Brainstorming Worksheet to Help You Name Your Brand
We all know the name of a company or brand is important, but coming up with a winner is far from easy. Back in June, Nelly wrote a great post about Rules for Naming Your Startup, which outlines a checklist for validating whether you have a good name and lists possible pitfalls to avoid. So how do you come up with name candidates to run through this checklist?
Recently the group I’m in at work faced this challenge because we needed to come up with a name for a new offering. When we were asked to submit ideas, I remember looking at the blank screen wondering how best to begin my brainstorming.
Then my manager sent a link to a Naming Worksheet that guides you through the brainstorming process for naming. The worksheet, by WOW Branding, categorizes various types of brand names for you to consider. It defines each naming approach and provides examples of well-known brands who use that approach.
Here are just a few of the 9 naming approaches covered in the worksheet:
Conjoined
Names that are a combination or connection of two or more ideas
Examples: FedEx, Microsoft, Bisquick
Random Words, Appropriation
Completely random words that will be appropriate for the new concept over time.
Examples: Old Navy, Section 3
Acronym, Abbreviation
Names that stated as a group of letters that are intended to become the common name.
Examples: BMW, IBM, BBC, UPS
The Naming Worksheet also includes blank lines for you to fill in your own ideas. Send it out to your teammates. Have them fill it out. This worksheet helped my work group generate about 300 names after just two days.
After you pare down the list to the best of the best, be sure to score each name using WOW Branding’s Naming Criteria Worksheet and see which name ends up with the most points. And of course go back and brush up on the Rules for Naming Your Startup to be sure you have a winner.
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Webgrrls’ Finds: Tips, tricks to work faster, smarter & with style
Sifting through the mass amounts of articles I receive each day, I occasionally find some amazing little gems that can really help you learn new skills or improve your efficiency. Here I share 5 of my most recent finds. Enjoy them now or keep them in mind for future use.
Thank You Notes 101
Thank you notes are just as important in business as they are in your personal life. But when is it appropriate to send a thank you note? Should it be handwritten? What should you say? All these questions and more are answered in this informative post from thesimpledollar.com.
Crash Course on Photoshop
Got 5 minutes? Then you have enough time to learn 101 Photoshop tips. dekePod has produced an amazing 5 minute Photoshop tutorial video that highlights some very useful skills, from shortcuts to advice on what tools to avoid.
Firefox – Enough Said
If you haven’t downloaded Firefox 3, or heaven-forbid, never even tried Firefox, what are you waiting for? This browser is a web worker’s dream – completely customizable with tons of killer add-ons. Mashable has created a list of 30 of the best extensions that will really make your life easier. And for yet another reason to convert, check out this Small Business Trends article that lists 3 SEO tools, 2 of which are Firefox add-ons.
Who doesn’t love free software?
There are tons of programs on the market that can fulfill the same needs as their pricey counterparts. But does the old adage “you get what you pay for” hold true in this case? Not according to this USA Today article that lists 10 free alternatives to some very well known programs, including Outlook, Photoshop, Dreamweaver & Quickbooks.
Website Design Help
For those of you working with website design, you may find these 4 free tools very helpful. Each of them allows you to experiment with the blog or website’s look and feel until you find one that fits the bill.
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Webgrrls’ Finds: Tips, tricks to work faster, smarter & with style
There are so many great articles that can really teach you a thing or two - but unfortunately they seem to be lost amongst numerous other “less-meaty” ones. Here are 5 recent postings that may help you do your job or run your business more effectively.
How to Kill CSS Bugs
Have you ever been frustrated because your CSS layouts are rendering differently between browsers? Or are you still trying to figure out how to achieve a certain look with CSS? This Noupe article covers more than 20 fixes for issues relating to fixing IE bug, positioning block elements, creating columns & tables, working with floats and more.
A Free Alternative to Visio
If you’re looking for a robust flow chart and diagram tool, you’ve most likely already looked at Microsoft Visio. But if you’re not ready to shell out the bucks for the program, a great alternative is the free, open source application, Dia.
SEO: What Not to Do
Life is a never-ending joust for the folks working in Search Engine Marketing. Just when you think you’ve figured the search engines out, they change their algorithms. This article from SEOmoz shares some tips on targeting multiple terms and phrases on a single page and also highlights the “tricks” to avoid.
The Best $100 You Ever Spent
If you are running a website for a small to mid-size company you should jump on this tool (if you haven’t already). Google has re-launched its Custom Search Business Edition service as Google Site Search. Starting at $100 per year (or free if you don’t mind Google ads on your site), this site search application will index your entire website and help users to find what they are looking for. New features allow you to input synonyms, boost the page ranking of newer content and determine which search terms are not returning results.
Free Project Management Tool for Startups
Running a startup is never easy but thankfully there are companies out there that want to give you a break. Fog Creek Software is one such company. It provides its FogBugz on Demand project management tool free of charge for 2 users to students and startups. And not only is it an excellent project management application, it also has tremendous bug tracking abilities. If you don’t qualify for the free version, it can be purchased for $199 or less or as a hosted solution for $25/month.
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Webgrrls’ Finds: Tips, tricks and tools to improve your work performance
Looking for meaty, practical articles that will help to improve your work performance? These 5 links provide some amazing tips, tricks and tools.
Do Business with Style
Are you a small business owner that could use professional looking designs for your presentations, letterheads, invoices, or business cards? Microsoft has published a number of gorgeous templates for its Office 2007 package (older versions may also work for some of the designs). You can choose from 6 different designs and 9 customer colors to create a professional looking template that matches your company’s style. Best of all, they’re free! http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/office2007templates/
Get the most out of your email newsletters
Companies both large and small will benefit from these tips on how to get the most out of your email newsletters. This resource presents a list of best practices, gives some great examples and tells us what to avoid when creating your newsletter. And for tips on getting through spam filters, check out these great recommendations posted on the Webgrrls blog.
Presenting your company’s metrics
For those of you charged with presenting your company’s metrics, this is a must read. Kushik’s article recommends a better way of presenting numbers (financial, sales, web or otherwise) through the use of an “action dashboard” that provides meaning to the reader.
Free tutorials on your favorite programs
If you’ve been searching for free tutorials on your favorite programs, here is a god-send. This article points us to 4 different sites that provide amazing guides on topics ranging from Microsoft Office Programs to the Adobe CS3 Suite and even CSS:
The best RSS readers
There are a number of great RSS readers out there that can help you organize articles from your favorite sites. Here is a list of some of the best: Still in the dark about RSS, read the Webgrrls post about what is RSS.
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