Three principles of naming your new brand
The importance of “name” in human society couldn’t be emphasized more, and so does the name of a new brand. A brand name is the carrier of differentiation and brand value, which is so crucial that a good brand name should be creative and meaningful. However, coming up with such brand name can be tough and painful. Based on our experience and market trends, think™ concludes brand-naming with three applicable principles as following.
Before start naming, you should do a market analysis about your current competitors and map out their positioning so that you obtain a general idea about where they are and most importantly, where you would probably be. After finding out your position, you are ready to name your brand with the following tips.
01
Naming by
If you have just one product or all of your products share the same attributes, you might want to name your brand based on those attributes. Simplify it with just a few keywords and put some of them together.
※ Descriptive brand name
Our client Dr. Wu developed a Chinese medicine balm that helps rejuvenate the skin more quickly and efficiently. So we named this product “Hancure (漢速敷)” to highlight the value of Chinese herbal medicine and to emphasize timeliness (速) and functionality (敷). We also came up with the English name Hancure (漢方治療) so that it can be adapted to additional products in the future.
※ Composite brand name
If you want to stress two components, go for a composite name. A good example is Instagram, combined from “instant” and “telegram.” Its name easily expresses the core functions at the first glance.
02
Naming by
The arguably trickiest way to come up with a brand name is to derive from a non-existing or totally unrelated word. You may need more marketing budget to educate your customers but once you succeed, you certainly stand out in the crowd. There are two types of abstract brand name:
※ Coined brand name
If you can’t find a proper word for your brand name from the dictionary, invent one! The world leading GPS brand “Garmin” is actually a combination of the founders’ names: Gary Burrell and Min H. Kao. Isn’t it surprisingly simply?
※ Abstract brand name
You can also borrow a word that is barely connected to your industry. One iconic example is Apple. The fruit “apple” was so common that hardly anyone would associate it with electronics. However Apple created a wow effect by using such brand name and soon became the most identical global brand in its industry.
03
Naming by
You can also associate your brand with some other words to convey certain ideas. It is usually called “suggestive name” or “association name.” By leading your customers to think, you naturally strengthen the impression you may want to create.
Social media Twitter named itself after an English word “twitter,” a repeated light tremulous sound that birds make. This vivid word indicates the image of “short” and “communication,” which best describe Twitter’s functions. Another example is the Taiwanese local supermarket “RT-Mark” (大潤發). It hints that by shopping here, you would be “benefited”(潤) and “fortunate” (發), which is definitely welcomed by Asian culture.
There are no so called “the best” or “the worst” brand names but only “suitable” ones. We suggest you come up with two to three candidates and give them a thorough search of existing trademarks to avoid future legal issues. Also test the pronunciation to make sure it sounds right. Ever suffered from chaos of naming your brand? We hope the principles above would ease your pain and help you out
