Brand names shape a brand’s present and its future. With millions of brand names being created around the world every day, we put the process of how they are made under the microscope.
The Brand-Name Creation Process
A brand name is a competitive arena for companies too. Ultimately, every brand invests in the value its name represents. The aim of that investment is to make the brand one of the first that comes to mind whenever there is a need related to a category, product, or service — in other words, to get into the basket in the consumer’s mind.
So when a brand name offers advantages — being memorable, and making a value tied to brand strategy felt — it becomes easier to learn and remember. The opposite is also possible; in that case designers or advertisers spend a great deal of effort and money to make the name easier to remember or learn.
The purpose of brand identity design, or of a brand’s communication campaign, is likewise to make the brand more memorable.
Your Brand Name Is Your Most Valuable Asset
The brand name comes to mind before a person assembles all the pieces of the brand identity, and because they remember the name, they stop trying to put the logo together and leave the task unfinished. You may not be able to draw the logo of a brand you have seen thousands of times — but you will remember its name.
Your brand name is your most valuable asset, because throughout that brand’s life you pour all of your investment into that name.
We know just how important a brand name is.
Finding a Brand Name Requires Expertise
So is creating an effective brand name easy? Creating a new brand name gets harder by the day. Try this: pick up a dictionary of mythology and have the words on every page checked against brand-name search sources — you will find that almost all of them have already been registered by brands or entrepreneurs. So finding a brand name has become very difficult today.
Around the world, a new brand-name registration is filed almost every three seconds. That being so, brand naming has turned into a discipline of its own.
Brand-name types can be chosen according to a brand’s strategic priority. What matters is being easy to remember, as I noted, and evoking the value the brand will represent. Below I share the nine most-used brand-name types.
1) Names that directly describe the line of business
This type clearly defines the service or product the company offers. There is little room for creativity. The upside of such a name is that it communicates easily with the consumer and gives a clean, clear message about the field of business. But there is a downside too: if the brand wants to expand, expanding under this name will be quite hard. Hotels.com is a good example of this type; as you can see, it would be hard to stretch such a name into a product brand or to explain a change in business model to consumers. The same holds for 1-800-Flowers — broadening its product range looks quite difficult. Today, highly generic descriptive names can also make a brand harder for users to find.
2) Names transferred from another domain
These are usually created by transferring a strong association from another category. This type defines the “creative brand names” family. Once taught, it carries brand value in a very powerful and distinctive way. It is easy to remember and makes room for effective corporate-identity work. Nike and Amazon are the best examples. From what I have observed, this is unfortunately one of the least-preferred naming types among entrepreneurs and brand owners in many markets. Brands that try it boldly will see the benefits many times over in the medium term.
3) Invented brand names
Also known as made-up brand names. They are among the harder types to explain. Because they are invented, they are highly original. They set you apart in Google searches and make you easier to find. Creating such a name is quite hard — it especially calls for a command of Latin root words. It is an invented brand-name type that may be pronounced the same across many languages while carrying no inherent meaning.
4) Meaningful-alteration brand names
These contain wordplay, altering the category’s product or service word within the name itself. This both delivers a strong category association and stands out through its originality. Dunkin’ Donuts and Coca-Cola are of this type. English brand names are often built using this kind of naming.
5) Abbreviation brand names
Abbreviation brand names are formed from the shortening of a company’s long name. It is true that they offer visual and graphic advantages, but teaching them takes great effort and time. They are hard to pronounce, so they are less preferred. IBM, KFC, UPS, and UNICEF are well-known examples. They are rarely chosen today; they were once something of a fad, but they are seldom on the creative industry’s agenda now.
6) Brand names featuring a geographic region
Geographic brand names are tied to a particular region. They let a name gain quick acceptance early on in the region where it is known, but they struggle in regions where that geographic name means nothing. In the end, we want a brand name to represent or evoke a value — and in that sense the benefit these names provide cannot be dismissed.
7) Founder brand names
This is one of the riskiest paths. If the founder does not embody a formula, a way of doing business, or a school of thought as a brand asset, then the owner’s every action and word gets associated with the brand, producing a very personal brand-management process. There are very successful examples around the world, such as Ford and Ben & Jerry’s. Fashion houses, from Ralph Lauren to Tommy Hilfiger, follow the same path.
8) Historical brand names
This type relates to names that have nothing to do with the company itself but can signal a transfer of value from a particular historical figure. The best-known today is Tesla.
9) Meaningless-alteration brand names
These use a combination of one or more of the categories above. Tiguan, for instance, is such an example — derived by blending the words “iguana” and “tiger.” In the “original brand names” family, these are the strongest alternatives. Their originality value is quite high, and their sound and shape make them easy to teach.
