What’s In a Business Name?

Naming your business

It is not uncommon for people (consultants, advisors, investors...friends) to suggest a newly formed business change its name. At Pennock, we’d been confronted with the idea more times than we can count. 

Typically, we are in the camp that a business name ought to be:

  1. Easy to say

  2. Easy to pronounce

  3. Easy to remember

  4. Easy to spell

And with Pennock we break most of those rules.

Last Fall, I joined a female entrepreneur mastermind group where my business name came up as a hot topic...because “Pennock” was not good. Everyone had their reasons why and their recommended new brand name. These ranged from downright awful (aka. “Triple Click Agency”) to somewhat acceptable.

Regardless, I was convinced everyone was right, Pennock needed a new name. During a 2 month period I amassed a list of over 150 business name ideas, had held 4 focus groups, and narrowed the list down to the top 3 contenders. 

As a marketer this process was really painful to go through. I AM a marketing expert, I SHOULD be able to rename the business with no problem. I started generating a lot of self doubts about my work and my value. 

Then, I brought my top 3 names to my business advisor and dear friend. She felt I was trying too hard to make a new name fit but it wasn’t authentic and it definitely didn’t solve my problem. She’d ask what does brand name “X” actually mean to you? Why is it important? While some names had a cool factor or some other arbitrary click in my mind, they hadn’t landed.

On month 3, we closed this rebrand chapter and decided to hang everything on Pennock. 

So why not re-name? 

I stepped back, listened to my inner-marketing prowess and identified the real problem with our business, Pennock. 

Our problem was that we hadn’t created a brand container for Pennock to fit into. What do I mean? Our brand had no story, no message, no social presence - or had nothing more than a basic website. A new business name wasn’t going to suddenly provide this brand container - because that isn’t the purpose of the business name.

Now, this problem wasn't super surprising, we were a referral based business and got by just fine without this brand container. But in order to scale, we identified we needed to develop the container. 

And so, now, we’re primed and ready to go. Over the next few quarters we’ll work to build our lead pipeline and nurture new leads to conversion, just like we have done for 40+ brands over the years. 

Let’s get to it! Subscribe to follow along on our journey.