Are you struggling to come up with a naming for your brand? Have you ever wondered how you can come up with a winning naming? In this article I’ll share hacks to create a good naming that will help you start your next project.
Finding the right naming for your business will have a significant impact on your success, because the name you choose is going to be your business’ cover letter. Keep reading and you’ll discover some hacks to crete a good naming.
The evocative power is the magical capacity of the word, since we, humans, do not understand logic, but stories. In other words, when choosing a naming for a business, it is important to bear in mind not only the literal meaning of the words, but also the emotional and hidden meanings, as these will bring the emotional charge and personality to the brand.
Remember that the wrong naming can do worse than fail to connect with clients, it can also result in legal hurdles. In contrast, a powerful name can be incredibly helpful for your marketing and branding efforts.
”Writing is to touch the body.”
– JEAN-LUC NANCY
Words are a unique way to persuade people and even to sell products. The most important persuasion tools we have in our entire arsenal are words. Can you imagine if people would learn how to use them the right way?
”To write, therefore, is the way of someone who uses the word as bait; the word fishes for something that is not a word.”
– CLARICE LINSPECTOR
Fishing an emotion, an image or a feeling with a word is what you want to achieve with your naming. Being able to convey a story behind your brand, evoking a concept or an idea.
4 things to consider when creating your naming
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Uniqueness
The naming must have its own personality and differentiate from your competitors.
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Ease
The perfect naming for your business will generally be short and easy to remember. Ideally, it is better to have a word or short phrase that has a hook or that refers to a specific concept associated with your brand. Avoid hard-to-spell names as you don’t want to continually correct the misspelled version of your name. Keep it simple.
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Pronunciation
You must take into consideration how the chosen name is pronounced in your language. Does it sound good? Is it easy to pronounce? How about in other languages? Is everyone able to say it the same way?
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Location
You should always consider the possible meanings in other languages, especially if your business is international. Secondary meanings in local slangs may convey the opposite of what’s intended and can even be offensive.
Needless to say, you should avoid any negative connotation of the word as it will connect directly to your brand. A naming with a positive or fun connotation will be more appealing and easier to remember.
Steps to create a naming
Well, let me give you some guidelines that will help you to narrow down the number of possibilities that you have in mind. If you already have your naming, keep reading! These guidelines will confirm if the naming you picked is the one for your business. First things first: research the naming of brands or companies that are in your town and analyse them.
1. Research brand namings in your niche
For instance, if your business is a hotel, then search existent hotel’s namings, especially those in your region.
2. Research brand namings within a similar niche
Following the example above, you would look for namings of restaurants, rural houses, hostels, bars, and possibly, clubs or other places of entertainment.
3. Choose your naming type
Understanding the different types of naming, makes this often-arduous task a bit smoother. Now, you need to decide what type of construction you want to use for your brand:
- Descriptive (Hotels.com, General Motors)
- Evocative (Nike, Amazon, Apple)
- Invented (Kodak, Google, Pixar)
- Lexical (Dunkin’ Donuts, Flickr)
- Acronymic (IBM, UPS, MTV)
- Geographical (American Airlines, Kentucky fried chicken)
- Founder’s name (Ford, Kellogg’s)
After doing the analysis and deciding on the type of naming you want, it’s time to brainstorm!
Write all the words or phrases that come to your mind in a list. Write them all, even if they seem rare or weird, or do not sound good to you or they remind you of something else.
Little by little, read that list and make a selection. First, read the words out loud and then, think about their meaning, both literal and non-literal. Lastly, discard the ones that are far from representing your brand, leaving only two or three names for your brand.
Finally, you have to arm yourself with courage, and among the ones remaining, choose one. Feel free to get feedback from your friends, family and if possible, your target clients. Their thoughts on how they perceive these words, what they remind them of, or even hear how they pronounce them, will be really valuable. This way, you will have a broader perception of your naming and it will be easier for you to choose the winning one.
And as the saying goes, A picture is worth a 1000 words. But if you find the right word… Imagine how much you’ve won!
How have you found the process? Have you chosen your Brand name??? Congratulations if you did!! If not, keep in mind that like everything in life, it’s just a matter of practice and time. Sometimes, the ideal name will come to your mind when you least expect it.
As the business owner, you will have to live with this name for a long time, so make sure you are happy with it and it resonates with your ideal client. Sooner or later the magic word will come to your head!
I will end this article with a quote from Eugenio Trias:
”To write is to inscribe something in the skin. It is tattooing the one who reads”
Did you enjoy this article? Feel free to comment and of course, don’t forget to share it.
Paula.
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