Help me name my marketing consulting business!

October 28, 2008 11:56 AM

Help me name my marketing consulting business!

I am starting a marketing company and need a name! I have ten years of experience working in marketing, advertising, and project management in large urban cities, but now live in a small town and can offer a more sophisticated take to advertising-- the market here is ready. I will be offering brand strategy consultations and campaigns (with a strong emphasis on identifying and targeting the audience), brand identity packages (logo, business cards, other collateral), print ads, media buying, promotions, and some event planning. Down the line I will be offering web design and SEO services. Marketing materials will emphasize that the company will make an impact on clients' bottom lines. (The name Impact is already taken in this market.)

I need a name that satisfies the following criteria:
--Concise, relevant
--Iconic (if possible) -- calls to mind a visual element
--Forward-sounding, will sound relevant 20 years from now
--Has domains available-- both .com and .ca

I will likely pair it with "marketing consultants" or some other such descriptor of the business, but ultimately want to be able to have branded the company in such a way that it can be shortened to the one word.

For what it's worth, I'm located in a fairly small town on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. My 5-year plan involves expanding to Victoria but the business will stay Island-focused.

Ideas? Thanks in advance!

posted by mireille to work & money (14 answers total)

No offense, but isn't coming up with a name part of the job description of the business you're starting up? Isn't it kind of counter-productive to get us to do it for you?
posted by tybeet at 12:03 PM on October 28, 2008 [9 favorites]

No offense taken. I will not be offering the service of coming up with business names-- that will be up to my clients. What I can do for them is to take their name, services, and goals, and create for them a brand personality, identity, and strategy.

I have had some ideas, and have a fallback name, but I am of the very strong opinion that no matter how smart I am, all of you collectively are smarter than just the one of me, and thus I am putting out the request for ideas with the expectation that you will have ideas that I won't have had. This name is a vital part of my business and I would be remiss if I did not explore all options.
posted by mireille at 12:11 PM on October 28, 2008

I don't have any suggestions, but when I was looking for names recently I found both NameBoy and the Igor naming guide to be useful resources. I can't remember in which thread I first saw them recommended.
posted by Gomez_in_the_South at 12:14 PM on October 28, 2008

No need to get snippy. Have you considered "Mireille?"
posted by rhizome at 12:41 PM on October 28, 2008

That last one was in response to a post that ended up getting flagged. I flagged my own comment. Took the bait out of surprise that the green isn't what I remembered!

That said, thanks fo the suggestion-- I hadn't yet considered Mireille. I'll think about that one. May have pronunciation issues. Will run it by some friends. Also, thanks to Gomez for the links!
posted by mireille at 12:49 PM on October 28, 2008

Seconding the Igor Naming Guide. It will help get you into more memorable territory.
posted by PatoPata at 12:59 PM on October 28, 2008

Sorry for the earlier snark.

How big is this little town? 20,000? 5,000? Is it close to a metropolitan center? Is it the biggest town around? With the sort of company you're looking at starting, I'd assume it's big enough that there is local competition in other areas, so it can't be that small. What are the most active businesses, and who will you be catering towards? Tech companies? Lumber firms? Day care centers?

You mentioned visuals - what sort of things do you visualize? Any key colors you wish to use?
posted by filthy light thief at 1:13 PM on October 28, 2008

These might be high on the snark scale, but:

"G.O.D"(you can fill in the acronym yourself). Since you're "creating" business' identities.

"Freud". My psychology background is almost nil, but didn't he invent the idea of the ego, id, and super-ego?
posted by specialnobodie at 1:33 PM on October 28, 2008

Well... looks like marketi.ng may be available but the Nigerian association may not be so hot.

How about StrataBrandId.com/StrateBrandId.com? Both are available as of this typing.

StrataBrandId.com/StrateBrandId.com

Marketing Strategy, Brand Personality and Business ID services for the New Millenium!
posted by emjay at 1:36 PM on October 28, 2008

If you add "marketing consultants", your name doesn't need to be "relevant" just "not irrelevant" (like "lior", for example, that could sound like "liar" :-)). So the name just needs to be memorable. "mireille" is an excellent suggestion: the "pronunciation issue" makes it more memorable, but it's not available in .com. So, you just have to aim for originality and you have really an infinity of choices. I found one in 2 mn (you may not like it, but it's just to illustrate my point):

colombr.com is available.
posted by bru at 6:22 PM on October 28, 2008

[Your Name] Associates

[Your Name] & Company
posted by Optimus Chyme at 6:39 PM on October 28, 2008

Sorry, I meant "columbr", but both are available.
posted by bru at 7:37 PM on October 28, 2008

Tip Of The Sword
posted by lpsguy at 7:15 AM on October 29, 2008

As an independent entity naming consultant, I'd suggest avoiding anything that needs to be spelled out verbally for clarification (Mireille, Columbr). Word-of-mouth is more easily spread by, say "look me up at Maple Island Marketing dot com" than "Murray Lee dot com -- that's M-I-R-E-I-L-L-E dot com... just remember i-before-e-except-when-it's-me..."
posted by Tubes at 10:53 AM on October 29, 2008