ADMAP MARCH 2013

What’s in a name?

10NAMING BRANDS

Several well-chosen words can make a big difference when trying to engage consumers. BMW’s tagline is ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’. For a while, Ford’s was Drive One.

Clearly, there are right words and there are not so right words.

Think about the importance of one right word. Brand names are often just that… one word, like Apple. When it comes to developing brand names, one or two right words count most.

As one of the smallest, but most powerful, pieces of messaging real estate, a brand name is a valuable strategic investment. A good brand name can achieve a good return on investment by: differentiating your company, product or service; engaging your target audience in a unique and special way; setting positive expectations now and in the future about who you are, what you do and what you have to offer; and continuing to release relevant meaning over time.

One might think that brand names should come easily. Richard Branson just trusted his instincts when he came up with the Virgin name while drinking with a group of friends in a pub. But what’s the best way to get the best brand name? And, how do you know it’s the best? Is there some sort of formula for success?

Truth is, creating brand names is more an art than a science, but there are strategic best practices that a good marketer should follow in order to increase the likelihood of success when creating a new brand name.

1 YOU NEED A STRATEGIC FOUNDATIONThe first mistake marketers often make

is to think that the name alone is the brand.

The brand name is the most ubiquitous and visible element in a brand strategy, so it is important to get it right. Nikolas Contis of Siegel+Gale San Francisco outlines some best practice in brand naming

No name, not even the greatest name ever, can compensate for weak brand strategy.

Before embarking on name development, you must first be sure to have a sound strategic brand platform in place. Your platform should include a solid purpose, a compelling promise, authentic values and a strong voice. A strategic platform comprised of these components will give you the essential foundation needed to express your brand in everything you say and do – including what you ‘say’ with your brand name.

2 STRIVE FOR MORE THAN THE SUM OF THE PARTSThe second mistake that marketers

make is to think that the brand name must somehow be declarative or redundant of key elements in the strategic platform.

The combination of the right brand strategy and the right name should yield more than the sum of those parts. The combination should represent something greater, because the elements came together organically. Virgin is a good example.

In contrast, I was struck by an e-mail I received last year from a good friend of mine on the Siegel+Gale strategy team in New York. The subject line read: “What do you make of this?” Attached to the e-mail was an iPhone photo he had taken of a full-page print ad in The Wall Street Journal. The photo appears on the opposite page.

I was amused when I saw it. On paper, the rationale for the name sounds great, doesn’t it? They did a great job linking the name to what appear to be key elements in their strategic foundation. But is this a great name?

The lesson here is that declarative names can short-change you. Inovalon is a perfect

example of that. The equation simply does not add up to more. Declarative names also run the risk of being a product of what my naming colleague Christian Turner calls ‘tortured logic’. They often seem contrived, tortured… silly. Yet we see painfully logical names in every category of trade: Qriocity (streaming music), Qwikster, ReadyMop, FullMore (hair spray), Agilent, Accenture and Flonase – the list goes on forever.

Names like these are creatively overwrought, over-thought and often so glaringly transparent, they insult our intelligence. They presuppose an inability in people to grasp nuance or imagine anything at all. But people are smart. They have imaginations. And now more than ever, they are highly receptive to embracing new, creative ideas. Haven’t we learned this from the internet and social media explosion?

We are speaking a whole new language now. As a result, the language of brand names has changed. There’s room for poetry, not just prose.

So when developing your new name, look for the poetry beyond the prose. Don’t try to explain or reiterate your strategy

“ A name can add to the bottom line of any good branding programme by setting proper expectations”

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11NAMING BRANDS

zone between descriptive and suggestive with creativity and verve.

3 DEVELOP YOUR NAME FOR THE LONG TERM If the logic and details of your brand

strategy (a positioning statement for example), are too transparently visible in the brand name, it usually follows that the name’s ability to stretch with new messages and new brand strategies is limited.

Inevitably, brand strategies shift and change over time. At Siegel+Gale, we often help companies ‘rebrand’ without changing their brand names at all. It follows that no name should be predicated on brand strategy alone.

Great brand names are able to live richer, longer lives. That’s not to say they shouldn’t be consistent with key strategic messages. But it is to say they must be created with a vision that ranges beyond.

Think of it this way – had Amazon been named something like Books-A-Million, could

it still sell $85,000 luxury watches like the company does today? The answer is probably yes, because its strategy is solid and the experience it delivers is great. But a name like Books-A-Million would have been far less efficient as a strategic asset, would it not?

4NAME ONLY WHAT SHOULD BE NAMED Don’t overlook this important

question: ‘Why do we need a brand name in the first place?’ Another mistake that marketers often make is the decision to name something that shouldn’t be named. This happens most with products, services, sub-brands and line extensions.

Often what’s needed, instead, is better brand architecture. Brand architecture, in simple terms, is how a company organises its brand portfolio. Good brand architecture is both an art and a science in and of itself. It protects brand value, promotes efficiency, builds organisational cohesion and gives you a rational process for making all brand-related

in the name. Look instead for a name that adds a layer of creative value – one that adds richness and depth to your strategic foundation. This can be done descriptively, suggestively or arbitrarily.

Apple is an example of what trademark solicitors call an arbitrary mark, which is usually the most creative, and offers the most ability to engage, differentiate and carry messages into the marketplace over time. Arbitrary marks are richer and broader in their associations, hence more flexible.

The idea of an apple is archetypal. Apple means fresh. Apple means smart. Apple means knowledge. The biblical reference to Adam eating the apple provides quite an unexpected edge – ‘think different’, the company said – Adam certainly did after taking that bite.

But even descriptive and suggestive names can be creative as well as effective. Apple, in fact, offers many examples: Time Machine, AirPort, FaceTime, Boot Camp, Nano and Shuffle. All of these straddle the

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more on naming brands at www.warc.com

decisions – including when it is most effective to actually name things. Brand architecture can also provide a foundation for developing guidelines that address how to apply specific naming conventions and other rules for developing subordinate nomenclature.

5 THINK OF WORDS IN NEW AND DIFFERENT WAYSFinding a great name in today’s

massive marketplace of brands is harder than ever. It’s harder than it was ten years ago. It’s harder than it was five years ago. In fact, every month it becomes more difficult. Globally, across 45 international classes of trade, millions of trademarks already exist and new ones continue to be added.

The total number of registered domain names expanded to more than 240 million worldwide across all domains, as of June 30, 2012 (Verisign). This is forcing marketers to innovate and to consider words in new and different ways. Looking at words in new ways helps to navigate against not only the marketing ‘clutter’ of typical brand names, but around the trademark challenges as well.

Talk about looking at words in new and different ways, who would have ever thought the word ‘wallpaper’ was a good name for anything. Tyler Brûlé did. And it’s a wonderful example of repurposing a word in a new context for today’s world. To all the people that love this glossy, beautiful magazine, the word ‘wallpaper’ has come to represent the wonderful things that surround us.

Who would put their hands into a blade? People do, everyday. They put their hands, willingly into Dyson Airblade hand dryers. Can anyone rely on a good experience at an airport today? Well, if it’s Apple’s Airport, you most certainly can – a great example of what would otherwise seem an ‘off strategy’ name. Look at words in new ways and new ideas come to light – often, better ones.

6 HIRE A TRADEMARK SOLICITORTo actually own a name (get a

trademark) you must be diligent. You (or someone) will have to generate thousands of names and screen hundreds of them for trademark conflicts – and that’s just to get one name in the end. Naming firms can help with generating and screening a large volume

where Spanish is spoken. The lesson here is that not all issues are deal-breaking problems, but you are best off to be aware and get out in front of them.

8 THE BOTTOM LINEA name can add to the bottom line of any good branding programme by

setting proper expectations. It’s unimportant for you or anyone else to ‘like’ a name. What is most important is that your name sets relevant, compelling, believable expectations about your product, service or company.

People in a boardroom may argue over whether or not it’s a good idea ‘on paper’ to name a bookstore Amazon or a giant employment company Monster or a contemporary design magazine wallpaper*. The trick, sometimes, is to throw that paper right out the window! Names that look good on paper, like Inovalon, rarely add to the bottom line.

I’m not saying don’t be strategic. I’m just saying make a leap of faith. Do something interesting and different. Try not to be obvious. Avoid logic (at least at first). Get Jungian – sometimes the best way to find the right creative idea is not to look for it too hard.

Let ideas come on their own – they’re right out there waiting for you to see the connection between things, which can be synchronistic. Upon close evaluation, some of the best ideas seem like the worst at first. But Donatella Versace said creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.

So create a conflict. Make some noise and turn some heads.

of names at a preliminary level. But you’ll also need a solicitor, a specialised trademark counsel. Without a very good one, you won’t get the name you want.

7 WATCH YOUR LANGUAGEFirst and foremost, know exactly what your name means. Also, be sure to run

a global language check on your name before announcing it to the world. The last thing you want is a name that means something bad in a different language. Most cases involve something hideously scatological, sexual or politically negative. Even if your brand is not global, we live in a global world and hence all names are global.

The classic example of such a mistake is Reebok’s 1980s launch of the Incubus cross-trainer shoe for women. No one checked to see what it actually meant – it just sounded cool. An incubus is a demon that ravishes women in their sleep. Great name for a rock band, perhaps, but not for a product targeting women.

Other companies have made similar mistakes. Nike decided to call a new line of shoes Black and Tan, failing entirely to see the political associations. Ultimately, this involved letters of apology on the company’s part. Mitsubishi discovered that Pajero, its name for an SUV, had two meanings, one of them unfortunate. One meaning was for a Patagonian pampas cat, the other was for ‘wanker’ in Spanish. Not really a good idea for a vehicle targeting macho males. Hence the name change to Mitsubishi Montero, or ‘mountain hunter’.

By the way, the Chevy Nova story is a myth. Legend has it that ‘no va’, which translates to ‘doesn’t go’ in Spanish, made the car a ‘no-go’ brand in Spanish-speaking countries. As a matter of fact, it sold just fine

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Inc