Currently working on a businessplan for our venture and at the point where we need to come up with a name. The venture is focused on Africa. I look at some of the big names out of China. Many have indigenous names. There's Xunlei("Thunder), Baidu(Poetic Chinese Name), Sogou(search dog), and countless others. I can't say that approach was helpful to Chinese networking giant, Huawei in the US market. Perhaps that had to do more with the maturity of the market. The company has been very successful in frontier markets like Africa(especially selling equipment on credit and at much lower costs). I definitely have a preference for an indigenous name. One that has meaning.
The question is do you gain more loyalty from the target market with a local name? What happens when you are dealing with a discontiguos market like Africa with different languages in different markets. Do you lose customers when you use a name from one part of the continent?
Of course a name is only a small part of the equation. It's a nice touch. Once we get this out of the way need to get back to the numbers. The numbers for the business don't look so great. Not going to get me to my first billion(a million is no longer what it used to be) anytime soon.
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Thanks for your comments, there is reason for optimism when it comes to doing business in Africa. But, as you have mentioned it is not always easy. I have tried at least 4 or 5 ventures in Africa-both while there and while abroad, one of them( a software development company) got pretty far off the ground. However, since I did not really appoint someone as a responsible party for the business after I left-it faded away.
But, I am a strong believer in that old adage-if at first you don't succeed try, try again....
Anyhow, as for the name. You sound like you are already on the right path. There must be a name which connotes the specific market advantage that your new business concept posesses; while also appealing to a wide cross section of local languages. Maybe you can use the lingua franca(ooops that wasn't spelled correctly), a word from the business-language that is used in and around your particular locality.
By the way, I wish you a most Happy New Year, a most prosperous New Year, and of course a most enterprising New Year for you-the Africa Entrepreneur!
Thanks for the kind words. As always your words of encouragement are welcome. An equally prosperous and happy New Year to you.
I understand what you are saying about how difficult it is to ensure business continuity in Africa. In many cases there is very little bench strength(middle management) that can take over in a founders absence.
Narrowing down on a few names. There are a lot of powerful African names out there. Thanks for the naming pointers.
the vision is the main thing. it would be nice if you could gey a name that would cross borders and sound good but what would be the relevance of a cool name on a crap product ? focus on who you serve and how to serve them excellently. they will love you so much they wont really care how wacky your name is. look at a brand like kodak. eastman said he chose the name because it would be easy to spell. most people in the early days hated the name. same with xerox or zain. the vision is the key.
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