make a dash for it

Creating a company name

For those who drive a lot, CircumNav had an idea you had to love. A dashboard GPS device that helps you pick your route based on live traffic data that’s constantly being updated. This wasn’t just about getting there, but getting there faster. Way faster.

Exciting stuff. Yet the company’s lumbering name—CircumNav—wasn’t doing it justice. To toot their own horn in the crowded GPS space, CircumNav needed a company name as powerful as the brand idea itself.

As is often the case, this corporate re-branding took more than creative intelligence—it took an ability to elicit and respond to client feedback as the project evolved. Based on input from company executives, our initial company name creation included all types of names, and alluded to themes like mobility and real-time with varying levels of directness. Later, the Board of Directors expressed a preference for a super-short company name with a very clear, very strong takeaway message—and we switched gears.

In the end, our company naming process encompassed several thousand names and a number of rounds of legal availability searches. But the result was worth it. By taking an aggressive legal stance, we were able to help CircumNav secure "Dash". A short, strong and elegantly intuitive name for both the company and a dashboard device that gets you places in a hurry. Investors were thrilled. Executives were thrilled. We were thrilled. Dash. Kind of makes you want to get up and go, doesn’t it?

Dash is currently accepting pre-orders online for its first product, Dash Express, at Dash.net.