What's in a Name?
In our paper "Brand New: Why brands matter to consumers", we wrote:
'Brands began life as marks of origin (literally, hot irons on a cow’s backside). In the sixties and seventies brands were mostly to do with specific products, rather than organisations. They evolved to become ‘aspirational’ where buying a certain brand would say something about you.The eighties and nineties saw the rise of the ‘corporate brand’ and today, everyone knows Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Starbucks, McDonalds, BMW, Disney and so on. But brands continue to evolve and now, while the brand you choose still says something about you, it’s more likely to reflect what you think about it. Green brands, Fairtrade brands, Honest brands, Exciting brands.'
In this short follow-up paper from Managing Partner and brand expert Peter Roberts, we look at some of the thinking that goes behind the selection of the right brand name for your business, products or services. Getting it wrong can be costly, which is why it pays to adopt a thorough and thoughtful approach.
Our guide to the art and science of brand names.
"A good name is better than precious ointment" - Ecclesiastes 7.1
Getting the name right is arguably the single most important step to take in developing a successful brand. It's the vital link between what you are and how you might play out in your marketplace. It's said that the best names don't need advertising - they are advertising.
A successful name will reflect your desired ambition; will find a unique and positive place in the minds of your customers; and will enable the rest of your brand identity to work really hard for you. Equally, a poorly conceived or inappropriate name will have no strategic longevity and may even be construed negatively by customers.
Your brand name is your one chance to encapsulate in just a word or two, everything that's positive and exciting about your business or product.
Naming is an art
There's tremendous creative juice required for the development of great brand names - or at least there should be. For starters, there are different types of name to consider, each type offering distinct pros and cons, according to your situation.
For example, made-up names - usually based around greek or latin roots (Consignia, Accenture), or else ones that just sound good (Google) - could require a lot more marketing investment to tell a memorable story and explain what you are. Whereas more descriptive names (Achieving the Difference, GoCompare) will do what they say on the tin. Evocative names (Orange, Apple, Virgin) compensate for their lack of directness by being memorable and salient. While imaginative names (PalmPilot, Safari, Windows) are intuitively understandable but likely to spawn copycat names from competitors.
Next,, how must the name operate within your business plan? For example, if it's a product, what's the 'fit' with other existing or future products? Is it an 'umbrella' name that will represent a range of businesses or products? What will 'belong' and what might feel out of place?
And lastly, there's the desirability in every potential name. Desirable means a name is suitably different from others in the market; is rich in 'campaignability'; looks good when written and sounds good when spoken; is deep and warm.
In short, a name that has 'the X-Factor' !
Naming is a science
But it's not all bean-bags and fluffy wallpaper. Although we provide both (metaphorically speaking) at Achieving the Difference, we also follow a process. This is the science.
The object of the game is to secure the best name possible. That means a name that's relevant, appropriate, desirable and available. One that won't land you in court for trademark infringement; nor end up on YouTube because of a 'hilarious' oversight or double entendre. If your name is to be marketed abroad, you want to ensure that nothing's lost in translation. Or worse, gained. Even giants like Coca-Cola discovered too late that the literal Chinese translation of their iconic brand was 'Bite the wax tadpole'.
So here are a few simple steps you can take along the way:
1. External analysis - quantify the style and strength of competitors’ names; understand any market dynamics driving expectation; look for gaps and differentiation
2. Internal analysis - define your brand positioning; brand attributes, company Vision and Values are key inputs.
3. Name Development - consider competitive analysis + brand position + name objectives + name ‘types’ (functional, invented, imaginative, evocative) + URL strategy. Brainstorm longlist. Source from anywhere (history, customers, dictionary, thesaurus, internal management and staff).
4. Registered name, registered trademark and domain checking - initial simple desk research (Companies House, Patent Office, Google, Whois) to eliminate obvious non-contenders; create a ‘longlist’
5. Testing - to check response against objectives. Many ways from simple personal taste to market research; could use internal and external focus groups; mock up materials that use the names. Prune to a shortlist and re-test; find the ‘preferred option(s)’
6. Legals - formal registration and trademark check, using a qualified trademark attorney; if marketing abroad, include cultural checks to ensure name translation viability.
7. Brand development - name choice enables rest of the brand components including Voice (key words, core messages, taglines, slogans, tone) and Visuals (look and feel, logo, icons and images) which will support and reflect the name.
Conclusion
Effective naming of your business, your products, product lines or services, is one of the most important things to get right in marketing. It's not an easy job, and in practice is a rigorous creative and empirical process that can devour time and sap energy.
But the right result is priceless, "better than precious ointment".
If you'd like to comment on this article, just drop me an email.
Peter Roberts
