Archive for year: 2013

Choosing your new brand name – PART I

As everybody knows, a good brand’s name is crucial and it can be a real ‘catch’. So choosing it is a very important step starting your own business. Especially when you run your business on the Internet and if it is a shop for example. Internet shop of lingerie would be even more demanding. That is why we think it is worth taking your time while choosing a really good name.

Firstly – starting an enterprise we aim to develop it further in the future and it is possible that our brand will become popular on a wider scale or even internationally. There are several factors and strategies to be considered during this process and we would like to encourage you to think of the following points: our brand’s name length, its origins and the meaning associated. It is also worth following your intuition and imagination to create something really special.

The brand name’s length

As everybody knows – size matters 😉 In our opinion the length of the name makes a difference. As far as the online lingerie stores are considered – it should be short, brief and catchy. Certainly no longer than about 15-20 words in it.

At this point, we need to take into account that one word names may have already been taken. Especially if they suit to the specific kind of a lingerie offer – for example popular female names and nicknames such as: Lola, Melisa, Adriana, Mimi, Sarah. The same if you choose a name characterizing your products’ features like: intimate, seductive, sensible, etc. Therefore, choosing a one word name we need to be a little more creative and sometimes just use our imagination.

The origin of our label

All of the biggest online companies have short, brief names and their meanings often come from another words or they are simply – made up. Sometimes, the companies just mix and rearrange the letters order in some names, for example: Google originates from the word “googol” which means: the number followed by one hundred zeros. Another popular, catchy names: Yahoo, Asos, Ebay, Allegro, Onet.

What does it mean?

So how can you get inspired to create the perfect label…
We should remember that what we sell is lingerie and that goes well with some fashion capitals’ languages. French, Italian or some exotic dialects may be really helpful while looking for our desirable vocabulary.

Sometimes you can simply use the Google translator and check the meaning of your potential choice or find some synonyms of the words connected with lingerie and feminine intimate accessories (e.g. sexy, sensible, delicate, seductive, etc.) You can be really amazed at how surprisingly good they sound in different languages.

Use your imagination in the process of creation

At this point we should make a list of our potential word choices. Use your imagination and check how those names sound if you reorganize the letters inside or add something personal to the label.

For instance, Italian word: sensuale sounds very well, but… We can create a new, more unique name going from there: sensual => sensel => senselle.

Of course, if we run an online lingerie store, we have to remember that our brand is supposed to be associated with the characteristics of the products sold and the general vision of the whole enterprise. That is certainly something very feminine here.

Some more ideas

Let us check women’s names mentioned before:

Veronica is in French: Véronique, but if we get rid of the accent there is an easier word: Veronique.

As a man I would say that some southern words, especially Italian or Spanish names of towns and regions, sound really nice and a bit sexy as well. You can also use them. Optionally – with some slight modifications.

Take an Italian region Molise – a perfect online shop name. It is similar with the names of towns: Modena, Ferrara, etc. Écija modified a little becomes Desija and additionally it can be associated with the word ‘desirable’ now.

You may not only add something to your original word but also mix two different names into a one. In our opinion it is a good compromise between the two-words label but not too short on the other hand. And this is exactly how our brand name: Lingerose was born. As you can easily guess it comes from two words: lingerie and rose. Both of them are commonly associated with lingerie and sound quite good – not only separately but also very well together.
Another example – Bianti. Originated from Italian: bianachera intima which means simply – underwear.

Let us take a closer look at the two-word names’ examples. Those two parts may both mean something or be associated with something, e.g. Lingerieboutique – the label consisted of two separate words – no need to explain their meaning.

Not only meaningful names may sound good. Example: LouMarie. Two separate, short female names, sound very sexy and catchy together.

The second part

In the second part of this article you will read more about some external factors and techniques which make your chosen brand name outstanding and distinguishing from the crowd.

Now, we would like to encourage you to follow your intuition and write down all the ideas coming to your mind.

So let us assume that we have had no problems creating a list of catchy names and there is some impressive base of our potential labels. The next question is: how to verify them and decide which one is absolutely the best. There are also some interesting external factors affecting future popularity of our brand’s name so we would like to mention them as well. Listed randomly, they need to be considered all together while choosing the best one.

The key words in our domain (in the name of our online store)

It is worth noticing that the usage of the key words in our domain can be very important considering SEO (search engine optimization) and SERP (search engine results pages). However, it has been observed, that this tendency is declining nowadays. In our opinion – worth considering, but certainly – not the most important factor anymore.

Sound and meaning

As we have already written in the previous article – good sound and hit meaning make a huge difference. Those two questions are very individual for many different countries and languages, so we want to have in mind the specifics of our target market.

Melody makers

Once again talking about sound – it is important that our name is not too difficult to pronounce. We have to take into account the potential pronunciation difficulties of our future consumers. It often happens when we choose some too rare and sophisticated words, especially in the foreign languages.

If spelling is too different from pronunciation and the word is not popular at all, our future customers may not want to say it at loud – because of the fear of failure (being “funny” saying it at loud or being not comprehensive). In some extreme cases it can even lead them to avoid buying our products… And that is definitely opposite of what we want.

Another essential matter is spelling. Running own company it often happens that we must spell our company’s name, e.g. on the phone. As we have already said in the previous article – it is good for the label to be short.

Excuse me, once again – what did you mean?

No harm to do a little research and make sure that there is no negative meaning associated with our chosen name in its original language. It is easy to “feel it” in our local market but when you try to sell your products to some foreign customers – that may sometimes be tricky. Easily revealed – just ask some native speaker of the chosen language – either your friend or some stranger met at any Internet language forum. The other way is to use Google Advanced Search. If you set the target language, look for the word and do not find any answers – there probably are not any connotations. If you find many entries – you may want to make sure about it and check most of them. Google translator is very helpful there or once again – asking some native speakers.

The art of choosing

So now we have narrowed the list of our potential names – it is high time we chose our best of the best. What needs to be remembered here is a following point of order: the availability. The only thing needs to be done here is to go to our domain supplier and check if our dream name is not used by anybody else. The website: ovh.com is very helpful here and we can strongly recommend using it. Of course, there are many other sites providing similar services here.

Another important factor is your domain extension – that is what follows your website name after a dot, e.g. in the website address: yourname.com the extension is: “com”.
This determinant depends on the country (or maybe the target market rather) in which you plan to work. If it is one country only you will probably want to choose the extension typical for it.

For instance:

The UK – .co.uk
France – .fr
Italy – .it
Germany – .de
Poland – .pl

Et cetera, et cetera…

For more international enterprises we encourage you to choose the most popular:

.com
.net
.eu

…and so on.

The End

If we are at the finish line of all those complicated recruitment processes – let us get a little break. Then, go back to the topic with some ‘fresh head’. Say it at loud, listen to yourself and check how it sounds. Ask some friends – their first reaction will always verify your choice, as it can be very easily observed if some word is a catch.

Hopefully, you have succeeded and there is no need to start our “castings” from the beginning… It is the high time you registered it now! 🙂

Google Adwords – why to use it

As we know Google Adwords is a paid, official Google advertisement called: “sponsored links”. It is located over the three most popular, organic search results on the page and also as the links displayed on the right. This ad can also be found in Google content network but we want to focus on the search field mainly.

Those are advantages of using Google Adwords:

Choice of language and location 

Creating our campaign we can decide where it is shown and in which language. Very easily we can choose a continent, a country, a city and even – the exact area, for example – 20kilometers from the city centre.

Our advert shows immediately 

In contrast to SEO (described in the previous article) we do not have to wait for a long time for our ad to appear on the first page of search listings. The ad is shown straight away after the Google approval. Usually, this happens in less than 24 hours from creating it. Of course, where (how high) the ad appears and when exactly depends mainly on the way it is created and our cost offered per one click.

Full control of spending

As we have already mentioned – we pay for each click in our ad. However, sponsored links give us full control of how much money we want to spend on it. So if we have achieved our daily limit of clicks (dependent on the budget) the advertisements will stop being displayed. This solution gives us full control of our spending and that is exceptionally important for the beginners – they can create and test some new campaigns with no stress.
Another important factor is a rate per one click, so it is the maximum amount of money we want to spend on each time somebody clicks our link. Google adjusts the advertisement displays in such a way, that the limit of money cannot be over exceeded. Obviously – more you spend, higher you get.

To set the ad you do not need to be advanced
That is the next superiority of using Google Adwords over the SEO techniques. Sponsored links allow us to create and run a campaign individually by ourselves. Google Adwords program is based on logics and being relevant. Those two features are the magic key to a successful campaign.

Logic and exactness – the most effective strategy
So, as we pay for each time our ad is clicked, it is worth considering how to create it with the smallest details to be highly accurate and precise. It depends on our budget – that is for sure. The less we can spend, the more precise we need to be – that is a general rule.
Now it is a good idea to imagine we are in the shoes of our potential client – what will he type in a search engine if he wants to buy some lingerie? More precisely – what exactly does he want, how exactly is he looking for it and thus – what exactly will he type? To bring him to our store we have to be as precise as that.
For sure, it is not worth to focus on such general phrases as: “lingerie” or “female lingerie” only. That is the easiest way and the most popular query of course, the biggest amount of money as well, though.
We recommend you to focus on some more adequate phrases, for example: “bras online store” or: “axami lingerie online” – they show the biggest concern of a potential customer from the beginning and the potential willingness to buy a product. Of course, it can be less popular entry… But more effective one – and the return on investment may be bigger.

The Role of Advertisement in Running Your Own Online Store

Effective advertisement is the foundation of trade. How to do it successfully? Take a look at our advertisement of a lingerie online business guide.

Let us assume that we have already set out first online store. We are very optimistic and enthusiastic. Just cannot wait to start! Where to begin?

Obviously – from the most important place which will be successful PR, marketing, promotion and advertisement. We can call it either way but we cannot forget that it is the basis of our Internet activity.

Why?

Imagine some simple situation: we open “a real”, stationery shop. However, it is not located in the crowded shopping centre but in the middle of nowhere. It seems to be obvious that the potential clients will not know about our enterprise, but…
Let us assume that we are in our shop, sitting behind the counter and waiting for them… After a few hours, a little confused, we come back home and we hope that it will get better the other day.
There has been a week and still nothing. After some time we close our business. Disappointed, probably we will complain about the market situation, people and how unfair the universe is.

Sounds ridiculous?

Well, not really, if we agree that this is exactly the same how it works on the Internet. That is a typical e-business situation.

Starting the lingerie online store, we cannot just assume that our clients will come from nowhere and without being aware of our activity in the first place.

We are like the stationary shop in the middle of nowhere. To attract the future customers and sell our products, we have to point the right directions, which will lead clients’ way to our business spot. Those paths are determined by successful advertising, especially – in case of online business.

What strategy to accomplish and which forms of advertisement are the most effective – those are our future articles’ topics. They will help you to go, step by step, through the marketing world nowadays.