The fashion industry has always been focused on developing attractive designs that set long-lasting trends that’d captivate their target customers.
And this desire to set long-lasting trends has become a guiding principle that has saturated the industry, whether it’s perfecting a design, curating the finest materials, or coming up with a business name for their fashion company.
If there’s anything we’ve understood after years of coming up with brand names for over 30,000 companies, it’s that the perfect name accounts for your business’s past and present while also preparing your brand for the future.
So, if you’ve ever wanted to find the best name for your business but didn’t know how to go about it, stick with us because that’s exactly what we’d be showing you.
But first, you need to understand…
The Trust Economics: How the Perfect Name Makes the Difference
Most economists, entrepreneurs, investors, and customers agree that trust is one of the core components that run the world’s economic engine.
Trust is the hidden currency every business needs. And just like how Adidas, ASOS, and Nike lost a lot of customer trust after facing severe criticism for their dependence on child labor, it’s pretty clear that trust heavily influences customers’ willingness to patronize a brand.
Without any doubt, low trust can lead to lower brand revenue. And the best way for fashion brands to communicate their core values and build trust is to get a solid brand name, whether by brainstorming or using a business name generator.
Research shows that it takes only 90 seconds for customers to decide if they’ll trust your brand or not. And in this short time, your brand name is the ultimate key to getting your audience to trust you.
How to Find the Perfect Name for Your Fashion Business
A quick look at Business Insider’s ‘most successful fashion companies by revenue,’ and you’ll see that these companies have great names that perfectly align with their business. And these great names played a vital role in helping them acquire 97% control of the earnings in their sector.
So how can you find the perfect name? Start by
1. Researching Your Fashion Business
The fashion industry cuts across multiple sectors and niches. Powered by creativity, the possibilities contained within fashion are truly limitless. This is why it’s imperative you pick a specific niche and holistically research it before launching your business.
Researching the industry will help you understand the nitty-gritty of what’s going on in your niche. It’d also help you know the best place to source supplies and how to manage logistics, shipping, and other factors that affect the day-to-day running of the average fashion business in your niche.
Also, as you study the intricacies of your industry, do your best to discover the challenges facing similar businesses, issues you can optimize, and locations that’d give your business an edge.
In recent years, we’ve seen the rise of socially conscious brands like Known Supply and Pondicherie. These brands are taking bold steps to fix what they feel is broken in the fashion industry, but they’d have never known how to tackle the broken parts of fashion without deep research.
2. Set Your Business’s Branding Elements
Fashion entrepreneurs who don’t fully understand the branding elements of their business will never truly be able to create a brand that lives up to its potential in the market.
Fashion businesses, more than any business in other industries, need to clearly define their business’s identity. This would help you build a solid reputation in the minds of your customers.
It’s not a secret that customers respect, adore their favorite brands, and always study them to understand the depth of their creativity. And this is why every fashion brand must clearly define their:
- Big ideas: What key concepts are driving your brand?
- Tone: How do you want to communicate with customers? Do you want your business to be seen as a classic or fun brand?
- Values: What are the key values that you or your target audience hold dear?
- Story: Is there an interesting story behind your business that customers can relate to?
- Industry specifics: What principles do you stand for in the fashion industry?
- Benefits: What unique benefits would your customers gain?
- Emotions: What feelings would you like your clients to experience?
- Value proposition: Why should people do business with your brand?
3. Brainstorm Name Ideas
After deciding on your brand elements, the next step is using that information as a background to create a perfect name. Deciding on a fashion brand name can be very tricky, but the best way to go about it is to start with an open mind and be willing to give it the time it requires.
We encourage entrepreneurs to use tools that’d ease the naming process and make their brainstorming session more fun and productive instead of challenging and exhausting.
So, go online and search for words that resonate with your business. Or, if that’s too much for you, feel free to grab a dictionary, use a thesaurus or a rhyme book and search for a fitting name.
Your goal shouldn’t be to call the process a success after getting just one ‘cool’ name. Instead, aim to get several words that match your brand elements and align with the future goals you’re trying to build for your brand.
Now, understand that a good grasp of the types of brand names in the market will give you an idea of what will suit your brand. For example, several fashion brands like Chanel, Gucci, and Adidas were named after their founders.
And just like these brands, you can take your brand on the same path, or you could follow brands that choose symbolic names like Nike, Hermes, and Victoria’s Secret.
However, if the challenge of coming up with a compelling brand name for your fashion brand is too much for you, don’t hesitate to set up a naming team to help you research and review lots of possible brand names.
You could take it a step further by getting help from naming professionals or a reliable business name generator to help you discover the perfect name that can propel your business to success.
4. Legalize With Trademark
You may have found a unique and catchy name, but until you’ve secured its trademark, the name isn’t truly yours. Any delay in trademarking your brand’s name while using it can put your business at risk of legal cases if a rival trademarks it before you.
But besides rivals trademarking a word that’s similar to your brand’s name, encountering challenges during trademarking could also result in bad news.
This was exactly what happened when Kim Kardashian tried to trademark the word ‘Kimono’ for her Kimono brand. And sure enough, social media went crazy with the #KimOhNo accused her of cultural appropriation and trademarking a word that already exists and is being used.
Besides the public scrutiny involved in trademark, the timeframe and the legal technicality for a successful trademark is also a major challenge that makes trademarking a challenging experience for fresh entrepreneurs wanting to pursue trademarking themselves. It’s always better to get the help of a trademark lawyer or adviser to help you navigate the process.
Put in the Effort: Start Branding
Building the perfect name for a fashion brand doesn’t end with researching your industry, setting your branding elements, brainstorming, or even getting a trademark. The perfect name for your fashion business doesn’t just need to be discovered; it also needs to be built.
Successful fashion brands today understand this, and so they come up with great branding strategies that allow them to communicate their brand’s personality clearly.
The goal here is to ensure that your brand is known for something because if your brand isn’t known for something, it’ll be known for nothing.
So, ensure you think outside the box and embrace innovative marketing and branding strategies like:
- In-store events
- Loyalty programs
- Personalize services
- Community programs
- Engage with customers
- Connect with influencers
- Leverage the latest technologies
- Social media and digital marketing
Do it Like Nike
Nike is a great example of what a fashion brand can become if it puts the right effort into its brand name. The company was founded in 1964 as ‘Blue Ribbon Sports,’ an average name that didn’t embody the brand’s personality.
And just five years into the business, they were back at rebranding. This time, they did the right thing by picking Nike as their new brand name. Using the Greek goddess of Victoria’s name, Nike, was a great decision because it wasn’t just a solid name that breathed life into their business, but it gave them so much to live up to.
But Phil Knight didn’t stop with a strong brand name; he also made sure that people saw his brand, which he accomplished by enlisting the help of top-tier athletes.
This helped the company establish itself as the go-to company for the most talented and skilled athletes. Nike is now one of the world’s biggest fashion corporations.
Keep in mind that the best names aren’t always hanging around the corner for you to scoop them up; instead, they must be meticulously designed to match every aspect of your fashion business.
About the Author!
Grant Polachek is the head of branding for Squadhelp.com, 3X Inc 5000 startup and disruptive naming agency. Squadhelp has reviewed more than 1 million names and curated a collection of the best available names on the web today. We are also the world’s leading Squadhelp crowdsource naming platform, supporting clients such as Nestle, Dell and AutoNation.
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