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Startup

What’s in a name? A lot, evidently.

Starting anything new is an indescribable feeling. The fact that you made it makes you feel so very special. No, I am not going to compare a child and a brainchild, and risk pissing off mothers but, hey, you get my point.

Every little thing you do for this conception is the result of a lot of thought and care. The christening is perhaps the most daunting and sensitive task. You want your business to represent everything you feel (which is already a little too much to ask), then you are required to keep a number of parameters in mind including the simplicity and uniqueness. As a result, you spend days together over it. You ask around, you test it, you write it down, draw it, and what not. Finally, you zero in on a name. Tada.

That’s how Ingenious Aces was born. I went through all these steps (and more) when naming it and I was SO happy that the name did justice to what I was planning on offering: Creative and unique content. From the beginning, I was sure my focus would remain the same: content. I did not want to expand my services or get my hands dirty with too many things. So, it seemed perfect.

Well, not really.

“In-what?”

“What’s the spelling?

“Your email does not exist.”

And many more such headaches later, I started rethinking.

 In the beginning, when I had to explain the meaning, the spelling, and the reason, it was alright. But soon, it got tedious. Every time I said the name, I was subjected to frowns, confusion, and sometimes, sighs. I still didn’t think it was too difficult. I mean, I still don’t. But, in the world of business, what matters more; what you think or what they think? If they can’t spell your name right, how will they find you? I found that out a little too harshly. I felt like my business was being bullied because of its unique name, much like some kids are bullied back in school!

I realized that the word “ingenious” was not common or simple after all. I realized the name lacked a much-needed “connect,” which is why the much-more-needed “trust factor” was failing. That epiphany came out of the blue at the office one day and I got to work immediately.

The exercise began again. Think. Search. Ask. Rethink. The Eureka moment came again (despite revolt from my writers who absolutely adored Ingenious Aces). 

 

Presenting to you the Writing Aces! This name was met with numerous smiles and approving nods. Plus, since it directly talks about what we do, I have every finger crossed, that it sticks. Facebook and Twitter are up while I am working on the other sites.

There is no denying that a few unique, lesser known words work magic as brand names but some don’t. It was the latter for me. I hope, you go through this satisfying but painful process only once in your entrepreneurial journey. 🙂

@kritikaponia

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Recommended reading on this topic: 

Perils of Choosing the Wrong Name

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10 Comments

  1. wow. so you learnt a very important lesson in branding kritika!!

    this is something we’re taught in advertising – the name has to be easy on the tongue and sticky for folks to remember it! and yes, it needs to connect with the consumer 🙂 whenever i shared your post i would have to double check your startup’s name!

    pls check this screenshot – my comment on your first showcase post regarding your name!! 

    i think Writing Aces is much simpler and easier to remember. we need not try and be way too different at times, it just alienates folks.

    you must read this post by avi on branding!

    ALL THE BEST KRITIKA – i’ll check out your new site when i’m back from the mumbai OH 🙂

  2. I completely agree. We had named our app P911. Hardly any one in India got that. And finally they did, they refused to have an app.of this name on their phone. We delayed our launch by 2 months till we could figure out a good name which would help us scale at a later stage. Funny thing the name was suggested by a 13 year old kid… We did a quick poll with our closed group testers and picked up a winner, Gottago

  3. Awesome post Kritika 🙂

  4. Your comment was also one of the factors. 🙂

    Thank you, Asha. Means a lot. 🙂

  5. 😀 Love your story! Some lessons are best learnt first-hand, eh? 🙂

  6. Thank you, Ritika! 🙂

  7. And I have a contrarian view 🙂

    Of course, not to say that you should INSIST on creating confusion, but sometimes, if you deliver pure gold, people LEARN your name : This is reproduced from  my own “What’s in a Name” 🙂 https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/whats-in-a-name-1


    Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) inspired me to write this blog. If you haven’t heard CCR, I suggest you do – it’s immortal rock music that will heal your soul.

    So, what’s in name? Would you call your band ‘Creedence Clearwater Revival’? Try saying the name fast.

    Or if I were a food entrepreneur, would I call my restaurant Mc Kejriwal? What on earth does ‘Lays’ chips mean? I don’t care where Altoids came from. Oh my God, my ketchup is called Heinz and my cereal is called Kellogg’s. What do I make of The Oberoi, or The Hyatt? Hell I want a coffee really badly.. Starbucks here I come…hmmm…that’s hardly the appropriate name of a place that would sell coffee! I love Sony…. Please just explain the brand name to me one day. Honda, Toyota, Samsung, Yahoo, et al, we know today because of their amazing products and services. Not because their name got us to buy them.

    Spending time and money on the perfect ‘brand name’ creation is all bunk. Those who pretend that it matters are the false advertising types whose livelihood depends on making people spend money that they don’t need to.

    My belief:

    Consumers remember brands that perform for them – so be it a great ‘Jet Airways’ flight or a fantastic pizza from ‘Dominos’ – I remember these brands for what they did for me – NOT what they pretended to call themselves.

    Consumers don’t care about brand base lines and logos. God knows how much money is spent by brand owners getting their logos and base lines ‘perfect’ – it just remains an ego trip for the top bosses. Try asking Johnny on the street what the seven colors in your logo mean or quiz your business partner about the half sun that appears in your logo… They will stare blankly back at you.

    You can call your brand and business anything. Family name, city from where you come from, girlfriend’s mother’s name or the hospital in which you were born. If you are good at what you are selling, you will become the next Hertz (car rental service or even Meru Cabs for that matter)

    Put your money where it matters. In making your product or service the best. Your brand and what its stands for. Blah blah will be taken care of by your customers

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  8. I second to Alok, there’s not much in a name as long as you are providing best in the class service/product and as long as it’s not any offensive word or unpronounceable one  🙂

  9. deeti, i don’t think you’ve read kritika’s post properly. or have you followed her previous story! her company’s name wasn’t pronounceable by many folks, wasn’t sticky, was misspelled – even i who frequently tweeted her company’s name could never remember what it was…. which is why she had to change her company’s name!!

    as an ex advtg professional – my first reaction to her name was that how do people/clients pronounce it or remember it? there’s a lot in a name!! 

  10. I agree with you Alok, having burnt and learnt.

    So I try remembering this with the example of ‘jalebi’.

    Try eating the jalebi when its only fried. Won’t taste good. Thats how your brand is when you launch it. And then you immerse it in the ‘chaashni’ of customer centricity. Let it soak there for a while and then take it out. And then you wonder how did they put the sugar into it.

    However, Kritika is right. The test is that if I tell you my company’s name on phone, you should be able to type it into google without ask me the spelling.

    My 2 jalebis on branding!

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