Is This a Good Name For My Construction Company?

Would Allsort construction be a good and sufficient construction name for a company?

###

Jay’s Answer: Names for businesses fall into one of two categories: abstract or concrete names.

Abstract names (such as Nike, Coke, or Apple) don’t tell prospective clients anything about what they do, and instead need to spend time (and money) educating prospects about the name’s meaning. The advantage of abstract names is flexibility (in case the business model should change) and uniqueness.

Concrete names (Joe’s Auto Repair, South China Seas Restaurant, etc.) describe what the business does. As a result, less branding is needed to tell people about the company.

But what is the right name (once you’ve decided on the category)? The answer is the one that appeals to your prospective clients.

Allsort Construction does tell me that you’re in the construction business. But it doesn’t tell me if you specialize in anything. Perhaps “Allsort” means that you’ll do all sorts of construction, and don’t really have a specialty. If so, then Allsort does say that clearly. (Aside: being able to do any sort of job means to the average person that you don’t do any one thing very well – you’re the jack-of-all-trades, but perhaps the master of none. People looking to hire someone first looks to the specialist, the person who does a specific type of work regularly, not just occasionally).

However, is Allsort is good name? I don’t believe it is, but mostly not because of the name but because of your marketing “strategy”. As I tell my clients, a name is one of the last things a business needs. What it needs first is to clearly identify who the target customer is, where they’re located, what problem of theirs do you solve, what makes your solution/offering better than your competition, and why they should trust you. Once you’ve articulated this, then you’re well on your way to creating a name that both is memorable and effective.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.