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1、別人習(xí)慣怎么叫,就給公司起那個(gè)名 如果你給公司起了個(gè)名字卻沒(méi)人用,這就是該換公司名稱的信號(hào),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(fēng)量低轉(zhuǎn)速風(fēng)扇的簡(jiǎn)稱)風(fēng)扇公司都問(wèn)“你們是不是做那種大塊頭風(fēng)扇”,創(chuàng)始人卡雷·史密斯認(rèn)真記下了,隨后將公司名改為“大塊頭風(fēng)扇”(不過(guò)后來(lái),在公司將業(yè)務(wù)拓展到照明領(lǐng)域后,他又稍作修正,改為“大塊頭解決方案”。)這個(gè)非常規(guī)名稱讓這家制造商一炮走紅。 2、選擇適合的詞語(yǔ) 不要執(zhí)著于起一個(gè)非常花哨的名稱。關(guān)鍵是讓大家容易記住。最好起一個(gè)反映客戶實(shí)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(yīng)”,光看名字就能明白他們的業(yè)務(wù),不會(huì)有什么疑問(wèn)。要是不確定公司名稱是否真能傳遞你的業(yè)務(wù)范圍?不妨問(wèn)問(wèn)客戶他們覺(jué)得你的公司是做什么的。 3、簡(jiǎn)明扼要 假如在公司名后面加上“法定公司”、“集團(tuán)”或者“有限責(zé)任公司”簡(jiǎn)稱,企業(yè)代表律師或者合伙人可能滿意,但讀起來(lái)既拗口又冗長(zhǎng)。去掉一切多余的詞語(yǔ),你會(huì)驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn),你和團(tuán)隊(duì)談起公司來(lái)會(huì)非常容易,也就能盡快切入業(yè)務(wù)主題。等大家都非常熟悉公司業(yè)務(wù)以后,你可以像明尼蘇達(dá)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(gè)M)。 4、先測(cè)試 不要選沒(méi)有吸引力的名字。在正式啟用某個(gè)名字以前,先在谷歌廣告服務(wù)產(chǎn)品Adwords上測(cè)試一下,或者在Facebook網(wǎng)站上發(fā)起測(cè)評(píng),或是在提供A/B測(cè)試軟件的網(wǎng)站Splitly.com上做個(gè)測(cè)試,這樣你可以了解消費(fèi)者最喜歡哪個(gè)名字。蒂姆·費(fèi)里斯就用類似方法創(chuàng)立了品牌“四小時(shí)工作周”(4-Hour Workweek)。如今競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手們都在采用眾包測(cè)試,你可別讓自己落在人后,疲于追趕。 5、給所有業(yè)務(wù)建立品牌 服務(wù)業(yè)公司應(yīng)該向產(chǎn)品生產(chǎn)商取經(jīng),因?yàn)楫a(chǎn)品生產(chǎn)商最會(huì)起名字。私募股權(quán)公司Riverside Co.就是這么做的。該公司為旗下所有服務(wù)都專門命名。比如,一項(xiàng)旨在改進(jìn)公司流程的服務(wù)被命名為“閃耀系統(tǒng)”(Sparkle! System)。 “閃耀”實(shí)際上是一個(gè)英文首字母縮略詞,代指這家公司大幅提升企業(yè)價(jià)值的一套多步驟流程,囊括了“擦洗清潔”、“強(qiáng)有力的管理團(tuán)隊(duì)”、“有吸引力的設(shè)施”等含義,現(xiàn)在這個(gè)名字比一長(zhǎng)串全稱簡(jiǎn)潔得多,也更容易給人留下印象。聯(lián)席CEO斯圖爾特·科爾評(píng)價(jià)說(shuō):“用這個(gè)名字可以充分體現(xiàn)出我們頂尖的業(yè)務(wù)能力?!?/p> 本文作者凡爾納·哈尼斯著有《升級(jí)》(Scaling Up)一書(shū)。(財(cái)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.” |