Naming a company, product or a technology is a strategically critical process. Still, it often becomes a “creative project” based on an internal competition or using the internal project name. This never works. To succeed, the most important factors are to agree on the strategic role for the name and develop the name through a structured process.
The name of a company or its offerings is a central element of the image and a base for commercial success. The name signals attributes like product and service quality, operating philosophy, attitude, size, ambition, etc. This makes the name far too important to be decided based on only internal ideas (including internal ideas can be good for motivation though).
As a starting point for the naming process, there are three categories of names to work from: Descriptive, Metaphoric/Associative and Imaginary names.
A descriptive name simply states what a company or business does or offers. For instance, Scandinavian Airlines clearly describes that the company a) operates in the airline industry, and b) that its origin is Scandinavia. The main upside of a descriptive name is that it immediately convey what the company is all about. The main downside is that the name has the characteristics of a generic product, which leaves little room for differentiation.
Metaphoric/Associative names use a metaphor to describe a feature or benefit. To do so, the metaphor must be commonly understood and create the right feeling. For example, Swish emphasizes how simple it is to transfer money from one person to another. The main advantage with metaphoric names is that you can borrow favorable characteristics from the metaphor itself as differentiation. The main disadvantage is that metaphoric names are quite difficult to find.
Imaginary names are names that doesn’t describe or relate to the company, its business or offering. Some examples of imaginary names are Accenture, Bluetooth, Ikea and X. The advantage is that imaginary names offer full freedom for the company to create a brand story and desirable associations. The downsides are that imaginary names are even more difficult to find and agree upon than metaphoric, and the cost to fill the name with a meaning.
The discussion around “type of name we want to have” is normally where the work process starts. It’s important to define a verbal branding strategy, which also includes decisions on desired registrations and URL availability. This is followed by a competition analysis before the name generation process starts. Normally this process leads to 100+ possible names that are narrowed down step-by-step.
After the process you will end up with a great name. One example is Bring, Post Norway’s logistics company. The name Bring works in English and Norwegian (bringe), is short and positive and all URLs could be attained. A fantastic base for a successful launch of a company.
But like all “rules” there are of course exceptions. At Pyramid, we had the honor of launching Bluetooth for Ericsson. One of the first project was to find a name for the technology. All proposals were rejected, mostly due to registration problems. A couple of weeks before the global launch, someone said “why are we not using the internal project name Bluetooth. And the rest is history…
Interested to learn more about naming, just reach out to ulf@sfinxconsulting.se
