Think of choosing your clothing company name as important as naming your child – it’s going to be with you forever and will certainly impact on the way that people respond and interact with them.
Clothing Brand Name Ideas: Coming Up With The Best One for Your Line
There are many different strategies and tactics that can be used to come up with a killer name that will stick in the minds of your target market.
1# First and foremost, a name is for life
There are a few reasons why we wouldn’t recommend that you do this. Firstly, you mess with the whole essence of ‘branding’. You may affect customer loyalty by confusing them with a change in name.
Secondly, you really should buy the domain for your brand straight away, if you don’t, you may find that it becomes unavailable later down the line (particularly if you are successful as someone will buy it and attempt to resell it back to you). Thirdly, any change to business at this level is likely to cause bureaucratic chaos. Just imagine how tricky it was to set up the business and imagine repeating this, with the additional stress of undoing what is already undone.
2# Trademarking issues
Unlike naming a child or pet, you can’t simply pluck a name out of thin air and use it freely (there are few things free in this life). You can check existing registered trademarks by searching on the official government website and following instructions. Make up your own name to avoid trademarking problems.
3# Emotional value
Check the name with everyone you can, all ages, genders, everyone. Visualise the name – what images does it conjure up, are they positive or negative? Check the emotional response to the name – what do people think the brand represents, how do they imagine it? What products or services does it sell?
4# Association
It’s really important to check that your name doesn’t have any kind of negative association that you’re not aware of. This may sound pretty ridiculous, but you’d be amazed at the number of mistakes made simply by not having a quick google before deciding on a company name. Often, this issue can be resolved by checking with family and friends – it can be a generation gap or cultural gap that causes you to name your business after the Spanish meaning for Roman orgy, because, quite understandably, you had no idea of the meaning of the word in another language.
