Company X: Name Development Proposal

About Us

Brand Acumen is a global brand naming agency based in New York that specializes in innovative brand name development.

Brand Acumen operates in its Manhattan location where we infuse a culture of innovation and creative inquiry into our process.

2

Overview At Brand Acumen, name creation is our form of artistic expression.

We redefine the fundamentals of using art and languageas a guide to developing profound brand identities.

Bill Smith, CEOBill Smith was previously the founder and CEO of Addison Whitney, which today is one of the leading brand consulting firms in the world.

1200+ Names800 Clients27 Countries

Beginning in 1991 under Bill’s guidance, Addison Whitney worked with over 800 clients in 27 countries.

3

Our Success: Name Creations

------------------------------------- -------------------------------------

Brand: Limon Brand: Wildcat

Brand Name Creation Brand Name Creation

4

Our Success: Name Creations

------------------------------------- -------------------------------------

Brand: Turning-leaf Brands: Woodford Reserve

Brand Name Creation Brand Name Creation

6

Our Success: Name Creations

------------------------------------- -------------------------------------

Brand: Hi Dry Brand:Blue light

Brand Name Creation Brand Name Creation

7

Our Success: Name Creations

-------------------------------------

Brand: Breezer

Brand Name Creation

-------------------------------------

Brand: Becherovka

Brand Name Creation / Brand Positioning

8

Our Creative Inspiration Inspired by experimental literature and musical composition, we infuse a culture of innovation and creative inquiry into our process. We seek to redefine the fundamentals of using art and language as a guide to develop profound brand identities. Names are just the beginning… The Science of Language Our team of lexical engineers examines not just the sound, but the look and feel of every letter in every word we create. We scrutinize each word’s structure: from phoneme, to morpheme, to grapheme, to shape. In the search for the perfect name, we leave no stone unturned.

At Brand Acumen, name creation is our form of artistic expression.

A Global Network 763 Offices, 75 Countries

Europe:

351offices

Asia Pacific:

121offices

Middle East:

44offices

North America:

95offices

Latin America:

116offices

Africa:

36offices

Brand Acumen is an independent agency, but enjoys the relationship as a Havas Creative partner.

Havas offers a broad range of communications services, including digital, advertising, direct marketing, media planning and buying, corporate communications, sales promotion, multimedia interactive communications, and public relations. Havas employs approximately 15,000 people – we are extremely well-connected.  

All IP Ceded To Clients

Brand Acumen will unconditionally guarantee to deliver a legally viable, aesthetic aligned and linguistically sound brand name for every project. Each and every name candidate presented to you will be legally screened prior to presenting the creative name list iteration. This ensures that the your team will not “fall in love” with a name candidate that they ultimately can not obtain due to legal conflicts. Brand Acumen agrees to cede all intellectual property rights you for each and every name presented during the project at no additional cost.

Unconditional Guarantee

All Names Presented are Legally Pre-Screened

Why Brand Acumen?

what defines great names  

what category perspective defines great names

.

authenticity

timeless

memorable

contextual

credibility

reflects provenance

linguistically sound

  This objective is to generate an extensive list of legally viable, linguistically sound, name candidates (nomenclature) for a new innovation in the U.S.

™defensibility analysis

legal perspective

.

Brand Acumen will review with The Company X team specific criteria which we will implement into the trademark screening process. These names will be telegraphic in nature and screened for trademark availability.

risk aversion

search criteria

syntax requirements

what defines great names

PROJECT TASK, SCOPE

& PROCESS

Project Task, Scope & Process

Via a three-phase process, Brand Acumen will deliver three lists of name candidates for Company X for a total of 60 legally screened names. These names will be telegraphic in nature and screened for trademark availability.

Landscape Analysis Name DevelopmentLegal/LinguisticName Review

No name will be presented that has not been thoroughly vetted.  

1 Phase

3 Phase

2 Phase

---------

---------

---------

---------

Landscape Analysis

--------------------------

Project kickoff

Naming strategy development

Tactical competitive review

1 Phase

Project Kickoff

What immediate connotations come to mind when we think about the positioning strategy?

connote Adjectives only. describe, describe, describe.

describe

Taste fantasy. Who fantasizes over the taste? Demographics, profile, habits, propensities, idiosyncrasies of the consumer.

taste Are their any inherent relationships to core or legacy brands which must be taken into consideration?

legacy Is this brand a sustainable brand? Does it need to be? May it benefit from ‘brand phasing’?

duration

What types of messages should the variant name or category nomenclature portray to each customer group?

message

1 Phase

Project Kickoff

18

Evolutionary, revolutionary or disruptive. Which do we want to evoke in the name identity?

ERD How is Company X brand nostalgia a factor? Can we borrow recognition and recall utilizing brand transference?

nostalgia

Linguistic, language considerations?

language Regions and regionalisms defined? This includes legal defensibility.

location Future strategy. Do we consider the potential for a globalized name in the future?

tomorrow

Is there an inherent risk for Company X brand cannibalization, and if so, does it matter based on the forward thinking strategy?

‘brannibal’

1 Phase

Naming Strategy Development

19

Let’s think in context. What does the name sound like when we ask for it at a crowded bar? Are you empowered by asking for it by name? Scream it…whisper it. Can you laugh with it?

When we approach a name to articulate it’s sound, do we hesitate? Is it simple to embrace? Are we comfortable with the first time pronunciation?

Is the name alluring, suggestive and inviting? And if you think this is not a relevant feature, let’s discuss. Provocation is intoxication and if the name is intoxicating,..

Place the name in multiple contexts. Ask for two, three, a dozen.

05 Does the name grant permission to indulge? Are you privileged? Is it a name that defines you?

06 The name …Look at it. On your dining room table; in conversation with your boss, mother, lover, antagonist, dog (cat?), doctor, bartender, barrista or sommelier.

pronunciation

provocative

bar call plurality

empowering

contextualization

01

02

03

04

1 Phase

Naming Strategy Development

20

07 Utter the name…does it make me more relevant than before? Does it change anything I may want changed?.

08 Word structure…phonemes, morphemes, graphetics…bottom line….does the name look good and sound good?

09 Shorter names are better, they test well, but perceived shorter names are just as potent.

10 What images come to mind when you create a word? Paint a picture in your mind. The perfect location? And what will you be doing there?

11 What is you definition of escapation? Where does your fantasy take you and does the name bring you there? Who comes along with you?

12 Are you an Alpha or Beta? Early adopter or always adopting? Do you run against the pack?

syllabic balance

brevity

relevance imagery

escape

damn different

1 Phase

-----------------------------------------------

Name Development

At Brand Acumen, we believe that a single word can hold incredible meaning and tell a powerful, vivid story. In order for a name to do this successfully, it must be structurally sound and intuitive to pronounce, interpret, and recall.

Creative Process (Name Development)

Trademark Pre-Screening

Global Linguistic Evaluation

20

2 Phase

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naming Brief Final Candidate ListName Creation

Identify the framework for developing the brand name

candidates, based on the insights from the naming strategy.

Analyze the name candidates with regard to regulatory compliance, structural analysis,

trademark, domain, and common law availability.

Uncover naming candidates through three separate

iterations of deep source mining and ideation exercises.

The creative process is iterative. We will present three iterations of names and engage with the key stakeholders to collect feedback and refine and define future creative direction for subsequent lists. These names will be telegraphic in nature and screened for trademark availability.

2 Phase

23

Visual Analysis of Competitive Name Landscape1 Phase

Creative Process

24

name creation

Sample creative work product. This is the format used by Brand Acumen to present the initial list of candidates.

Here we seethe name candidate, ‘Janage’ accompanied by a linguistic analysis and a brief narrative

The top scoring two linguistic attributes

2 Phase

Creative Process

25

name creation

Sample creative work product, continued.

Here, the name ‘Janage’ is analyzed for Orthographic and Phonological conflicts with existingproducts.

2 Phase

Creative Process

26

name creation

Sample creative work product, continued.

Here, we construct a nomenclature ‘style guide’ which examines intended pronunciation, etymology, and usage examples.

Janage

2 Phase

A Rigorous Linguistic Analysis

From the perspectives of acoustic phonetics, phonology, and morphology in particular, our lexical theorists pay extraordinary attention to all facets of linguistic nuance. Looking at the phonemic structure, or the breakdown of distinct sounds in a given word, our team assesses the acoustic and articulatory properties of all adjacent phones and consonant clusters.

Once we affirm that no harsh sounds are found at phonemic joints or intra-syllabically, we consider the semantic qualities and evocations of all morphemes, or units of meaning.

Broken down even further, we specifically examine how our created words fare with regard to:

Scriptability

Aural Acuity

Pragmatic Scoring

Semantic Typology

Glue Semantics

Speech Synthesis

Speech Recognition

Parsing

Graphetics

Phonological Encoding in Language Production

3 Phase

Linguistic ScoreCard Analysis:An Examination of Sound, Structure, & Meaning

Each of the 10-12 brand names created as finalists will be subjected to our ScoreCard* analysis, based on the following categories: Scriptability

Aural Comprehensibility Visual Aesthetics

Syllabic Balance

Durability & Longevity Ease of Pronunciation

Gender Properties Phonemic

Simplicity

Our ScoreCard Analysis will provide a quantitative “score” for each of the created brand names. An example of our ScoreCard analysis can be found in the case study on the following pages.

ScoreCard Categories

Phonetic Viability

Evocative Semantics

3 Phase

Our exclusive Global ForwardScreenTM Legal Search allows us quickly identify potentially troublesome naming ideas before they ever become a hindrance to any trademark approval process. Brand Acumen will carefully screen all presented name candidates to avoid conflicts with Company X preferred name candidates. 

ForwardScreenTM Legal Pre-Screening of All Name Candidates Fo

rwar

dScr

eenT

M

3 Phase

Trademark Search Tr

adem

ark

Sear

ch

CompuMark

WIPO

Web Common Law Sources

•  (includes geo-specific Google results and global web content)

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

Multiple trademark registers:– Benelux– Canada– France– Germany– Italy– Spain– Switzerland– United Kingdom– United States– International Register(for WIPO country searches)– Community Trademarks (for E.U. country searches)

Expanded U.S. Search Detail:

– State Trademarks– Business Names

Brand Acumen will search, reference and analyze all key databases and search functions for the final name candidates.

3 Phase

The AccuBrand™ Report will provide a stack ranking, from most viable to least viable, of the final brand/category names candidates. We will combine our Linguistic ScoreCard , Semantics Analysis and Legal Review to develop our stack ranking of recommendations.

Occupational Breakdown

9 Wall Street

Analysts/Influencers

31 Plastic Surgeons

18 Nurses

36 Surgeons

26 Hospital Procurement Executives

AccuBrand Report

31

33

Project Timelines

Product ‘X’ Name Development

Phase I: Project Kick-off July 08Phase II: Name Development,1st Iteration July 11Phase II: Name Development, 2nd Iteration July 12Phase II: Name Development, 3rd Iteration July 13Phase III: Final List of 60 legally screened names July 14

Brand Acumen 19 Leonard St. NY, NY 10013 Bill Smith, CEO william.smith@brandacumenstudios.com