Generating a name for your brand

Brand name generation may be one of the most difficult tasks in branding, what you need is an experienced brand naming company to help you.

Brand naming

But why is brand name generation so difficult?

Finding a name for your product or company can be a daunting task. Not only because everyone will have an opinion on the name (and most likely be attached to this opinion) but most words have already been used and are protected by trademarks.

Often, we will generate well over 100 names over a period of weeks until we arrive at a name that could actually work. Finding an available URL, the different meaning of words in languages and cultures and the meaning of words to different people are just some of the obstacles to overcome. Parent brand names are developed with sub-brand, endorsed brand and product/service names in mind. Sometimes a name's acronym spells out something undesirable or the words result in an odd phrase when run together in a URL.

In many industries, the most meaningful or powerful words and phrases are already used in competitors' names.

So what helps an organisation develop an effective name?

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Who will ultimately decide the name?
• One person or a team? Whoever that is should be involved in the criteria-building process.
• What kind of brand are you naming? Company, consumer product, business service, or event?
• What is the expected life of the brand name?
• Does the name fit into a larger family of names?
• Will it be used only in the UK. or will it go global?
• Who is your primary audience for the brand names?
• Are you creating a new category or joining an existing one? If joining a category, what are your competitors' names?
• What are the primary strategies for building your brand?

It's important that at the beginning of the brand naming project the decision makers are identified and the key naming evaluation criteria are agreed. Ideally the brand positioning and the brand architecture would be developed before commencing too. As we are generating name ideas we tend to buy the URLs on the spot for the stronger options, just in case. We conduct a simple trademark search and background internet research on the final few names before commissioning a full search with a trademark lawyer. This helps keep the legal costs down and minimises wasted time on already taken names.

Our recommendations are then presented to the key decision makers for a final evaluation against the naming criteria and for a choice to be made.

How can you help as a brand naming company?

Our clients would recommend that you consider one of Peek's brand naming workshops for your business. They are fun, productive and highly effective. 

Book a workshop: Peek's Brand Name Generation Workshop
Read more about: Brand naming, Product naming, Service Naming