DOES YOUR BRAND SOUND LIKE A SLOGAN? WELL, IT SHOULDN'T.

By definition, the brand name exists to identify your business. By definition, the slogan suggests your product’s appeal and advantages, or your company’s mission and purpose.

Now, what happens when owners name their company or product? Usually they look for something too descriptive – a 2 or 3 word name composed of real words. The result is companies like The Health Care Group, Personal Care, Business Support Solutions, Real Estate and Lifestyle Technologies. Why do they do this?

We can think of the following reasons:

1. They believe that descriptive names are easier to memorize.

2. They believe that only real word names are easy to spell.

3. They believe that descriptive names are SEO-friendly.

The truth is that these reasons are myths in brand naming:

1. Descriptive names are very hard to memorize. Do you remember any brand names that are that descriptive? On the contrary, the first brands that usually pop up to mind are Coca-Cola, Google, Skype and Starbucks.

2. Real word names might be easy to spell but these are usually longer to spell. Repeat after me: Personal Care. Now, say Avon. Which one is better?

3. SEO-friendly? Your name must be customer friendly. Only a good name can attract customers and make them want to come back. Focus on your clients, not on engines.

Back to the brand name's definition, you have to remember that the name must identify your very product, company or service, not the market you are in. Otherwise, your slogan name will lack uniqueness in times when being unique is becoming more and more crucial in marketing.

At the end of the day, we have a question: does your name sound like a slogan?