There’s More to Naming a Company After Yourself Than Ego
- 6 years ago
There’s More to Naming a Company After Yourself Than Ego
Peter Thomas Roth, the founder and formulator of a cosmetics company
that bears his name, said he had realized when he was starting his company in the early 1990s that it could take a week to come up with a name and two to three more weeks to check with the Patent Office to see if it had already been taken.
“There are times people come up to me and say, ‘Alex, you and the band were great two weeks ago,’” Mr. Donner said.
“Today, if your name is Joe Steinway, people will think you know a lot about classical music and have this association with you that isn’t true.”
What a name can give a company is a story, which David Aaker, vice chairman of
Prophet, a branding firm, said companies needed to get their brand noticed.
“Facts don’t work,” said Mr. Aaker, who is also an emeritus professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Peter Thomas Roth, the founder and formulator of a cosmetics company
that bears his name, said he had realized when he was starting his company in the early 1990s that it could take a week to come up with a name and two to three more weeks to check with the Patent Office to see if it had already been taken.
“There are times people come up to me and say, ‘Alex, you and the band were great two weeks ago,’” Mr. Donner said.
“Today, if your name is Joe Steinway, people will think you know a lot about classical music and have this association with you that isn’t true.”
What a name can give a company is a story, which David Aaker, vice chairman of
Prophet, a branding firm, said companies needed to get their brand noticed.
“Facts don’t work,” said Mr. Aaker, who is also an emeritus professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.