What’s in the Brand Name?

Brand name is a fundamentally critical choice as a brand element because it captures the central theme or key associations of products and services in a very compact and economical fashion.

Brand names can be extremely  effective  shorthand means of communication.

Consider ‘Apple’ as a brand name. In the first instance, you may not relate it to computers. But that is okay. It is important to understand what characteristics of personality this name suggests for a line of products and services under this name and how people can relate these characteristics  to their inner self.. And at the end of day, a company has to live up to the characteristics the brand name suggests. 

Apple was a simple and well known word that was very distinctive in the product category. It was rather unconventional. The surprise element of the name is in the moment of awareness in public when they hear about it being a name of a personal computer brand. This generates curiosity to at least explore it further or ask someone about it (more relevant for the era when google and other search did not exist). 

Apple is refreshing in nature. A high quality crisp apple instantly helps assess the high level of quality. The meaning of the name gave the company a ‘friendly shine’ [1] and a warm brand personality. It could be reinforced further with  a logo that would easily transfer across geographic and cultural boundaries. It was a well chosen brand name that made an appreciable contribution to creation of strong brand equity. [1]

Of course the company has to live up to the expectations it evokes with its  brand name. The quality of products have to reflect the inner essence of the brand personality as per its name. Naming the brand right is a first critical step. All the future steps in the brand's lifetime journey have to reflect the core philosophy of the brand. Because if Apple did not have the obsession to deliver the quality, the name would not have meant anything. It would have just been a talking point. Creating talking points is easy. Integrating the true message of the name in daily lives of people is difficult. 

Brand name is the most central of all the brand elements. It gives directive guidance to all other brand elements such as logo, slogan etc.

Ideally, a brand name has certain criteria that it should meet. 

• It should be easily remembered

• Should be highly suggestive of both product class and the particular benefits that serve the basis of its positioning. 

• Inherently fun or interesting

• Rich with creative potential. 

• Transferable to a wide variety of product and geographic settings.

• Enduring in meaning and relevant over time. 

• Strongly protectable both legally and competitively. 

It is really difficult to choose the brand name that satisfies all above criteria to a great extent but a right balance of meeting all criteria is a good spot to be at. 

How does brand name help with memory paths?

An advertisement runs for a minute or may be seconds, a sales call may run for hours, customers can notice a brand name, register and register its meaning and activate it in memory in just a few seconds. A right brand name helps with a great level of ‘recall value’ in the minds of customers. A high recall comes from right memory paths created in the minds of customers through brand name and day to day quality delivery of the products and services that re-enforces the brand name and expected outcome in the minds of customers. 

Today & Tomorrow

While we look at  choosing a brand name today and try to map  out its meaning across a broad spectrum of criteria today, it is important to pay good level emphasis to the ‘relevance over time’. Because a brand name becomes closely tied to the product in the minds of the consumers, it is the most difficult element for marketers to change. 

Note

In some of the future articles we will explore certain guidelines to refer to while doing a naming exercise for a brand. These guidelines will cover aspects such as awareness, simplicity and ease of pronunciation, spelling,  familiarity, meaningfulness, uniqueness, associations, starting letter usage and so on. 

Reference - Strategic Brand Management, 5th Edition, Keller Et. Al. 

Team 10B Labs