Every time we are faced with the need to purchase something, whether it be clothes, equipment, a car or products, we think about who we will buy from. And in our minds we involuntarily reproduce the name of the company or brand, or rather the brand, which is so well remembered and causes the necessary associations.
What is a brand?
There are many stories when companies appeared with a sonorous name, and the buyer immediately remembered it. But most often the name arises thanks to some rules that are associated with psychology, grammar, phonetics and vocabulary, because there is even a whole direction in creating a brand name - naming.
On the one hand, it seems that coming up with a name is a simple task, but it is not for nothing that they say: whatever you call a boat, it will sail! And the meaning of this saying is very deep.
For the first time, the word “naming” appeared not in the 21st and not in the last century, but in the 19th century, when economic competition began to develop and manufacturers fought for their customers.
Today this is a special area in which many books have been written, and this is primarily due to the fact that the competition is very big, and therefore you need to be the best in everything, having a unique and original name.
A brand is not just a name, and even not only the name of a trademark, as is often thought, it is something more, because it includes both the name and the auditory and visual components. When a person hears the name of a brand, he immediately arises sympathy or antipathy.
A few rules on how to come up with a company name
Naming is a whole science, and therefore, it has long been developed rules for how to come to a unique and original name. To understand what to create, you need to imagine that a person can know no more than 10 names from one product line, and he will immediately name one or two brands, and in the store there can be dozens of products.
The name of the new brand should be embedded in the memory of future consumers and correctly directed to associations. This means that the name should indicate:
- What is the idea of the company;
- for whom this brand is created;
- what motivation is there to purchase a product.
At the same time, you need to choose a name for the brand so that it does not carry negativity, does not offend anyone and does not misinform buyers.
It is worth remembering about the legal side and checking on official websites and portals whether this name already exists. Although there are companies in which the legal entity can be called whatever you like, and the trade name is different. This is often done by companies that have several areas in their activities, where goods or services are not connected in any way.
Most often, for their company they take the following as a basis for the name:
- first names (children, loved ones, your last name);
- direction of services (plumbing, windows, products);
- geographical objects or the name of the category (plant such and such, a store of such and such).
But, as a rule, such names are too simple and little remembered, although they may be partly unique, so you should use not only the rules, but also tips to make them beautiful and original.
How to come up with a brand name: some tips
A brand is the name of a company, which can be enclosed in a single word, phrase or abbreviation. Here you need to think about several components:
- Phonetics - the word should be rhythmic, sonorous and easy to pronounce, and also different from the names of competitors.
- Phonosemantics - when a person pronounces a name, this should cause certain associations, i.e. if he says “products,” then he should think not about furniture, cars, but about food.
- Vocabulary - besides the fact that the word needs to be easily pronounced, it can also be easily written down without suffering, for example, by the question of which syllable to stress.
At the same time, you should carefully treat such a concept as fashion. Indeed, today some words are in fashion or trend, and in five years they will be replaced by others, and the new generation will no longer understand what the name says. We must not forget that the first thing the client will encounter is the name, and he should like it.
Another rule of how to come up with a brand name is, check it on your friends and acquaintances. Ask them if it is easy to read, whether a person understands what it is about, what kind of associations he has. You need to check at several levels: stylistic, phonetic, visual.
Perhaps beautiful Italian words will be chosen for the brand name (after all, this is a very melodic and sonorous language), but only a small part of the population knows Italian and can immediately understand what this company is connected with. Now, if the company is somehow connected with Italy, for example, it is a travel company that creates and selects tours to the named country, then you can safely use Italian as the name.
Do not forget to check the name in search engines. The smaller the result of the issuance, the better, because this is how associations will arise specifically with your company, and not with a few dozen more.
Several stages
There are certain rules on how to come up with a company name, and they should be followed during the brand creation process. It consists of several stages:
- Goal setting - analysis of the target audience to understand how it reacts to certain phrases phonetically and aesthetically.
- Development - it is necessary to come up with several options, then conduct a semantic and phonetic analysis, which will help to exclude several proposed options at once.
- Evaluation and approval - after the selected option, it is necessary to conduct an objective assessment according to criteria such as perception, compliance of the name of the company with modern concepts, as well as the status of the company. A company that produces building materials cannot choose the name "Antoshka" for itself, since this is not solid, but it is perfect for a store in a residential area.
Common mistakes
Often people think that coming up with a name is a matter of a few minutes or hours, and they make certain mistakes when choosing a name that is neither related to strategy nor positioning. The most common errors are:
- Wrong association - before choosing the words for the brand name, ask yourself what you will imagine, whether you are at the place of the client.
- Title mismatch. For example, what can be imagined by hearing the name "best among ...", and instead, the client will see a ragged door and a tiny office where one person works.
- Complex name and pronunciation. The simpler, the better, and today it is gaining momentum. If the whole offer is hidden in the name, then the potential client will definitely not like it.
- Doubles. It is very easy to come up with a name by changing one letter in a word, but sooner or later the client will realize that they are deceiving him and do not provide the quality that he expects. So once we decided to come up with a name for the clothing brand, taking the famous Adidas brand and replacing the letters to get Adimas and Abibas. This option is only criticism and is suitable for increasing short-term capital.
Is it worth entrusting this task to professionals
The science of naming was invented for a reason, so today there are various agencies that are engaged in creating a brand for various companies. It can be PR or branding agencies.
But before entrusting the business to professionals, it is worthwhile to set a clear technical task in front of them, provide some information about the company and express your wish.
In several stages, specialists will come up with a brand: generate options, conduct selection, test selected ones, conduct legal due diligence and registration.
Ideas for a brand name may be different, but which ones will turn out to be winning, professionals know.
How to come up with a name yourself
Naturally, someone will prefer to engage in this task on their own and will think about how to come up with the brand name, because only the owner himself knows what he is doing and how best to present it to the consumer.
But here, nevertheless, work is required not only of one person, but of a team. Together with her, it will be necessary to brainstorm, to work out many ideas and options, in order to subsequently choose the best.
Help creating
How to come up with a brand name - on your own or entrust the business to professionals? Everyone decides what to do, but it is worth remembering that there are several good programs that can help in this important task. There are several name generators that suggest several directions, but this does not mean that the generator proposed immediately needs to be used, because someone else can take this option.
Here are some zi online generators:
- earn24;
- "Brand Generator";
- "Mega Generator";
- "English-language online generator."
They are simple enough to use - here all the steps suggest and offer several options.
Good examples
If you study brand names in completely different areas, you can replace some of the trends and principles by which names are created.
The following are successful examples of well-known brands not only in a particular country, but throughout the world:
- Name, surname - “Heinz”, “Mercedes”, “Alenka”.
- Names associated with geography or natural phenomena are Lightning, Bangkok Bank.
- Description of the activity - SurgutNefteGaz, Apple Computers.
- Historical figures - "Count Orlov", "Lincoln".
- Rhyme and rhythm - "Coca-Cola", "Chupa-Chups".
- Mythology - "Mazda", "Sprite".
- Acronym (the word from the first letters, part of the word) - "MTS", "VAZ".