Hey, what’s in a name? Well, quite a bit according to branding experts.

Naming companies have become increasingly difficult with the prerequisite of having to secure a corresponding domain name. It amazes me the words and combination of words that have been secured as domain names.

Branding experts generally advise new companies to pick a name that is easy to say and remember, but one that has no relevance to the type of business involved. Apparently, our human brains remember such unrelated names better. Examples would be Apple or Amazon.

Of course, this works for heavy consumer brands with large marketing (branding) budgets. If I were starting a software ecommerce company and could get software.com, I certainly would opt for that name. Yet, such names are obviously not available, and the current owner of that domain name had paid a very hefty fee for it many years ago.

I like fruits as a company name. Maybe it’s our primal equation of “healthy nourishment” with colorful fruits that make those so appealing. Well, good luck finding any of those names or combinations of those names available. Not going to happen.

After careful consideration, I’ve settled on Lift9 as our company name. Deciding on this name has taken longer than securing seed money or modeling the business. Well, it’s taken longer time to decide, but certainly not as much effort. Anyway, my hope is to make Lift9 a trusted and recognized brand in the area of social media research ad brand analytics. In the end, it’s the execution and success of the business enterprise that really determines the sustainability of the name.