Starting your own consulting firm is a smart way to leverage your professional expertise. But in order to position yourself as a valuable resource for businesses, you need more than mastery of your field — you need a brand that is unique and trustworthy. And that begins with a great name.
As you begin brainstorming consulting agency name ideas, here are a few tips to keep in mind.
1. Stay in Your Branding Lane
The five brand personalities widely recognized by marketing experts include sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. Consulting firms exist to offer specialized knowledge and help businesses and organizations make strategic decisions, which means they typically occupy the “competence” lane. Your clients want to know that their resources are being well spent; therefore, you must present yourself as trustworthy, clever, innovative, and capable.
That’s not to say you can’t be creative with your brand. However, if you stray too far into one of the other lanes, businesses may balk at the idea of partnering with a boundary-pushing consulting firm.
2. Play It Safe, but Not Too Safe
There is such a thing as playing it too safe. The danger lies in being generic. Don’t mash together basic business vocabulary terms and expect it to function as the foundation of a powerful and engaging brand (e.g., Analytic Consulting Agency, Strategic Consulting Solutions . . . are you bored yet?). Some consulting firms with names like these have achieved success, but it’s likely that they succeeded in spite of their name and not because of it.
3. Avoid Acronyms
Acronyms are big in the industry because it takes too much effort to say or type names like “Analytic Consulting Agency.” Again, you can probably think of a company with an acronym for a name that has succeeded in the business, but the name didn’t do them any favors.
Unless the acronym spells out a real word (most of which are already trademarked), there is no potential to evoke emotion. Making your target feel something is the key to being remembered. Without eliciting some kind of emotional response, you will be forgotten.
4. Focus on Your Finest Quality
Don’t try to distill everything good about your company into a single word or phrase — just one or two key qualities will suffice. Honing your focus allows you to keep the name concise and memorable while still conveying the essence of your brand.
5. Know When and When Not to Use Your Personal Name
Using your own name as a business name can add a personal touch that fosters trust. It also doesn’t require the time and effort of brainstorming name ideas. However, context is crucial, and you should only use your name if you work directly with clients and plan to be intimately involved in the company for the foreseeable future. If you plan to expand quickly or already have an exit strategy, it may be wiser to choose something adaptable.
Why Let NameStormers Develop Agency Name Ideas for You
At NameStormers, our process doesn’t start or stop at good ideas. We get to know your company and understand your goals before we start brainstorming. We screen the best name candidates for trademark issues and online availability, using tools that trademark attorneys use. After that, we pitch the viable names to you, and — this is the best part — if they don’t work for your business, we go back to the drawing board at no extra cost, as many times as it takes.
If you’re finding yourself stuck coming up with agency name ideas, we’re here to help! Contact us today to get started.