What’s in a Brand Name?
Hey Friends,
Super stoked to announce that I just received my Level C Brand Architecture Certificate this past week after 3 years of hard work with branding and marketing professionals from around the globe. What a ride it has been. Stay tuned for more talk on brand architecture and the multi-dimensional way it adds value to an organization.
This week I want to talk about brand names as it’s been a hot topic of conversation with a few clients of mine.
First off, naming is NOT easy. It’s usually pretty pricey to do it right and oftentimes takes quite a bit of resources to ensure a successful deployment across all your organization's touchpoints.
That said, let’s dive in to a few core naming must-haves.
A Strong Brand Name Is…
→ Differentiated
It should stand out from competitors’ names, as well as from other words in a sentence. This is sometimes called “speech-stream visibility”, the quality that lets the eye or the ear pick out the name as a proper (or capitalized) word instead of a common word.
Questions to ask yourself:
Does it stand out from the crowd, especially from other names in its category
Does it stand out from ordinary text and speech?
I’ve found that the best names have the "presence" of a proper noun in the name.
→ Brief
With so much media and content being thrown at us, we want to make it as easy as possible for our audiene to remember us.
Questions to ask yourself:
Is it brief enough to be easily recalled and used?
Will it resist being shortened to a nickname?
The maximum number of syllables in a name is four, beyond that, the public and your customers will begin to abbreviate it for you which could be detrimental to the brand.
→ Appropriate
It has to be relevant, but not so descriptive as to sound generic. A common mistake is to choose a name that doubles as a descriptor, which will cause it to converge with other descriptive names.
Questions to ask yourself:
Is there a reasonable fit with the business purpose of the entity?
Does it relate 1:1 with your product or service?
Does it relate to your audience?
It’s a phenomenon these days that a strong brand name can be “blind”, meaning that it gives no clue as to its connection with the product, service, or company it represents, yet still “feels” appropriate.
Makes me think of Casper and how it’s blind to the product (a mattress) yet somehow feels so right.
→ Easy to spell
When you turn your name into a spelling contest, you introduce more confusion among customers and make your brand difficult to access. A hard to spell name could be a nightmare with Google and in some cases, you might be giving the upper-hand to your competitors.
Questions to ask yourself:
Can people spell the name after hearing it?
Can they pronounce it after seeing it?
A name shouldn't be a spelling test or make people feel ignorant. It should be EASY.
→ Satisfying to pronounce
A good name has “mouthfeel”, meaning that people like the way it sounds and are therefore more willing to use it. It’s likeable and draws people in.
Questions to ask yourself:
Will people enjoy using it?
Will people enjoy spelling it?
Will people enjoy telling other people about it?
Names that are intellectually stimulating, or provide good "mouthfeel," have a head start over less likable names.
Think about brands you know that you enjoy saying their name. Comment to tell me which ones stick with you.
→ Suitable for “brandplay”
The best names have creative “legs”—they readily lend themselves to great storytelling, graphics, PR, advertising, and other communications. This extendibility is extremely important with countless brand and marketing touchpoints that are being demanded by our customers.
Does the name have "legs?"
Does it suggest a visual interpretation or lend itself to a number of creative executions?
Can you see ways in which your brand can organically branch?
Good names offer endless opportunities for brandplay and this is something all organizations need to be thinking about.
→ Legally defensible
Is your name ownable? Remember, the patent office wants to make sure that customers are not confused by sound-alike names or look-alike trademarks. A good name is one that keeps legal fees to a minimum and extendability to a maximum.
Questions to ask yourself:
Can it be patented as a trademark?
Is it available as a dot.com or dot.org URL?
Are social media handles available?
Is there an alternate spelling we need to be aware of?
While many names can be trademarked, some are more legally defensible than others. This is where a good legal team can come into play.
If you’re thinking about your brand name, this is a good place to start. While there are many other considerations to take into account, adhering to these parameters should make the conversation around naming a bit more fluid.
If you’re interested in discussing naming with me, I have a few exercises that I workshop out with clients that can greatly cut down on the ‘mindless’ Google search for the right name.
It’s certainly as much an art as it is a science.
Cheers to a great weekend, friends, and as always, reach out with any comments/questions/curiosities.
- Steven
PS. I sent a survey out to you fine folks this past Monday. If you missed it, I’d greatly appreciate hearing from you.