Naming. Development of the company name, trademark
Naming is the first point of contact with your client, so that is why proper naming development is so vital.
1. Will customers be able to read your name?
2. Will they understand what you do?
3. Will it be easy to pronounce the name?
4. Won’t they be embarrassed and worry that they put the stress wrong?
5. Will they remember you?
6. Will they remember you tomorrow?
7. Will they be able to enter your name in the Google search bar?
8. Will Google give them you?
9. Will they put your manager in their phone book along with the name?
10. And how will it sound and lean?
The answers to this and many other questions are solved by a couple of syllables that require careful naming development by a team of specialists.
Now for more details. To begin with, in this material:
Who is naming?
Naming is … the name!
We understand that you were not surprised, but believe us, there are nuances. Let’s figure it out.
Thus, you can give a name in the company to three components:
1. BRAND/TRADEMARK NAMING
As a daughter’s name, as a nickname in childhood, as the first nickname of the mail. Sad when bad, cool when creative, and delightful when unique.
This is what you will be called.
This is responsible and serious.
It’s for life.
2. WEBSITE NAMING
In a good way, it should duplicate the brand name, in a bad way — it does not always come out in a good way. Too long names turn into abbreviations. Foreign sites with this name interfere with the issuance. In short, the brand name should immediately take into account this nuance and do everything in a good way.
3. NAMING OF A LEGAL ENTITY
LLC «Some» JSC «Something there».
The name will be in documents, contracts, and another bureaucratic red tape. Ideally, it matches the brand naming, but not everything depends on us and you. Registration of a legal entity often involves restrictions that are not spelled out anywhere and that you are informed of only after submitting the name for registration. Therefore, be ready to add the brand «industry» or «company» to it and live happily with it.
Who needs naming development?
Those who are just entering the market.
No one knows you, but they should. A good naming will accelerate your success, and a bad one will slow down or even stop development. Everything is simple here: as you name the ship, it will sail.
Those who are narrowing or expanding.
Changing the scale of a company is often associated with internal changes. The name can help to convey this to customers and give a vector for naming development.
Those whom the name restricts.
They opened as a translation agency, and are now an international logistics company, but still with the name «translator». Of course, you need a rebranding and a name change. And the new name should take into account the future growth prospects of the company and not limit it.
How is this done and where the success is buried
Naming is a product of creative work.
However, careful strategic work is required before and after. And you can’t miss this, because that’s the only way inventing succeeds. And that’s why you can’t do it yourself inside the company.
What we do before naming:
Brief and briefing. We are looking for the client’s wishes, understand the current situation, and specify the task.
Positioning. What we say to the target audience, how we differ from competitors, and what is our essence. All of this with preliminary analysis and deep strategic study.
Brand platform. We form the voice of the brand, its personality, attributes. Everything that will be the components of the brand, everything that should be reflected in the name.
After that, we start inventing naming.
We do this based on a map of meanings developed at the stage of the brand platform.
Our team does this taking into account the taste wishes of the client.
Creators do this by taking into account who our target audience is.
Our agency composes hundreds of titles, fantasize to the fullest, and goes into a creative break. And then we come back and work hard again.
Because after coming up with names, you need to:
Filter by your quality criteria. Matching positioning, meeting the needs of the target audience, uniqueness, and scalability. Also here we filter according to the wishes of the client because no matter how cool the name is, they should want to be called.
Filter to freedom. Naming should be available for trademark registration, site domain purchase, and company registration, and sometimes even in several countries.
Filter on people. Conduct live tests. With people. Not interested in criticizing, but ready to do it, be the naming unsuccessful. The work is painstaking, but high-quality feedback allows you to remove unsuccessful names and find non-obvious associations that need to be avoided. In other words, to test reality for sound, declension, associations, and memorization in the head of real people.
The pitfalls of naming development
All the pitfalls lie around the fact that naming cannot be evaluated rationally. Impossible.
However, only if you do not set personal requirements in advance.
What could be among them:
LET’S MAKE IT AN ABSTRACT WORD
We come up with something that wasn’t there before. Something that is not associated with anything to string its associations. Therefore, here lies a strong problem, because it is very, very difficult to perceive something that is not associated with anything. It is difficult to experience emotions, both negative and positive. Therefore, it is difficult to choose from such names.
LET’S ADD THE NUMBERS
The numbers must mean something. Therefore, here the work of the agency and the client is double to find these most significant numerical values for the company. We are ready for this, and you should be ready too.
LET’S MAKE IT A UNIQUE WORD, BUT WITH ASSOCIATIONS
Everything seems to be clear, the word is new, formed from the known. But there is a problem: all the words of the world have already been invented and the probability of getting an association with another brand when too critically examined is high. We must also be prepared for this.
LET’S IMMEDIATELY ASSUME A SITE WITH THE DOMAIN «.COM»
The domain «.com», firstly, can be very expensive, soo expensive. Secondly, it may never be necessary, for example, if you expand into the CIS market and adapt your business in each country. But in the creation of naming, this is very limiting, because sometimes an abandoned cheese factory in a Thai village takes away a cool name from you when you don’t even suspect it.
Frequent questions about what you hesitate to ask, but you should
How much does naming cost?
It all depends on the market in which the company will be/operates. This increases both the time for analysis and complicates testing on the target audience. For the local market, naming development starts from $ 1000, and for the foreign market from $ 2500.
Who are the «naming specialists» in the agency?
The minimal naming team consists of a strategist, a marketer, and a creative pair of a creator and a designer. This pool of employees can expand depending on the specifics of the task. We even brought in a mythologist for one of the naming conventions.
How long does naming development take?
From 10 working days. Not counting the development of the previous stages (positioning and brand platform).
What to do if you don’t like naming?
Firstly, understand why you don’t like it, and how subjective it is. Secondly, set additional criteria following the wishes that have appeared in order to work out new options. As a result, we discuss the number of possible alterations at the stage of the contract and fix them in the terms of reference.
Is it possible not to fill out a brief for naming development?
Of course not. No one knows your business better than you. And no one will guide us into this fascinating world better than you. To get a good result, this stage is simply necessary.
If I tell you what names I like, can you just do something similar?
No. Or rather yes. We will understand your preferences and will rely on them when filtering names, removing those that you do not like and giving preference to those that you like. But when generating ideas, we primarily focus on the task before naming, and not on your taste.
And how many pieces will you show names?
Basic 6-8. Nevertheless, everything is discussed at the stage of the contract. Maybe it’s easier for you to choose from 2 options, or maybe you need to see 20 to feel the alternative. This is the subject of dialogue.
What names we have already done:
FUTUKRAMA
A network of islands with mobile accessories
The consonance with the popular TV series inspired, but it was not only she who made this title a winning one. FUTU, as an abbreviation of Future, gives direct references to the trendiness of products, and the Belarusian word KRAMA is about the locality of business, which in turn gives additional quality guarantees.
BURGER HOUSE
Restaurant
When a stylish restaurant aimed at the young and active is planned to open in the city center, everyone must talk about it. We took care of this – we developed a sonorous name for the new drilling, which at the same time simply speaks about the main pride of the institution.
MODERN TALKING
Online English Language School
We tried to get away from cliches as much as possible and think about future students of the school. What are they interested in? Non-boring, useful classes, modern vocabulary. They want to listen, understand – and speak English! After going through hundreds of options and being inspired by the song «You are my heart, you are my soul», we find a suitable name!
FRANKIE
Personal Driver Service
This is the «collective» name of the personal drivers of premium cars. The main nuance in the development of naming and corporate identity was that the Frankie service is not a car, but first of all a driver who should become the best friend of his passengers. Our idea symbolizes a first-class reliable motorist who always looks decent.
URBAN HOSTEL
Hostel in the center of Minsk
Urban Hostel is a direct association with the city and city life. Living in an Urban Hostel, a tourist will find himself in the epicenter of urban life and will not miss anything. The name is evident in both languages (Russian and English) and is easy to pronounce and remember.
CORTESIA
Minsk Sparkling Wine Factory
Cortesia reflects European classics, associated with history and refined taste, time–tested.
The historical subtext embedded in the naming allows the consumer to touch the history of creation by buying wine from this brand.
«Cortesia» in Spanish means «politeness» or «courtesy».
TADAMS
Online flower and gift shop
Since naming was needed, which would be associated not only with gifts and flowers, our team followed the path of emotional associations. «Ta-daam» is an exclamation that everyone utters when they want to give a gift or make a surprise to their loved ones. And the letter «s» at the end means that there can be many such surprises!
LOOK AT MINSK
Stylish map of your hometown
An active, clear call to action was essential to us: we have a convenient map for Minsk residents and guests of the city – so go and see, Look at Minsk!
Perhaps this is the fastest naming option in our agency.
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