Brand names – a simple checklist
Naming new brands or products, or renaming existing brands can sometimes be problematic.
While hitting the market with the wrong name is more likely to be a missed opportunity than a disaster, the right name can certainly give your brand a push-start and, in some cases, help the company/brand carve out a niche that others will find difficult to predate thereafter.
The nine-step test below is something we use here at Everything Design. It’s not a list of absolute must haves (it’s very difficult to tick every box, particularly if you’re developing a brand name that needs to be trademarked internationally), but it is a useful checklist to test just how various options stack up.
Here are some of the key points you may need to consider:
- Appropriate: There needs to be a reasonable fit with the entity’s business purpose. If the name would work just as well – or better – for another entity (or product), then you probably haven’t quite got it nailed. Less-than-ideal example: Lusty (a children’s clothing label), Enima (a model of car).
- Distinctive: Any name should stand out from the crowd and from other names in its category. It should also separate well from ordinary text and speech. The best brand names often have the authoritative weight that a proper noun provides. Example: Charlies (a juice brand), Katipo (a beer brand)
- Appealing: Will people enjoy using it? Names that are intellectually stimulating, or provide a good “mouth feel”, have a head start over those that don’t. Examples: LexisNexis (an on line reference resource for lawyers), Polly Pocket (a range of toys for young children), Ferrari (a high performance car)
- Concise: A name should be short enough to be easily recalled and used. It should be robust enough to avoid being reduced to a nickname. Less-than-ideal examples: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited (a government-owned research company), Polytechnics International New Zealand Limited (educational and training services consulting)
- Easy to use: Most people should be able to spell the name correctly after hearing it and to say the name correctly after seeing it. Less-than-ideal examples: Sussan (a clothing retailer), Apteryx (a clothing brand), Saatchi & Saatchi (an advertising agency)
- Extendable: A name should have “legs”. That means it should suggest a visual interpretation or lend itself to a number of creative executions. Examples: Momentum (a recruitment company), Frenzy (a juice brand). If you are stuck with an existing not-very-extendable brand name, all is not necessarily lost. Delivery company FedEx developed a system of linking the FedEx brand with a real English descriptive word – for example, FedEx Freight, FedEx Box or FedEx 2Day.
- Timeless: Names that capture trends (which are typically short-lived) soon begin to feel dated and will always be associated with “yesterday”. Less-than-ideal examples: Dew Drop Inn (the tea rooms your parents always went to), Ta Da!! (a women’s clothing store). FCUK had great short-term recognition, but might not turn out to be in the best long-term interest of the clothing brand.
- Transferable: Names should be portable across product, national and cultural boundaries so they can be applied consistently to meet a wide range of marketing opportunities.
- Exclusive: A name needs to be capable of being owned and protected; otherwise its value can be diluted through imitation. You need to know if it is available for registration as a trademark or domain name.
Source: Everything Design Limited and Marty Neumeier’s book The Brand Gap