The Essential Elements of Effective Brand Naming.

Brand naming is one of the toughest decisions when first developing your brand. The naming process can be intimidating unless you’re one of those lucky few struck by an aha moment, leading you to the perfect name. Unfortunately, the eureka effect only exists for the minority, and most companies will need a brand naming strategy. 

When naming a brand, most understand that it must represent your company in personality, products, and, more recently, culture. Finding a name that fits and is available can be challenging, but it’s worth the effort and is essential to every brand strategy. 

You’ll build your life around your new business, investing time, money, and other resources into its development. A significant part of your success depends on how you present the company to others; that all starts with your name.

This article will give you everything you need to create a brand name framework. Here is what you will learn:

• A clear understanding of what brand naming is. 
• The basics of brand naming.
• Brand naming examples from the five buckets.
• Three key brand naming strategies.
• How to rebrand with a new & improved brand name.

What is Brand Naming?

Brand naming, or business naming, involves creating a unique and memorable name for a company, product, or service. This process considers various factors, including the target audience, industry trends, and competitive landscape. When working with a branding agency, a professional namer helps develop an effective and impactful name that accurately reflects the brand’s identity. 

A well-crafted brand name is crucial for building brand recognition, establishing a solid market presence, and differentiating a business from its competitors. It can strengthen brand resonance, enhance brand recall, and improve overall business success. 

Brand Naming Basics

Choosing a name for your brand or business is exciting but challenging. On the one hand, you want a name that accurately reflects your brand’s identity and resonates with your target audience. On the other hand, you want to avoid spending months agonizing over the perfect name only to find out that it violates another company’s trademark.

Before brainstorming ideas, keep these brand naming basics in mind.

1. A poorly chosen brand name is not the end of the world. Your name doesn’t need Shakespearean wit or an earth-shattering gravitas to attract customers, and renaming is always an option (as we’ll detail below). So relax!
2. Brand naming requires a commitment. You’ll be building your marketing around this name and using it as the fulcrum on which you’ve built the company, so it does matter. Proper testing and market research can help here, which we’ll cover briefly.

Brand names are typically summations of what a company does, its goals in the marketplace, or how it hopes to impact the world. In most cases, simplicity is the name of the game. Restaurants are a great example of this.

From Six Inches to Iconic: The Foot-Long Journey of Subway’s Name

Did you know that when Subway was launched in 1965, it was first known as Pete’s Submarine Sandwiches? Today, subway is an iconic brand, but its founders opted for a more direct naming convention when it first opened. Things paid off, and Pete’s could evolve its name into something catchier.

Naming and branding go hand in hand. Consider what your company does, what you sell, or your services. How can you best represent yourself to a new customer who needs to learn what you do?

Brand Naming Examples By Category

Brand names fall into one of several categories based on the name development strategy or what they’re designed to do. Here’s a curated list of brand name examples to help you brainstorm your next big brand name idea. 

Honorifics: Brands named in honor of people (usually company founders) or based on the celebrity persona the founder holds:

• McAfee Corp.
• McDonald’s
• Calvin Klein

Metaphors: Evocative names that aren’t directly descriptive but have a poetic element that sticks out, often resembling their brand personality:

• Midas
• Gorilla Tough
• Amazon

Acronyms: Shortening a longer, descriptive name into a bite-size phrase:

• CVS (Consumer Value Stores)
• BMW (Bavarian Motor Works)
• GEICO (Government Employees Insurance Company)

Descriptors: Describing a core feature, function, or desired association of the brand:

• Whole Foods
• Facebook
• Restoration Hardware

Branded Names: Invented names that are usually easier to trademark:

• Venmo
• Lego
• Nike

Hopefully, this list explains how the perfect brand naming idea comes in many forms and flavors. Serving as just a taste, this isn’t an exhaustive list of categories, but most business name ideas fall into one of these five buckets. We can see how these names fit into the overall brand architecture for their respective businesses, helping to define the brand for more congruent brand awareness.

The Role of Brand Value in Brand Naming

Start your brand naming process by looking at each category and applying your brand value propositions to these frameworks. Naming is often an “I’ll know it when I hear it” sort of deal, so throw everything you can at the wall and see if a good name sticks. You are not looking at a polished name just yet, but the creative process will help you move in a particular direction.

It helps you think broadly about your brand purpose and values. After all, brand names are broad by nature to encapsulate many distinct products and services in a company’s portfolio.

Restaurants like Pete’s Submarine Sandwiches, Pizza Hut, or Firehouse Subs can avoid basic naming conventions. The problem is that such a direct approach offers little creative differentiation, which is crucial for FMCG and CPG brands. 

Brick-and-mortar retailers don’t have to worry as much about this, given that a more significant part of their business comes from in-person foot traffic. But when selling to retailers, consumer packaged goods companies must have a name that stands out.

Creating Your Brand Naming Strategy

Like other business branding and marketing efforts, a systematic process is the most important aspect of a brand naming strategy. It creates guidelines for exploring creativity and keeping team communication on the same page. Here are three steps to follow in your brand name strategy.

Lead With Market Research

Though it should go without saying that in 2023, brand naming needs to be supported by market research. This is an essential step for effective brand positioning. Common topics reviewed include the following:

• What imagery the name evokes.
• Memorability.
• Differentiation from key competitors.
• Target demographic perceptions.
• Emotional context.

Put some thought into the naming process. Then, when you are ready to explore different opportunities with a naming professional, have a well-crafted brand naming brief that provides them with documentation. Hence, they will fully understand the brand naming direction you hope to travel.

Explore Creative Concepts 

While we recommended a brand naming brief, we also recognize how sometimes rules are made to be broken. Let your naming copywriter explore inside and outside-of-the-box concepts. One of their ideas may excite you, and you can see its long-term impact across marketing materials and your brand logo design. In this scenario, hang on to the idea and test it for consumer acceptance. 

Perform Brand Name Testing

Brand research only represents a portion of the data necessary for effective brand naming. Naming research can (and should) include panel testing to see how to determine how it speaks to your target market. Existing brands can capture these insights as a part of a brand audit, whereas new companies may need to validate their impact through outreach methods. 

Testing determines whether your research and strategic process have led you to the correct name. 

Work with a full-stack branding agency like ours that provides hard data for each option. Such companies often use a mix of customer surveys, focus groups, A/B tests, and sentiment analyses to determine how a name may resonate with an audience. For companies just starting, this type of feedback can be like a lighthouse keeping your ship on course.

Like a product naming process, every word matters and speaks to an audience uniquely.

How To Rebrand When Things Go Wrong

What if I Choose Wrong? Is It Possible to Rebrand? Great question.

Remember that nothing is set in stone; a brand name can change or evolve. And not every brand has to change to become socially acceptable, as with Pearl Milling Company.

Plenty of companies start with a name but change it after the company matures or its services pivot in an unexpected direction. And some opt to change their names when they reach a critical mass of popularity that renders certain aspects redundant:

• Apple Computers -> Apple
• Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spices -> Starbucks
• Dunkin’ Donuts -> Dunkin’

It’s easy to see why these companies began with more descriptive names before transitioning into a new name that is sleeker and more compact. Once you build some brand equity, you have a little more creative freedom, but for those starting, it helps to have a name that’s easy to understand. Simple and descriptive is your rule of thumb.

And no brand is ever too big to consider a company naming adjustment. Remember when Walmart hyphenated its name? In 2017, the company officially rebranded itself (retaining the existing words) from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to just Walmart Inc. – a move described by corporate to reflect the company’s commitment to how modern consumers shop.

Alternate take: The bean counters behind the scenes realized Walmart could save on printing costs across its marketing portfolio by eliminating an unnecessary hyphen. Whatever the justification, rebranding is certainly possible, so don’t give yourself an ulcer coming up with your name.

Developing and Refining Your Brand Identity

Your name is one of the most essential parts of your brand, but it’s not the only part. Your name is just one piece in the larger brand marketing puzzle; it’s a way to connect with audiences before engaging them further with your other brand assets. We recommend companies look at the big picture and consider how their brand name works in marketing. 

Consumer Testing For Effective Brand Naming

At SmashBrand, we specialize in company branding which includes data-driven naming services, and helping clients understand the intricacies of consumer psychology. Whether you need to brand a specific product or redefine the direction of your company overall, our branding specialists can give you a hand.

Book a time to discuss your project with our team and learn more about our services. We will help you establish a name that differentiates your brand from the competition and penetrates the marketplace.