Brand Naming and the Role of Marketing Research

“Naming a brand isn’t like naming a baby.” — Hayes Roth, Chief Marketing Officer at Landor

Preamble

The aim of this article is to lay out methods for naming brands and the techniques for generating and creating names, in addition to addressing the role of marketing research in this process. During my research, I came across many Western firms whose main activity is generating names — which suggests the process isn’t as simple as some might imagine.

The name chosen is the first and most important indicator of the services or products a company offers, and a key factor in remembering the name later and not forgetting it. The process of finding (creating) names is the most sensitive from a strategic perspective. An effective name acts like a compass that helps you reach the destinations you want via the shortest, easiest routes — and finding the innovative name is only the beginning of a long journey.

Brand-Naming Strategies

Recently I attended #Sundayat_Alabadli — a session organized by Dr. Ubaid Alabadli at his home — with the veteran of branding and naming, Ziyad Organji. One of his discussion topics revolved around the naming strategies global firms follow. He mentioned three main types, each with advantages and disadvantages. Before you start generating new names, go back to the strategy you follow: does it allow you to invent new names for new products, or must the product be a sub-brand of the parent company’s name? If you don’t have a clear naming strategy, think about adopting one before you think about generating names.

Before You Start Generating Names

The first and most important question: do we really need a name? Too many product and brand names in a company’s portfolio cause customer confusion. The strongest local example of an excessive number of brand names: at one point Saudi Telecom Company had so many product names that the customer felt confused. The company caught on and started consolidating some of the names — and both the earlier and the later step cost them a great deal.

What message do you want the name to convey?
What benefits will the brand convey to potential customers?
Think about all target segments.

Should the name be abstract, like Prius? Or suggestive, like Flickr? Or descriptive, like PlayStation? Or realistic, like Old Spice Swagger? Or compound, like FedEx? Or entirely new, like Keek?

Remember to generate as many names as possible — because once you screen the proposed names and exclude those already taken, you’ll be left with two names out of every ten suggested, sometimes just one.

Choose the right environment for the brainstorming session: I recommend getting away from the work environment and sitting in a comfortable setting that encourages the person to let their thoughts run free.

Simplicity is the most important rule in choosing an effective name. It makes the name easier to pass from mouth to mouth, and the shorter the name, the easier it is to remember. Memorability is a key factor in any brand’s success, because building awareness for any brand is very expensive.

Globally Adopted Practices

“There are no universal rules for finding a perfect name.” — Derek Thompson

I’ve collected for you a set of innovative methods for generating brand names. Note that the list below isn’t exhaustive — there are surely many other methods that serve the same purpose.

Word Storming: Generate many names first and judge them later. In name-generation sessions, the creation part must be completely separated from the judging part — because passing any judgment during creation has a negative effect on all attendees. (This is the approach currently used in marketing departments.)

Descriptive name: Create a name that describes the task or function the product performs. Examples: Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Pathfinder.

Suffix & Prefix: Add a letter or word before or after a well-known name, as Apple did with many of its products, or as Saudi Telecom did with QuickNet. There’s also a strategy of taking a segment from a positive word and adding a name to it — for example, “Ex” from “Excellent” — as used in some of the most famous brands: Rolex, Kleenex, Playtex.

Combined name: Create a compound name. This method is widely used because of how many names are registered and taken. Examples: PhotoShop, AirWick, Facebook, Caravan, Newsweek, SunSilk, Synovate.

Gibberish/Fanciful: Create an entirely new name — one that doesn’t exist in any dictionary. Examples: Google, Doritos, Tumblr, Kodak, Adobe, Shell.

Blending two names together. Example: Pictionary = Picture + Dictionary.

Use an acronym. Example: the “Tam” service offered by Elm — an Arabic acronym from the first letters of “Traffic Transactions.” Another example: Aramco. Note that some experts don’t recommend acronyms because they’ve been shown to be less memorable than other names.

Use a person’s name or a place name in the brand. A drawback of this method is that the brand becomes tied to the fate of the person it’s named after — that person’s decline or reputation damage can kill the brand. Examples: George Foreman grill, Jennifer Aniston perfume.

If it’s tied to a specific region’s name, the product may not succeed when you try to expand geographically. Example: “Qassim Coffee Blend”; another example, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken).

Start from the end (the outcome): Assume the product exists, and lay out in front of you the marketing or sales phrases you might use to market and sell this product. Then build a suitable name suggesting them. Example: you have an instant coffee with great taste and an aroma like freshly roasted beans … call it “Taster’s Choice.”

You can also think about the outcome the customer will get from consuming the product or service. Among the best examples are the books Consumerology and Slideology, where the title hints at what you’ll gain from reading the book.

Swim against the current: With similar products, look at your competitors and try to ensure the name isn’t a cliché like theirs. The different name is the one that will shine amid these clichés. The following example mentions many car models that end with the same letter (A): Achieva, Aurora, Bravada, Celica, Corolla, Cressida, Integra, Maxima, Miata, Previa, Tredia.

Visual imagery: You can visualize what this product or service might represent — a color, an animal, a mountain, a lake. Imagining the processes involved in consuming the product or using the service can lead you to an inventive name. Example: Kollmorgen Pancake Motor.

Use supporting tools: the best known are dictionaries and lexicons. I recommend Mukhtar al-Sihah dictionary.

Listen to your customers: Take the name from contributions of potential customers themselves. This is done through marketing research, which we’ll cover in the next section.

Naming Brands Using Marketing Research

“It doesn’t matter if your brand name makes sense to you. It really only matters if your brand name is meaningful to consumers.” — Susan Gunelius

Quick Desk Research: Start with a quick desk-research effort to gather brand names of competing or similar services, in order to avoid naming your brand the same — or similarly to — them.

Marketing research is usually used either to pick the best candidate name from several proposed and available names, or to generate the names themselves — through interviewing the relevant target segment, explaining the concept to them, and then brainstorming with them via focus groups (qualitative research) or via face-to-face interviews (quantitative research) to obtain statistically-supported data. In quantitative research, there is often a ready list from the research commissioner, prepared via brainstorming sessions. The research’s role here is to rank the names by the target segment’s preferences. There are several ranking methods, some of which use statistical models applying preference techniques.

Marketing research won’t tell you everything; you must keep in mind from the start that it is only a means to help you reach the most suitable name (the goal). It helps reduce the risks tied to choosing any name, but it doesn’t dispense with independent risk analysis either.

Benefits of Naming Brands Using Marketing Research

Identifying the best name among a set of names, thereby supporting the decision-making process.
Identifying confusion points or negative associations linked to a name you’ve decided to choose.
The research results may recommend developing an entirely different list from the one currently proposed.
Getting a neutral opinion from external parties far from the main stakeholders.

Checklist After Identifying Candidate Names

The proposed name(s) should be inventive, not conventional or worn out.
They should not conflict with the identity of the entity offering the service.
They should not carry meanings that are negative or associated with negative meanings according to the customs, culture, or norms of the country.
They should not be among the names that are hard to remember.
They should not have any negative associations.
They should not be long — note that the new generation likes brevity in everything. Look at how they write when discussing things on social networks.
They should not be pronounceable in more than one way. Verizon spent a lot of money just to fix the correct pronunciation of its name in people’s minds.

One Final Piece of Advice

Bear in mind that the name you’ve chosen may have already been used by another party, or may be reserved — whether at the ministry, as accounts on social networks, or as a website. Make sure to read the relevant laws or terms in the country where you want to launch the brand, so that all your effort isn’t wasted because of an unmet condition.

Note: The views in this article are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

Sources

Brand Storming: Managing Brands in the Era of Complexity — Chapter 7
http://www.namestormers.com/
http://catchwordbranding.com/
http://www.namella.com/
Just Name It — A Brand Name Development Guide.
10 Most Common Naming Mistakes
33 Tips & Tactics For Generating Names
5 Tips To Better Brand Names
How to Name a Product — 10 Tips for Product Naming Success
Trademark Regulations — Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Industry

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