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strategy How should we present our short brandables?

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How do you proceed with similar names?

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  • I emphasis on the meanings and wait for the right audience.

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  • If the name can fit almost any business, I don't set meanings to it.

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  • I only buy names that don't need presenting. You should move your focus to buying better names.

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polymorph

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Hello NamePros,

I am trying to maximize my chances of end user sales on brandables as I spent my first year of domaining selling only to resellers.

My question is about presenting short invented names, which are pretty universal, but have some hidden meanings(or not so obvious ones). I have reached the same dilemma a couple of times so far - the meanings can attract some clients, but they can push other clients away.

As a newbie, the best strategy is unclear to me and the case applies to many short names.

I am interested in your opinions on the following imaginary case:

You own the name.. let's say Desta.com. In our imaginary case Desta means... 'pink' in Italian and it's a slang word for 'shopping'.

You list the name on your marketplace or a brandable marketplace that lets you control descriptions.

Strategy 1:

You are describing the name accurately, you еmphasis on the hidden meanings and add the keywords accordingly. The logo is pink with a shopping cart graphic. You expect less end users to click on it, but you expect them to read the description and say: "Wow, Desta fits my brand so well!"
You expect less clicks, but higher conversion rate, because the name absolutely fits certain needs.

Strategy 2:
You focus on the flexibilty and wide applications of short names. You describe the benefits of short brands in general, syllable count, radio test, memorability and general awesomeness. The logo has strong typography with neutral color scheme. You expect a lot of people to click on the cool graphic, but there will be a lot of good invented short names in competion. You need the client to make a decision: "Desta is the best fit for my taste in this marketplace."
You expect a lot of interest in the name, but you can't easily get the user convinced that your name is above the rest.

Pick one strategy and move on.

The scenario:

Two end users enter the marketplace on Monday morning, rushing to get things done and move to other tasks.

The first user is You-Know-Who: Tiffany, the businesslady that is about to launch a shopping tourism service for women.

The other user is Vasillis Destopolis, a greek investor and famous finance mentor. He is about to start a consulting service to help wealthy people manage their family budget and prevent overspending.

If you meet them in a cozy restaurant, you can use your selling skills to force them start a bidding war or at least a fist fight, but unfortunately this is not the case. You need them to discover Desta on the marketplace and fall in love with it.

If you picked Strategy 1:

Mr. Destopolis and his wife do a search for short invented names, starting with the letter D. He doesn't even read the text next to the pink shopping cart, but luckily his wife noticed it. She says: "It resonates very well with our family name. We can buy it and just ask our employees to create a new logo for us." He agrees and opens the link to the landing page. They read the hidden meanings of the logo and are disappointed to find the opposite of what their business is supposed to teach. Mrs. Destopolis tries to reach the 'Close' button of the tab with her finger, but her husband already pressed Ctrl+W. No sale for you.

Tiffany does a keyword search for 'female'+'shopping' and the pink shopping cart logo pops up. She clicks it immediately with interest levels higher than her heels.. She reads the description and stops for a second to think. She is 90% percent sure that this name is the best fit she can find. Then she realizes that together with pink and shopping, Desta also represents 'destination'. She makes the payment and leaves for her meeting. Congrats for your sale!


If you picked Strategy 2:

Tiffany does a keyword search for 'female'+'shopping' and Desta is not in the results, so you have zero chance to sell it to her. Fortunately she buys your neighbour's domain name, so at least he will pay you back that money he owes you since 2003.

Mr. Destopolis and his wife do a search for short invented names, starting with the letter D. Desta is on the fourth row, but gets noticed immediately. They read the description and it adds even more value to the name. They are convinced and make the payment. Their new brand is as successful as their other ventures and they will probably never get to know about the Italian meanings of the name. Congrats for your sale!

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Looks like you are selling it whichever strategy you pick! That's because you bought a decent name.

But wait, what if only one of them enters the marketplace?

Now your sale is a coinflip, unless you have access to that famous statistical research about the worldwide amount of shopping maniacs who love pink compared to D-brand fans who hate pink. Then the first strategy gains 0.39% over the second.

They say "You should always think both!", but I can't seem to find the best way to squeeze the maximum out of similar names.

So what is your presenting strategy to get the best out of your short invented names?
Also, do you describe the hidden meanings when submitting the names to a marketplace?

Do you have the phone number of Tiffany?

Thank you guys for your time!
 
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I'm a fan of strategy 1. Strategy 2 imo is great for 4Ls or shorter (just my opinion)
 
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I'd use strategy 2 for a broader audience :) It's a short brandable. It can be branded to pretty much anything. I think you are reducing your chances for a sale if you restrict it to anything specific. But that's just, IMHO. I think also, this becomes more impractical, to be specific the more domains you are going to sell. 1 domain, is ok. Maybe 10 domains even. But if you are going to do this for 100's (or more) domains. It's going to be taxing, to say the least. I'd need to see proof of concept before I choose strategy 1 for all my domains. Let us know how you get on :)
 
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