The right name will bring immediate value to your business, distilling the power and promise of your brand, product or service into just one or two words.
So how do you go about creating a name? How can you objectively know when you've found the one? Naming is complicated but ultimately, it's a discipline: equal parts strategy, creativity, and trademark law. Here's how we'll go about it.
1. NAMING STRATEGY
We’ll develop a crisp, strategic Naming Brief to document your needs and direct our efforts. (You can’t know you’ve hit the bullseye if you haven’t defined it.)
To create it, we’ll clarify why you do what you do and what sets you apart. (Your brand’s DNA is your secret sauce.) We’ll talk about your brand architecture, trademark requirements, language considerations, descriptors, and URL needs. And we’ll discuss the pros and cons of different name styles and creative springboards.
2. CREATION + COLLABORATION
Together, we’ll explore a range of fresh, meaningful name ideas. These aren’t random, AI-generated names. They’re names inspired by what your brand stands for and how it makes people feel. We brainstorm, doodle, chase tangents and link ideas. Every time we come across a powerful idea, we delve deeper.
Pre-screening for potential pitfalls is essential, every step of the way. (You don’t want to fall in love with a name you can’t have.) We’ll perform cursory trademark, URL, and contextual research, removing problematic names from the running.
Name candidates are presented in context, noting their unique strengths. We’ll evaluate names subjectively and objectively, imagining the possibilities. Though every new name can feel strange at first, we’ll challenge you to be brave and extraordinary. You can’t bore a potential customer into liking you.
3. MAKE IT YOURS
It can take another round or two of name exploration and refinement to get you to the next milestone: a shortlist of smart name candidates. Then it's off to your IP attorney for a comprehensive legal analysis and ultimately, trademarking.
It’s much easier to imagine your future with a name if you can get a glimpse of it in action — in a brand manifesto, logo, signage or advertisement. A “proof of concept” exercise can help you see how a name really comes to life, and know in your bones you’ve landed the right one. It will also help you zero in on the tone and messaging that will get your new brand off to a brilliant start.