Brand Name: Scalable vs Non-Scalable - Examples and Tips
Scalability of brand name can be defined as the universal nature and inclusiveness of a branded word so that in future it can remain relevant when a company decides to expand its line of products or services.
A scalable brand name helps in brand extension. For example, it was the inherent scalability of Honda name which was primarily a company which was manufacturing cars, but its scalable name helped to extend its product line to include aircrafts, engines, motorcycles, ATVs (all-terrain vehicles), generators, lawn mower, solar cells, boat motors, and robots.
How to Choose a Scalable Brand Name?
You can choose a scalable business name in two main ways.
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Conceive a completely unique and meaningless name such as Sony or Canva.
Choose a descriptive brand name with meaning as broad as possible. One example can be of Wise brand (wise.com – formerly TransferWise) and other practical example can be of Wish (wish.com) – an American e-commerce brand. The selected name should have vague or abstract meaning.
What is Drawback of Choosing Non-Scalable Brand Name?
With passage of time, companies may want to embark upon some additional and distinctive products or services, which may be completely irrelevant to the current business name. In such case, if brand name is non-scalable, the only solution left is changing the business name – a costly proposition.
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When Dunkin’ Donuts expanded its product line with more focus on coffee then it was necessary to remove the ‘Donuts’ from the name to make it scalable.
Similarly, Jamba Juice was not a scalable name because it was restrictive to juice. So, they removed the word ‘juice’ from the brand name to make it scalable for integrating other products such as sandwiches (they call it Handwiches), snacks and bakery items.
Business Insider Inc. became Insider Inc. because the company wanted to include more categories of news such as lifestyle, health, beauty, parenting – not just the business news.
Tesla Motors was not scalable name. The company acquired SolarCity in 2016. So, in 2017 Tesla Motors was changed to Tesla, Inc. to make it inclusive name for expanding line of products of the company such as solar business, electric vehicles, and battery energy storage systems.
The original name of Apple Inc. was ‘Apple Computer Inc’ and then “computer” was dropped in January 2007 by Steve Jobs as the company wanted to scale the business into consumer electronics especially mobile phones.
Please remember that short and meaningless (fanciful) names are always more scalable.
Example of Measuring Scalability and Inclusiveness of Corporate Brand Names
So, in your opinion, which of the following names is more universal or scalable in connotative application?
Booking.com, Hotels.com, Wise.com, Google, Microsoft.
In my opinion, Google is the best brand name and Hotels.com is the worst name in this list.
Among above business names, Google is the most scalable business name because it is invented name. The word ‘Google’ can incorporate any type of business as did by the company for example Google Fit, Google Ads, Google Drive, Google Fi, Google Health Studios, Google Pay, Google Maps, Google TV, Google Flights, Google Pixel Watch - all Google products under one umbrella.
On second number, in my opinion comes the brand name of Microsoft. Although it is derived from ‘microcomputer software’ but as standalone name, Microsoft is an invented and suggestive name. The brand name gives impression of something related to software, electronics, and technology. Therefore, according to my humble opinion, Microsoft name is less scalable as compared to the Google name. But Microsoft is better scalable as compared to other names of Wise, Hotels and Booking in this comparison list.
On third number, falls the brand name of Wise.com. It is a literal word but with broad application and inclusiveness. TransferWise changed name to Wise.com instead of possible Transfer.com because of limiting scope of the word transfer. The selected ’wise’ word gives them room to grow and expand which can be applied for broad range of business types. For example, I can coin wise in WiseHealth, WiseTravel, WiseBooking, WiseMarketing, WiseCommerce. Other such highly universal brand words can be Style, Fashion, Wish, Life.
On the fourth number comes the Booking.com which is better than hotels.com but bad naming choice as compared to the name of Wise, Microsoft or Google. It is better than Hotels.com because it can encompass bookings not just for hotels but also for flight booking, restaurant table booking, events booking, truck booking, car booking, photographer booking etc. It is bad than Wise because it has limited connotation – it will look weird and unanticipated to sell physical commerce products on booking.com website.
Hotels.com is the least inclusive brand name in this list. It will be even odd to display listings about restaurants on their website. It is a severely limiting brand name which will require rebranding incase company intends to expand product line in future. For example, with this ‘Hotels’ brand name, you cannot do any financial business such as providing loans. You cannot sell cars or pets with ‘Hotels’ brand name.
It is also interesting to note that generic names of hotel, booking and wise require .com suffix for distinctiveness whereas the meaninglessly designed names of Sony, Google, Microsoft are distinctive and standalone names.
Examples of Currently Non-Scalable Company Names
For your better understanding, following are few examples of brand names of businesses, currently in operation and these names are not scalable.
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Tyson Foods. It is restrictive to foods. It cannot offer other products such as cars, travel booking with this name.
Bothwell Cheese – a Canadian cheese company. The name of the brand restricts it only to cheese.
Barry's Tea – a tea company in Ireland. The brand name is not scalable.
Taza Chocolate is a non-scalable brand name.
Aura Inner Beauty is a descriptive Canadian brand name and limited to beauty products. It is not scalable business name.
Arnott Europe is a manufacturer of air suspension products and its name is non-scalable and restrictive due to its geographic connotation with Europe. In the past, the word ‘Europe’ was even part of its logo [RD] but as the company expanded globally (now it also has operational headquarter in Florida, USA), the word ‘Europe’ is removed from its logo as a futile attempt to make it scalable. The website domain of the company still includes the ‘Europe’ word. The word ‘Arnott’ is also not a unique name as it was derived from the surname of its founder.
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