The article discusses the importance of a brand name in conveying a brand's identity and argues that a name may not be appropriate and it will jeopardize the brand's potential success.
Four guidelines for naming a brand are given: Tell a story that is new and different from the crowd;
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As Nikolas Contis of Siegel + Gale puts it: “There are three main options when it comes to naming a brand – descriptive, suggestive and fanciful, but it should always set the right expectations for the customer.”
Is what Shakespeare's Juliet said true?
There are many cases where brand names do not accurately reflect the truth about the experiences that brands convey.
The simplest way marketers use to create expectations about a brand is to: arrange a product, a name, a strategic platform and an attractive image – an arrangement that we often refer to generically as brand identity.
Have you checked out the 2013 version of the Chevy Malibu?
But the company can't keep that name much longer (trust me).
Putting previous generation brand assets aside, the name Malibu is no longer appropriate because of the association within the “words” themselves – glamour, thrill, sun, beach, adventure, romance and Hollywood.
The name Malibu creates a promise that the new car cannot deliver.
However, the Dodge Charger kept its name.
It should be noted that the new Malibu is a success, so to some extent, Juliet is right – names are not deal breakers.
When thinking about other car brands, someone asks about the Honda Odyssey.
Therefore, let's analyze more deeply the factors that make a good brand name.
Here are four guidelines for developing a good brand name.
Often in the consumer world, goods that create messages of quality can be a fierce pursuit.
Everything is declared to be the best;
But Gray Goose did something different, they used an incredibly simple and surprising name.
Besides being so different, the name Gray Goose also represents the product.
And this “difference” story directly supports the idea of quality.
But a name like Gray Goose may not be a “good” initial name, especially in the boardroom, where we are constrained by “walls of logic and analysis.”
Crate & Barrel is one of the simplest and most effective names of all time.
But imagine how they could pull that off.
If this had been tabled in a boardroom as a well-thought-out idea, with glossy mood boards and positioning statements among a group of marketing experts, the Crate & Barrel name would likely have been shot down immediately. wallpaper* – it's more like a magazine than it is about wallpaper – it's about all the beautiful, stylish masterpieces that surround us. wallpaper* associated with Eames chairs, Cherner chairs and stunning models in glossy, expensive magazine publications, the word “wallpaper” came to mean something completely new and different.
The Crate & Barrel name also makes modern design accessible, welcoming, casual and casual.
Finally, it plants two very tangible images in the mind.
Every once in a while, an opportunity arises that makes the brand name the tool to define a new category.
Swiffer isn't a mop – it's Swiffer.
Twitter is another great example.
There are three basic types of names to choose from: descriptive, suggestive and fanciful.
There is an old argument that descriptive or overtly suggestive names require the least amount of investment to get a message across in the short term.
If Amazon calls itself Books-A-Million, it's unlikely it will become a household term.
This does not mean that suggested names are ineffective.
So, what's in a brand?
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About the author
Nikolas Contis is global director of brand naming at Siegel + Gale, based in San Francisco.
