How Google Got A Cool Name And You Can Too
You have to give it to the Google billionaires. Everything they touch turns to gold. Just look at the breakneck value of the company. $ 160 billion in three flat years.
Now company founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page can afford to buy cool cars (Tesla electric convertible), hang out with cool friends (Bono), and fly in a totally cool private jet (custom Boeing 767).
Even the company name is great. It’s so cool that it became a verb. Today, everyone is “googling” this and “googling” that. You’d think a name as cool as Google must have cost a fortune. You would be wrong.
In fact, the Google name didn’t cost Sergey and Larry a penny. That’s because, like many of the best-known brands in the world, the guys who run the company came up with the name themselves.
Funny story
The story behind the Google name is kind of funny, actually.
Like a couple of dumb mathematicians, Sergey and Larry decided to name the company after a really big number called “Googol”, which is the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. It was a clever attempt to convey the massive number of websites your fancy new search engine could search for in an instant.
With a great product and a great name in hand, they went looking for investors. One of the first investors they met loved the idea so much that he decided to write a check on the spot. But when he wrote the check, it was made out to ‘Google’.
The name stuck. And the rest, as they say, is brand history.
Google is not alone
The guys at Google aren’t the only ones coming up with their own multi-billion dollar brands.
Name a famous brand and it probably wasn’t invented by a name guru, ad agency, or brand identity firm, but by an ordinary boy or girl with a great idea. You do not believe me? Where do you think names like Kinkos, YouTube, and Crocs came from?
That’s right, they come from the copy shop guys, the internet guys and the shoe guys, ordinary people who took a great new product and gave it a big name of their own making.
You can also
Is it easy for a business owner, marketing manager, or math idiot to create a great brand? No, it’s not. Trust me, it can be difficult even for professional types of names like me. But it is worth a try.
Why? First, because history shows that most of the world’s best-known brands were created by the same people who work in the companies behind those famous names. They did it, you can too.
Second, coming up with a name yourself can save your business a ton of money. Large brand identity firms charge $ 100K or more to develop a new brand. That is a lot of cash. Even for big spenders like the guys at Google.
That is why I recommend that all companies that have a new product in search of a name try to name it themselves. You can always hand it over to the professionals if it falls short.
But the truth is, you have a good chance of coming up with that billion dollar name like them. And for much less money.
That’s how
Before you rush off to the nearest conference room to think of new names, let me offer a few suggestions to help you make your naming efforts a success:
1. Generate Many Names – Naming experts know that the secret to finding that great name is generating a lot of ideas. In my experience, one in 20 is good. So work on generating as many names as possible.
2. Make it memorable: Names like Google, Wii and Altoids have that something that makes them stick in the memory bank. To make your new name more memorable, focus on names that look and sound unique.
3. Make it meaningful: Effective brand names convey a key feature or benefit. Some hint at an interesting story, like Google, for example. Make sure your new name is more than just a pretty typeface. Choose a name that is memorable and meaningful.
4. Use a naming system: Everyone has the innate creativity to create great names on their own. What is lacking is the “know-how”. A good naming system can help. You can find one at www.brain-donor.com.
That’s great
Not all brands can be as insanely cool as Google. But every new product, service, or company can have a name that is memorable and meaningful to consumers. If you can think of a name like that, and you can do it if you try, that will be great too.