GARBO IS THE NAME

It took us more than a month of sleepless nights thinking of the right name we want to represent our enterprise.

I then wondered how Mcdonald's, Jolibee, Shakey's, Giordano and those other famous local and international brands came up with their unique brand names. I really thought it was that easy until it was my turn to think.

Hanes, Gucci, Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, Procter and Gamble, for instance are among the long list of international brand names taken from the surnames/names of the owners themselves.

And so I thought, why not name it UY or PUY or PTUY. Though people with my surname are scattered everywhere in the world and which I doubt if most of them are even related to me, I didn’t think it would make a remarkable impact. Afterall, the surname UY is significantly common and...unattractive for a brand name.

Some, however, like SAP (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing) AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation) and DHL (Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom , and Robert Lynn) are brand names derived from acronym or initials.

And so I thought, since my business partner's first name is Leo, we can therefore name the company P&L (Philip and Leo) which follows the footsteps of the Italian fashion house D&G (Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana).

The downside was P&L, which can also be called as Profit and Loss is widely used by accountants and entrepreneurs, doesn't even sound that catchy as well.

After quite sometime of burning our eyebrows in coming up with a long list of possible names, we decided to go back to the basic by figuring out the answers to the following questions:

What do we want? What is our goal in coming up with a business? What does our business stand for?

It was on August 14 when I was in the plane on my way back to Philippines when a word suddenly popped out.

GARBO, a Spanish word that stands for elegance, glamour and attractiveness, definitely represents us perfectly with our main goal to satisfy our customers with quality mostly oversize handbags at a reasonable price integrating both style and functionality in one attractive and commendable package.

Surprisingly, I realized that our chosen name has something in common with some of the most successful brand names such as Giordano, Guess, Gucci and Girbaud...

They all start with G!