Developing a good brand name is not always as easy as it seems. You have to first come up with something that is catchy and grabs the attention of someone who is potentially going to buy your product or enter your store. After all, something mundane or boring will not get people to take notice of your brand.
While you may know that brand names need to be catchy, who or where do you turn to for inspiration? Is it your friend, neighbour, the internet? Or do you turn to old movies and nature scenes? The truth is the inspiration for finding your brand name can be taken from anywhere. Read on to learn five ways and places you can find a good brand name.
There are five main ways and places you can find a good brand name. It is not all that difficult, as most of these things are available to anyone.
Determining which one of these you will choose to find inspiration for your brand name will depend on the product or store that you are looking to get off the ground. For instance, if your product is something gritty and dirty, the odds are that you will be able to find your inspiration in nature.
If your product or store is something mundane, you will want to find a way to spice up the brand to make it more exciting. For inspiration like that, you will most likely turn to your family, friends, or the internet.
How and where you go ultimately depends on you. Just make sure that the brand name that you develop will not only get you noticed but will be relevant for many decades to come.
Including those you love as well as those you spend your time with at work is a great way to find inspiration in your branding process. One of the easiest things to do is ask some or all of them for their input on what you should name your brand. Get some ideas, and then it is off to the races.
Form a committee that will oversee the selection process so that the suggestions can be easily weeded out and solidified to the top choices for the brand name. Once the brand name selection list has been dwindled to three of four, provided you are okay with what they have come up with, leave it up to a popular vote.
At the end of the vote, you will not only have a brand name for your business or product, but you will have instilled some ownership from your staff, friends, and family along the way. Getting buy-in from those you love as well as your employees will help in your personal and business life.
Now, if using your family, friends, and employees sounds unpleasant, fear not. There are more suggestions for where you can find your brand name inspiration.
Mother nature has a great way of inspiring the best in so many things if only she is given a chance. This is especially true whenever your product or store has something to do with the earth. If your product is gritty, all-natural, and screams hard-working, then mother nature is your best source of inspiration.
Take advantage of anything else that can centre your mood. Think about your product or store while looking at the peaceful, serene images around you.
As you take in the scenery, remember that you are not just skiving, you are trying to get back to what made you get into the business in the first place. Once you have found your original inspiration, the odds are that you will have found your brand name.
Make sure that whatever it is that you have come up with is one that will stand out in what is most likely an already crowded field of products or stores. As stated above, you want your product or store to jump out and scream for customers that walk by to pay attention and buy it.
The internet is good for many things, including as a source of inspiration. If the above choices do not sound like a good fit for you to come up with a brand name, take some time, and research what you are developing on the internet.
The odds are that there are several products or storefronts that are similar to yours that will clue you in on how to shape your brand name and also what to stay away from. The brand name that you choose must not be too similar to the ones that are already in use.
If you choose a name that is too similar to another brand, it may have the following unintended consequences:
While it may sound like an ingenious plan to disguise your new product or store as a popular one, it is doing nothing for your company. At some point inside your store, or when the customer gets your product home, they will notice that it is not the brand that they are used to. This will not go well for you.
It could be good at first because your product or store is better than your closest competitors, and you could make them switch to yours. It is bad because the customer is not going after your product because they want to try it and therefore may decide to be loyal to it. They are only doing it because they were confused and tricked into it.
Some shoppers may resent this approach, and you may lose them forever. You also risk never developing a strong enough brand loyalty to stay in business for the long term. No matter how you look at it, it is bad form to create a brand name that is like someone else’s. Just create and develop your own.
Another issue when using similar branding is when the competitor has trademarked the brand. For those that may not quite understand, continue reading for a brief explanation.
If a company has trademarked something, that means that they are the sole owner of that brand and brand name. Any profits received because of it rightfully belong to them. When the true owner of that brand realizes that you are using their brand name or one that is extremely similar, they have every right to sue your company.
If you are embroiled in a lawsuit over copyright infringements, the odds are that you will be losing tons of money toward legal fees and receiving lots of bad publicity. If you thought it was hard getting your business going, you are in for a rude awakening when you must fight for its existence and its profits because of a daft mistake.
When all else fails, there are a multitude of businesses out there that are more than willing to develop a brand name for you if you sign a contract with them. Some offer only branding while others may offer different kinds of services also, like:
It takes more than just a brand name to make your company stand out and scream for the attention of passing customers. Another aspect of a popular and long-living brand is developing a graphic design logo unique to your brand.
Some companies will offer graphic designs as part of the package when you hire them to develop your brand name. If this sounds tempting to you, make sure that you ask for a list of customers that they have done designs for in the past to ensure that what they offer is up to the standard you expect.
When you get the list of customers from the company, make sure that you talk to someone from there to see if they truly are satisfied with the product they received. Inquire if they have a way to quantify any profit changes before and after the use of the graphic design to see if the cost they are charging is worth the investment.
Whereas not every graphic design and brand name will function the same in terms of driving customers to your business, it is a good predictor of what you can expect as a business owner.
Find out more about Peek’s Graphic Design and Brand Identity Services.
As you have seen above, trademarking your brand name is a big deal. What good is a fantastic brand name if someone else can swoop right in and take it from under your nose? A trademark is something that needs to be handled early on in the development of your business. Some branding companies also offer to do this legwork for you.
As with anything else, research all aspects of trademarks before you agree to any deal with any company. Often, companies will charge you a markup greater than the true cost is to do the trademark registration yourself, but there are two good reasons why:
In the real world, when someone provides a service, they expect to get paid. Therefore, it only makes sense that if you are hiring a company to perform a service for you, like logo marketing or trademarking, they expect to earn a profit.
Provided the cost to trademark your brand name is not excessive, it is perfectly normal for the cost to be higher. However, research other companies’ costs before engaging in business with any particular company to ensure that you are getting the best value for your money in terms of your brand name and trademark.
With anything in the legal realm, it takes someone who knows what they are doing to get everything filed properly and on time. If legal wording and forms are not your forte, then providing a company money to do the heavy lifting for you might be more your speed.
The final cost that you are presented with should take this into account. However, if there are additional fees that are listed, make sure that you inquire about them before you sign any contract to ensure that there are no hidden fees that will balloon the final price.
Brand developers may also provide social media app development in addition to any other services. These social media apps are typically placed in the online app stores and can be downloaded by your potential customers.
Social media apps are a great way to get your brand out there and recognized by the younger generation that will be your future customers, hopefully for years to come. If you have not already hired someone to work on a social media aspect for your brand, inquire to see from the brand development company if this is a service they provide.
As with anything, ask for a list of previous customers they have provided this service to and speak with them. See if they are happy with the results of the social media app development with their brand and if they are willing to provide you with rough numbers as to profit before the app and after it.
If your brand development company does not provide social media app services and that is something you want to invest in, there are tons of other companies that are out there just dying to provide that for you. Make sure you fully research any company and its services before signing any contract.
There is an age-old saying, “Laughter is the best medicine.” This is true for those ailing, and it is true in the world of business. People love to laugh, and humour goes a long way.
Customers remember funny brand names and tell others about them, spreading them through word of mouth. This can often be the best source of advertising. In these cases, your best hope is that someone found your brand name so funny that they had to try your product and that they were very satisfied with it.
Finding a funny name to call your brand is really not that difficult. Just sit back and let the immature you ponder your product or store and see what you come up with. It should not take long. You can use:
Puns are perhaps the easiest form of humour that you can utilise when developing a brand name. Puns are especially helpful when your product or store is a little bit boring in nature. What other fun way to spice it up and scream for attention other than making it funny?
For instance, if you have a small storefront that sells table salt and other odds and ends, you can name it “A Salt & Battery.” The name of the business is funny and begs people to come inside and make a purchase.
Even if the pun does not make someone chuckle when they walk by, they will most certainly tell their friends and family about “that one store” or “that one product” that had the ridiculous name. So, even if you did not earn a specific person’s business, you most certainly will earn someone who hears about your brand from them.
Another way to find a good name for your brand is by using off-colour humour, something that the UK has done best for many years. Although you should be careful about how vulgar you get with your branding, using something slightly off-colour makes people smile, laugh, and hopefully buy your product or enter your business.
For instance, if your product is something simple and common, like a loo seat, naming it something like Schitz’s loo seats will cause someone to do a double take when walking down the aisle of the rest of the boring loo seats. Now, you not only have their attention as they try to figure out if they see what they think they see, but hopefully, you have gotten their business as well.
Finding a unique brand name will take some research, but it is not impossible. Far from it, actually. Several websites offer to search for you to ensure that what you have developed is unique. However, there is no need to spend your money on a company when you can do this part yourself.
Simply navigate to https://www.gov.uk./search-for-trademark to determine if what you have developed has been trademarked already. If it has not, the odds are that there has been no official claim on the brand name you have chosen. Therefore, it should be safe for you to use.
Additionally, put your brand name into the search field on the internet and see if there are any hits to the specific wording. This will clue you into a couple of different things:
Even though something is not trademarked does not mean that it is not being used by another company. If you truly want your brand name to be unique to you and your business, make sure you research to see if there is anyone else using it first.
Let's face it, naming your product or company can feel like navigating a wild jungle of opinions and trademark obstacles. But fear not! At Peek, we’re here to turn your naming journey into an exciting adventure.
Say goodbye to the frustration of being stuck with your own ideas. Our innovative workshops and tried-and-true 4-step brand naming process have been honed and perfected over 15 years of successful ventures.
