Questions to Ask Before Changing Your Brand Name

As a naming consultant, I'm often asked how much will it cost to change my business name? That's certainly a valid question. But there are usually some some qualifying questions I need to ask before I can make that assessment.

And I don't want to scare anyone away either, but the fact is the answer is sometimes, probably more than you think or want to spend.

For example, I've read that when FedEx dropped the Kinkos name to become FedEx Office they spent almost, wait for it...$900 million dollars. It's an expenditure I'm assuming they gave some thought to beforehand.

Clearly, some business name changes can be expensive and time consuming. In practice, I've found that the initial consulting stage is just the tip of the naming project iceberg. I highly recommend before you contact a consultant regarding a potential name change, you should be able to answer all the "journalistic" basics: The How, What, Why, When, and Where regarding your brand naming project.

Lets' take a look at WHY and WHERE today. WHY are you changing your name?

Perhaps most important of all be sure you know WHY exactly you want to change the name. I'm not trying to talk myself out of any business but quite honestly there may be another way you can solve that branding issue.

For example, if you have a brand name that seems cumbersome or outdated, perhaps you can give it a boost with a fresh logo, new typeface, or what I call a "name facelift" such as when Federal Express became FedEx. Yes, that's a name and logo change but it's also the path of least resistance, which may be less costly. It may be the type of change you can gradually roll out for example. In this example, we were all calling it FedEx already as the branding giants at Landor pointed out.

When you think through WHY you want to change the name be sure to through the impact your change will have on your customers and prospects--usually there are some positives and negatives. This brings me to another name change tip that I can't emphasize enough.

When you change your name you want to tell the world a positive, upbeat story about your name (not that you you were about to be sued by your cousin for trademark infringement). Be sure your communications staff, PR team, etc. is all on the same united front about the name change.

WHERE will you need to change the name?

Perhaps the largest impact on cost for a name change is WHERE. In other words, think carefully about all the places the name will need to be changed and estimate a cost for those. If you've been a good marketer, you may have hundreds if not thousands of marketing touchpoints that will need to be updated.

Invariably, when I've asked clients to make a list of this brand name inventory they are typically surprised by how many "assets" have a the brand name attached to them somehow. And the little things do add up.

I hope that helps if you are considering a name change, before I go I just have to share a name that made me smile over the weekend. One of my neighbors has remodeling dumpster in his driveway labeled in beautiful font: Garbagio. It was a good reminder that naming, while a serious business, can still be fun.