Choosing the Right Name for Your Brand: The Basics
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Who am I?
Your number one question as you begin the journey to naming your brand is all about who your brand is, whether it’s a name for a new company or attempting a refresh for an older brand name. Either way - you have a long (but very fun!) road in front of you.
This is just the first post in a series I’m putting together on how to create an engaging, beautiful brand that resonates with the people who matter most: your current and potential customers. Today we start with the basics for naming your brand!
Step One: Brand Exercises
There is A LOT of information out there about different types of brand exercises you and your team can or should do to figure out exactly who your brand is, what it stands for, what celebrity it would be or what it likes to do on the weekend. These exercises can take hours, days or months - it all depends on you, your team and how much effort you want or need to invest to really figure out the essence of your brand. I’ll delve into different exercise options in a later post and even provide a brand questionnaire exercise for you to get started, but for now, let’s begin with the basic questions:
What do you sell?
What problem(s) do you solve?
What are the key benefits of your product or service?
What makes your product or service unique?
What words or phrases come to mind when you think of your brand?
Step Two: Generating Name Options
Answering these questions gives you the best start in identifying key words that really mean something about your brand. The more complex and time-consuming exercises will provide you with even more options, so take as much time as you and your team need to brainstorm those foundation words before moving to step two.
Generating name options can be done with as many or few people as you see fit. I’ve brainstormed names by myself, with large executive teams and in groups of 2-4 people: they all worked, but I find that collaboration makes for the best names. One of the largest and most impressive branding companies, Lexicon Branding, engages multiple groups of people - some who know what the product is and some who don’t in order to get people to “think outside the box.” (They also have a worldwide network of linguists they lean on to develop potential names… so lucky!)
Brainstorm beyond the obvious during these collaboration sessions - think about emotions, combinations of syllables, location, history and the core values of your brand. Any of these concepts can lead to a brand name. Start your list - there’s no right, wrong or indifferent. Just keep going and generate the list. Then come back to it a few days later, highlight those names that really resonate with you and your team - then on to step 3.
Expert advice: Ben Pieratt has a nice succinct blog post that covers his 3-step process to naming a product - my favorite advice comes in his step two. Take an emotion that your brand evokes and associate it with a person, place or thing. One of his examples is “Exclusive = Studio 54 = Velvet™” - it’s a smart strategy to brainstorm your way out of a box and start making connections you may not have originally considered.
Step Three: Make Sure it’s Unique and Available
After the brainstorms, you’re going to have a nice, long list of potential brand names - exciting! Any of those names could work, right? Well, not exactly… other people may have had the same idea and already trademarked the name or gobbled up the domain (whether they’re actually using it or not).
I use a number of domain search sites like Godaddy and Domainhole to see if the domain is available. Generally, the shorter the name and more common the term, the harder it’s going to be to find a domain that’s available and inexpensive - but remember, the shorter and easy-to-remember the domain, the better. Using Ben’s example from earlier - Velvet is a great name, but you’re not going to find that domain available (although in this case, the folks who have it could be doing so much more with the site).
Try different combinations of your names and what you do to find a reasonable domain. I like to use a name / domain generator during the process to get my brain out of the normal channels and start thinking outside my normal. Start with nameboy.com or namelix.com. They’re going to come back with some super silly names and some you may consider choosing - but it’s a springboard to get to where you need to go. Don’t forget - during this process, make a spreadsheet with options, availability and pricing to keep up with everything!
A common question I hear is “Do I really need a .com domain ending?” My answer - absolutely, if you’re a commercial business. Domains ending in .net are normally used by internet service providers and .org is reserved for nonprofits. This site gives you a great overview of some other domain endings. Now say you want to be hip and break up a word with that precious “dot.” If it fits your business, there might be an argument for it, like bit.ly - but if you really think about your product or service and this feels even a little bit forced or cliché - don’t do it. Stick with .com to avoid confusion and help people find your site easily.
You will also need to perform a trademark search to ensure that your brand name isn’t infringing on one that already exists in your industry. I highly recommend employing legal counsel to do this for you to ensure that it’s done correctly - avoiding future lawsuits is key.
Step Four: Feedback
Use this one carefully - get feedback from just enough of your employees, friends and family - don’t overwhelm yourself with opinions. It’s like naming a baby - if you tell too many people, you’re bound to change your mind! You and your naming team will know what feels best - if nothing seems to fit, don’t force it. Go back to the drawing board with a different angle or bring in a consultant or agency to help facilitate a branding session to bring in new insight.
Let us know about your naming struggles or successes in the comments below. And good luck finding the perfect brand name! Keep coming back each week for more in our Branding Basics series.