At some point in time, every entrepreneur, every marketing director and every business owner will need a name — for something.
Might be a new product. Maybe an entirely new business, or a side hustle. Maybe you need a name for a blog or a company podcast. Maybe you’ve written a book that needs a catchy title.
In every case, a brilliant name can make all the difference.
But very few people know how to choose a brand name that’s memorable and protectable. It’s really hard. That’s what I’m going to talk about today… How to choose a brand name you can bank on.
I call them Money Names.
Over the years I’ve done hundreds of naming projects — for all sorts of stuff. I’ve named non-profits, new products, service businesses, golf courses, restaurants, museum exhibits, you name it.
Here are A few that I’m particularly proud of:
Eathos frozen foods… We put the Eat in Eathos. It’s all plant based.
Smidge – Small Batch supplements I named the category as well as the brand for this vitamin and mineral company.
Working Wonders for a non-profit children’s museum that my wife and I started from the ground up.
Widgi Creek Golf Club – It used to be called Pine Meadows. Zzzzzzzzz… sounded like a nursing home or a cemetery.
They actually wanted an ad campaign, but I told them we wouldn’t do it unless they changed their name first. No amount of advertising was going to overcome that snoozer of a brand name.
Every naming project I’ve ever done has an interesting story like that behind it.
Most went well, but not all of them have happy endings.
So I want to share some of my lessons learned and give you tips for that inevitable day when you absolutely, positively need a name that you can bank on.
Here’s the funny thing about naming… for some reason, everybody THINKS they can do it themselves.
Of all the Jobs To Be Done in marketing, it’s the one that’s most likely to be done in a half-assed, DIY fashion.
Nobody thinks they can design a logo themselves, but when it comes to naming everybody’s got ideas.
But there’s a huge difference between ideas for names and actual, iconic brand names.
Most people have no idea how hard it really is to find a Money Name.
I’ve seen some informal polls among branding professionals, and the results show that naming’s the hardest part of the whole branding process.
It’s the most important piece of the puzzle, but it’s also the most difficult to do well. Most branding firms won’t even touch naming projects.
Even if you follow a proven, step-by-step process it can be painfully hard to come up with a name that’s memorable, protectable and on-brand.
Because it’s not just about the name. It’s about your big idea. It’s about anchoring your core business concept to a word in an unforgettable way.
It’s not just some random letters thrown together into an alphabet soup, or a keyword with an ly attached.
The name, like your logo, should be an expression of your brand. An instant conceptualization. So the second it’s seen and read, the entire business is understood.
That’s in a perfect world. That’s what a Money Name can do.
Let’s talk about some of the most common traps that people fall into when they’re coming up with brand names on their own. There are a lot of them!
How to choose a brand name: Rule #1: Forget about consensus.
Consensus management has its place, but when it comes to naming, you gotta get over that. If you insist on consensus you’ll inevitably choose a Lousy brand name. I guarantee it.
Because The fact is, Money Names create division, not consensus. That’s just the nature of the beast.
When we grade potential names, we always look for words that polarize people.
If the testing shows that people either love it or they hate it, then we know we’re onto something.
On the other hand, if everyone says “Yeah, that name’s “alright” then we throw it out. Luke-warm responses don’t cut it. And I’ve never had a case where everyone agreed that a name was an absolute homerun.
You have to accept that fact that Half your team won’t like whatever name you choose. If it’s a Money Name, there will be NO consensus.
So the real test of leadership here is getting the haters to eventually embrace the decision you’ve made.
It’s hard. It takes guts to say, “look, I know that some of you don’t like this name, but this is what we’re going with. This is the best choice, right now, for our brand.”
It’s a tough sell.
it’s interesting, though… because years later when we follow-up with past clients, no one remembers that they didn’t like the name. (or they won’t admit it.)
So Don’t worry… Money Names always seem to gather momentum – and even consensus – after the fact.
How to choose a brand name: Rule #2: Don’t do a contest.
A lot of people will gather their entire team together and invite everyone to participate in an extravagant naming contest. “Give us your best ideas and we’ll give the winner an all-expense paid trip to Vegas.”
Yeah… let me tell ya… You can always count on Janitors, accountants and engineering interns to submit spreadsheets full of really great naming ideas. NOT!
Contests seldom produce any names that are suitable or legally protectable.
Plus, contests often backfire… They’re bad for morale because People feel put-out when you don’t choose their brilliant idea for a name.
And what happens when none of the names are usable? You can’t just say, nobody wins.
You still have to give someone the prize. Here you go. Have a great time in Vegas. Yours was the best of a really bad batch of names.
If you want to make people feel included and heard, that’s great. Here’s how you can handle that…
Just find a small group of smart people – no more than 8. Have them bring their ideas to a 20-minute brainstorming session.
That’s it. Just a real, quick brain dump of ideas. No promises. No expectations. That way, no one will be disappointed if none of the names are ultimately chosen.
That kind of brainstorming will give you a good place to start, but Those early ideas have to be researched, and noodled and tested and noodled some more by a human being.
You can’t just abdicate responsibility – and hope that the collective wisdom will somehow produce a good name for you. It doesn’t work that way. Same goes for logo contests.
Rule #3: Don’t start till your strategy is clear.
You’ll never know if a potential name is ON brand – or OFF — if you don’t articulate your brand strategy before you start.
The brand strategy is the foundation… the starting point of any naming project. If you don’t have one you’re going to waste a lot of time spinning your wheels, exploring name ideas that are completely off base.
We don’t have time to go into a whole discussion of brand strategy. Let’s just say, you gotta get your story straight first, before you start naming a company or a product.
A lot of entrepreneurs jump into the naming process way too soon, before they’ve thought through the critical strategy points…
You have to define your purpose, very clearly. Like Simon Sinek says, start with WHY.
Thoroughly research the category you’re thinking of entering.
Devise a positioning strategy for that category.
Paint a clear picture of your target audience. Find real people to base that on.
Start thinking about your brand personality.
Define an objective for the brand name.
And most importantly, decide what you’re NOT going to do. Who are you NOT trying to reach?
Most business owners are petrified of giving up anything, especially when they’re just starting out. But that’s what strategy work is… it’s making tough decisions. Niching down. Weeding out the stuff you don’t really need.
I’ve heard this too many times from clients…
“Well, uh, we don’t want a name that’s going to lock us into any specific market or strategy in the future.”
That’s a huge Red Flag!
If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re going to have a lot bigger problems than just a bad brand name.
Vague, unspecified strategy is one of the leading causes of start-up failures. I’ve written about that on my Brand Insight Blog… a lack of clarity is a killer.
So before you start brainstorming brand names, pin down your brand strategy.
Rule #4: Add an element of objectivity.
The most universal naming trap of all is the trap of subjectivity.
Generating name ideas is one thing. But sorting through them and making a rational decision on which one to choose is something else entirely.
Most people have nothing to go on when they have to decide between several workable brand names. So they just go with their gut.
Or worse yet, a knee jerk reaction, Which usually leads to ‘em putting their foot in their mouths.
Not a good way to go.
I’ve worked really hard over the years to add a certain degree of objectivity to a pretty subjective process.
We have a grading system that forces clients to look at names in a completely different light.
For instance, we grade names on a scale of 1 to 10 for audio quality. How does it sound when you say it outloud, like on a podcast.
Is it easily pronounce-able, or is it terrible tongue twister?
We also grade names on appearance… Most people don’t think about that.
We look at the letterforms and assess the potential for a name when it comes to typography.
If your brand name is an abbreviation, with four or five capital letters like PQZY it’s probably not going to look great on a big sign on the side of your building.
It won’t read very well either.
Our grading system covers 6 different criteria. It helps us narrow down the list of names we present, and it helps clients make the final call.
It’s not what I’d call a robust research methodology, but it’s better than nothing. it’s better than what most people do…
Which is Eeeny meeny miney mo…
There’s also a side benefit to this objective approach to naming…
It provides some third-party credibility for the tough choice that clients have to make… so when the CEO says this is why she chose a certain name, she has some rationale to back it up.
She can say, “This name came out on top in our testing.”
In my book I have more details on the exact grading criteria that we use. That can vary from client to client.
The point is, if you want to choose a Money Name, you need more to go on than just intuition or a good old game of row-sham-bow.
Here’s a common trap that tech start-ups often fall into…
Technology guys always want names that sound important and techy, like Comp-u-Serve, Primary Data, or Quillion Tech.
But look at the names that have worked best in the tech space…
Apple, Yahoo, Google, PayPal … those names work well Cuz they don’t sound techy!
They’re friendly. Non-threatening.
It’s everyday language that sounds fun. Google’s just a fun word to say!
Here’s a fun fact about Google… When Larry Paige and Sergay Brin were just starting out, they called it BackRub. Because of all the backlinks.
But by ‘97 they were having second thoughts. Page wanted to call it Googol, which is a math term. But that seemed a little scary, like a gargoyle or something. So they changed one letter and ended up with Google.
Definitely one of the best Money Names in history.
If you’re looking for mass market adoption of your tech product, even in the B-to-B space, you have to think like a mass-market consumer brand, not like a tech company.
One last trap that I want to mention… I think I may be legally required to cover this one…
It’s The Registered Trademark trap.
Failure to protect your new brand name is the single most common cause of costly re-branding projects – that I know of.
There’s nothing worse than working on a rebranding project for six months only to find out from the client that they failed to do the legal work on their brand name.
It’s painful for everyone.
I’m not a lawyer, thank God. I cannot advise you on the ins and outs of trademark law.
So you need a good lawyer to help you get your Registered Trademark. And once you have it, you need a law firm to defend your Money Name when someone tries to steal it.
Cuz your Registered Trademark is only as good as your willingness to defend it.
So you’re probably getting the picture by now… Finding a Money Name and building a brand around it, is a complex process.
It starts with a well-articulated brand strategy. You won’t get far without that.
Then it involves research, brainstorming, noodling, editing, wordsmithing, testing, more noodling, more testing, and of course legal protection.
It’s a process! and I’ve mapped it all out for you in my new book:
Money Name… How to choose a brand name you can bank on.
It’s available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle form. Or you can download the ebook immediately at my firm’s website:
That’s BN Branding – As in Be Named. And Be Noticed.
Whether you’re going to do your own naming, or hire us to do it for you, this book will save a whole lot of time and money.
It’s not a big, academic book. It’s all you need to know in order to manage a naming project.
It’s kinda funny…. When I decided to write a book about my process and my experience with naming the first thing I did was research all the books on the subject that were already out there. Ironically, not a single one of them had memorable name.
What’s wrong with that picture?
So I figured – that’s a good opportunity, and that’s when I came up with Money Name.
Anyway,
If you’d like to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn.
If you’d like to learn more about naming, check out my Brand Insight Blog. I’ve been writing that religiously since 2010.
And finally, if you’d like help finding your Money Name, please reach out. We have affordable options where I just coach you through the process and help you make a decision, as well a complete, done-for-you, brand identity packages.
