A newspaper in South Santa Clara, California has created a web design company called ISOARS. Ouch. What’s really a shame is they actually have some nice looking web design and a playful personality. But their name is an eye sore and no one wants to have a site that makes their eyes hurt. I mean really, who wants to say their website was designed by what sounds exactly like “Eye Sores”?
It gets worse.
ISOARS created a digital coupon service with an even more cringe-worthy name:
I don’t know where to begin with Mo-Quepons. It violates the most important rules of naming. It’s hard to spell, pronounce, and downright annoying. And what’s with the hyphen? You mean to tell me that www.moquepons.com was taken?!
Please guys, you need to spend mo’ time evaluating names and less time thinking you hit the naming jackpot because the domain was available on GoDaddy for $9.95. That is not a good reason to choose a name. We suggest using the Eat My Words SMILE & SCRATCH Test (as seen in The Wall Street Journal), which is based on our philosophy that a name should make you smile, instead of scratch your head.
SMILE – the qualities of a powerful name:
Simple – one easy-to-understand concept
Meaningful – your customers instantly “get it”
Imagery – visually evocative – creates a mental picture
Legs – carries the brand, lends itself to wordplay
Emotional – e.g. empowers, entertains, engages, enlightens
SCRATCH it off the list if it has any of these deal-breakers:
Spelling-challenged – you have to tell people how to spell it
Copycat – similar to competitor’s names
Random – disconnected from the brand
Annoying – hidden meaning, forced
Tame – flat, uninspired, boring, non-emotional
Curse of Knowledge – only insiders get it
Hard-to-pronounce – not obvious, relies on punctuation
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If you’d like to see some great names that past the test, check out the names created by Eat My Words – now these are a site for sore eyes!
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Thanks to my NSA ProTrack buddy Jim Carrillo for tipping me off to theses two doozies…
