Whats a good name for my business?

Re: V8 Superclean

One of the reasons we didn't go for it: it doesn't sound environmentally friendly.  Not so sure now that I couldn't get away with it, especially as Australians are huge into sports, and the V8 cars seem to have a following among both women and men.  Appealing to women was my primary business concern, as calling a carpet cleaner is usually left to them.  I don't want to sound sexist or anything, it just seems to be the norm here.   I liked the V8 idea because you could do a great marketing program about an 8-stage cleaning process, or play with the power and speed.  Ads would be like the supercar race promotions.  Discount vouchers would be like admission tickets.  Oh, yeah, I had this baby planned out... heck, it just about plans itself! 

"Surroundings" is a bit esoteric, but I'm getting interest from it, even if it's a confused interest. It came from a late-night brainstorming session with friends... and some red wine... and a rather nice chardonay... or two. 

I think that no matter what I picked, I'd have a touch of regret, so I just focus on going through the clean image of "Surroundings... live cleaner, work cleaner, relax cleaner."   It's not a masculine, powerful name.... we might have taken a bit of a gamble here, but I don't think it'll negatively impact on our biz...

Hey...

We just started in Feb, and the name and the image we chose to project were important to us.  We chose to avoid the steriotypical "John's Carpet Cleaning" or "J&H Carpet Care" type names.  We went for "Surroundings"

Very different for conservative South Australia. I'm not sure it's the right choice yet.  I have my misgivings, but I'm getting a positive responce from the people that use us.  They usually ask about the name, which gives me the freedom to tell them more about our business.  

I had listed some 50 or 60 names.  Some of my favorate are listed below.  Feel free to use them, as I borrowed, stole, and/or bastardised most of these from the Yellow Pages Online from half a dozen different cities worldwide across four or five different fields.  Can't remember what was invented vs. what was stolen now.

I wanted a clean, fresh image that appealed to my target customers.  This means you should figure out what your target market is all about: Corporate? Industrial? Residential? Cheap & nasty? Expensive & elegent?

When you imagine your ideal customer, what type of person do you see?  Are these the people that hire carpet cleaners?  Have you done your research?  What does your target area NEED from a carpet cleaner?  Maybe every carpet cleaner currently in your area is experienced, expensive, and booked weeks in advance, and your area wants just some bloke who will quickly come & do SOMETHING.... ANYTHING to their carpet.

My target is for the people who regularly hire services of this nature, and are sick of a poor job and want more.... AND are willing to pay for it.  As most carpet cleaners 'round here are "spray and suck" operations (emphasis should be placed on the word "suck") it's not TOO difficult.  It would be harder to compete at their level anyway: too much competition.  It's a tough gig, but worthwhile.

Here's a couple of names for ya:

Simply Floored / Absolutely Floored / Ever Friendly Cleaner Floor Company / All Floors Cleaning / Dirt Searchers / Dirt Finders / Dirt Busters /  8-Stage Carpet Clean / V8 Superclean/ Leauge of Distinguished Carpet Cleaners / DirtSuckers ..... ok... it's starting to get silly now....

Each type of name had it's own 'look' to it: for something like "Ever Friendly Cleaner Floor Company" you might go with a 1950's look with the font and colours and logo, with a uniform reminicint of a old time gas staton attendant, even down to a bowtie!  "V8 Superclean" would insist on a look that mirrored the V8 racing cars.  Corporate colours might be red and black, with checkered flags as a logo, and a uniform like pit crew....  figure out the look you want, figure out who your customers will be... make sure that one fits with the other.... you can have endless fun with this!

Good Luck!

It was a hard choice naming my own biz (still not sure if I like the name)

 

Personally I didn't want to be the "carpet" whatever,,,it's been beatin to death and I wanted room to diversify.

 

Andy V.

o/o

Andy's SteaMachine

Adwa wrote: Well NewtotheGame, that is a loaded question. With that little vacuum tool in your picture it is showing us that you are thinking small. Think big man, get aggressive and I bet a name will come to you soon. Good Luck!! and gentlemen go easy on the name calling

 

Yeah I just picked the first thing that I saw.lol

 

Any ideas for a name????

Well NewtotheGame, that is a loaded question.

With that little vacuum tool in your picture it is showing us that you are thinking small.

Think big man, get aggressive and I bet a name will come to you soon.

Good Luck!! and gentlemen go easy on the name calling