Naming your Business

[Marmalade]

You raised the question about the choice of Young Marmalade and it is pure branding.

Many years ago we were supplying companies with motoring related benefits and we had 'car' in the title of the company. Every time we phoned companies to promote the services, we were wrongly assumed to be trying to flog company cars and often could not get past the switchboard.

Marmalade was chosen at random and the response was often "Marmalade, what do you do?" That gave us the opportunity to explain without preconceived ideas but, more importantly, people listened to what was being said.

We carried on with the name when we developed Young Marmalade in 2006 and the curiosity factor stuck. The name is so bizarre that people remember it and you only have to type "Marmalade" into Google and the site comes either top or close to the top. 60% of our visits come direct from non paid search engine activity, where people type Marmalade or something similar - we would have had to have paid a huge sum to attract these people through advertising. Now we see close to 40,000 visitors per month - all looking for a solution to the problem of insuring young drivers.

It is a talking point as well, with many journalists focussing on the name - such as Richard Hammond in his Mirror column - "Funny name, clever idea". Comments like that are priceless from a PR point of view.

On the back of the brand, Provisional Marmalade has been created as a stand alone insurance for learners to practise in family cars, without affecting the insurance status or no claims bonus of the car owner, even in the event of a crash caused by the learner. Other Marmalade products linked to cars, young drivers and insurance are also being developed.

There are no marketing gurus in the background, we just fell over the name by accident and developed it into a brand, but that was 6 years ago.

Good luck with the venture.

[lordlancaster]

Hey Marmalade,

Welcome to the Shell LiveWIRE Discussion Forum thanks for coming on here and giving a bit of background to choosing your name and how a quirky / unusual one can be useful in grabbing attention/opening some doors.

[Richard.curran]

Having spoken directly to the friendly chaps who run Marmalade I can say that their advice is sound and they are the type of internet savvy and consumer focused company that has been able to do the right thing for quite a while..

I suppose you could look at their name and Low Price Lessons to an extent at being on the opposite side of the spectrum in terms of you can decide to name your business. Its always your choice in the end and a name more often than not is just what you make of it, through marketing and branding, building a reputation and communicating with your customers.

Originally Posted by Marmalade

You raised the question about the choice of Young Marmalade and it is pure branding.

Many years ago we were supplying companies with motoring related benefits and we had 'car' in the title of the company. Every time we phoned companies to promote the services, we were wrongly assumed to be trying to flog company cars and often could not get past the switchboard.

Marmalade was chosen at random and the response was often "Marmalade, what do you do?" That gave us the opportunity to explain without preconceived ideas but, more importantly, people listened to what was being said.

We carried on with the name when we developed Young Marmalade in 2006 and the curiosity factor stuck. The name is so bizarre that people remember it and you only have to type "Marmalade" into Google and the site comes either top or close to the top. 60% of our visits come direct from non paid search engine activity, where people type Marmalade or something similar - we would have had to have paid a huge sum to attract these people through advertising. Now we see close to 40,000 visitors per month - all looking for a solution to the problem of insuring young drivers.

It is a talking point as well, with many journalists focussing on the name - such as Richard Hammond in his Mirror column - "Funny name, clever idea". Comments like that are priceless from a PR point of view.

On the back of the brand, Provisional Marmalade has been created as a stand alone insurance for learners to practise in family cars, without affecting the insurance status or no claims bonus of the car owner, even in the event of a crash caused by the learner. Other Marmalade products linked to cars, young drivers and insurance are also being developed.

There are no marketing gurus in the background, we just fell over the name by accident and developed it into a brand, but that was 6 years ago.

Good luck with the venture.

[tristanwatson82]

Hi Marmalade,

That's really interesting to get some background on your name and the process behind it. As you say it's obviously been very useful from a PR and branding point of view - I'd definitely agree that it's a name I won't forget! Thank you for taking the time to comment on this thread.

There seems to be a lot of support for foodelicious - am looking into contacting the domain owner now, you might be onto something here Paul!

[moot2008]

Hi all,

a question to add to this thread: I have an idea for a name for my brand and I am pretty happy with it. However, there does exist an american company with the same name. They are not a big company and they are not in any way in the same industry...do you reckon its a big problem?

[TurboLemonMedia]

Originally Posted by Marmalade

Marmalade was chosen at random and the response was often "Marmalade, what do you do?"

An business support agency often refers work to us. When I called to thank a man there recently, he told me it was in part because he knew we'd do a good job, but also largely because of our name. "I just remember Turbo Lemon everytime someone asks me if I know any good developers."

I keep thinking I should create a ridiculous back-story to it - a facinating tale of how Turbo Lemon came to be, but like Young Marmalade, it was a random creation. In fact, I didn't like it at all first. Now, Turbo Lemon helps - people remember it (even if it's because I have to tell them 3 times on the phone that it's Tom from Turbo Lemon who's calling).

Moral of the story? Arbitrary sometimes triumphs the conventional, I think.

[Richard.curran]

Re: What makes a name good..

A girl on Twitter, Response to announcement of the iPad

"Does it have wings?"

iPad, time will tell if it is the best name for the product. It got a slating in here but I think its quite good and I like the name despite what that girl said tweeted.

[Marmalade]

Hi

Thanks for the comments they are much appreciated.

Just a quick update - Marmalade has just launched "Halfords Learners", a joint venture with Halfords, promoting the insurance for learners to practise in a family car. Leaflets pointing customers to www.halfordslearners.co.uk are appearing in sets of 'L' plates sold in 469 Halfords stores.

Possibly one of the most obvious sales channels to get a simple and appropriate marketing message across to the right audience.

[Armada115]

I went with ArmadaMedia for a few reasons.

Armada is a name i've used for years in the Online gaming world(been doing it for almost 12yrs) and Media covers pretty much every aspect i want to move into from photography to web streaming and filming.
Anything to do with Media i can move into without having rebrand anything or change the name because it doesn't suit.

Only problem i have at this point is the name Armadamedia is in America as a radio station but the name isn't reged in the UK.


hope that helps

[bill mccallum]

try starting with the dictionary and looking for words that speak to you....

a few years ago I helped a new start-up, a furniture manufacturer, the dictionary found me Xylograph, which means carved in wood, turned out to be a great business name, Xylograph Furniture Design.

We added an extra touch of brass engraved plaques on each hand made piece.

not that this helps, but its worth taking a couple of hours to research....

[NosWalker]

Good , on the other hand you'll probably learn from this .