How To Come Up With The Name Of Your Brand Or Product
Surprisingly, many aspiring people in business treat naming as insignificant and a non-essential business step. If only they knew how wrong they are!
The title of a brand greatly affects customers’ behavior which means it can affect their overall success!
So, how can you hit the bull’s eye with your brand name? Coming up with a striking name for a product or organization requires a lot of time and effort. You should take into account the distinctive features of your brand as well as the possible psychological impact to your target audience.
What Are The Criteria To Meet When Coming Up With A Brand/Product Name?
Unique
The name must be unique. Otherwise, you’ll get lost among hundreds and thousands of other companies. Uniqueness is about associations. Once you manage to create at least one strong association with your brand, you’re half way there!
To test your brand name for uniqueness, you can try Googling it. If the top results are brands you can compete with, go for it. But if there are already giants using up this name, you’ll have to consider other options.
Short and Sonorous
People are more likely to remember a short and catchy name than a long and stringy phrase. If you do need a long name, reduce it to an abbreviation and avoid complex alphabetic and sound combinations.
Positive
Try to come up with a name associated with positive emotions. Your future customers shouldn’t feel unpleasant associations and emotions. Make sure the title doesn’t include prohibited terms, expressions or associations to government organizations unless that is the case.
Universal
If you are going to enter the international market, make sure your brand’s name is universal and can be easily pronounced in other languages. An unfavorable meaning in another culture can nullify all your efforts.
Relevant
Of course, the name should reflect the essence of what you are trying to promote. Firstly, it should tell potential clients about the specifics of your organization or product. Secondly, people should get a connection between what you offer and your name.
For example, if you are going to create a domain name, you can apply SEO rules to it using your target keywords.
See Also: Is No One Paying Attention to Your Brand?
Three Steps On How To Name A Product
- Goal setting. At this stage, you need to analyze your target audience to determine their demands, requests, and needs. (information, physiological, aesthetic, combined, etc.).
- The development of the name. This stage involves the creation of several options. Once they are ready, you need to conduct their phonetic and semantic analysis to take into account all the subtleties and exclude all unsuitable options. To easily conquer this stage, use brainstorming or any other collective thinking techniques.
- Evaluation and approval. Here, an objective assessment comes into play. It should be made according to several criteria, including the perception of the name by the consumer and the conformity of the name with the status of the brand/product.
A well-thought-out name combined with a logo, motto and advertising activity will allow you to stand out and be remembered by people. And, if you sell something, it should guarantee a stable income.
Finally, let’s consider a few naming techniques and examples:
- The name of the creator: Procter & Gamble, Heinz.
- Legal terms: Abbreviations, like Incorporated (Inc.), Corporation (Corp.), Limited (Ltd.), etc.
- Geographical features: Australian Partnership, Air Asia, Bangkok Bank.
- Company’s activities: Apple Computers.
- A combination of words: For example, an encrypted name of the founder of the company: Adidas (Adolf Dassler).
- Rhyme and rhythm: Coca-Cola, Chupa-Chups.
- Associations: Jaguar, Red Bull.
- Secret meaning: Nivea, Daewoo.
See Also: 5 Smart Ways to Boost Brand Awareness
Use your imagination and creativity to come up with exciting and intriguing brand names. Take the process seriously, but don’t ignore the fact that the best names are just on the surface most of the time.
For example, Adobe was named after the river that’s behind John Warnock’s house. Apple was a favorite fruit of Steve Jobs while Hitachi means dawning. Subaru, meanwhile, is the constellation depicted on the company’s logo.
Look around and perhaps the name you need is already near you and just waiting to be discovered.
Good luck in your entrepreneurial endeavors!
