Naming – Stick the Landing

Now that you’ve generated name candidates, assessed them from a variety of angles, gotten legal input on finalists, and made a selection, you’ve reached what Winston Churchill might call ‘the end of the beginning.’ Because now it’s time to approach what matters most – bringing the name to life inside the company and in the marketplace.

And so, as we wrap this blog series, here are several topics you should consider during the ‘last mile’ of a naming process:

Use testing as a disaster check:

In high stakes situations, we recommend testing finalist name candidates with the target audience. This is more of a disaster check than it is ‘letting the market pick the name.’ Respondents can’t reliably judge names in a vacuum – divorced from other aspects of strong brands such as logo, color, look/feel, offering, and experience – but they CAN validate whether or not the intended mood or meaning comes through. So, in testing we are looking out for things like confusion with other brands, unintended similarities to other words, or other baggage that might constrain a name’s potential.

Use a descriptor to anchor the name in its space:

Some names derive their stopping power from being neologisms or more familiar words used in a new context. Whatever the name selected, the use of a category descriptor – such as Emplify Health or what was originally Apple Computer – can help the name occupy its intended space from the outset and aid market understanding. While it’s likely the descriptor will fall away over time as the brand takes hold, it can be helpful in the early days, especially for names that benefit from additional context.

Complement the name with logo, tagline, and other elements:

Names should say something, but they can’t say everything. In actual use, names become brands by existing in context alongside logo, colors, and a whole range of other assets and artifacts. Thus, these complementary elements should be developed with purpose. While I could write another blog series on logo development and aesthetics, suffice it to say the logo is another opportunity to convey something about the brand’s energy, intent, and advantage. Sometimes logos should be used to balance the name – for example, a more creative or high energy name might benefit from a logo that conveys stability or power to round out the identity’s message. Other times, the logo should double down on what the name is trying to say. In short, names and logos should work well together.

I’ll leave it there for now – there are many other considerations and nuances related to launch strategy that we’ve covered elsewhere in our writing about M&A brand development and other topics.

Thanks for bearing with us – hope this series helps demystify the naming process and prime you for what’s to come. I LOVE to talk about naming, so please reach out if I/we can help!