PART I
Background and Basics
I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but Iâve never been able to believe it. I donât believe a rose would be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage.
âL.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
CHAPTER 1
How Brand Naming Works
Key Ideas
âą Brand names can shift perceptions and influence business outcomes.
âą Naming is important because language is powerful, naming is hard, and a good brand name is a good investment.
âą Good brand names strike a balance between strategic, creative, and technical qualities.
Much to the annoyance of every namer I know, it seems thereâs an unwritten rule that all articles and blog posts about brand naming must start with the same familiar quotation:1
Whatâs in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet
âWilliam Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeareâs Juliet was partly right, of course: changing somethingâs name wonât change its underlying properties. A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. Or, at least, it would emit the same odor molecules.
But names, like any other words we use to describe and label things, affect our perceptions. And perceptionsânot just odor moleculesâdetermine how we experience the world around us. Thatâs why Antarctic toothfish by another name, Chilean sea bass, sells better.
When it comes to brand namesâwords used to identify companies, products, or servicesâshifts in perception can lead to shifts in business outcomes. Just as a CEOâs confidence can influence an investorâs decision to buy or sell, a brand name (and, more broadly, a brand identity) can influence a customerâs decision to buy or not buy or a recruitâs decision to take a job or pass. In business, as in life, perceptions matter.
But just how important is naming? After all, most brand names are just a handful of letters, and some of the most successful companies and products donât seem to have had much thought put into theirs. General Motors and BestBuy are about as dry as you can get. Snickers and Bluetooth donât seem to have any relevant meaning. Yahoo sounds irresponsible, and Diesel sounds smelly and bad for the planet.2 If brands with these names succeeded, couldnât anything work as a brand name?
Maybe. Unfortunately, names join many other marketing elements in suffering from an attribution problem. If a brand does well, how much of that success is attributable to a great brand name? If a company fails, to what degree could that failure be attributed to a terrible name? Because every brand is the sum of its integrated parts, we canât easily assign value to a good or bad name in isolation. Nevertheless, it seems wise to steer clear of the branding equivalent of toothfish if we can avoid it. Better to have a name that opens doors than one that opens a can of worms.
Because of the ambiguity surrounding the value of finding the right brand name, a namerâs first task is often to explain the importance of naming (and, sometimes, justify the price tag for a naming process). When faced with this challenge, I make the following three points: language is powerful, naming is hard, and a good name is a good investment.
Language Is Powerful
Steven Pinker, noted psychologist and linguist, describes language as âone of the wonders of the natural world,â a uniquely human ability to âshape events in each otherâs brains with exquisite precision.â3 And anyone whoâs been moved by a novel, inspired by a passionate speech, or haunted by heartfelt song lyrics knows the power of language to not only describe events but to spur emotion.
The effect of language has also been studied empirically. In 1974, two psychologists sought to understand how language affects perceptions.4 They showed videos of car accidents to students and asked them to estimate how fast the cars were moving at the moment of impact. But for each group of students, the researchers phrased their question slightly differently. Participants who were asked, âAbout how fast were the cars going when they smashed each other?â reported the cars moving at over 40 miles per hour. Those asked how fast the cars were moving when they contacted each other estimated speeds closer to 30. By changing a verb, and nothing else, the psychologists were able to alter participantsâ perceptions and memories of the accidents.
The food industry has demonstrated an understanding of the power of language to influence consumersânot only with Chilean sea bass, but with products ranging from canola oilânĂ©e rapeseed oilâto dried plumsâthe fruit formerly known as prunes. Politicians, too, have used (and abused) language to great effect,5 framing and reframing debates through terms like pro-life, death tax, and gun safety. 6
The brand name is a prime opportunity for businesspeople to harness the power of language to convey meaning and inspire emotion.
Naming Is Hard
A lot can go wrong without a proper naming process. Just ask the people behind naming missteps like Boaty McBoatface (see Chapter 5) or Consignia and Tronc (see details below in What Makes a Bad Brand Name?). In fact, some of the best clients for naming and branding agencies are the ones whoâve already tried to do it themselvesâthey call, exasperated, and complain that no one on the team can agree on anything or all the good names are already taken.
Thatâs because, unlike coming up with a cute name for a pet, naming in a business context means aligning on objectives, considering legal and cultural implications, and driving consensus around something thatâdespite efforts to inject objectivity into the processâcan ultimately feel like a gut call. In the words of a 2011 article in The New Yorker, the process âcan be arduous, and often comes down to a combination of instinct, abstract reasoning, and the clientâs idiosyncratic demands.â7
And thatâs all before the name has launched. As weâll explore further at the end of this chapter and at other points throughout the book, ill-considered brand names that make it out into the wild can result in product recalls, wasted money, and legal problemsânot to mention embarrassment.
A Good Name Is a Good Investment
The contemporary meaning of brand is a bit hard to pin down. Definitions range from pithyââwhat people say about you when youâre not in the roomâ8âto straightlacedââa name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one sellerâs good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.â9 Far less debated is the idea that a strong brandâone thatâs instantly recognizable, emotionally resonant, and consistently expressedâcan help a business meet its goals, from building awareness to increasing market share.10
If youâve come around to the idea that branding will help your business achieve its goals, the importance of brand names is hard to deny. Of all the marketing decisions brand owners make, the name is likely to last the longest. Through all the ad campaigns, website refreshes, and logo redesigns, the brand name remains.
And compared to those other marketing activities, a good name is an inexpensive way to grab attention in a crowded marketplace. Take an example from the auto industry: In a sea of names that are drab, meaningless, or bothâVolkswagen, Toyota, Ford, GMâa name like Tesla stands out, sparks curiosity, and instantly conveys more meaning than most of its competitorsâ multimillion-dollar ad campaigns. As mentioned above, itâs impossible to know whether Tesla Motors could have been equally successful with another name. But Elon Musk, Teslaâs CEO, saw the nameâs potential; he had the company spend $75,000 to acquire the rights to use it.11
What Makes a Good Brand Name?
In early 2021, Alan Brew, founding partner at BrandingBusiness, ran an informal survey among professional namers. In an e-mail titled âI wish Iâd thought of that,â he made one, simple request: âNominate a brand name (consumer or corporate) from any era that you really like and admire, with a sentence or two elaborating on why you like it.â
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