do you think it is important to for the name of your business to describe or at least hint at what you do??
First example: ‘Pro Design’. Most people would have a good inclination of what this company might do just from seeing the name.
Second example: ‘Dark Roses’. This could obviously be anything, but for our purposes it could be a really good design firm.
However, would someone skip over ‘Dark Roses’ in a google search result because it’s not obvious from the name what they might do?
For me businesses change, they always diverse. The most important factor for me is to be easy on the tongue, and also not restrict it’s self in the name. So Web Solutions would be a bad name since all people would think you do is websites. Were are Icelandic Media would be a general name which could be used for anything.
The name is important, but I hate confinements, and naming it “The Pen Company”, really limits your scope to just dealing with pens. Most people just stick something generic on the end which allows for change. Having said this as @linearcubeinc suggested, it might not do you justice in the organic search results department.
Hi Dude
The best word to describe your business and Logo or Icon of your business organization should be selected and designed carefully so that it would be easy for people to recognize the business organization and the service you offer. It also helps the business to grow globally without much cost for promotion of your company.
I agree that a business name doesn’t have to reflect the products it’s selling. To be fair, it’s probably better that way as you have no idea as to what the future may hold for your business (including the products you may launch or discontinue) and re-branding when you’re well known will do more damage (in respect to lost brand association) and have a bigger impact (in marketing from the old brand) than picking something non-descriptive at the start and having it act as a benchmark for your services. Pick something short, snappy and that makes sense for the industry you’re in (nothing too obscure) and you should be fine. 
Just make it unique and memorable. That’s what I did with mine. Nobody knows what what we do from the name, but the name is catchy. Maybe you should try personification, like Shellfish Solutions, or Starfish Services.
Play around with words and see what you come up with. Even though the name is important, what you do and how you present yourselves is even more important.
I think it’s possible to have a company do badly because of it’s name, but it might be quite hard choosing that kind of a name. It would have to sound like something rood, sick or just wrong.
Right now a buddy and I are teaming up to offer full fledge web services (designing –> advanced coding) and we’ve got some work through people we know, and now we think we can get some stable work and we want to put up our own website with a portfolio to direct people to.
So as of now marketing is all word of mouth, and the business will operate purely on the internet. But we have some great contacts who know a lot of people in need.
So, I really wanted to get some business cards made and our own site up, but I wanted to settle on a name first…
Services are different then products. You need to consider your marketing approach beyond the name of the company. Are you trying to build a brand, or do you want instant recognition of your services based on the name? Will you advertise? What message are you trying to send?
My consulting company name gives no mention of what we do. It’s been around for 11 years now and most of the players in the small niche in which we work have heard of us. The reputation has built nicely, so that’s just fine.
My partner’s company does frequent business with people found him online that day, and the fact the company name describes their services helps him a lot.
What kind of business are you building?
Short and memorable is the way to go - describing the business is a great idea, but you run the danger of ending up with a long ugly name like ultraluckygoldenwebsonicvirtualsolutions in your quest for a unique name. Yech. My latest two businesses have used common sayings from a different language - nice and catchy, they tell a story, they’re short, and most importantly, the .com was available.
Think “akamai” - it means cool in Hawaiian, IIRC.
I suppose your business name should be memorable whatever length it has.
Hard to say if a bad name can directly hurt your chances of getting more business, but like attorney jaffe mentioned, I think a descriptive name can be helpful in many cases.
With the examples you mentioned though - I’d put them both in the same category. While most users on this forum might take “pro design” to mean “pro WEB design”, it doesn’t tell the general public anything really useful as it could be used by anyone offering landscape design or jewelery design etc… 
Reminds me of a company I’ve seen using the slogan “Your total solutions provider!” where they don’t tell you but assume you know just what “solutions” they’re talking about! 
Cheers,
Steve
correct … there are diff things for diff marketing strategies … for example if you promoting via Web SEO or telemarketing the domain name must be catchy and shows relevance to the business … in offline marketing the name doesn’t effect much!
That’s exactly what I want to say. To be unique and memorable is the basic requirement.
I did lots for my company, it’s unbelievable if you think about it. and I am still not finished. Don’t dwell on the name, just go for something like “Starfish Media”, something which will help you incorporate good graphics too. Honestly, the name is important, but it’s not that important.
Look in other areas like:
The list goes on, it all depends how big you want people to think you are.
JUST GO FOR IT!!!
I am sure you will be a success.
It is only depends on your marketing plan… but this is important for communicating what your business does along with achieving organic search results.
i’m not saying it’s necessarily right, but entirely counter to the descriptive-is-good argument here’s seth godin’s naming advice: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2003/06/naming_a_busine.html dark roses is exactly the kind of thing you could come up with using that.
However, would someone skip over ‘Dark Roses’ in a google search result because it’s not obvious from the name what they might do?
dark roses isn’t the only text they’d see in the search results.
there is something to be said for having a descriptive word in the domain name though for when anyone is linking to you and they just use your domain name as the anchor text – for human purposes (often addresses can be pretty much on their own, out of context) and for seo purposes. so your domain name could be darkrosesdesign.com for example, but leaving the actual company name just dark roses. doing that is what godin suggests in the above link, but the reason he’s suggesting that is for when darkroses.com is taken. i’m thinking it might be a good idea regardless whether the shorter version is available or not. you could take the shorter one as well and redirect from it to the longer maybe.
I spent a considerable amount of my career in marketing. Early in my career I was a new hire at a Biotec company that had a great product whose sales were languishing.
I convinced upper management to rename the product with a name that was more descriptive of its use. Within 3 months we had the top selling product in that catagory.
I tell this story to suggest you use a descriptive company name.
It depends on your marketing platform. If you rely on the web and SEO then a descriptive (or catchy) business name will be more successful. Take a look at the competition as well and try to be distinctive.
That’s exactly what I want to say. To be unique and memorable is the basic requirement.
Yeah something catchy works too, but it has to describe your site/product at the same time.
If your “marketing plan” name are depends any communicating plan, scope etc. are some contribute to your company visibility. I suggest for “AlexDawson” (It said for agree that a business name doesn’t have to reflect the products it’s selling.)