Ten Tips for Better Brand Naming
When you start naming you can easily get lost in a warren of words, ideas, opinions, personal preferences, and misdirections.
When naming brands, businesses, products or services you need clear boundaries and a plan to temper your thoughts and guide your thinking, else you’ll end up at several dead ends on your maze-like journey, stuck like a rabbit in headlights not knowing where to turn. You’ll either lose your way, choose something meaningful to you but not your brand, or, through sheer exhaustion and desperation, select a name that just does not fit. When you name a child for example you unknowingly define boundaries; the name has to have some form of meaning and be relevant to you or your family perhaps. You may want the name to sound pleasant. You may want a traditional name but not too familiar, or off-the-wall, and a person’s name has to be enduring, after all, it is going to be for life.
You’ll want a name that has meaning, is relevant, and has a story behind it.
When you’re naming a brand, business, service, product, or another commercial entity, it’s a similar process to naming a child. You’ll perform research to find the most suitable name that describes what you’re naming. You rely upon instinct, experience, and knowledge; look to your peers, customers, and employees for guidance and approval. You’ll want a name that has meaning, is relevant, and has a story behind it. You may want something that will fit, has character and is differentiated enough to stand apart from your competitors, but be accepted by your audiences. There are many conditions for naming, and they set your boundaries and help you focus on what you need. More than likely, you’re seeking a unique, significant, and memorable name. But the world is a much smaller space than it used to be. Thanks to the onset of the internet, there are also far more practical components that also need to be considered.
Years of experience have taught me many tricks when it comes to naming.
Over the last twelve years, my agency’s collaboration with our US partners, G&S, has provided us with opportunities to name brands and businesses, products, and services worldwide for large companies and smaller businesses. During this time, we’ve refined our process into a proprietary method that’s generated some enduring and memorable names that have helped deliver significant results for our clients. So to celebrate my tenth issue of digest., here are my ten tips for naming:
- Aim to secure your name. Trademark your name and seek a recommended local trademark law firm from the offset. Once you have your name, they will help you register it, advise which trademarking classes you need to register under and advise you on which trademark databases you need to check against your name choices. For more advice, take a look at the UK government website or one relevant to the country you’ll be operating within.
- Common words don’t work. Be distinctive, unique, and find a differentiator. Think about the unique selling proposition of your product, service, business, or brand. Consider what it does, its benefits, how it works, and the result for your customers. Consider competitors, ensure you don’t name your product similar to theirs, and steer away from simple phrases and common or non-distinctive words. Also, changing the spelling of a word does not make it distinctive; trademarking considers the phonetics and the spelling; in fact, you can trademark any combination of sounds, colors, letters, words, and logos which will aid further differentiation.
- Pronunciation is important. Think of your customers, imagine them pronouncing the name you’ve created, is it easy to say, how many syllables does it have, is the pronunciation difficult, can you pronounce it differently than what you intend?
Did you know Nike, is pronounced, Ni-key.
- Mind your P’s and Q’s. My advice here is especially poignant if you’ll use your name in foreign markets. Check that the name you’ve chosen does not mean something different in another language. Be aware that, although we share a common language with our cousins in the USA, some words have a completely different meaning.
Fabulous Bakin’ Boys now-infamous advert featuring Fanny Craddock that didn’t translate well when launched in the UK.
- Look to tomorrow, today. If you’re a small startup, consider your business growth plan, a larger organization, then what are your plans for product expansion? If you’re naming a product you are planning to expand into a family of products, ensure you prepare for that future growth. You could arrange for the attachment of a prefix or suffix, a numerical or alphabetic code, or a uniquely attached differentiation in the design to help customers distinguish between product types.
Consider this. In 2020, there were estimated to be over 6.0 million UK private sector businesses, each one has a name.
- Names, and even more names. Believe me when I tell you it’s easy to get attached to a name that you think works only to face disappointment when you do your searches and find it’s not available. Create a list of ideal names and work through them, then check them out. Don’t get attached; don’t name anything after your dog, child, or anything else significant in your personal life. The name you create should not address your needs but those of your brand and your customers. Imagine if your product fails or your business goes bust; you’re living with a personal reminder for the rest of your life.
- Check everything. We’ve all found ourselves lost in the warren of the web, now is the time to deliberately dive down those previously referred to rabbit holes, but with a strong sense of direction. Depending on your type of business, list what you have to check your names against, such as competitors, social media, organic search, local companies, language, surnames, and so on, and methodically check each and every name against your chosen parameters.
- Design and test. What does your designed name look like when it’s worked up into a logo? Some letters, when placed together, don’t work, can look odd, or even hide a hidden meaning that can be considered profane. Finally, test your proposed names in the real world on people – family, friends, customers, suppliers, they will often see something that you don’t.
…now is the time to deliberately dive down the rabbit holes
A name may look great on paper but be careful when it’s designed.
- Consider approaching an agency to create your name for you. I’ve given you some ingredients to the recipe, but there’s far more involved in producing the secret sauce needed for a successful name. Often, business owners, Marketing or Brand Managers are far too close to the brand to be directly involved in the naming process to make a successful and impartial decision. That’s where my agency, eatsleepthink, can help. We offer a proprietary, tried-and-tested brand naming service that’s been developed through many years of experience, trial and error, and success. Furthermore, we’ll be launching Small Business Branding in October. A sister company to est. dedicated to offering affordable, turnkey branding solutions for startups and small businesses, including naming, logo design, websites, and marketing materials at affordable pricing with flexible payment plans to suit smaller budgets. So whether you’re involved in marketing a big business or need to name your fledgling startup get in touch to view our naming portfolio and let’s discuss your naming needs.
If you’d like to discuss your thoughts about naming in more detail or would like to discuss options for eatsleepthink to help you in your search for a name, either comment in the post or drop me an email: mike@eatsleepthink.com
Until next week, enjoy the rest of your week on the roll down to the weekend.
Mike
Mike Marshall is Managing Director of eatsleepthink, an award-winning strategic branding and digital agency based in Chesterfield, UK.
You can access all of Mike’s digests on the eatsleepthink website: https://www.eatsleepthink.com/digest/
Acknowledgements: Small Business facts: https://www.fsb.org.uk/uk-small-business-statistics.html. 30 brand names you are pronouncing wrong: https://blog.hubspot.com/agency/pronounce-brand-name-wrong-infographic. World’s worst product names: https://www.anorak.co.uk/332796/in-pictures-2/the-worlds-worst-product-names-2.html. MEGAFLICKS and The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys images, sources various, original sources unknown.