How do you wrap your mind around the return on investment, ROI, of a Naming Project? The exact value of a productive brand name is impossible to calculate. There are far too many variables involved to run any true and accurate A/B testing. Therefore, the logic behind investing in a great name for your company, brand, product, app, etc., has always been a bit nebulous. However, many marketers and entrepreneurs intuitively grasp the power of a great name based on the simple fact that your name is the most used aspect of your brand, and the cornerstone of your communication. At the end of the day, your business name is a priceless asset.
How do you justify investing your time and capital in a naming project? Here at Squadhelp we have helped over 12,000 businesses come with a new or improved name. Here are some tips around ROI that we have gleaned along the journey.
Start with your current revenue projects to explore the value of a great name.
Table of Contents
Attention
A great name demands attention. Attention getting names support marketing initiatives such as SEO, print advertising, and performance marketing. Increase your projections related to any marketing channel that would benefit if your company is able to stand out, get noticed, and attract attention, by 2 – 3%.
Connect
Names can resonate deeply with your customer. Emotive names (Bold Move), prestigious names (Windsor Harlow), experiential names (Twitter) all have the ability to effect the each company’s bottom line. Names that connect and align increase consideration. A name that connects reduces your drop off rate from all of your marketing channels by 1-2%.
Buzz
Powerful names can affect your influencer marketing, PR, word of mouth, and more. It is easy to see that names which are difficult to say and spell will not be shared. If you’re revenue will be based on any of these concepts, increase your numbers by 2 – 3% for a good name. Decrease them by the same amount, or more, for a name that is difficult to use.
Consideration
Many businesses count on customers remembering their brand at just the right moment – great names help companies get remembered. Any projects related to a customer hearing about you at one time and remembering you at another will be effected by a great name. Adjust these numbers by just a few (2 – 3%) percent because of your investment in a great name.
TOMA
If you’re projects rely on you staying top of mind in order to get repeat customers, a great name will help. For many companies, reducing your top of mind awareness, TOMA, related marketing spend can make a huge impact on your numbers – so make the appropriate adjustments to your projections.
Encourage referrals
Finally, consider how a great name can affect your referral rates. Increase your referral rate 2 – 3% for your name that connects and get remembered.
Putting it together
These numbers are all assumptions, which allow you to create a simple, productive ROI calculation. You might determine our suggested numbers to be too high – or too low. Change them as you see fit. A great name might greatly impact the TOMA investment for an e-commerce business and have very little relevance for a food truck. Alternatively, a food truck parked at a festival could get a lot more traffic if its name stands out and connects, driving customers away from the competition.
Some companies’ names likely have an exponential impact. Names like Twitter and Squatty Potty make the company. Without a great name, would Twitter have ever penetrated the market? Would Squatty Potty have gotten off the ground?
Names have a huge impact on lifestyle brand. And they can impact a company culture and its ability to attract talented employees. In the end, all you can do is crunch your own numbers, make your own assumptions, and decide the resources you will put into your naming project. No matter how you slice it, a great name is worth its weight in gold.
Author Bio
Grant Polachek is the Director of Marketing at Squadhelp.com–the only full-service, agency-like name development platform, that is also affordable. His book How to Develop the Perfect Name for Just About Anything is available to The Logo Creative™ readers for free.