Without a doubt, naming a brand is one of the most emotionally charged tasks within the whole spectrum of branding and that’s because of the sentimentality attached to it when we name things growing up. We’ll name things that we’re emotionally attached to. We’ll name our toys, we’ll name our first pet then we might name our first car when it comes along and then we’ll start to come to name our children as they come along, and then ultimately we’ll name our businesses. When it comes to naming a brand for the first time that task usually falls to the business owner. Most business owners will approach this task in the same way that they approach any other task when naming anything else throughout their lives. They’ll approach it with that sentimentality point of view and I’m not saying sentimentality doesn’t play a role. I mean if the business owner is emotionally attached to the business and there is that sentimentality there then they’re far more likely to get behind the business but when it comes to naming a brand it’s all about connecting with the audience with who they are, with what they want, and that sentimentality doesn’t come into play. Nobody cares about who the owner’s dog was or what street they first lived in. If the business owner takes that sentimentality into naming their business then it misses the opportunity to connect with who the audience is and that ultimately is the role of the brand name.
What Is the Goal of a Brand Name?
The brand name has multiple goals but the main goal that it has is Memorability. The brand needs to be remembered and that name plays an important role in whether or not the brand will be remembered. But memorability is not the only task that the brand name has, the brand name plants a seed in the mind of the audience so that the audience remembers the brand but that seed then needs to grow and that grows into the image and the position that the brand wants to own in the mind of the audience.
What Makes a Great Brand?
As I’ve already covered, it’s not sentimentality and if you’re able to remove the task from the business owner or if the business owner can step away from that sentimentality then the outcome is far more likely to be effective but there are two main characteristics of a great brand name. The first as we’ve already covered is Memorability. It needs to be memorable that is the job of the brand name. If the brand name is forgotten or if the audience cannot remember what the brand is called then the brand name has failed in its primary task. It needs to be remembered, if it’s catchy and that adds to the memorability then great but that is the task of the brand name. It needs to be remembered. The second characteristic is that it needs to be strategic. It needs to help to solidify a position in the mind of the audience and solidify that image of how the brand wants to be remembered. If those two characteristics are included in the brand name then it’s well on the way to being a great name.
Brand Name Ideas & Examples
Founder Brand Name
This is where the brand is named after the founder and there are a couple of very famous examples here in both McDonald’s and Ford McDonald’s named by the McDonald’s brother and Ford named by Henry Ford.
Descriptive Brand Name
This is where the brand name describes what the company does. An example here would be the Coffee Club or ToysRus.
Aligned Brand Name
This is where the brand name uses associations or metaphors to align with an idea. I’ll give you an example here, Amazon aligns with the vastness of the Amazon jungle and Virgin aligns with that idea of new and innovative.
Invented Brand Name
The invented brand name has no real meaning or association. Essentially, it’s a figment of somebody’s imagination and the word doesn’t exist. A couple of examples here would be Google or Pixar or Xerox.
Lexical Brand Names
These are where related words are combined to enhance memorability. You might have two words with the same first letter. An example of this would be Dunkin’ Donuts or Krispy Kreme.
Acronym Brand Name
To be honest I’m not a big fan of this brand name type and it’s not something that I would recommend any of my clients do but that’s not to say that it can’t work. There are some very famous examples of acronym brand names such as BMW, MTV, IBM, etc.
Geographical Brand Name
Essentially, these brands are aligning themselves to a flag or an origin from where they’ve come and that usually comes with a certain type of reputation. An example would be Singapore Airlines or Swiss Brand.
How do You Choose a Brand Name
I’m going to give you a six-step process that you can use to choose or find a great brand name for your own business or your client.
Create Your Buyer Persona
As I mentioned earlier, the brand name is not about the business owner and it’s not about their sentimentality. It’s about the audience, who they are, what they are looking for, what they want, and when you understand the image that you want to create in the mind of your audience that’s when you can create an effective brand name but the first step is understanding who that audience is.
Define Your Differentiator
This is the strategic aspect of the brand name. If the position that you want to own in the mind of your audience is included or associated with the brand name then the chances of your audience remembering your brand for that image or for that position is significantly increased. Make sure you define your differentiator that you know the position that you want to take in the mind of your audience before naming your brand.
Brainstorm Keywords
Now that you know who the audience is and you know the difference you want to own in their mind and be known for in the marketplace now you can start to gather ideas for your brand name. This needs to be exhaustive and there is no bad idea at this stage you want to include every single word that can be even loosely associated with your audience or the difference that you want to own in their mind. Take the time here to exhaust out every single idea possible in both keywords and brand name ideas. Take your time with this exhausted and go as far as you possibly can.
Integrate, Amalgamate, and Consolidate
This step is dependent on the previous step being exhaustive in that you have taken the time to get as many ideas and as many keywords because here you’re going to merge, truncate, extend and push the boundaries in terms of what’s possible. You’re going to merge words, chop words up, and you’re going to create something out of nothing. The more time you take with this the more chances you have of coming up with something new and something unique. Involve a heavy dose of creativity here, take the time to integrate, amalgamate, and consolidate.
Quality Filter
Chances are if you’ve done this correctly you are going to have a lot of crap to remember. I said earlier that there is no bad idea early on and you want to exhaust as many avenues as possible but when you get to step five where you’re going to have a lot of crap and you’re going to need to filter all of that through some quality control and the quality control that you want to filter it through is to ask is it memorable? Is it strategic? Is it concise? If you’re able to filter it through that quality control and it comes out the other side and t take all of those boxes then you well on the way.
Real-World Application
This is where you apply your brand name into the real world. You stack it up alongside the competitors within your industry and the global brand of the world to see how it fits and if it feels right for your brand, you can also put this into submission statements, vision statements to see how it fits within your industry and how it fits for your brand.
