Naming
Your brand name is not for you, it’s for the customers you serve.
A brand name is another symbol that represents meaning.
This meaning creates an emotional connection with your customers.
Consider words and what they represent and mean.
Plant a seed in your customer’s mind.
When nourished by all of the other elements in BrandPlan, that seed becomes the brand.
Brand Naming Strategies
Metaphor Names
Metaphors are brilliant for tapping into the imagery side of creating a memorable business brand name. They express an idea by conjuring the image of another. They can relate to absolutely anything, as long as it’s something that your target audience can identify with – stories, characteristics, qualities, cultural icons, or other emotive forces.
The best thing about metaphor names is that they create intrigue. Playing on curiosity and making people want to find out what a company does, there is instant respect when they realise that the name fits the offering of the company.
Examples: Jaguar (speed, agility), Nike (the Greek goddess of victory), Amazon (the largest river in the world), and Gorilla Glue (strong, tough).
Descriptive Names
Descriptive names are straightforward and easy to understand quickly. A niche provider or player in a new market can benefit from a descriptive name, as it helps to explain what they do and educate the customer. Descriptive names are great but also difficult to trademark.
Examples: We Buy Any Car, Google Maps, Lean Cuisine, Burger King, Build a Bear, Superstore, Coffee Culture, ChapStick, and Facebook.
Compound Names
Compound names are another great option when you’re looking for something unique. Bring together two or more words to make a new one and there’s a greater chance that it will be unique to you. The challenge is making one that still sounds good.
Examples: Weetabix (Wheat Biscuits) Fed-Ex (formerly Federal Express). Natwest (National Westminster Bank) PayPal simply makes one new word from two. Instagram (combination of ‘instant camera’ and ‘telegram’.)
Emotive Names
Emotive brand names can be very powerful to use, built around the emotions that a customer feels when they use the service or product. Does your product give them freedom, more time, more money, a sense of well-being, or peace? People often seek an emotional outcome for themselves. These names often use real words, so that people can relate instantly to them.
Examples: Innocent Drinks, Freedom Mobile, Uber, Energizer,
Origin Names
Origin names are often derived from the history or foundations of an organisation, or the name of the significant or historic figures of the business. Maybe the founder, principal inventor, or the place that the business first started out.
Examples: DHL (also an acronym) is the three surname initials of the founders.
McDonald’s is last name of the founding brothers.
Others include Adidas, Johnson & Johnson, John Deere, The North Face, and Yakult.
Playful Names
Often made-up words and names that have no direct reference to a company’s actual operations, playful names are fun and memorable, but aren’t right for everyone or every industry. A little like Marmite, some love them, others hate them. They do stand out and are usually quite ‘sticky’ and easy to remember.
Examples: MoonPig, Funky Pigeon, and Monster.
Acronym Names
As common as these are, they should be avoided. We deal with brands on a daily basis and see far too many of them. Businesses usually have an acronym out of necessity – a merger or change that means the name must change but heritage cannot be lost.
Examples: 3M (shortened from “Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing”), H&M (from founders Hennes and Mauritz) and IBM (short for International Business Machines, IKEA actually stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd, the founder’s name and places he lived.
Invented Names
Completely fictional, created, and made-up, but somehow they sound right. If you’re finding that every name under the sun has already been taken, then an invented name may be for you, especially if you’re looking for something short that you can successfully trademark.
Examples: Kodak, Häagen-Dazs, Nintendo Wii, Xerox, Accenture (derived from the combination of ‘accent’ and ‘future’), and Dulux (derived from the words ‘durable’ and ‘luxury’).
Alphanumeric Names
If you have a great idea but it’s not unique, you can always add a number. Not a preferred method, but adding a number makes names much more unique and can actually sound really effective in some industries. Common numbers include 24 or 247 (hours and days a week), 360 (all-round vision), and 365 suggesting open all-year. They are also popular in the technology or automotive industries to signify evolution – iPhone 8, Mazda 3.
Examples: MS Office 365, 7- Elleven
Technical Names
Technical names are related to the processes or specific technologies used in a business or product. They are not always the most exciting names, but a well-crafted one that blends a mix of modern words, technical language, and specific function can be very effective.
Examples: Panasonic and Xerox
Effective Naming Characteristics
- Connects with the customer
- Aligned with brand positioning
- Relates to your brand differentiation
- Relates to your brand’s personality
- Relates to one or more brand benefits
- Avoids negative or stigmatized concepts
- Has an available trademark
- Has an available URL*
- Strategic
- Clear
- Concise
- Relates to customer
- Symbolizes meaning of brand
- Memorable
Bonus Points*
- Rhymes
- Aliteration
- Clever
Create a List of Potential Names
Create a long list of potential names.
Filter Your List of Names
Memorable?
Strategic?
Concise?
Play With The Names
Play with the names you filtered.
Take a break from naming and relax so creativity can flow through you.
Naming is a Process
Naming is a creative process that takes some time to play with words (symbols) and their meaning.
Here’s a glimpse of the naming process for BrandPlan.
Plan – Process, strategy, building, step-by-step, how to, achieve something, method, map.
BrandPlan Archetypes – Sage & Magician
Sage = understanding, wisdom, guidance, knowledge
Service provided = Branding Strategy
Benefit = a Plan for customer’s brand
Combine Brand + Plan to make one name
Differentiator = Branding starts with strategy not design. Differentiates the brand from graphic designers who believe logo design is branding a business and are personifying the creator. Instead BrandPlan personifies sage.
Industry terms/jargon =
Entrepreneurs “build a brand”
Plan = to build something
Brand benefit / value = step-by-step plan of how to do / achieve something
BrandPlan
Strategic, clear, concise, rhymes*, memorable, connects to customer and represents the meaning of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.
