When Soul Quest Church was born my intention was nothing more than creating a cool record store where people would feel comfortable coming to dig for vinyl and hopefully to meet like minded folk. This was my very first business and as with every other business, during the first couple of years some things went better than others. I named the store Soul Quest simply because of something my grandma said to me off the cuff many years ago, I had no idea how much power the name would bring. I got lucky but I have learned just how important it is that when you name your business, you make sure its a killer one.
Sticks in the Mind
I very quickly started to see more new customers and to be honest I was getting custom to the level of some of my competitors. I used to ask customers where they’d heard about us and how they knew we were here, and there were so many of them who said that they’d heard there was a new record store in town, and that Soul Quest was a name which intrigued them. Amazingly I was going to call the store DJ Records, I am absolutely certain that had I done that, things would have been very different indeed. This is a name which creates intrigue and makes people want to come and check it out.
Branding
Within the first 6 months the name of the store had been such a hot topic of debate that I thought I might be able to maximize my opportunities and create some cool merch bearing the name. The first thing we did was to create some record bags, which meant that when people bought records we could count ons hem free marketing as they walked the streets. These bags sold out within a week, which really got me thinking. We now offer t-shirts, mugs, caps and pins with the Soul Quest brand on it and it has been a real money spinner. Creating a brand is how you achieve real success in business and 50% of creating a great brand is having an awesome name which you can grow.
Telling the Story
For me a great business name should do one of two things, it should either tell the story about what the business is about or it should create than sense of mystery which makes people want to come and see what it is all about. Soul Quest Records half tells the story of what we do, and the rest of it is where that mystery comes from. This means that whenever people see our name online or on merchandise, they want to know more about it. I have had customers who’ve told me that they were asked in the street what the store was all about.
Ultimately the name of your business is a marketing tool, a tool for creating and growing the brand, and a tool to bring in more people to the business, make sure you get yours right.
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