so its executives set an acronym for it, which is IBM. Familiar, right?
The main advantage of an acronym is that it makes a brand name more recognizable and easier to remember.
Hybrids
Hybrid brand names are two words combined into one. They can also be considered neologisms. However, the difference of hybrid business names is that they’re formed using two current usage words. Yes, hybrid brand names are made-up, but they consist of words that you can find in the dictionary. Examples of hybrid brand names are PlayStation, AquaFresh, and ThinkPad.
Decide on a Name that Packs a Punch
Your advertising agency’s name must pack a punch. When people hear it, their perception should be that your agency is legitimate and promising. After all, an advertising agency must set an example of naming a business right. Your agency’s services are mostly providing advertising or marketing strategies and producing ad campaigns. That said, you should know the importance of a punchy business name. So, use all of your creativity if that’s what it takes. Aside from being punchy, try to keep your agency’s name simple and make it sound professional.
Check for Brand Names Online
Once you’ve formulated a name, make sure to check if it’s taken or sounds similar to other brand names. You can use Google or social media. If it isn’t as unique as you thought it’d be, then you should try to come up with another one. As much as possible, you have to make your agency’s name distinctive. Set it apart from the others. In this case, you should probably prepare multiple naming options on your checklist. If one doesn’t work, at least you’ll have plenty of other choices.
You have to assess whether your chosen brand name is original or not. Doing so ensures that your agency won’t encounter trademark and copyright infringement charges in the future. You don’t want to receive a memo from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) accusing you of infringement. That puts your ad agency in serious hot water.
Go for a .com Domain Name
Your agency needs a website for online marketing purposes. To create a website, you need web developers or designers. The quotation of their services is quite expensive. Now, if the domain of your agency’s website isn’t .com, its chances of ranking high on Google is minimal. Thus, your payment to a web developer or designer won’t pay off that much. The .com domain is the oldest one on the web. Due to its longevity, it earned a Top Level Domain status.
A .com domain will help your website to stand out in the online community. Although choosing a domain isn’t actually about naming your agency, it’s a crucial element of your agency’s online persona. Moreover, domains such as .net, .co, and .org are also excellent choices.
Consider Excluding the Word “Advertising”
As your agency goes on, you might want to offer other services aside from advertising. That’s a good move for business growth. But, if your agency’s name is like these, “Blue Advertising,” “Evergreen Advertising,” and “MaxBiz Advertising,” offering other services might not be feasible. You see, if your agency’s name has the word “Advertising,” it implies that it only focuses on advertising. Simply put, it limits the expansive potential of your agency.
Take Amazon, for example. Amazon started as an online selling platform for books. But, if its name was Amazon Online Bookstore, would it become the E-commerce giant that it is today, selling all kinds of products and services aside from books? Highly unlikely. Yes, you can rename your agency’s name when you want, but that’s a lot of work.
As you might’ve known by now, a good brand name is indeed a vital component of every business. So, in naming your agency, do it smartly, use your creativity, and don’t overdo it. Within a few months or a year from now, we might be hearing news of your advertising agency making waves in the industry.
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