It was William Shakespeare in the play Romeo and Juliet who wrote the words, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” meaning that it does not matter what one is called, if you look like a rose or smell like a rose, you are a rose. That may be true when you are in love (as Juliet was when she uttered these words to Romeo), but does Shakespeare’s words ring true for your business name and your logo? Perhaps not.

We help companies brand themselves. A good part of that is coming up with a business name and a logo that will help their target market identify them. The first thing you need to consider when you are starting a new business, launching a new division or creating a new product brand is that your name has to be memorable. If someone hears your name one minute and forgets you the next, what good is it? This has caused a lot of creativity to be spent in developing business names – and subsequently, logos – that are quite unique. Of course when you get too avant-garde with the creative, people may not get it, which is the other side of the being-memorable coin. You can be unique, but the customer may have no idea what you are selling.

Here is a short list of national and international business brands. See if you know what each of them do.

Fandango

Boll and Branch

Green BEAN Delivery

Uber

Which of these names are memorable, meaning you would recall them if you heard of them again a week from now? Now which of them tells you what the company is selling? What did you think of when you read their brand names?

You may know that Fandango is an online movie ticket purchasing and consumer rating company. The word has two definitions: a lively Spanish dance or a foolish act. In this case, the business has nothing to do with its definition, but engaging with customers who are fans of movies. In branding, old words can take on a new meaning if you market them effectively. It also helps when the definitions have become archaic and fallen out of the language.

Boll and Branch is an online bedding retailer. Specifically, they use organic cotton to make sheets, pillow cases and throws. The Boll and Branch name suggests that cotton is part of the business. The company has built a reputation for eco-friendly farming, safe production that does not use child labor, and shipping directly to the consumer.

Green BEAN Delivery is an online grocery store that delivers locally-grown food directly to your home. They focus on a target market that is looking to purchase eco-friendly farmed and organic foods. BEAN is an acronym for the four characteristics of their products: Biodynamic foods, Education of farmers and artisans who produce their foods to do so in the most natural way possible, Agriculture that emphasizes organic systems, and maximizing Nutrition in their foods.You might not have understood all that the company brand means at first, but they have the word "Green" leading the name, which would indicate that there is some level of eco-friendliness and the food is fresh. They also have included "Delivery" as part of the brand. This helps the consumer know that this is a skip-the-grocery-store-direct-to-consumer food company.

Uber is a personal transportation company that uses a phone app to connect freelance drivers with people who need a ride. The word, Uber, is German and can be defined as something that is outstanding or supreme, or as we might say in English, "super.” It has nothing to do with transportation or taxi services, but the brand has grown internationally.

Can a creative name become a marketing success without defining what it does? Yes, but it takes more marketing to make your potential customers aware of your brand when it does not define what you do. An example of this would be Google. The name is based on the word googol, which is a mathematical number – 1 followed by one hundred zeros. Most people would not understand that Google is a reconfiguration of the name of the very large number and, even if they did, would not associate the number with a search engine. However, one big reason you want to associate your name closely with what you do has everything to do with Google. Search engines are going to try to categorize what you do with an industry. Having a connection with the name and what you produce helps this cause. In other words, if you smell like a rose, a search engine bot taking a look at your web site does not have any olfactory senses.