By: Anna Kernbaum
Pixellent Design, Chief Creative
Posted: January 2020
Have you had an idea for a new product for a while? Have you been putting off starting that side business because your full time job kept you too busy?
Unless you are an essential business owner, work at one, or a front line hero in the medical field, this pandemic got a lot of us locked inside our homes with very little to do and a bunch of extra time on our hands.
THE CHALLENGE
Finding the perfect name for your new brand, product or company is a vital part of starting your business, no matter what industry you are in. To come up with a good name it is important to understand the story behind the brand. Your brand name will be a distilled down version of your brand story.
A great name needs to meet quite a number of criteria, such as being short enough for people to easily remember, it should be timeless and re-inventible as trends develop, be available for trademarking, and also should be memorable and associable for people to connect with it, which is one of the most important aspects of any brand.
Our team of experts have years of experience helping brands get off the ground and stay relevant by finding the right names for our clients.
When we work on brand naming with new brands finding a name for them, we take in consideration the following things:
DOES THE NEW BRAND NEED TO HAVE A DESCRIPTIVE NAME?
The name has to describe what the product, service or company does. It should help the consumer identify what the product or company is about, positioning the brand within an industry. Often this category will have a “real word” as the name, or parts of the name to help more clearly identify the brand.
Great examples of descriptive names are Toys R’ Us, PayPal, or Facebook.
IS THE NAME AN ACRONYM?
Does the name come from parts of someone’s initials, a description of the service or even just a functional abbreviation of a word. An acronym brand name should be quick to say, easy to remember and easily trademarked.
Examples of great acronym names are, FedEx, GE, IBM, or HP to mention a few.
IS IT A MADE UP, OR IN OTHER WORDS AN “INVENTED” NAME?
This category is the most challenging when launching a new brand, as it will require serious marketing efforts and support to make people aware of it. Just think about Xerox! Nowadays we use the word as a verb, but when it came out, nobody had any idea what a Xerox machine was!
By the same token, this also makes them one of the best options, as they don’t have to relate to anything, don’t come with stories attached to them, and brand owners can create their own story around them.
One of the best example is probably Xerox, but there’s also Kleenex, Kodak, Sony, Pantone or Acura to add a few.
IS IT A MADE UP, OR IN OTHER WORDS AN “INVENTED” NAME
This category is probably the most powerful as it builds on the feeling or experience the brand provides, which is a key part of any successful brand. While these type of names provide the most successful brand names, they are also the hardest to come up with, as they require a deep and intimate knowledge and full understanding of the product, service or company. Miss that and the name will be lost in a sea of fancy names or unrecognizable logos.
The best example in this category without a doubt is Apple, but we’d add as close followers Best Buy, Amazon and Netflix amongst others.
TO SUM IT UP
Brand naming shouldn’t be taken lightly. It is serious business and requires a team with experience in working with brands, takes time to develop and makes a world of difference for any new company or service.
To have our team of experts help you come up with a great name for your new business, product or service click on the Contact button or give us a call now!
Anna Kernbaum is the founder/owner and chief creative of Pixellent Design. You can contact Anna directly at info@pixellentdesign.com, or by calling (310) 896-5071
