In my book, Branding Insights for Small Business, I used the example of Exxon, the oil company which used to be called Esso:

Logo for company after changing its name in 1973

Esso, Enco, and Humble were trademark brands of Jersey Standard Oil,

The powers that be at Esso needed to change the company name and they decided to let a computer select the name for them.

They fed the computer some parameters:

• it had to have two syllables
• double consonants
• start with an “E”
• be a name that wasn’t being used throughout the world and
• no meaning in foreign language.

Exxon was supposedly the only word the computer came up with.

I like Exxon because it was the first company that used a computer for naming – or in this instance re-naming – a company.

Although this happened awhile ago, I still find this case study very interesting. And, at least they kept the colors the same!

My rules about company names are simple and very straight-forward:

• avoid generic sounding names
• avoid initials or acronyms and
• avoid names with too many words

That’s it. Pretty simple.

If you’re marketing a product or service that’s consumer oriented, it just makes sense to create a distinguishable brand name.

For example, I bought a computer router manufactured by a company called SMC Corporation. I had never really heard of this company, but my tech expert recommended it. From a branding perspective, and as a consumer, I was a bit concerned. I thought I should buy something made by a company with a name like NetGear or Cisco.

My router had to be replaced (a little too soon for my liking). Guess which brand of router I replaced it with? NetGear. I just don’t understand why a major technology company in such a competitive industry, would continue to use a name that is so nondescript.