4 Ways Your Business Can Avoid Having a Cringey or Embarrassing Name

Stay long enough in the world of branding, and nothing would surprise you. We’ve seen business owners name their brands embarrassing names like Passmore Gas and Propane, Thai Tanic, and even i.Beat Blaxx, but none of these compares to the Belgian chocolate company, ISIS.

What’s in a brand’s name? Well, everything. In a world where businesses are deliberately designed to attract customers with their brand names, nothing can drive a knife through the heart of your brand’s potential success like a cringey or embarrassing business name.

Customers wouldn’t feel comfortable buying a box of chocolate from a brand named ISIS, a name that’s too similar to the radical terrorist group, ISIS.

Your brand name is the soul of your business. If done right, it can be your springboard to success, but if done wrong, it becomes the death of your business. And the best way to save your business from becoming a fatality is to avoid embarrassing names. We’ve put together a short guide to help you do just that.

Avoid Names That Offend Customers

As an entrepreneur, understand that offending customers is a tested recipe for brand disaster. A lot of businesses make the mistake of trying to showcase uniqueness with a cringey brand name, and trust us, they paid severely.

In today’s world where customers are much more conscious about the brand they purchase from, the wrong message—from your brand name—concerning issues of culture and politics will definitely create a chasm between your brand and its customers, the same way Aunt Jemima’s name did before it was rebranded to Pearl Milling Company.

And even after choosing a unique name, don’t take actions that’d make your customers facepalm in embarrassment. Entrepreneurs must tread carefully while navigating political issues.

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Mike Lindell got involved in politics to the point where it was impossible for customers to separate his company, MyPillow, from his actions. And sure enough it divided his customer base in half and even inspired David Hogg—the Parkland shooting survivor—to start his own pillow company to put MyPillow out of business.

So while avoiding cringey or embarrassing brand names, also avoid making cringey or embarrassing actions and statements.

Avoid Names With Negative Foreign Implications

It’s important you understand that the entire world is watching you pick a brand name, and they wouldn’t hesitate to dump your products on the shelves the moment you make a mistake naming your business.

Spanish customers didn’t waste time abandoning products like Mazda’s Laputa, the moment it was discovered that ‘La Puta’ in Spanish meant, ‘The Whore.’ Finish customers also dumped Fiat Uno, because ‘Uno,’ the Italian word for ‘One’ meant ‘Fool’ in Finnish.

Although foreign names are exotic, interesting, and great at infusing your business with a distinct flavor, when choosing a foreign name for your business or product, make sure you research it thoroughly to make sure it isn’t insulting to customers from other countries.

Avoid Names Similar to Your Competitors

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Say you started your business—a coffee shop—and named it StarBuck because the name just clicked, you’ve just succeeded in throwing your young business into a lot of hot water.

Besides the obvious legal battles you’d have to fight with the global coffee giant Starbucks, you’ve also planted seeds of confusion and distrust in our customers who’d now see your business for what it is; a brand that lacks an original identity.

So do well to avoid names that are too similar to your competitors, whether in spelling or pronunciation, because they’ll cost your business lots of money in legal battles, push your loyal customers away, and leave you with a damaged reputation. The best way to avoid names like these, is to use a trusted business name generator. 

Make sure you visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office, run a thorough trademark search on all the business names you’re considering, and trademark your brand name. This won’t only help pick a name that hasn’t been claimed by competitors, but ensure that other entrepreneurs don’t use your unique brand name.

Avoid Long Names

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It’s often advised that businesses maintain a brand name that’s shorter than fifteen characters. Why? Because shorter brand names are easier to say and remember than longer ones, not to mention that customers find it a lot easier to refer shorter brand names to their friends and families.

A brand name like ‘Locus International Centre For Entrepreneurship Development And Incubation Services Limited’ needs to be shortened if the company wants its customers to comfortably say the name without taking a deep breath first.

Your Brand Name is a Mirror

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When customers hear—and say—your brand name, an image of your brand forms in their minds, and if this image is cringe-worthy and embarrassing, customers would dump your business and its product.

And that’s exactly what happened to Ayds, the appetite suppressing candy of the 80s. Amongst other factors, Ayds failed because customers began associating Ayds, the candy brand, with AIDS, the deadly disease. 

So carefully choose a short, unique, and catchy name that’ll reflect all the outstanding qualities you want customers to associate your brand with.

Author Bio:

Grant Polachek is the Head of Branding at 3X Inc 5000 company Squadhelp, the world’s #1 naming platform, with 30,000+ customers from early-stage startups to enterprises such as Nestle, Philips, Hilton, Pepsi, and AutoNation. Try Squadhelp’s business name generator for custom name recommendations for your venture

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