8 Must-Have Tips to Increase the Value of Your Brand Naming Toolbox
What’s the first thing people notice about your brand? Is it your website? Or is it your social media? Maybe the friendly voice on the other side of the phone? Spoiler alert: It’s none of the above. It’s your brand name — which means you need to load your brand naming toolbox with useful strategies.
Entrepreneurs and businesses spend countless hours developing their business concept, product or service; developing a standout brand name and identity is equally one of the best investments you can make. There’s a lot to consider when creating your brand name: psychology, competition, culture, clarity, and availability. The science behind naming your brand takes more effort than claiming the flashiest word in the dictionary.
Here are some tips to stuff in your brand naming toolbox:
Build something new
Think creatively. It’s not necessary to develop a name that’s over-the-top, but something that’s not already associated with something else. Think of it like you’re creating a new word in the English language. For example, a toy company shouldn’t brand themselves as “toys.com,” since “toys” is associated with a spectrum of products, not a particular brand.
When it comes to using typical words as a brand name, it’s easy for your brand to become lost in search engines. However, combining two ideas that already exist and making them your own can be powerful. You may know popular examples of this: Facebook, Fabletics, and HelloFresh to name a few. Combining two polar ideas and making them something of your own has the effect of a blank slate.
For Facebook, you have impressions of what “face” and “book” are, but together, you have no impression (yet). That gives consumers the opportunity to make their own impressions and associate your brand name with something positive or negative, (depending upon the impress you’re seeking). Therefore, creating an original brand name allows people to give it their own meaning. After that, it’s up to you to make that a positive meaning.
Consider words’ connotations
Not all brands rely on consumers to create meaning. Brand names can also use unexpected words to symbolize their product.
This is prevalent in the car industry. Take Mustang, Challenger and Jaguar, for example. Even if you didn’t know they were the name of a car, the words naturally give off an electric and authoritative connotation.
Phone companies do this, but take another spin. They want to deliver an innovative vibe, which Samsung’s “Instinct” personifies.
The creators didn’t reinvent the wheel with this name — they aimed to gain momentum using people’s preconceived notions of “Instinct.” their logic was: “Instinct is an expansive name that suggests quickness, intuition and responsiveness.”
[Tip: Some words may have negative connotations in other parts of the world — be wary and do research.]
Make it relevant
Your brand name should reflect your service and attitude. When brand names are outlandish compared with your service, they become obscure. For example, Samsung’s “Milk Music” app was just referred to as “Milk” on its logo. The streaming service didn’t last long before it was shut down in 2016. It’s too late to say, but a clearer brand name could have kept the company afloat.
Besides making it relevant, meet in the middle between too broad and too specific. Making it sway too much one way or another can do your brand a disservice. Bodybuilding.com launched initially for a niche fitness market, and has evolved significantly over the years. The name sounds like it’s exclusively for people with chiseled abs and bulging biceps. In reality, it’s evolved into a hub for all things fitness, nutrition and apparel — with no regard for a type of exercise training or body types. The brand name is considered by some to be too narrow for the market they serve, which may discourage those who aren’t bodybuilders to follow their brand.
Zooming in too much can also be detrimental to your brand. Dollar Shave Club has taken off by delivering shaving products to people’s door. Their rapidfire success in shaving products fueled an expansion into skin care, hair care, dental products and more. With this expansion into the larger men’s hygiene market, they’d better convey the company they are today, yet rebranding would be costly.
Enhance your brand naming toolbox
Numerous brand names are successful simply because they have a nice ring to it. YouTube, Dunkin’ Donuts, and 7Eleven all roll off the tongue gracefully. That’s because they use more literary tactics. Here are just a few tactics to load your brand naming toolbox:
Alliteration: Repetition of the same sound in the beginning of adjacent words. Examples: Coca-Cola, Krispy Kreme, PayPal
Rhyme: Similar sounds at the end of a word. Examples: StubHub, 7Eleven
Metaphor: One word that has an emotional connection to another. Examples: Sprint, Amazon
Morphemes: The smallest meaningful unit in language. Example: FedEx
Assonance: Similar sounds within a word. Examples: YouTube, Haagen-Dazs
[Tip: Notice how all of these are easy to pronounce. That makes it more welcoming to people hearing your brand name for the first time.]
How to brainstorm your brand name
When creating a name for your brand, sometimes it’s best to get an opinion from a fresh pair of eyes. An agency will look objectively at your brand concept and create brand concepts without issues of competitive conflict, trademark infringement, multicultural conflict or otherwise. At Into the Blue, we can be your brand naming toolbox by:
Gathering focus groups
Exploring new concepts
Conducting competitive research
Discovering emotions, impressions, verbs, and names associated with your brand
Considering multicultural influence
Research existing trademarks
[Tip: Don’t name your brand before researching trademarks. If your desired domain is already taken with “.com,” find another or seek to buy it.]
With a progressive, easy-to-remember name like Into the Blue, we know how to elicit emotions and thoughts into our audience. To create a brand name that will land you business, traffic and expansion, email [email protected] today.
