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1、別人習慣怎么叫,就給公司起那個名 如果你給公司起了個名字卻沒人用,這就是該換公司名稱的信號,多留意別人是如何稱呼你的公司的。每次客戶打電話到HVLS(大風量低轉(zhuǎn)速風扇的簡稱)風扇公司都問“你們是不是做那種大塊頭風扇”,創(chuàng)始人卡雷·史密斯認真記下了,隨后將公司名改為“大塊頭風扇”(不過后來,在公司將業(yè)務拓展到照明領域后,他又稍作修正,改為“大塊頭解決方案”。)這個非常規(guī)名稱讓這家制造商一炮走紅。 2、選擇適合的詞語 不要執(zhí)著于起一個非?;ㄉ诘拿Q。關鍵是讓大家容易記住。最好起一個反映客戶實際需求的名稱。比如,一家公司專門幫助施工單位減少工地槽溝安全事故,名字叫“槽溝安全與供應”,光看名字就能明白他們的業(yè)務,不會有什么疑問。要是不確定公司名稱是否真能傳遞你的業(yè)務范圍?不妨問問客戶他們覺得你的公司是做什么的。 3、簡明扼要 假如在公司名后面加上“法定公司”、“集團”或者“有限責任公司”簡稱,企業(yè)代表律師或者合伙人可能滿意,但讀起來既拗口又冗長。去掉一切多余的詞語,你會驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn),你和團隊談起公司來會非常容易,也就能盡快切入業(yè)務主題。等大家都非常熟悉公司業(yè)務以后,你可以像明尼蘇達礦業(yè)與制造業(yè)公司一樣把名字縮減成3M(注:該公司原名首字母為三個M)。 4、先測試 不要選沒有吸引力的名字。在正式啟用某個名字以前,先在谷歌廣告服務產(chǎn)品Adwords上測試一下,或者在Facebook網(wǎng)站上發(fā)起測評,或是在提供A/B測試軟件的網(wǎng)站Splitly.com上做個測試,這樣你可以了解消費者最喜歡哪個名字。蒂姆·費里斯就用類似方法創(chuàng)立了品牌“四小時工作周”(4-Hour Workweek)。如今競爭對手們都在采用眾包測試,你可別讓自己落在人后,疲于追趕。 5、給所有業(yè)務建立品牌 服務業(yè)公司應該向產(chǎn)品生產(chǎn)商取經(jīng),因為產(chǎn)品生產(chǎn)商最會起名字。私募股權公司Riverside Co.就是這么做的。該公司為旗下所有服務都專門命名。比如,一項旨在改進公司流程的服務被命名為“閃耀系統(tǒng)”(Sparkle! System)。 “閃耀”實際上是一個英文首字母縮略詞,代指這家公司大幅提升企業(yè)價值的一套多步驟流程,囊括了“擦洗清潔”、“強有力的管理團隊”、“有吸引力的設施”等含義,現(xiàn)在這個名字比一長串全稱簡潔得多,也更容易給人留下印象。聯(lián)席CEO斯圖爾特·科爾評價說:“用這個名字可以充分體現(xiàn)出我們頂尖的業(yè)務能力?!?/p> 本文作者凡爾納·哈尼斯著有《升級》(Scaling Up)一書。(財富中文網(wǎng)) 譯者:Pessy 審校:夏林 |
Call the Company What Everyone Else Does If no one is actually using the name you picked, take it as a hint—and pay attention to what people are calling it. When customers kept phoning HVLS Fan Co. and asking, “Are you the guys with those big-ass fans?” founder Carey Smith listened. He changed the company’s name to Big Ass Fans (though he later reduced that plainspokenness a bit by updating it to Big Ass Solutions when the company expanded into lighting). The unconventional name has earned the manufacturer a gusher of good publicity. Own the Right Words Don’t get hung up on finding a clever name. The key is to find one that is easy to remember. One of the best ways to do that is to reflect the job the customer needs done. TrenchSafety and Supply, a company that helps construction companies keep their trenches safe, for instance, left no room for confusion about what it does. Not sure if your name really conveys what you do? Ask a few customers what they think you do for them. Clear the Clutter Adding a “Corp.,” “Group,” or “LLC” after your company’s name may make your attorney or partners happy, but it will just make it clunkier and clumsy to say. Ditch any extraneous words and you’ll be surprised at how much faster you and your team can mention it and get down to business. Once -everyone knows what you do, consider following Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing’s example, which rebranded itself as 3M MMM -1.37% . Run a Test There’s no excuse for choosing a name that’s not ready for primetime. Test your idea in a Google Adwords or a Facebook campaign FB -1.63% before you take it live, or use Splitly.com to do A/B testing so you know which name customers like best. Tim Ferriss used a similar approach to establish his “4-Hour Workweek” brand. (For more on Ferriss, see “40 Under 40”.) Your competitors are crowd-testing, so don’t let them leave you scrambling to catch up. Brand Everything Service firms should take a lesson from product manufacturers, who name all their creations. The Riverside Co., a private equity firm, has done so. It coins a name for everything it does, including its process for cleaning up companies: the Sparkle! System. “Sparkle” is an acronym for the multistep process Riverside uses to dramatically increase the value of a company, and it’s a lot more succinct and memorable than the long version, which stands for terms such as “scrubbed and clean,” “powerful management team,” “attractive facilities,” etc. “It gives us a shorthand way to refer to what we do that is unique,” says co-CEO Stewart Kohl. Verne Harnish is the author of “Scaling Up.” A version of this article appears in the October 1, 2016 issue of Fortune with the headline “5 Ways to Pick a Killer Name.” |