Proper naming or how to stand out among a crowd of startups

    After our first publication on the history of the startup “Throw A Hog”, we received many comments about the name of our project. As usual, the opinions of the audience were divided. Therefore, we decided out of turn to publish a separate post on naming and share our experience and observations.


    Why did we choose this name? At that moment, it seemed to us funny and attracting attention. Even the American analogue, from which we took an example, had the name “TaskRabbit” (literally “task + rabbit”, that is, “rabbits doing tasks”). In 2012, a boom in startups continued in Ukraine, which struggled to win the attention of niche media. It was necessary to stand out among all this mass of young projects and a little scandalous name should help us in this.

    But a few weeks before the launch of the project, we learned that not only did it occur to us to use the catch phrase “catch the wild boar”. The same name and a similar domain (kabanchi.com) previously used a startup to deliver food from supermarkets. But for some reason, the founders of this project decided to rebrand on Zakaz.ua.

    This fact slightly shook our confidence in the right choice of brand. But we are so accustomed to this working title that we simply could not name it in another way. And it was very difficult for us to believe that such a name would interfere with the development of our project. Therefore, in September 2012, the project was launched on the Kabanchik.com.ua domain under the brand name “Aim the Boar”.

    Evoke emotions


    The very first publication on Facebook about the launch of the project brought a lot of comments and reposts. Naturally, not everyone was enthusiastic about our name. But few refrained from commenting, and this was very encouraging. Many readers took this news as a change in the business model of kabanchi.com, i.e. we involuntarily got a share of PR and reputation, which the creators of the Zakaz.ua project refused.

    A month after the launch, we sent a request to the AIN.ua editorial office for a crash test of startups . This post has received far more views and comments than most previous crash tests. We felt the same thing in June 2015 after the publication on the podium “Zuckerberg will call . What do you think is the reason? :)

    After the crash test, requests from journalists rained down one after another. First, medium-level media became interested in us, and then the top Internet and print media. The synergy of the creative name and social significance of the startup produced the explosive effect of the PR wave.

    Sink into the mind


    After our team joined the EastLabs business incubator training program, the PR wave began to turn into a tsunami. Within a week, three film crews came to us from different TV channels. How did a small startup get so much attention from leading media outlets?

    We believe that the main key to success on the battlefield for public relations was precisely the distinguished and well-remembered name. From the point of view of physiology, the brightest, most emotional moments are best remembered. What emotions would your name have evoked, for example, “Quick Help”? That's right - no. And what will a person think when he first heard the name of the project “Throw A Hog”? - “Is that a joke like that?”, “What is the name of the project?” :) ”,“ I haven’t heard a more ridiculous name! ”,“ I wonder what they do? ” I’ll come and see ... ” That's the main secret of proper naming - a strong emotional outburst and questions that arise in the user's head.

    Many experts said that specialists would not want to work at Kabanchik, because The name of the project is offensive to them. But the number of registrations of performers doubles every quarter, and the total number of interested specialists has reached 62,000. Is this enough argument to dispel all doubt?

    We even started to conduct our own statistics on the attitude of users to our brand name. According to the data collected, 9 out of 10 people belong to the brand “positively”, 1 - “negatively”. But no one is indifferent, and this is the task of proper branding.

    Perhaps this fact, together with a quality product, influenced other statistics: according to our data, more than 40% of new customers come to the site on the recommendation of friends or acquaintances. And each new artist brings 2-3 friends to the service.

    Take into account the mentality


    Unfortunately, we were not able to use one brand in all countries. The domains Kabanchik.ru and Kabanchik.by are normally perceived in Russia and Belarus (with the same positive / negative ratio as in Ukraine). But to use the Kabanchik brand in Kazakhstan, where 70% of the population is Muslim, would be unreasonable. Therefore, after meetings with several familiar residents of Kazakhstan, we settled on the MegaMaster.kz brand .

    When launching a project in the EU or other markets, we most likely also have to use a different brand. We do not even exclude the complete rebranding of all projects. But to the question: “If you could return to the past, would you change the name of your project”, we would answer: “No. That was the right decision. At the start of the project, this is exactly the name you need. ”

    Remember tomorrow


    Finally, I offer you a small test. There are two analytics services: VisualWebsiteOptimization (literally “Visual Website Optimization”) and CrazyEgg (literally “Crazy Egg”). Which of these two names can you recall tomorrow? :)

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