Give me your opinion on a new business name for a marketing consultancy

In My Humble Opinion
1

Underwriters all smoke, doctors never take medicine, and marketers can name anything except their own business. :slight_smile:

A couple of ex-colleagues and I are exploring setting up a marketing consultancy offering our 15 odd years client/agency experience each to small/medium businesses and NFP who need occasional strategic marketing advice or support, but don’t have the need or capacity to hire someone in full time. We’ll be offering support with developing and implementing marketing plans, running on and offline campaigns, advertising, PR and social media, and working with freelance designers, SEO and market research where the project requires. This would be the people you talk to before you brief in an agency, to help you work out what you really need, rather than what you think you need to avoid wasting time and money.

So we have a few names in our first round of brainstorming, and I just want to see what you like and what you think each reveal about our values and overall vision for the company (without any input from me on these).

2

Wheelhouse I like, it brings to mind people who are prepared to do the hard work to turn the wheat of ideas into process-able actions.

Pollen, not sure what this brings to mind except allergies!

Texas etc is pretty awesome, but hey I am a bit out there and NFPs etc are pretty conservative.

Hive IMO sucks, that doesn’t show breakthrough or new ideas.

What are you going to be doing that all the other boutique consultancies don’t do today?

Oh I have been in and out of consulting in the customer reach and technology area for 25 years.

3

HRC Inc. - Hook or Crook

JSF - Just Short of Fraud

4

I like The Wheelhouse. It sounds like a place where good ideas get churned out.

Pollen makes me think of hayfever, Hive makes me think of bees/borg, and TCM is probably a bit cutting edge (heh) and might turn off prospective clients.

Good luck with your venture!

5

You are an old hand at this!

So, the points of difference are going to be more in the detail rather than us offering anything revolutionary at this point, but I have a really good understanding of at least one of our key competitors having recently turned down a job there based on some aspects of how they were run.

We are service marketing specialists - which is important, as the marketing of an intangible product often doesn’t have retail, packaging etc to fall back on to create brand appeal and interest. About 85% of Australian small business income comes from the service sector, so this is definitely not a niche play.

We are the directors, and the feet on the ground. Unlike similar businesses which often pitch with the senior staff then send in a junior to service, the people who own the business will be the people who you deal with.

We’re (well, 2 of us are) working mothers starting our own business, as are well over half the small business startups in Australia who choose this as the corporate world just isn’t offering the flexibility and career progression we need at a time when our experience has matured and we’re ready to give back. This points towards finding common ground on working style and goals, but a lot of this business is going to be relationship driven, and it’s worth considering.

We offer a huge amount of segment marketing experience - able to interpret research, find relevant insights etc into how different customers will think and feel about the product, and where to approach them about it. This is money in the bank, providing for a less scattergun approach, and much more targeted creative.

The marketing will be specific to that business - many of the other agencies have a library of marketing plans for different industries and simple pull one off the shelf and update the details - it’s our aim not to do that.

Finally, creative - we understand how critical creative strategy is (surprisingly few marketers do!), and know how to work with creative agencies etc to achieve this, plus we have built up a great network of freelancers and agencies who we can refer the job to.

But we’re end to end marketers as well, and know how to stuff envelopes, man a stand and answer the phone as well as the person running the business. We want to work with people who love their brands almost as much as we will (ah, the long term vision where we are successful enough to choose who we work with!)

6

A vote for Wheelhouse here, without the The. The name has impact.

I imagine someone answering the phone with, “Wheelhouse, may I help you?”, or "Wheelhouse, this is Girl From Mars."

Impact.

7

You may want to google any possible names to see what comes up. I did just that and…
–Pollen Marketing exists in Melbourne
–HiveMind Marketing exists in San Jose
–Wheelhouse Marketing exists multiple places
–Anything with Texas Chainsaw will return hundreds of links to the movies way before any marketing firm would come up

I bring this up because people may want to google your business to find a website and other info about it. If it will not come up quickly in a google search, it cannot help business. I have gotten frustrated trying to find a business with some name like “Resistor Electric” that was fairly useless.

8

That’s not what a wheelhouse does. But of those names I think Wheelhouse is the best. Except then everything about you is a nautical theme with standard corporate branding like compass roses and ship parts.

Pollen I associate with itchiness and alergies.
Hive Mind I think of a swarm of bees (what’s with all the bee references?)
Texas Chainsaw Marketers sounds like a couple of working moms starting their own business trying to be clever and not.
How about:
Mind Hive
BrainChurn
IdeaSwarm
Brainsaw
BOOM! Your welcome.

9

Eh, I don’t think any of them evoke what you want. Even Wheelhouse is sort of inward looking, thinking of the word it naturally leads to the phrase, “in our wheelhouse”. Well, that’s fine for you, but what about me, the client?

Think about what your trying to sell - you are selling marketing - OK, marketing to do what? One answer could be - to open doors! What opens doors? Knobs open doors.

Call yourself “Knob”. As in Knob - we open doors!

(OK, don’t call yourself Knob, it’s a stupid name - but you get the idea…:smiley: )

10

Pro Motion-Suggests professionalism and moving forward.
edited to add: And whenever somebody needs to promote their product, your name will automatically come to mind.

11

Okay, this: The Most Successful Companies in America--and What They Reveal About the Future
links to a list of the top 5,000 marketing firms as of 2012. It may give you some more ideas, and it’s sortable.

IMHO, I’d suggest you go with Wheelhouse Marketing, just for the sake of clarity.

12

Of the names you’ve provided I like Wheelhouse best. I guess I must be slow, but what’s the stuff in parentheses about? Is it what you might add? If so, I concur with the post upthread to name it Wheelhouse Marketing.

13

I’m sorry, but The Wheelhouse sounds like a bar or restaurant.

14

Any updates/thoughts/comments from your co-workers about this?

15

While “Wheelhouse” does have a bit of a pubby vibe to it, I think it’s perfectly acceptable as a marketing company name when followed by “Communications” or “Marketing/Marketers.” The others, not so much. Texas Chainsaw Marketers might work if you are specifically targeting non-mainstream businesses. I also think “Wheelhouse” works well as a brand-building concept.

16

The others are still brainstorming, but I’ve passed on your comments. I think I could be very happy with Wheelhouse - it’s an evocative name which I know we can do a lot with, but perhaps you could also feedback on the following:

Marketing Collective
Plume
Switch
Acorn
Pique
Big Red Pen

17

Assuming you mean the general “you” :

Marketing Collective: Boring. Difficult to brand.

Plume: Doesn’t resonate with me.

Switch: Same as above.

Acorn: I like this one. Might be a little bit generic (there must be a zillion other companies with that name), but if there aren’t a lot in your area, this is an easy one to work with.

Pique: No. It’s primary meaning is to wound or irritate.

Big Red Pen: I like the sound and rhythm of this; it’s kind of breezy and casual, but I don’t like the negative meaning of “red pen.” “Red pen” to me indicates something to tell you everything you’re doing wrong, and sounds more suitable to a copyediting outfit.

18

None of the suggestions so far give any indication of creativity whatsoever. I particularly dislike ‘Acorn’ and it surprises me that as a marketing company, you’d want anything with ‘corn’ in it. (And it’s not even native to Australia.)

Without using too much brainpower because then you’d have to pay me, from what you have here I’d go with something like 15 Odd Years of Grunt.

There’s nothing in the approach so far that doesn’t give me the impression of two working mums with a folder and pen; certainly nothing that gives me any inkling of what your point of difference is.

Sorry, Girl From Mars, I’m not gonna pull any punches. Without question you can talk the talk, but can you walk it?

19

I’m not a fan either, but a couple of the others quite like it, and asked me to throw it out there. Thanks for your comments though, tough criticism is often more useful than agreement.

20

I know. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it…!

I’d honestly rethink Wheelhouse too. How are you going to brand that? If you’re someone who doesn’t actually know what the word means it brings to mind a mouse running around in a wheel and not getting anywhere at all.

When you say it, it can sound like “We’ll house” or “Will house” so I think you’d have to be spelling it out to people a lot.