Does a local name affect sales potential?

[anonuk]

Interested to hear what you all think about this...does having a business name with your town/village have an impact on your sales further afield?

For example, if you were Liverpool Wines, do you think that might make some think twice about ordering if they are in Bristol more than if you were called ABC Wines?

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Make it known that you service the whole UK in your advertising/ marketing. I dont think there is any right or wrong answer, but the town name should help people local find you

 

[anonuk]

Make it known that you service the whole UK in your advertising/ marketing. I dont think there is any right or wrong answer, but the town name should help people local find you

We are looking to change the company name anyway to be honest - current name has our town in it but the name in general attracts customers that don't come with the type of jobs we want, so want to make our name a bit more specific to the jobs we want to attract. This has led to me questioning whether to just get rid of the town in the name.

Using the Liverpool Wines example in the OP, say our current name is Liverpool Wines, we might attract customers that just want to buy a bottle of wine for the evening at home whereas the customer we need to be attracting is a catering company needing cases of wine for an event they are catering so considering ABC Wholesale Wines, so the question is which would attract the wider customer base... 'Liverpool Wholesale Wines' or 'ABC Wholesale Wines'?.

 

[Banksbroo]

Depends on on the product or service. If I'm buying say kitchen goods, I wouldn't mind if the company was called "Exeter Cook Shop" and I'm in Penrith. A geographical name can give a good impression that the company has a real presence somewhere and a bit of history. It helps distinguish it from all the "online cookshop", "bestcookware" etc that may be an internet only sales operation with less than a years experience. On the other hand if I was looking for a plumber, then a name local to me would be important, and I would ignore more distant locations.

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

Depends on on the product or service. If I'm buying say kitchen goods, I wouldn't mind if the company was called "Exeter Cook Shop" and I'm in Penrith. A geographical name can give a good impression that the company has a real presence somewhere and a bit of history. It helps distinguish it from all the "online cookshop", "bestcookware" etc that may be an internet only sales operation with less than a years experience. On the other hand if I was looking for a plumber, then a name local to me would be important, and I would ignore more distant locations.

I would be 100% the same as this....if that helps!

 

[Frimley111R]

If you're only selling locally the name will help but if you sell further afield it will work against you. It's as simple as that. There are some exception (Pimlico Plumbers for example) but not many.

 

[HFE Signs]

I've know companies that have done it successfully, I wouldn't do it by choice though - If you intend to trade nationally you could be wasting a chunk of your marketing budget if a percentage of people assume you only cover the city within your trading name.

 

[fisicx]

Another consideration is to use a random name.

If you are too specific in location or business description to limit future expansion and change of direction of the business.

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

If you're only selling locally the name will help but if you sell further afield it will work against you. It's as simple as that. There are some exception (Pimlico Plumbers for example) but not many.

I don't think it's anywhere near "as simple as that", to be honest. Depends entirely on their product/service and target market. We use a company to manage our various websites.... I couldn't even tell you where they're based, nor do I care. If their name was "Torquay Web Development" then yes I could tell you where they're based...but I still wouldn't care. Everything is done remotely.

Agree perhaps more difficult if it's a product or "hands on" service....perhaps. Local plumber fixing toilets etc, yes. A highly specialised engineering firm in a particular field that there might only be a handful of in the country.....less so.

 

[SportsTrophyUK]

I use Sheffield Golf Trophies and have no problem attacting national and worldwide customers. It instantly helps potential customers know where you are, and as long as you can quickly and briefly show that you supply the area needed, there should be no problem.