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Fork In The Road: What's in CHANGING a name?
Thursday, June 01, 2000 By Bob Starzynski, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
When US Airways changed its name subtly from USAir three years ago, it shelled out millions of dollars to change letterhead, business cards, advertisements, computer and telephone systems and everything else with the company name and logo, including a 390-plane fleet.
Steven Chang had it a bit easier when he renamed his small, Wexford-based technology company just over a year ago. On a shoestring budget, Chang and his fellow techies tossed out the name Webnology, which had been in place since the company's inception in late 1997, and picked up the name Futuristics. The total cost: less than $4,000.
"As a start-up, money was always an issue for us," Chang, the 31-year-old chief executive officer, says.
When many technology companies think about changing their name, they hire a naming agency to come up with suggestions and a logo design agency to create a new logo. They throw out old letterhead, business cards and marketing materials, then hire another agency to design new materials.
Chang, who has raised more than $10 million from Silicon Valley venture capitalists for his company, didn't want to spend that money on outside agency work when the capital could be better deployed growing his young business.. So he fiddled for three months, along with his fellow employees, with a number of names and issues to arrive at Futuristics.
Still, the naming process for Futuristics was similar to the process followed by professional agencies. According to Mike O'Donnell, a branding specialist who runs a company called StartUpBiz.com, there are several things to think about when naming a company: being distinctive, descriptive, unique and creative, memorable and easy to say and spell.
A few types of naming strategies are used most often with companies. Arbitrary names, such as Apple, are real words that evoke good thoughts but do not relate directly to a product. Descriptive names, such as International Business Machines, explain in general terms a company's business. Suggestive names, such as Gateway, are real words and have an indirect relevance to the company. In the case of Gateway, its computers are supposed to be a gateway to the digital world.
Coined company names today, such as Motorola and Intel, are made up and most often derived from words that describe its business or values. With Motorola, which originally produced radios for automobiles, the name brought together the ideas of motion and radio. With Intel, the word "intelligent" obviously is the foundation.
Coined names are more popular today with technology companies because arbitrary names don't explain enough and descriptive names explain too much (and can get boring).
Webnology was a coined name, a combination of "Web," "knowledge" and "technology." But Chang felt it was too generic and bland and suggested the company only worked with Web businesses. He wanted to change it before launching a product and beginning the marketing and branding. Otherwise, the exercise would have been much more expensive.
He estimates that he and his employees pondered and picked through several hundred names before settling in on either Futuristics or Futuristix, both a blend of the words "future" and "statistics."
"Futuristix ... reminded me too much of Pretzel Stix or the band Styx," Chang laughs. So they went with Futuristics, which Chang sees as a better explanation of the company's business than Webnology.
The company -- which currently employs 12 and expects 70 by year's end -- creates products that help companies make sense of statistical information about customers (most often collected over the Internet). For instance, if a baby food company that keeps tabs on its Web site wants to know what percentage of women, ages 25 to 30, who have two children, buy baby food with carrots and peas as ingredients, it can use Futuristics' software to find the answer quickly.
Although Chang scrimped on spending to rename his company, he is careful to not understate the importance of a good company name and brand name. "Naming is one of the toughest things to do, short of growing the business," he says. "But your name is the first impression. It better be a good one."
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