How to Create Brand Business Names
Whether a company logo or a name for a product, over time, brand names define and contribute to the company or product's success. Brand name development is a serious endeavor for all businesses that should be given considered thought and research.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Challenging
Instructions
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Determining a Brand Name
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1
Make a list of names you like and think appropriate for the product. At its most basic, a brand name needs to fit both the product and the product category. You'd never name a new hospital something that doesn't impart capability, professionalism and caring. For example, if two names are being considered for a new hospital, St. Jude Medical Center or Good Samaritan Hospital, St. Jude has several advantages on a brand name credibility scale.
While many thriving hospitals are named Good Samaritan, the combination of sainthood and medical center professionalism expands and adds dimension to the meaning of St. Jude and thus, the utility of the brand name.
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2
Reduce the list by eliminating any names that sound like other products in the category or even other big brand names in other noncompetitive categories. Brand names should be unique, clever if possible and above all, should say something positive and meaningful about the product .
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Consider which brand names on your list are most memorable. The consumer marketplace is competitive. Older heritage brands often used the founder's name as the brand name such as Ford, Kellogg or SC Johnson. Some brand name products such as Procter & Gamble's Tide spend so much money on advertising and promotion that the value of their manufactured brand name is incalculable. The icon brand name Tide is now synonymous with detergent.
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Do outside research on the name among the target customer base whether consumer or business to business. You can easily field a small research project online at no cost using Survey Monkey. Present the names in your consideration set to your target audience. Elicit responses to a number of closed-ended and some open-ended answers to questions posed in the survey about the considered set of brand names. Your goal is to determine how potential names measure up against category attributes and benefits considered valuable.
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Determine how your brand names stack up against competitors' names as well. A new athletic shoe manufacturer would need to distinguish itself in a field with names such as Asic, Reebok, Nike, New Balance or Converse. A new product entering this competitive and creative manufacturing industry would need both money as well as creativity in its brand name to become established.
Increasingly, large companies turn to firms that specialize in developing brand names, brand packaging and positioning as the importance of these brand pillars will in greater or lesser degree contribute to the success of the product over the long term.
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Tips & Warnings
Use research to generate a creative brand name.
Create new words for brands by combining meaningful syllables or words.
