יום ראשון, 30 בנובמבר 2014

How to choose a name

My name is Ofer (which is a FAWN in English and some of my friends are calling me Bamby) and I play the branding and advertising instruments in POW THINK BAND. 





The challenge of choosing a name for a product or a service is one of the most complex challenges in communication marketing, since it engages both personal tastes and opinions and professional issues such as Memorability and “Catchiness” to mention just two. 

Naming is a process and not a flash of inspiration. You find one you love in the evening and you wake up the next day and you hate it. But then when somebody else loves it, you start loving it again. Or the complete opposite.

There are no good or bad names.

It all depends on the purpose and cause that was specified clearly when that baby product or service was born. You See, A name is just a vessel. It carries an emotional cargo for the people that made it and for the people that will know it when will make its debut. 

There is right or wrong names.

Here are some benchmarks for choosing the right name


1. Before choosing a name one needs to look at the category they will compete and see what kind of names dominate it. For example, ORANGE entered the mobile category which was dominated by “Techy” brand names like TMOBILE, VODAFONE, and CELLCOM. Now, ORANGE was built as an “Optimistic” and not a “Technological” brand, so it needed a completely different and almost bizarre name to stand out and communicate its brand values and identity. It is called a lighthouse identity which is one of the building blocks of a challenger brand but this is a different story you don’t have time to hear).

2. The right name tells a story or at least invites you to investigate its meaning and connect it with its emotional and rational cargo. Why did they call it TOY’R’US? NIKE??WHATSAPP?HELLS PIZZA? GEEK SQUAD?LUSH?IKEA?PINK FLOYD?THE WHITE HOUSE?

3. Looking for a right name can be performed in several disciplines of names:
A. Names that communicate the product or service in a direct way:  FACEBOOK (the  name is derived from the common name colleges and universities give the book containing the pictures of first-year students, so they  can become more familiar with each other.

B. Names that communicate an category related idea that the product or company believes in : NIKE (in Greek mythology, Nike, was a goddess who personified victory).
C. Names that communicate a certain feeling or atmosphere: Häagen-Dazs is an American ice cream brand that wanted to communicate a Scandinavian aroma because  of the coolness associated with northern Europe. By the way the words are meaningless.

D. Names that communicate nothing but were conceived for a personal factor: KODAK (The founder George Eastman confessed to a liking for 'K', partly because his mother's maiden name was Kilbourn but also because it seemed to him 'a strong, incisive sort of letter.

4. It is like your name (write your name here), It has so many meanings and reasoning for so many people and every one of them tells its own story because of the reasons and context it was conceived in.

I hope I helped or at least put you in a different and more enlighten place for choosing the right name for your project. On a personal note I can say that when a brand finally picks a name, a king of magic happens and I will say no more.