I recently came across a brand name that made me smile….for obvious reasons. It wasn’t even a big brand.
Wait for it……..Lino Ritchie, discount carpets and vinyl. Located in Finglas and one of Ireland’s leading carpet, flooring and vinyl companies for over 30 years. Strapline: “We carpet your home as if it was our own”. Brilliantly simple and effective! I’m sure that you have your own favourites.
The art of creating names of companies, services, and products however isn’t always easy. You have to get it absolutely right. We have all seen examples of brands getting it wrong.
According to Marketing professors, even peculiar names, by themselves, may mean nothing to begin with but if backed by a successful branding campaign, they will come to signify whatever the companies want them to mean. Clever names can also help companies, though their can benefits only go so far, especially if customers are unhappy with a product or service. Your name doesn’t really impact if customer experiences are negative.
What you should be looking for in a brand is something unique and identifiable that is differentiated from other brands. The success of a name is much more a function of the implementation of the branding strategy than of the name itself. Two of the biggest names that have emerged in the past decade are Amazon and Starbucks. Does Starbucks mean coffee? Absolutely not. How about Orange? Do you envisage a glorious juicy Jaffa? Doubtful! The point is we get to know a company and that starts to create an image.
So what do you need to consider when creating a brand name? “The three most important things for a company to do is make sure it has the legal rights to use the word, that the word does not translate into something embarrassing or negative in a foreign language, and that the word carries no other undesirable connotations -Professor David Reibstein
Here are some additional suggestions to consider:
- Focus on the values your brand name should convey
- What is the brand’s identity or personality?
- What is its demographic market?
- What sets this brand apart from competitors’ brands?
Once you have brainstormed and tested it on a focus group ask yourself the following questions:
- Is the word distinctive?
- Does it encapsulate the essence of the company, service, or product?
- Does it evoke a positive response?
- Is the brand name already in use?
- Is it an existing word, or is it similar to an existing word? If so, what are the associations with the word?
- Does it consist of or resemble a foreign term, and if so, what are that term’s associations? How does it translate? (Many companies now adapt global branding strategies).
- Does your brand name reflect the products and the personality of your business?
- Can it be trademarked?
One last and most important piece of advice is whatever the name you chose it should be a choice that holds your brand values at heart. Only when your whole brand reflects your brand values can your brand gain traction with your customers.
Debbie Lewis is a Creative Thinker and Customer Support Executive at Happy Creative, a full service marketing and creative agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
