What's in a name?

[Tim Borek]

Do you think a "flowery," more sentimental company name attracts more clients for wedding videography? I'm wondering if my company name (me dba T.J. Borek Video Productions) just doesn't have a romantic ring to it compared to names like Lifetime Video, Cherished Memories, Magic Hour Video Productions, Movietyme Video Productions, A Moment in Time Video, etc. I know a florist whose business is called Wedding Flowers, which says it all. I don't know. Seems like there are just as many companies without sentimental names getting lots of work in my area.

Man, I really wish we had a videographer's association in Indianapolis! What plays in the heartland isn't necessarily what's going over on the west coast.

[Steven Gotz]

http://www.weva.com/

Are you a member?

[K. Forman]

I agree with Steven... WEVA isn't just about weddings, but it seems to make up 95% of their crowd. I saw some amazing stuff at some of their free seminars. I belive they can be found close to pretty much anywhere there is electric and running water ;)

[Steven Gotz]

And a couple of the flowery names he mentioned are in the Indiana list.

[Daniel Runyon]

It doesnt have to be "flowery", but I do think it should be catchy, and related to the service. Several reasons.

!) It just makes sense. Doesnt it?

2) It's more memorable. You are depending on memory for your business. Couples remembering your awesome work and telling others. People remembering having seen your adds. People remembering having been told about you. People remembering your web address from the business card they saw on the bulletin board, or flier at the restraunt they ate at. With all the crap already stuffed into their head swirling around like a cyclone...try to make remembering your business name a little easier on them.

3) Psychological effects: When they see your business name, does it conjure any creative imagery association in their minds? Does it cause them to picture and pre-feel the magic of their upcoming wedding?

When someone reads your name and sees the overall feel of your advertisements they will get a feeling, both concious and subconcious, and it will play a major part in many ways in how they percieve your value right of the bat....without seeing any demos or even having you explain anything about your product.

They will pick up on your attention to detail and your sensitivity to special events from the relative warmth of your name and ad style. So, with that said...there are plenty of people with great success using the full gamut of styles and approaches. If youve got so much work you can barely keep up, then dont change a thing. But if you are just starting out (as I am) and dont already have an established name and image, why not go ahead and do it up right, straight out of the gate...get yourself a fancy little name!

FWIW, I own www.weddingdaymovies.com (building!)

[Bob Costa]

Except for "Wedding Flowers", I thought all the other example names you gave were horrible. TJ Borek Productions is better.

Now if you want to use Westfield Wedding Videos, I like that. (www.wwv.com??) Hoosier Wedding Videos, Central Indiana Wedding Videos, Best Wedding Video in Indiana, anything that tells exactly what you do is a good thing.

MAYBE "RememberTheDayVideo". Maybe. But please put all those other examples out of your mind.

Daniel, nice catch with WeddingDayMovies.com. I locked up CoolWeddingVideos.com, but am not sure if I will ever use it or ever do a wedding. Then again, I also locked up RememberItVideo.com, which I would sell for $20 in a heartbeat.

[Robert Mann Z.]

this is a funny thread, i remember naming my company 15 years ago and doing all over again 6 years ago...what drama it was

do you still need video productions in the name...is there another sort of video?

how about cinematographer?

everyone here in nyc uses there real names, at least all my associates do...nothing wrong with that, after doing business for while you always end up picking up the phone and answering with your name and not your company name...

wedding videos seem like a different beast all together, but hey don't lock yourself into one category...

[Tim Borek]

These are good points. Thank you for giving me some things to consider.

FWIW, I like to specify video production versus music production to distinguish what I do from the many small and mid-sized recording studios in my area. If I were just dba T.J. Borek Productions, the video part may not click instantly in people's minds. Then again, I have a picture of a video camera on my business cards, so "Video" is redundant there.

[Steven Gotz]

Be careful to leave some room in a company name. My wife set up a little company so she could buy decorative rubber stamps wholesale (in quantity) so she could sell all but one, thereby building her library of stamps.

The name of the company? Gotz2Stamp

So now she sells candles, but the company name stayed the same. If she had been more careful, it would have been GotzDesigns, or CreativeHobbySupplies. Something other than the narrow Gotz2Stamp.

Me? My company name is www.stevengotz.com so there isn't much imagination there.

But then again, I don't want to shoot weddings. Too much work. The cameras get heavy, and you only get one take, and you generally have two mother-in-laws to deal with. God bless you all for doing the work that would drive me NUTS!!!

[Tim Borek]

<<<-- Originally posted by Steven Gotz :
But then again, I don't want to shoot weddings. Too much work. The cameras get heavy, and you only get one take, and you generally have two mother-in-laws to deal with. God bless you all for doing the work that would drive me NUTS!!! -->>>

You either like it or you don't. I'm not ruling out getting burned out in the future, but I'm just getting off the ground. I think the pressure of live events is one of the things I enjoy about it. It speaks to the former nightclub musician in me. The anticipation of getting ready to perform, setting up your gear, and choreography (of cameras) is rewarding when all goes well. When it goes wrong, unfortunately, it goes REALLY wrong. I videotaped a friend's band performance a few weeks ago, which was a great experience. I'd like to do more things of that nature. I just need to get my name out to the right venues and organizations. (See, we're back to the name issue again. Proof that everything happens for a reason.)

[Daniel Runyon]

OK. Tim, now your on to something else I've done....

I have one website that is the parent site...call it www.generalvideography.com (imaginary!). So the wedding site I'm building says Wedding Day Movies in big healines, and then just under that to the right in small sublines is By General Videography.

On generalvideography.com, when it mentions wedding videos as one of my services (and I say my...not our. If I had employees I would say our, but I would feel ridiculous saying "our" just to make myself sound like a bigger company.) it gives a brief marketing paragraph about my wedding services, and then links to the dedicated website. So, if I were marketing my music videos, I'd use General Videography, but if I were marketing toward the very specific and emotionally oriented wedding market...it's talking up Wedding Day Movies. Still yet though, you'll see that I have a company name, as opposed to my own name, as it's still farm more memorable and catchy.

[Ian OBrien]

Hi Tim
I agree with Steven as regards leaving room for a company name,
although it is my intention to do weddings, I decided the name
I needed for my company would imply good Videography all round
be it weddings, corporate or otherwise, so I chose..
CRYSTAL CLEAR as the start of my company name, and I am not
then tied to a particular video event...good luck