NAMING
What’s in a name? A product’s name is often the cornerstone of a brand – the identity that helps capture the hearts and minds of customers. The right name can connect customers to a product’s essential attributes. Naming a product or a company is based on many things, including market and strategic considerations, product benefits, brand personality, tonality, and poetics. A name must encompass everything from message and meaning to essence and emotion. What’s in a name? Everything.To develop the most powerful names, we use a 6-step process that approaches naming from both rational and emotional angles. It involves people rather than computer name-generating programs – experienced professionals who understand the indelible link between strategy and creativity. We call this approach ASCENT™ because it elevates your brand and enhances its visibility and allure.
1 ANALYSIS Getting to know you
Through Analysis, we first determine the goals of the project and the environment within which we are operating – before we can get down to the “DNA” of the brand. This often involves a Brand-storming workshop with key members of the brand team to identify the salient brand attributes. Or if time and budget don’t allow, it can also be a smaller input session.
2 STRATEGY What sets you apart
Strong name ideation begins with a Strategy. This is the foundation upon which successful naming efforts are built. In this phase, we explore your brand character by identifying all product attributes that contribute to the name – both physical and emotional. This gives us a direction in which to proceed.
3 CREATIVITY Let the names begin
It takes Creativity to bring your product to life. We explore possible names in myriad ways, going to the root and exploring etymology and derivations; looking at prefixes and suffixes; and considering phonetics, poetics, alliteration, word clippings, and other useful methods of name ideation. We also explore descriptive names (features or benefits) and made-up words and names.
4 EVALUATION Have we met your criteria?
In the Evaluation phase, our goal is to give you a diverse list of potential names for consideration to see if we’ve met your criteria. In round 1, we typically generate dozens of names, then narrow down our list based on your feedback on the appropriateness of various criteria: strategic relevance, imagery, tonality and ease of pronunciation, uniqueness, brand personality, and memorability. Plus the most important thing of all: initial gut reaction.
5 NARROWING Only the strong survive
The Narrowing phase is where we get your feedback, remove names that don’t meet your criteria, and sharpen our focus. You’ll end up with a list of names and directions, from which we launch into round 2. Here we refine existing names and generate new ones. In round 2, we deliver fewer names, but more in the direction identified in round 1.
6 TESTING The real acid test
The final stage, Testing, is optional, depending on your budget and timing. This market research can confirm how you feel about a name or reveal new and important insights. Even if you don’t undergo formal market research, we recommend some form of informal feedback. Though we don’t conduct research, we can recommend companies with the resources to carry out this work.
Our goal: unforgettable names
Whether you need a company name, a product name, or a program name (including acronyms), Brand Essence Solutions can help you find the right one – a name that reflects who you are and what your brand is so people will remember it.