How to Name a Company: 5 Quick Tips

These 5 tips will get you started in the right direction towards a distinctive company name.

Image by Francesco Marino

1. Write down your companies core values.  For example, are you traditional, groundbreaking, modern, cool, or sophisticated?  This will set the tone for your name.

2. Write down the problems your company will solve. For example, are you producing sturdier office furniture, making a better laundry detergent, or creating pet friendly cleaning products?  This will allow you to choose related words for your name.

3. Write down who would most likely buy your products.  For example, are you selling to moms, dads, hobbyists, foreigners or teens?  This will help you target the vernacular that is appropriate.

4. Write down what differentiates your products from competitors.  For example, are you eco-friendly, cost-saving, niche-serving, or totally new?  This will help you with your tagline, as well as your name.

5. Finally, write down any places that have influenced your product line.  For example, did you find the ingredients in Boreo, learn to make it in Japan, or have the idea while laying in a cornfield?  This will aid you with your tagline and give you additional vernacular you may want to include in your name.

So, now that you have a sheet covered with ideas, here are some examples of how you might put them together:

-Sample Answers-
1. Chic, smart, simple.
2. Stylish, un-obtrusive diaper-changing supplies.
3. Moms, nannies, stay at home dads (to be used on babies).
4. Odor-blocking, pet and child safe, cost-effective.
5. Idea came from a nursery in England.

-Sample Results-
1. Nanny Surplus- UK vernacular, product user.
2. Easy Baby- Company values, product user.
3. Thrifty Tot- Product feature, product user, UK vernacular.
4. Baby Posh- Product user, UK vernacular.
5. Chic Nursery- Company values, product user.

There are a few other things you may want to include in your brainstorming process like related animals, colors and jargon.  These tips are only intended to get the creative juices flowing.

Happy naming!

Pet Peeve of the Week: Office Politics

Playing into the game of office politics will eventually kill your company. Period.

Image by Francesco Marino

It is sometimes said, "It's not what you know, but who you know that matters."  Unfortunately, it's true.

In offices around the country, people are getting promoted based on politics and not potential.  It's an epidemic of epic proportions.  It devalues hard work and outstanding results while adding value to individual personality and likability factor.

Here is the problem in SAT form:

Say you own A company that makes B widget.  You hire C worker for $50,000 a year in R&D to improve said widget.  You hire D worker to do the same thing.  A promotion becomes available to both C and D.  Whom do you pick?

-C Worker-
Independent
New Hire
Extroverted
High to Top Performance
Leader

-D Worker-
Social
Tenure
Extroverted
Moderate to High Performance
Leader

If you hired D worker over C worker, consider the fact that; while office ambiance may be slightly improved by a more charismatic leader, productivity will not be improved due to the inherent poor time-management habits of a very social person.  Giving increased responsibility to someone you like; over someone who is qualified, simply means that they will do more things half-assed.

Add in the additional effect of employee burnout due to lack of advancement, and you have now crippled your work output.  You have also devalued the salary by example and will have to pay more people a higher wage for the same amount of performance.

The candidate you like may not always be the most financially sound choice for promotion.  Think about that before making your next hiring decision.

PyperPaul + Kenney, Inc.: A Bad Romance with the 'Cool Kids' of Advertising.

What is it about this hot, young ad shop that makes it so desirable?

Image by Jscreationzs

PyperPaul+ Kenney, Incorporated has only been in business for six years, yet they have finished just under the top shops in the national ADDYs for two years now. How is it that a Tampa shop can give the big boys a run for their money? I've been trying for years to pinpoint the source of their je ne sais quois. Furthermore, I've been trying to understand why I have a career-crush on them. Is it their maverick attitude?  Their ego-aware culture?  Their talented leadership?


Let me rewind.


About five years ago, I had the chance to shadow with PP+K staffers for an afternoon.  Normally, academic-induced internships are worse than regular ones simply because they don't want or need your help.  As I struggled to find parking on Twiggs street for my Chrysler-made boat, I thought of all the horrible hours of tedium and coffee-runs before me.


That didn't happen.


I trudged through the solid-wood doors like a prison inmate and ran smack dab into laughter. Laughter. At work. Not the kind of mocking, snickering laughter I was expecting to get, either. The we-are-hot-shit-for-thinking-of-this kind of victory guffaw.


Queue piqued interest.


Instantly, I am snatched up in a whirlwind of introductions as the creative director ushers me around like a circus ringmaster.  Names fly in one ear and out the other as I'm struggling to take it all in. They have couches strewn around like a Manhattan bachelor pad, stainless steel office furniture cluttered with yesterday's big ideas and a boardroom that would make Donald Trump blush occupied by a lone job applicant nervously rifling through his portfolio.


Obvious drooling ensued.


The creative director; whose name I never retained because I was too busy staring at his suit (which I am still convinced was made out of silk and Angel hair), sat me down with one of their staffers to draft ideas for a Sweetbay billboard.  In one day, we brainstormed and proofed this series of billboards. Not that I would ever get credit for it, but it is still nice to know that I had something to do with it.


Fast forward now.

A few years later, I was working on the Strategy and Presentation teams for the NSAC at USF.  My instructor was Cliff Courtney from Zimmerman Advertising in Fort Lauderdale.  We were grabbing lunch at the Fly Bar in Tampa, when the guys from PP+K walk in...  There was a moment of recognition, and then; they swarmed Cliff like flies on a picnic.


I was depressed.


Well, only a little.  Not that I expected them to remember me... They're the 'cool kids,' after all. A brief pause in my direction would have been nice. (Some sign of residual memory.) However, I don't think I would have been able to get us the grand tour of their new digs.  Cliff could... and did.


Newer is better.


If I was impressed before; I was flabbergasted now. Gone was the understated trendiness and instead there was an in-your-face extravagance.  No up-and-coming hot shop feel. This was WE HAVE ARRIVED watermarked on Italian leather furniture!  Imagine the NBA and Mad Men conceiving a bastard child out of wedlock... That's PP+K.


We make money.

It was obvious. If their 'office' is a fraction of how much success they bring their clients, then you'd be a fool NOT to hire them. An idiot could put that together.  It's not accidental.  It's not a fluke.  It is a brilliant marketing tool that seals the deal.  Not only does PP+K woo top talent with Foosball tables and giant LCD TVs; they court bank-busting accounts with the office set design.  Add in a dash of testosterone-infused swagger, and you've found the je ne sais quois.

Ambiance is everything. 


It's not about being cocky. It's about putting on a show. Setting the mood.  Romancing the client with the promise of profits. Proving your mettle through industry awards. Oozing sexy. That's what makes PyperPaul + Kenney so successful. And I wanted it.


Enter solo violin.


It worked. They had seduced me. Big time. I poured promises into an email and attached my resume with a kiss....  Silence. My advances fell on deaf ears while my equally-talented boyfriend got a callback. And a probationary job offer. What's a girl gotta do?


One lone tear.


Eh, well. I could always resort to sniffing my boyfriends company memos or lurking by the lamppost in a 1940's trench coat. Stalking their corporate blog and sending anonymous flowers on Valentine's Day. Isn't that what spurned lovers do? Or maybe I'll adopt and refine their own methods. I'm already ridiculously profitable at my current company. Take that $500k I earned for them last quarter and dress it up in a nice Italian suit...  Spritz on some Allure de Profit perfume and watch the offers roll in. I'll have my own je ne sais quois. 

Your move, boys.