serious vs fun name for startup
What are the Pros and Cons to each approach?
Background: We have developed an pedometer based fundraising model and already have a couple clients. Now we want to begin marketing it to the Nonprofit space. The specific names we are considering are "Feet of Gold" vs. "Pedometer Fundraising"
One name says what we do and has keywords in the title but the other we feel might be more memorable and is certainly more exciting.
Nowadays well known companies have names like Google and Drupal, Mailchimp and Surveymonkey I think the pendulum is definitely swinging over to the fun side but I would be interested to here what others think.
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I like fun names and I use the techonlogy you mentioned as fun named companies. I think it comes down to your end game. Fun names catch attention and can help with marketing however I don't see many Mailchimps type names in the fortune 500 (some exceptions of course). – Ross Mann 11 years ago
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Do you consider Google a serious or fun name? And Apple: isn't it just a fruit? – Frenchie 11 years ago
5 Answers
A lot of established companies use "fun" names. I would encourage you to go with the best name from a marketing standpoint.
You have to remember that venture capitalists, potential clients, etc. are people too. If you have something that is fun to say and remember, it will stand out.
Companies like Ebay, Craigslist, Kodak, etc. all had fun names, yet were wildly successful.
Your name should be easily identifiable by others and memorable.
For reference, see how Kodak was named: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastman_Kodak#Name
I don't think Seriousness is an important criteria for names. Evocativity is, but a name can be evocative with or without being Serious.
I believe that the key considerations for a name are:
- Evocativity (conveys at least a hint of what it's naming)
- Brevity (shorter = better)
- Greppability (Not a substring of common words)
- Googlability (Reasonably unique, and domain name available)
- Pronounceability (You can read it out loud when you see it)
- Spellability (You know how it's spelled when you hear it)
- Verbability (The name, or variant thereof, can be verbed)
- Mellifluidity (Kind of subjective, but rhyming and alliteration are good)
I wrote an article about how to make tradeoffs among those desiderata (since you'll rarely nail every one) here: http://messymatters.com/nominology
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Great article. Thanks. I think you hit all the positive criteria but missed some of the negatives. For example a name could sound like something bad. Or it could evoke a unintended meaning. It takes an outsiders perspective to catch these things. – Michael Horwitz 11 years ago
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Fair point! Though it seems to be generally overstated. "Caterpillar" is a small squishy insect, seemingly the opposite of what the earth-moving company would want to evoke. And Virgin Airlines? Virginity connotes inexperience, not to mention the sexual overtones. I even remember (many) people snickering at how clueless Apple was in naming the iPad after a feminine hygiene product. Conclusion: just be awesome and you'll swamp any bad connotations with good connotations! – Dreeves 11 years ago
Fun names with cartoon mascots seem to appeal to some childhood programming we all have to reach for the sugary cereal with a free prize inside, rather than the healthy cereal with olympic athletes on the box.
I tend to avoid fun-named companies; I just can't take them seriously. Their cartoon persona targets non-technical people, not serious IT people, and I expect their service to be geared for the same.
It's a perception thing. When I'm building a serious company, I don't want the goofiness of a partner's cartoon mascot to make me look goofy. I want to stand with partners who project a professional image.
Now, it is one thing to avoid cartoon-themed companies for IT infrastructure or bookkeeping, both of which I take very seriously, and another entirely for activity-based fundraising operations, which should carry an air of fun with them.
In the end, it depends on what image you want to project and that in turn on what services you provide and your target demographics. If you're focused on backend services, working with the board and the executive director, limited visibility to fundraising participants, and providing serious things to the fundraiser, such as accountability, auditing, and oversight, consider the more somber name. If you're after more of an active role with participants and to be the fundraising cheerleader, consider a colorful name.
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That's a great distinction and one we need to keep in mind. We are going to be more backend and our target markets are development directors and boards. On the other hand once a non profit goes with us we will be interacting with the participants. – Michael Horwitz 11 years ago
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a fun name does not mean you get a goofy cartoon character – Tim J 11 years ago
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@TimJ, that's a fair point. – John Franklin 11 years ago
I would like to go with the fun name.
From a marketing standpoint, having that 'fun name' will keep you unique. The general name (with keywords in it) will keep you on the "general" side.
The challenge here is to keep the branding all throughout your marketing efforts. That means your tone, your approach and everything around it should reflect that fun name.
When done well, it creates a brand recall and should be beneficial for your business.
It does not matter.
Boring: IBM - International Business Machines
Fun: Google
Be mindful of the acronym of the name you choose.
Uniqueness of the name or phrase (if multi-lettered) is helpful for SEO at first.
