What’s in a name? It’s an age-old question posed by William Shakespeare in arguably his most popular work, Romeo and Juliette. As famously quoted from the book, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
While this question posed by Shakespeare is fascinating on a philosophical level, when it comes to selecting a business name for your concession trailer there’s not much to think about. The name you choose matters!
When you’re at any event, customers may only take a split second to understand what you serve and if it’s something they want. If you selected a name that doesn’t clearly represent what type of food you serve, you could be missing out on a lot of sales.
Bottom line, your goal as a business owner is to identify a name that peaks their interest, makes it clear the type of food you serve, and is ideally short. Sounds easy right? But the process can be easier said than done! Especially when you consider you’ll be operating and building a brand under this same name for years to come.
In this post, we offer guidance on how to pick the best name possible for your concession trailer if you’ve been struggling to find the right one. Our goal is to make this important business decision at least a little bit easier.
Tip #1: Choose a Name That Clearly Articulates What You Sell
You don’t need to be all that clever or 100% to come up with a business name that works. Examples such as Jimmy’s Gourmet Pizza Pies, Dave’s WonderBurgers, or Timmy’s Taco Truck can be simply ways to let prospective customers know exactly what you serve.
Refuge Coffee Co. Truck built by M&R Specialty Trailers and Trucks.
Tip #2: Be Careful if You Want to Be Clever.
Being clever or funny in your business name can be tough to pull off. When it works, it’s wonderful. But more often than not you can leave people scratching their heads as to the point you’re trying to get across.
If you want to be clever with your name, try at the very least to select a name that you can in some way relate back to your food items. The examples below all do a superb job of tying in what food items they actually serve into their names…
The Dairy Godmother – The name of an ice cream shop in Alexandria, Virginia. This is a clever name that totally works!
Lord of the Fries – This name is a pun of the book / movie Lord of the Flies that explores the dark side of humanity. We wouldn’t have thought this name would work, but there are six locations across Australia so they must be doing something right!
Thai Tanic Restaurant – This one of course is in reference to the movie Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Finally, if your going to come up with a clever name like the one above make sure it isn’t objectionable in any way. We live in a sensitive world and you want to select a name that invites all types of people to dine at your trailer.
Tip #3: Keep it Concise
Pizza Truck Build by M&R Specialty Trailers and Trucks.
Whether you plan to open a concession trailer or restaurant, keep the name short is an important best practice. For one the shorter the name, the easier it will be to remember by guests. But there’s another important reason too, you’ve only got so much available space to publish your brand message on a concession wrap.
If you end up with a name too long, you will need to reduce the size of your font to ensure the message fits on a concession trailer. The smaller your font size the less likely you’ll be able to draw in customers from long distances like the other side of a street fair. Try to find something short to draw prospective diners closer to your vehicle so they can read the menu and get the details about your food.
Tip #4: Help Brain-Storming Food Trailer Names
As we’ve pointed out earlier in the post, choosing the right name for your concession unit is extremely important for long-term business success. But that doesn’t mean the process of discovering what to name your vehicle can’t be fun!
One approach is to get yourself a note pad, chalk board, or an word document and just starting writing down a variety of flow of consciousness vending names. You can get family members involved, spouses, and business partners involved in the process too. At this point the more ideas the better.
The whole point of the brain-storming sessions is to get a bunch of ideas out there for the name of the unit. Even if you don’t like the name that someone else suggests, feel free to write it down on the word document and include it in the list of options. The whole point of using this approach is because the names are written in stone or put under the microscope to scrutinize (yet). Just have fun and see what names you come up with and see if inspiration strikes.
