My Name Is: Tips and Tricks for Choosing a Brand Name

Choosing the perfect brand name for your business is a big f’n deal. Huge. More than just a label, your brand name shapes how people perceive your company and products. It’s the heart and soul of your marketing strategy and overall brand identity.

So, no pressure, but picking an awesome, on-point name could be the difference between your brand thriving or diving harder than Tom Daley.

Let’s chat about why the name game is so vital for branding success and how to play it right:

Brand Recall is Money in the Bank

An easy, breezy brand name sticks in customers’ minds like flypaper. If peeps can quickly latch onto and remember your name, ding-ding! That makes them way more likely to throw dollars your way again and again.

Stand Out Like a Gem in a Pigpen

A smart, one-of-a-kind brand name helps you stand out from the hopefully-not-as-fly competition. You’ll dazzle customers and earn instant recognition in a crowded marketplace full of pigpens.

Spark Joy Like Marie Kondo

An awesome brand name gives customers good vibes and warm fuzzies; it sparks joy! When your name resonates emotionally, it kickstarts a beautiful friendship between their wallets and your brand.

Build a Brand Empire Over Time

An on-point name lays the groundwork for customers to grow more loyal to your brand over the years. The ultimate goal is to keep your name relevant for the long haul and build an empire more powerful than Caesar’s (but with less back-stabbing, ideally).

Nail That First Impression

Customers unconsciously judge your brand’s book by its cover (or name), forming snap impressions from the get-go, for better or worse. The proper name aligns with what your brand is slinging to make killer first impressions.

Now that we’ve established the integral role your brand name plays, let’s explore naming strategies using the following tips and tricks.

Tip #1: Keep it Simple and Memorable

Resist the urge to get fancy, cryptic or overly complex when branding your business. Aim for a simple, catchy brand name customers can quickly comprehend and recall later. If your name is challenging to pronounce, confusing in meaning or tedious to spell, consumers will likely move on to competitor offerings.

Consider using the following elements to boost memorability:

• Alliteration – Repeating first consonant sounds (e.g. Bonobo Box)

• Rhyming – Words ending with the same sound (e.g. Twitter)

• Rhythm – Stress patterns that facilitate recall (e.g. YoYo Games)

Shorter length names (1-3 words) also tend to stick in minds better as they are effortless to process and articulate. For example, “Wing It” conveys an airline brand promise clearly and succinctly.

Choose easy-to-spell and pronounce words without excessive syllables. Syllables act like speed bumps, slowing comprehension. Misunderstood or mispronounced names spell trouble. Lexicon Branding finds roughly 4 in 5 failures stem from names that frustrate customers. Save customers the headache by choosing words spelt and spoken as imagined.

Lastly, avoid obscure jargon only insiders grasp. Creating confusion benefits no one. Emphasize clarity in communications and naming.

Tip #2: Be Unique, Avoid Clichés

A lack of differentiation in names is the kiss of death for emerging brands. Highly generic names steeped in overused clichés fail to resonate emotionally or drive brand recall. They also limit growth potential in the face of Monopolistic competition.

For example, naming a bakery “Best Bread” or an IT company “Top Tech” blends indistinguishably into the background noise of industries. It implies you’re indistinguishable from rivals.

Instead, offer customers a brand name that conjures intrigue, sparks meaningful associations and conveys what you stand for. This builds familiarity and nurtures customer relationships.

Strategically employ the less common “working forwards” approach. Define what makes your brand vision and offerings unique, then encapsulate that proudly in your name. Own what differentiates you.

A neat example is the eco-friendly cleaning product company ‘Seventh Generation.’ Their name speaks to a core brand value of sustainability for future generations while distinguishing them from competitors.

Tip #3: Consider Your Target Audience

It’s foolhardy to make branding decisions inside an echo chamber solely based on leadership’s perspectives and assumptions. Successful brands align names with the values, aspirations, preferences and buying criteria of target audiences. They serve customers’ interests first and foremost.

Get to know your prime customer demographics and psychographics intimately through comprehensive research, and then derive a brand name reflecting what appeals to them.

Run surveys and focus groups with current and prospective customers on potential names you’re considering to capture revealing insights on their reactions. Gather feedback on the extent to which proposed names would motivate engagement or buying behaviour from them. Let real data guide decision-making here.

Continually test assumptions against market realities around what resonates with those you want to serve. They will vote with their wallets ultimately.

Tip #4: Mind the Brandscape

A stellar name losing its shine due to infringement risks or legal nightmares is an all-too-common tale for entrepreneurs. Flirting with trademark infringement of registered marks threatens future scalability.

Generating a wholly unique name in a hypercompetitive business landscape is challenging but critically important. Even if your proposed name does not directly match rivals’ names, similarities causing customer confusion must be avoided.

Verify that the proposed names have no prior trademark rights attached, and be sure to formally register your own once you have settled on a final choice.

Beyond legal considerations, evaluate URL availability for names you’re weighing up. Scooping up aligned social media handles and dot-com domain names matching your brand name fuels branding cohesion across touchpoints.

Tip #5: Make it Scalable

Naming your business is a bit like naming your child. The hope is your child will grow to realize their full potential over time. Your brand name should equally demonstrate growth potential as your company expands.

Embedding descriptions that are overly limited to current offerings hinder future pivots into new spaces. Acronyms granting flexibility are a clever play here. As offerings diversified, IBM successfully shifted from meaning ‘International Business Machines’ to just ‘IBM’.

Also, avoid pigeonholing brands into niches by weaving more abstract elements into names. Doing so builds adaptability to enter fresh categories or geographies under one unified identity. ‘Virgin’ embodied this scalability, spreading seamlessly from music to airlines and beyond.

Certain suffixes tend to scale better, too. Consider ending names with Incorporated, LLC, Corp, or Partners rather than your current offering classification. Dropping ‘Books’ from Amazon’s original name ‘Cadabra’ set growth runways.

Tip #6: Test and Refine

Testing brand names thoroughly before finalizing investment minimizes risks of a lacklustre reception or associations you never intended, tarnishing growth. Probe consumer reactions directly through systematic testing.

Set up simple online surveys asking respondents questions like:

• Would they expect to pay more, less or the same for your product based on the potential name? Why?

• Does the proposed name seem appropriate for your product category and target audience?

• What attributes or benefits come to mind based on this brand name?

Collect ratings on key branding criteria - uniqueness, longevity, emotional impact, memorability, etc. —and identify patterns that guide you toward the most optimal options.

Use tools like Google Ad Words Keyword Planner to assess search volume/competition for names. This gauges potential reach through SEO.

Always be willing to refine or pivot brand names, not garnering desired responses. Brand development is an iterative process.

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Additional Strategies and Tools to Facilitate Selection

Beyond the naming tips already shared, a few supplementary strategies and tools exist to aid decision-making:

Brand Naming Frameworks

Leverage proven brand naming frameworks used by leading agencies. For example, global brand consultancy Siegel+Gale employs a model that assesses five factors: distinctiveness, relevance, scalability, emotional engagement, and protectability.

Name Testing Tools

Testing tools like Naming Force provide consumer response metrics on multiple name options simultaneously. They quantify levels of approval, meaningfulness, uniqueness, etc., through ranking scores to directly compare choices.

Trademark Squatting Protection

Unfortunately, activities like trademark squatting persist. False applicants try to extort money by registering brands on newly launched companies’ shortlists. Services like TradenarkNow efficiently help companies reserve ultimate name ownership.

The Notify AI Engine

This nifty tool combs through millions of trademarks to recommend semantically related names free from infringement risks, saving tons of manual searching effort. It plugs naming ideas straight from the USPTO into your workflow.

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Wrapping Up...

Naming your brand rates among your company's most strategically important marketing decisions requires thoughtful deliberation. Follow an informed process adhering to the tips, tricks and frameworks here to maximize your chances of landing on a distinctive, scalable name and sparking emotional connections with target consumers.

Invest time upfront, considering your brand identity, growth objectives, and customer insights during naming. Then, validate assumptions through systematic testing. Continually refine based on feedback. And never underestimate the power of checking trademark availability and securing registrations.

By picking a resonant brand name customized to who you aspire to serve, you gain an invaluable asset that fuels sustainable market positioning and amplification that no amount of money can buy outright.

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