-Mark Prus, Principal, NameFlash Name Development

A lot of entrepreneurs launch businesses behind a name they developed on their own. I get the fact that the name of the startup is intensely personal for the founders. Also money is tight in a startup and spending money to develop a name and do trademark research on it seems like a “nice to have” versus a “must do.”

But when you think about it, the company/product/service name is the first point of contact for a potential consumer and what could be more important than that?

I won’t suggest that founders abandon any hope of developing the name on their own. I will suggest that at a minimum founders need to get a “second opinion” on the names they develop.

Why is this important? Founders tend to have a very narrow view of the world that revolves around their particular product or service. Most entrepreneurs suffer from the “curse of knowledge” where they know a lot about their topic area and blindly assume that everyone else has a high level of understanding about their product or service.

My favorite example of this is Xobni (pronounced “zob-nee”). The company was founded in 2006 and made software for mobile and email applications. It raised millions of dollars from venture capitalists and was acquired by Yahoo in 2013. After incorporating some of its features into Yahoo Mail, Xobni was shut down. While Xobni disappeared, it remained famous as a prime example of the “curse of insider knowledge.” In other words, the founders developed the name and lived with it on a daily basis, but failed to take into account the fact that most consumers could not relate to the name in any way. The founders of Xobni loved the name because it was inbox spelled backwards. They also assumed that people would fall in love with the name in the same way that they did.

If you are interested in the science behind the “curse of knowledge” you will find more details in my book The Science of Branding which is available on Amazon.com.

There is another reason why founders should get a second opinion on their branding and that is because Google makes you stupid. OK, technically Google doesn’t make you stupid, but it does shield you from diversity. And a lack of diversity in branding will limit the appeal of your product or service.

This phenomenon is described in the book The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think.” The internet was developed as a means for humans to gain a broader view of the world. However, the use of AI by companies such as Google and Facebook is doing exactly the opposite. Because Google and Facebook are driven by advertising revenue, they intentionally provide you with a narrow view of the world because they think that will enhance their revenues. In most cases, people will enjoy their web browsing experience if they are presented with web pages that agree with their view of the world. Over time, you are exposed to highly filtered results that tend to sound familiar because your viewing horizon is limited by your web browsing experience. You will see fewer contrary points of view because Google serves up a world that aligns with your browsing history.

That is precisely why a “second branding opinion” is necessary. When I conduct a name development project I always ensure that I have a diverse panel of freelancers working on a project. I might have an artist, a scientist, a musician, a professional name developer, a pharmacist, and a NY Times best-selling author working on a project. Sometimes the best names come from the most unexpected places!

Entrepreneurs should expand their horizons for branding and at a minimum make sure they get a second opinion on the names for their company/product/service!