The name of the game has changed
Anders N?rb?k Rasmussen
Brand Experience Director at Manyone | Crafting Memorable Brand Experiences
Over the past 15 years, I've had the pleasure of working with companies worldwide to develop their brand identities, strategies, and names.. I've seen how the branding and especially the naming game has changed significantly in recent times, and it all comes down to availability.
You see, it's all about owning that name and making sure you can trademark it. And let's not forget about avoiding those linguistic challenges. Those factors have risen to the top of the list, and everything else comes second.
With millions of companies registered and domains sold, it's a different ballgame now. According to the latest stats, there are approx 33.000 domains registered daily . And that in the US alone, in 2022, over 5 Million new companies were created. That's a whole lot of competition.
"To be honest, it's easier to name your newborn child; there's only one other stakeholder, kids can be called the same, and you don't need a domain."
So, what makes a good brand name in this new world order?
Naming a brand or business has always been challenging; it's still a creative act that requires hard work, research, and imagination, but it has become more complicated than it used to be. We used to evaluate the names we came up with based on the criteria we set up and gave each aspect equal consideration. But that’s not so much the case anymore
Because of sheer availability, we had the luxury of focusing more on the emotional aspect of the name and the functional requirements later. Don't get me wrong, having a name that conveys your brand's product, purpose, personality, and such is extremely important; all I'm saying is that for you to be able to have a position and stand out, you first need a name you can own.
And yes, we all want that short 4-5 letter name that's catchy, memorable and distinctive like Apple, Nike, uber, and you know the rest. But sometimes we fall in love with a concept or a name too soon, so we get stubborn and all caught up in it, so we just start adding or removing vowels, thinking we can just add -fy or .io in the end and be “unique”, but you can risk ending up with a name that is hard to hard to remember, pronounce, spell, or perhaps even worse, being taken seriously.
Generally speaking, a good brand name should work on two levels, functional and emotional.
Functionally:
领英推荐
Emotionally:
Getting it right.
Please don't just start with a brainstorm of cool ideas for names and work from there. It will only extend the process, and the chances you will become frustrated are greater.
The absolute best way to ensure that you end up with a name you can own and convey what you want is to start by creating a naming brief, and you must have the right people in the room for this. Please reach out if you want to know more about what it should contain and how you create one. More than happy to help.
From there, you can start brainstorming cool ideas for names.
My final words
If you are a brand/company considering re-naming or creating a new brand, or if you are a creative person doing this daily, I hope these words can be helpful.
That's the name of the game.
All the best. Anders
B2B Brand and marketing speaker and consultant. Native English speaker. Love to write. See wdwalsh.com.
1 年...and don't forget to check that you can legally register the name. Getting the .com doesn't matter if you can't use the name in your market. You need a law firm for this. Most names carry some degree of risk - especially if you plan to operate in more markets than your own. There are very few names that will be a 100% sure thing and you'll want a lawyer by your side to negotiate if needed. This is the part that most agencies aren't involved in, so they can forget this important detail.
Communications strategist
1 年And it’s not just the URL you need to consider. If your leads are primarily coming from Instagram, for example, there is no point in owning the URL if the channel is crammed with loads of similar sounding accounts. So I totally agree - it’s very much a strategic decision taking into account your audience, where they are, where they are likely to see you, and how you can stand out when you enter that specific space.
Creative Director hos campfire & co
1 年Pernille NYMANN
Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) and Founder at Manyone
1 年Yay!
Klar til at lave dit n?ste trof? af genbrugsmaterialer :D
1 年Great read Anders and something I absolutely find relatable. The whole -fy or .io thing is funny, because it reminds me of the time when it was trendy to use numbers in company names, or the creative edgy misspelling, where you replaced K with C or I became Y. I remember when I had to find the name for my company, it was important that it be short and I wanted the word to contain "unusual letters" (like z,x,w,q) to make sure i stood out. I took a word based on my South Jutlandic vocabulary and ended up with "Zweck" which means to hit in the middle of the target. Many of the things you wright in this post, is stuff i should have done for sure. I've ended up with a company name that many people mispronounce, over the last few years i heard Zweck said many ways, but my favorite is when people pronounce it as "shrek", that always a conversation starter xD? No regrets though. But if I had to do it again, creating a naming brief would be a must.