Naming process

Week 4

When creating a brand name, which factors should be taken into concern?

The law is one of the biggest things that shall be considered, if the company want the name to be legally protected.

When trying to find a suitable name for the brand various types of brainstorming are used. When you have been brainstorming ideas, and notice that no idea is stupid, therefore the list of potential names can be very long and you must go through them all, test them and retry again to find the perfect name for the brand, it helps to put the name into a content so that you actually get the feel of it, the process is long. The name must live up to the brand goals, performance criteria, and availability in a sector, also the name must be attractive for the targeted audience.

Then when you have the potential names, involve the stakeholders. Hand them the different names, also the names should be putted into content so the stakeholders can get the feel of the different names. One “exercise” to run trough with the group is to let all of them read trough the names and the names in different contents, to get them to form their own opinion, after this have them all to read the name and the name in content out loud for the rest of the group. The group shall then discuss the different names in its turn, what challenges the name?

Keep in mind that the brand name is an asset for the company and must be easy to find on google.

Renaming, is what you do if the brand already has a name, but it doesn’t work the way it should. In the book they present 10 different principles when renaming.

1. Why rename? First, to make everyone involved in the process and have positive attitude about renaming, make sure they understand why the change is needed.

2. Research the process. You can´t just like that change a name, investigate how a name change will affect the brand, because it will affect the consisting brand, it´s communications and equity.

3. What choices do you have? It is easier to commit to the renaming if you already have a few options.

4. What are you naming? Before choosing the name, think about what you are naming, try to be objective and decide what your name shall say.

5. No, to trendy names! Don´t choose a name just because it sounds trendy. A trendy name wears out quite quickly when the trends change.

6. Meaningful and powerful. Try to find a name, that means something, it must be memorable and powerful, reflect the brand. One of the biggest priorities should be that it must be easy to find on google, amazon and similar.

7. Choose a “open” name. Think big, yes, your company´s audience is for now, only in a specific country, city or a trend. The name shall work also if the company expend to another country, city or when the treads change.

8. The whole picture. When changing the name, the brand often must rethink the communications strategies, colours, story, tone of voice, taglines etc. It’s a huge process.

9. Own your name. Make sure that you can own your name, check with patent and trademark offices, common-law uses, URLs, and other sources that you will use.

10. Be confident. When your presenting the new name to your audience, do it with confidence, ensure them that you are doing it for the better and present the story. You shall also do the transition from the old, to the new name as easy, fast and efficient as possible. Do not have to names on the market, it only confuses people.