Should we use abbreviations for our company name?
Lee Dean
My short answer is no, unless you have millions to spend on target penetration.
This article explains it fairly well, from B2B Marketing:
“To abbreviate your company name, or not to. That is the branding question."
Some of the world’s biggest company names are abbreviations: think IBM, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and many others. These are abbreviations that have stood the test of time and are meaningful in their own right today, even if what the initials stand or stood for are long forgotten.
Take IBM. As many know, though I’m not sure about millennials, IBM once stood for International Business Machines. It has become such an iconic name that it matters no longer what it once stood for. In fact, the company, I’m sure, would rather not have the quaint term ‘business machines’ be widely known, especially as the company is more into software and services these days.”
After citing several examples of when it’s good and bad to abbreviate, which has a lot to do with timing, the article goes on to say, “Be sure you really stand for something before you abbreviate. By the time people started called General Electric GE, the initialization took like a duck to water. But many such switches don’t. We have seen ad agencies using the names of three principals abbreviate to three initials and suddenly seem very generic.”
Something I had not considered for startups, until doing research for this article, is the legal aspect of an abbreviated name.
Consider what How Brands are Built has to say: “Unfortunately, any acronyms or abbreviations—including initials—can lead to potential legal and trademark issues. It is crucial to conduct thorough research to ensure the chosen abbreviation isn’t already trademarked or legally protected for similar goods or services.”
The point is, there are only so many letters in the English alphabet, and it’s easy to duplicate what another business in your space has already trademarked.
For a startup, abbreviation names seem to be what I call ‘Alphabet Soup’ names. It’s just a bunch of letters swirling around with no meaning to the audience.
The bottom line is you may eventually need to abbreviate for good reasons, but don’t start out that way.