How to Name Your Coffee Business
Hi, I’m Pablo, your naming expert. If you are looking to find cool name ideas for your coffee brand, you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, we will take you through the entire process of coming up with a name, from the initial preparation to the brainstorming stage, and up to finally choosing the perfect name for your coffee business.
To illustrate the naming process, I will be coming up with name ideas for a fictional coffee business I created.
Here’s a one-line description of my fictional company:
An organic, Fair Trade, Peaberry Coffee that is grown and hand-sorted in Tanzania for a rich, full-bodied brew.
Preparation
Write a Brand Brief
Without a clear idea of what your business is about you are going to have a hard time generating name ideas that hit the mark. That’s why we suggest creating a brief outlining the major touchpoints of your business.
Answer the questions below as succinctly as possible. You want this brief to help you define your brand. That clarity will help you later in the brainstorming process.
What Does Your Company Do? (Describe your company and the initial products and/or services that you will provide.)
My answer: An organic, Fair Trade Peaberry Coffee brand grown and hand-sorted in Tanzania.
Who is Your Target Market? (Describe the customers/demographic your business intends to cater to.)
My answer: Coffee lovers with a rich and discerning taste who are also eco-friendly.
What is Your Company’s Mission Statement? (Your mission statement is your business’s overall reason for being. This shouldn’t highlight a specific product or service, but should instead provide the rai·son d'ê·tre for all your offerings.)
My answer: Our mission is to provide international products that reach the highest standards of taste and flavor while maintaining strict adherence to sustainable and Fair Trade practices.
Describe Your Brand Style/Tone. (What feelings will your brand create for its users?)
My answer: Rich, flavorful, and satisfying.
What Does Your Business Aspire to Become? (Five or ten years down the line what do you see your coffee business eventually becoming? Don’t be afraid to dream big! Knowing what you want your business to evolve into will help you come up with a forward-thinking name.)
My answer: An international business with exclusive products that adhere to Fair Trade and eco-friendly standards.
Value Proposition: (What value/good stuff does your brand add to a crowded market?)
My answer: My coffee is made from the rich, full-bodied, and flavorful Peaberry Coffee Bean of Tanzania, and is produced with the highest standards of Fair Trade and eco-sustainability.
Associated words: (What words reflect your brand?)
My answer: Rich, flavorful, eco-friendly.
Want Personalized Name Ideas for Your Brief?
Analyze Established Brand Names in Your Industry
You are beginning a process that every brand and business before you has had to navigate. Just how important is a name? How can it help or hinder your brand recognition and success? Some very successful corporations have made serious missteps with brand names and logos.
Clairol had unhappy results when they began marketing their “Mist Stick” curling iron in Germany, not realizing until too late that mist is a slang word in German for manure. Costly, but Clairol was already well-established and could overcome such a blunder. Most new businesses don’t have that luxury, so it’s vital to choose the right name from the start.
Knowing your competitors is an important route to understanding your industry as a whole. This includes knowing the thinking and ingenuity behind their names. Analyzing your competitors’ brand names will help you do this and more. What worked?
When researching the competition, try to take note of how well these names represent the company they belong to. What meaning do they convey? What is it about the names of different coffee brands that make them special?
Utilizing this knowledge will give you a definitive advantage when it comes to naming your business. Let’s take a look at some notable coffee brands and what they do well.
FOLGERS
James A. Folger started his eponymous coffee brand following the Civil War. From day one, he stressed character, integrity, and “doing the right thing,” in great part because his name was on the label. He also was the first coffee maker to ‘cup taste’ the shipments of beans coming in from various countries. In this way, he made many discoveries about the great variety of coffee flavors and strengths, including the fact that the best coffee beans were those grown in the mountain air. Today, Folgers is one of the world leaders in brand recognition and sales.
STARBUCKS
Starbucks took its name from the novel “Moby Dick.” The first Starbucks Coffee Shop, in Seattle, Washington, evoked the seafaring, coffee, tea, and spice trading world of Herman Melville’s classic novel and its first mate Starbuck. (Who, contrary to legend, never drank coffee.) Keeping to the flavor and ambiance of seaport inns and the fragrant coffee cafes of Europe and the Middle East, Starbucks sells its coffee brands, as well as hundreds of different and delicious combinations of both coffee and tea.
DEATH WISH COFFEE
Smooth and robust, Death Wish Coffee advertises its most distinctive characteristic with its name and logo. Any coffee aficionado knows immediately that Death Wish is strong coffee, and not for the casual coffee drinker. Death Wish Coffee has double the caffeine of most coffee brands. While the name and logo may put off some buyers, its target market of serious coffee drinkers is no doubt delighted.
CANYON INSTANT COFFEE
Partners Ally Walsh and Casey Wojtalewicz discovered their great love for coffee at the same time they met and fell in love with each other. They named their coffee after the name of the place where they met - near the Hollywood sign in Benedict Canyon, California. Five years later, their coffee is widely considered the best instant in the world, with hand-picked beans from the Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia roasted on-site to provide a fresh, rich, instant brew.
KOFFEE KULT DECAF
Koffee Kult Colombian Decaf is consistently voted into the top ten decaf coffees in the world. Starting very small, the founders of Koffee Kult simply sourced the best beans from Columbia and roasted the beans themselves, for their own and their friends’ enjoyment. Urged by family and friends to expand, they eventually agreed to sell on Amazon, but that required a name. They chose Koffee Kult because it represented their dedication to coffee and their brand.
Find Your Brainstorming Group
You have your brand brief in hand and have analyzed your competitors. It’s time to assemble your naming team. What makes a great naming team?
Well, it’s important that the people you choose to brainstorm with are creative/smart, have the time to spare, and are committed to the process.
Here’s a hint: Your name brainstorming team ideally shouldn’t be just you, or you + your best friend/business partner who completes your sentences. Ask the marketing intern. Reach out to one of your clients. Bring in people who have different viewpoints to brainstorm with, and the names this eclectic group generates will give you fresh and varied ideas for your brand name.
Need More Perspectives?
What if you and your team are still on the same page about everything?
Or what if you are starting up solo, and don’t have time or energy to corral your family and friends into the same room (or Zoom call)?
If you’re on the hunt for more unique perspectives to supercharge your quest for a great name, try a naming contest.
Naming contests harness the power of the crowd to deliver you a smorgasbord of diverse and inspired creatives focused on one thing: giving you great name ideas for your business. Name ideas that you can either use right away as the name for your brand, or as an inspirational springboard for your own name ideas.
Want to Know More?
Brainstorming
We’ve laid the groundwork and assembled our team. Now, it’s time for the fun part: brainstorming name ideas!
You might think that everyone should start tossing out ideas, with one person designated to record each name suggested, from the wildest to the banalest Most advice on brainstorming name ideas says to do some form of this sort of freewheeling process.
We’re going to take a different approach.
We are going to brainstorm name ideas using the different business name types as starting points. Instead of starting from scratch, we’ll brainstorm ideas for each popular type of brand name, one at a time, each with its own separate “brainstorming session.”
A few reasons for this:
Constraints can be freeing: Evidence suggests it is helpful to have some constraints when brainstorming , as a narrower focus allows you to go deeper creatively, and come up with more promising ideas.
A variety of variety- We talked earlier about the importance of different perspectives when generating name ideas. Stylistic variety is just as important, as the format of a name affects its sound, tone, and aesthetic. Using this approach ensures you will have diverse options to choose from.
The more you know... - Don’t know about the different name styles? We’ll be going through and explaining each one as we go, so you’ll be able to quickly familiarize yourself.
Ready to dive-in? Let’s get started!
Note: For my coffee brand, I’ve come up with 3 name ideas for each type, but feel free to write down as many as pop into your mind.
Descriptive Names
Descriptive names give people an idea of what your business does. Some notable examples are Salesforce and TripAdvisor.
My descriptive name ideas:
- Morning Mocha
- Special Brew
- Silver Blend
Brandable Names
Brandable names are names that are made-up names that contain no dictionary words. Because of their freedom from convention, this type of name is often catchier, shorter, and more brandable than the rest of the name types.
My brandable name ideas:
- Chava
- Tackit
- Groffle
Experiential Names
Experiential names are inspired by the experience of using a product or service. Some famous examples include StumbleUpon and Bumble.
My experiential name ideas:
- Bean Body
- Cozy Roast
- Java Delight
Evocative Names
Evocative names use metaphor and imagery to relate a specific feeling or idea. These names draw not from what a business does, but the experience or positioning the business aspires to achieve. Some famous examples include Red Bull and Honey.
My evocative name ideas:
- Vanilla Breeze
- Cafe Noir
- Hot Stuff
Expression-Based Names
Expression names are based on common expressions in culture and language. These names are great because they are instantly familiar to people, and easy to recall (because we already know them).
My expression-based name ideas:
- Cup of Joe
- Perk Up
- Morning Joe
Gather Up All Your Name Ideas
All the name ideas I came up with during the brainstorming stage:
- Morning Mocha
- Special Brew
- Silver Blend
- Chava
- Tackit
- Groffle
- Bean Body
- Cozy Roast
- Java Delight
- Vanilla Breeze
- Cafe Noir
- Hot Stuff
- Cup of Joe
- Perk Up
- Morning Joe
Need more Ideas?
Do all your names sound the same? Stuck for new ideas? Don’t worry, this is pretty common. Naming your business is an iterative process. It’s not likely that you are going to get the exact right name idea on the first try. Luckily there are some strategies for getting more inspiration.
Rinse and Repeat
Use your current list of names as a springboard for better ideas. From judging your first list of names you will know what words you like or don’t like, and what words sound better and inspire you.
Start a Naming Contest
Still stuck? Get hundreds of high-quality, personalized, and available-to-use name ideas fast with a naming contest from Brand New Name.
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THE CUTTING BOARD
Now that we have a sizable list of name ideas to work with, it is time to start the process of whittling down your list. To do this, we have put together a series of steps. They are intentionally ordered from the most clinical/scientific in nature to the most emotionally involved. Speaking from personal experience, you can get really attached to your name ideas!
Cut the Weakest Links
It’s usually glaringly obvious the first time you analyze your list that some names are simply not right for you. Cut those quickly before their mediocreness kills your vibe.
I feel that these names are my weakest links:
- Groffle
- Hot Stuff
- Special Brew
Check Against Best Practices
Now that you’ve cut the blatant duds, use naming best practices as a reference to disqualify more names. You don’t have to get granular with this, just ask yourself the questions below. If the answer to more than one question is no, cut the name.
- Is the name simple and memorable?
- Is the name easy to read, pronounce, and spell?
- Is the name different from competitors?
- Does the name convey a relevant meaning?
- Is the name broad enough to grow with my brand?
Name ideas I am cutting:
- Bean Body - It’s very bland, and doesn’t appeal to me.
- Vanilla Breeze - Too narrow for a brand name.
- Silver Blend - It sounds nice, but it isn’t relevant.
Go Back to Your Brief
By now, you should have a list of quality name ideas. However, just because it is a quality name, doesn’t mean it’s the right name for your business. That’s why you should go back to your brand brief, and ask yourself the following questions:
- Does the name relate to my value proposition, mission statement, tone, or target market?
- Can it also encompass my aspirations?
- Does it feel right for my business?
Names that aren’t a good fit for my brand:
- Tackit - Doesn’t feel right & sounds like beef jerky
- Morning Mocha - It’s a bit misleading.
- Morning Joe - I don’t want it to be solely a ‘morning’ brand.
Make a Shortlist:
Now that you’ve gone through the challenging process of cutting your list name ideas down, what you are left with are the finalists. You should LOVE all these names.
Here is my shortlist:
- Chava
- Cozy Caffeine
- Java Delight
- Cafe Noir
- Cup of Joe
- Perk Up
The excitement is surely growing, but it’s time to do something even harder: narrow it down to one name! Here are the final steps we’ll take to do so:
Check if It’s Available
Once you’ve gotten feedback on your names, it's time to find out if the matching domain of your business name is available. I’ve found the best way to avoid heartbreak is to have several names on my shortlist. This is so that in the event that one or more of your name ideas is taken, you still have a few high-quality backups.
Using a domain name registrar like Godaddy is a quick and painless way of checking name availability. Just type your name into the search box, and they will tell you if the matching .com is available.
These names weren’t available to register in my chosen TLDs (Top Level Domains):
- Chava
- Cafe Noir
- Cup of Joe
I’ve done the work, and now have four viable name ideas that make me even more excited to launch my coffee brand.
Get Feedback
Take the time to gather more feedback on your coffee business name finalists. When getting final opinions on a business name, I’ve learned that it’s best to ask either potential clients or people who work in that field - this is your target audience after all. If you can’t find anyone like this, trusted friends and family will do in a pinch.
My feedback:
Perk Up - Some like it, but too many thought it sounded sad.
Because of the feedback, I decided to take the following name out of the running:
Perk Up
Make Your Final Choice:
There are only two names left on my shortlist:
Cozy Caffeine
Java Delight
If you have made it to this stage, you probably have two or three names left to choose from. But there can only be one in the end! It’s time to choose your business name. Our advice is to go with your gut and choose the one you absolutely love.
The name I really love, and the winning name idea for my coffee brand:
Cozy Caffeine!*
*Note: While brainstorming, I didn’t care for this name, but by the time the process was over, I loved it, and knew it was the perfect name for my coffee! In other words, sometimes you have to let a name percolate for a bit.
Having trouble picking your favorite?
If you love more than one of your final names, that's a great problem to have. It just means you came up with some killer name ideas.
Don’t like any of the name ideas on your shortlist? That’s okay! It’s fine to go back to the drawing board, the important thing is you get the name right. If you need more name ideas fast, try a naming contest!