In the physical society a generic logo is not a quality name brand. Even if you are able to register them (which we may be able to help you with if a logo is included), names such as these do not have much potential as trademarks. Anyway, people pick generic names since this name instantly displays the kind of product or services the company offers.
Is it the same way online? Would the following be good brands: Books.com, Books4Less.com, Business.com Pets.com, and PersonalInjuryLawyer.com?
Prior to answering this question, allow us to make it clear what ‘generic’ means from the point of view of a branding and a trademark. A name that describes what products or services that the business provides is known as a generic name. Having a generic name depends on several things. Wines.com and Mortgage.com are two examples of generic domain names that have been reported to have been resold for a great deal of money. This type of name would be a generic example for a wine vendor or a mortgage provider, respectively. To provide a nonsensical example, if the wine merchant utilized the brand name Mortgage.com, or the mortgage provider utilized the brand name Wines.com, for trademark purposes those names would be considered distinctive, not descriptive (although it still would not be a good proper name – this is an issue that we will not touch on in this article).
Therefore, as long as a name does not “consist exclusively of signs or indications which may serve to designate the kind, value, quantity or purpose of goods or services”, it is possible to trademark it. Utilizing a name that is distinctive, unique and non-descriptive lets your name stand out and possibly become a memorable brand name that can be trademarked.
In terms of trademarks, the best names are those that suggest a certain product or service, but that do not describe them. If a business can create a memorable name, hopefully a proper name such as Coca Cola, Exxon, Ford, Mercedes Benz, etc., the name will be fit perfectly for creating a brand identity with it.
Why shouldn’t you use a descriptive name?
Descriptive names might seem like a good idea, but they are easily confused with competitors’ sites. Descriptive words are ones which the competition might want to use to promote their products or services. For instance, a wine merchant will have to be able to utilize the term ‘wine merchant’, or he will be unable to carry out his business activity. If the first person who utilized the term ‘wine merchant’ were able to prevent others from utilizing the terms, he would enjoy such a monopoly that all other competition would be stifled. This is not what trademarks are intended to bring about.
Therefore, since you cannot prevent competitors from utilizing the same descriptive words in their names, selecting a descriptive brand name inevitably means that you will lose some potential customers because they may end up finding your competitor rather than you. So utilizing a descriptive name is not a good way to capture goodwill or brand value. Looking at the big picture, you will be much better off with a unique brand name than with a descriptive one. Once you have name recognition, trademark law will stop competitors from using a name that is similar to yours and cashing in on your success. This is the purpose of trademarks — to make it less likely that consumers will confuse your business with others.
Brand Names – on the Internet
What way does this show on the web where there is a custom of picking generic name brands. Is using a generic name for an online start up a good idea? No, it is not.
The things that make a brand name good are the same whether it’s on the Internet or not. Even though many people think it is wise to choose generic names — perhaps because they confuse the benefits conferred by search engines of having such a brand name — generic names are actually a poor choice for online and offline brands alike. They will help you short term by offering a description of the business. For instance, people would know something right away about what you are doing if you call your brand Books4Less.com. They may not realize right away that your prices will be low, on the other hand, if your store is named ‘Amazon’. But, as soon as Amazon has proven itself to you, that simple one word name will be far more memorable to you than a vague name like Books4Less.
Why do so many businesses on the Internet choose poor names then? Maybe due to the fact that when the Internet was new and there weren’t many sites established yet, a regular commonplace name was a bonus. You would enter “toys.com” if looking for a site where you could purchase toys. It was similar to an old grocery store. You looked for what you wanted by name. So, the easiest way to let customers know the purpose of a site was to give it a descriptive, common title. The advantages of a descriptive name, though, were no longer valid after the number of sites continued to grow.
Still, people new to the web keep on copying what has happened in the past. They believe that using a descriptive name is the best thing to do, and take on such names in the mistaken belief that it is the proper way to approach the matter. Even though a number of sites utilize common names does not indicate that using a common name is the right thing for you. It merely suggests that a lot of internet operators are being pressured to conform.
Guidelines for Selecting Online Brand Names
So when you are trying to come up with online trading names, try to imitate the successful Internet businesses by selecting a unique name like Amazon, Yahoo, Dell, Bebo, Facebook and eBay. These are the businesses that have done well and whose names everyone knows, while the plethora of businesses with generic names came and went, even those that had lots of financial backing. All that remains of them is their highly coveted domain names, many of which have had many owners by now, that come up high in search rankings. Books.com, for instance, is a redirect to the main Barnes & Noble site, which boosts their traffic.
Something else to keep in mind when selecting names is that on the Internet, there aren’t any storefront signs or geographic regions to draw in nearby traffic. Someone passing by an actual store might notice a book store for reasons other than what it is called, even if it is called ‘Books.’ For instance, the store might be noticed because of a creative window display, or because of where it is located, or maybe just due to the fact that it is there now, when something else used to be there. Your brand name is the only way people are able to locate you on the Internet. So you definitely do not want to lost in a throng of similar sounding names.
Stephen Grisham, Sr. is a Staff Writer for InfoServe Media, a small business web designer company that provides custom web design. Visit today, or call 1 (800) 838-2203 for a free quote.
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