Name your company (Part 2)

Your core stakeholders usually sit beside you every day (if you employ people that is). So make sure these are the people you roll out the name to first- they are the ones, who are actively involved in the name giving. After all, they will be your front door and ambassadors for your branded business idea. All your employees (from the truckdriver to the senior managers) are required for this job if you want this to be effective.

The best names capture the core essence of the business- what you stand for. And this means not necessarily a descriptive name. People tend to think that once you put “what you do” in it, it’s taken care of- but we know, that APPLE, YAHOO and other big brand names are not descriptive of what they do- they are descriptive of “how they make you feel”. That means there are different categories for names.

Here are the common name categories:

Functional Names: either named after a person, purely descriptive of what the company or product does, or a reference to functionality. (Joe’s Metal Roofing, Joseph Archer Architecture)

Experiential Names: Bound in reality, familiar. Usually literally, but presented with a touch of imagination. (Firefox, Playstation, GoPC)

Invented Names: a made-up name or non-English name that is not widely known (Consensio).

Evocative Names: evoking association, memories or stories that are not directly associated with the usage of the service or product.

Some Naming companies (yes, there are naming specialists!) use also “Metaphorical” “Conjoined”, “Acronyms” and “Playful” as categories. (For an excellent book on brand process see “Logo Savvy”, by WOW Branding. In my opinion the best brand naming agency presented on the net is IGOR International).

For the process (the bit you actually need to do the brand name process) please read PART 3!.. or find PART 1.