I often work on brand naming projects helping companies create the right new name to communicate their brand’s essence. No one wants a brand name that blends into the wallpaper. Clients typically want a name that dazzles, stuns, and projects an image different from their competitors.
One question comes up repeatedly – are we better served to have a literal name, or should we have something that is perhaps suggestive of an idea – but not specific?
Think of a continuum from dull to dazzling. From literal ideas on the left, descriptive ideas in the middle, to meaningless ideas at the far right.
Brand marketers may want a name that tells their story, but often, that can be a generic and unimaginative description. I often hear, “but we don’t have a big budget to market our name, so it must be clear.” So, companies end up with a new and revolutionary cleaning product that is plant-based and sanitizes surfaces and then uses a dull name like KLEAN.
Dull. Boring. Snore.
At the dazzling end of the spectrum can be ideas that leverage key benefits, words, and phrases that can lead to a more imaginative idea like PLANTSANI. Clever use of a key differentiator (plant-based) and that sanitizes.
Dazzling. Wow. Boom. Unusual.
It is easier and more effective in the long term to own something unexpected and surprising – than a dull or obvious idea.
A novel name can have stickiness, and it can also help us frame the conversation. In the case of the cleaning agent, they wanted to focus on talking about their plant-based ingredients, so making it a core part of the name helps.
Think of a brand name like your front door. PLANTSANI opens the door and welcomes customers into your world of plant-based sanitized cleanliness.
Brand Name – Literal, Descriptive, and Meaningless Names
A literal or suggestive name implies what you do or something about your benefit. It can become memorable by evocating a feeling, an image, or an experience.
Jane’s Fresh Squeezed Juice is a literal name and probably not a name you can protect with a trademark.
A fanciful name like JANESQUEZZ or SQUEEZY is distinctive or suggestive and more like to be unique that you can find a URL and protect the mark. JANESQUEZZ or SQUEEZY is a more ownable brand name.
Jane’s Fresh Squeezed Juice is an easy-to-understand name but also can flow into the easily forgettable. As Seth Godin wrote in his classic book – you want to be a purple cow in a field of brown cows, standing out in the area.
Meaningless Names are made-up words that – well, mean nothing at all. They can be a collection of letters smashed together.
Zynga is an invented name. Google or Chime are abstract names, and alphanumeric names like WD40 or F10 are also options.
Meaningless names need to be heavily marketed and explained – and because they are so unusual, they often can help create a strong brand mark.
There isn’t a right or the wrong answer where to land on this continuum.
In my experience, a suggestive name can help a consumer or business imagine something they haven’t seen before by implying instead of asserting. These types of terms cause you to think and pause. They evoke curiosity. And they can still communicate key benefits, even if it is in a fanciful way, like my PLANTSANI example.
The key to brand naming is in marketing. How will you tell your brand’s story? A tagline is a powerful tool to help anchor an imaginative or suggestive brand name idea to a category. Using visual metaphor, color, design, line, etc., you can help define your name in subtle ways.
For PLANTSANI, we came up with the tagline – the world’s first plant-based sanitizing cleaner safe for humans. The tagline appears in a lock-up with the name and tagline always together:
PLANTSANI
The world’s first plant-based sanitizing cleaner safe for humans
What’s in a brand name?
Names are foundational building blocks for brands. They give a product or service something special that can separate it from similar products. Great names spark imagination and wonder and invite you in to learn more.
Click here to watch a video of some of the products and services I have recently named that explain the essential role a stunning name can play to lay the foundation for building a powerful brand. Names like What’s GNU, Tradeparency, Herculean, ResQ, and Zest! – each brand name tells a spectacular story.
Need a new brand, company or product name?
I can help.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
Photo: sijmen-van-hooff from unsplash
