Name that brand

22 Apr

Launching a new business or product? Struggling to come up with the right name for it? You're not alone.

Around half of the branding projects we work on involve researching and generating new names for a business, product or a service. This could be because the client doesn’t already have a name. Or they may already have a name in mind but not 100% it is the right fit.

Coming up with a name for your new venture can be very challenging and arguably one of the most important parts of developing a new brand. And one of the hardest parts as a business owner is being able to look at the new name from an outsider’s perspective. After all, we tend to be too close to it and the purpose of the name and the brand is to attract people externally so that they’ll engage with us.

We’re not suggesting that you ask everyone what they think. If you ask everyone, it’s a sure-fire way of never getting a definitive answer.

Then there’s the added pressure of not wanting to saddle yourself with a name that years later needs changing. It’s not cheap to re-name and re-brand a business or product, plus you don’t want to end up with that one that will date, put potential customers off or mislead them.

There are several key pointers worth sharing when it comes to naming your business, brand or product.

Firstly, if you only heard the name (e.g. in a conversation or on a radio advert), would you be able to spell it correctly? When they hear about a new product, one of the first things people do is Google it, so it’s useful if they can easily recall and type it correctly into a search engine.

Secondly, have you checked availability in terms of registered website domains, social media profiles, Companies House, Trademarks, etc.? With more and more products and businesses being developed, the challenge is on to find domains, companies and profiles that haven’t already been taken.

Thirdly, is it scalable? Whether your business or product popularity grows massively or stays relatively small, does it still work? Also related to this, if circumstances change (e.g. market trends, product evolution, business diversification, etc.), would the original name still be relevant?

In my experience, there are 8 different ways of naming a product or business.

1. Keep it in the family

A very traditional way of naming, using the family name can help create a personal relationship between brand and customers. They become part of your family. Examples include Warburtons, Sainsburys and Dyson.

This also extends to companies that are formed out of partnerships, such as law firms where several surnames are combined.

2. On benefits

Focussing on the benefits of what your business or product delivers instead of the features can generate some great ideas for names, such as Calm, Easyjet and The Discovery Channel.

3. Does what it says

In the 1980’s, specialist coatings manufacturer Ronseal launched an advertising campaign for its range of products that has lasted for decades based on using descriptions. This led to the infamous tagline – ‘It does exactly what it says on the tin.’ Other examples include Just eat, Land Rover and webuyanycar.com.

4. It’s your letters

Using acronyms is quite a dated form of naming, born out of companies wanting to shorten their names in the hope of making them more memorable. Over time, we notice that people / customers relate more to words than acronyms, probably because we were bombarded by them during the dot com boom and they just became meaningless to many of us. However, some have stayed the course and through consistent marketing and application, firmly embedded in our minds even today. These include IBM, ASDA and B&Q.

5. Where you at

We all know that people and businesses can be very patriotic and proud of where they come from, so their location features heavily in their naming and branding. Think of Yorkshire Tea and Kendal Mintcake, plus most airlines, building societies and football clubs.

6. The weird and the wonderful

Coming up with obscure and made-up words can be quite a fun way of generating ideas for new names, plus there is likelihood that what you come up with hasn’t already been registered or used. However, it is easy to fall into the trap of having something that isn’t easy to spell or remember. And like an acronym, it could also become meaningless and forgettable because it doesn’t relate to features, benefits or values. Examples that have worked include Giff-Gaff, VOXI and Google.

7. Go hybrid

Sometimes unique names can be created by joining two or more different aspects. Examples include TESCO (TE Stockwell + COhen) and MicroSoft (Microcomputers + Software).

8. Non-related objects

A very popular method of naming from the early millennium, companies used the names of everyday products and built brands around them. Remember a time when people talked about Orange or Blackberrys but it was nothing to do with fruit? Other examples include Apple, Omega, Jaguar and Marmalade.

Hopefully this article has given you some ideas of how to name your next big venture. My top tips regardless of which theme you use would be these…

1. Be honest - keep it simple and try not to be too clever.

2. Check the domains - I’m sure you’ve heard about the social posts to promote Susan Boyle’s new album #susanalbumparty that proved popular for all the wrong reasons.

3. Choose a constant - like a value or family name. So many firms get caught up in using what they do or how they do it. Instead, think about your ‘why’. Regardless of what changes might occur in the future (and there will be changes), what is the one thing that will always remain constant and true?

And remember, sometimes even the big boys get it wrong and come up with terrible names. When Toyota launched the MR2, they couldn’t figure out why it was not very popular in France. It was only when they realised that when read aloud in French, it sounded that their word for sh*t.