How to name products like Steve Jobs

Everyone can agree that Apple has a great name. Something that is deep and has very little meaning or can mean everything in the world. While creating a name may seem almost impossible at times, Steve Jobs was able to do it over and over again. This very skill of naming is not giving the attention it deserves in business. Names can literally affect every area of a business such as the writing style, execution, style and perception of the brand. However, few can truly execute naming a product or service like Steve Jobs did. Not only are Apple’s names relatively simple, they’re perfect. The result?

A step-by-step guide that I call the Steve Jobs Naming Strategy.

1.   Keep the name simple.

Literally, that is the advice. Your product must retain a simple and deep meaning that strikes an emotional cord with your consumer. Constructing a name from scratch that is compelling and unique may seem impossible but you can do it if you stay focused.

2.  Incorporate your customer's vision into the name.

iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad… are you starting to see the pattern yet? Steve Jobs didn’t just introduce the iPhone, he told his customers what the “I” in “iPhone” meant. It stood for the customer’s vision of the internet, inspiration, individual, information, and instruction. The name should represent what the customer wanted in the product not what your marketing goals represent.

3.  Go with your gut.

This is one of the biggest mistakes in everything. Over thinking a decision always leads to disaster. Steve Jobs thought of the name Apple shortly after returning from a trip to an Apple farm. To him, it represented something that is fun and has spirit and isn’t intimidating. Don’t over complicate or over think it. Just go with your gut.

4.  A/B test your name out loud. 

Steve Jobs approach to naming had a scientific element to it as well. He would start listing possible names off out loud to engineers and designers working on a new product. He would then gauge their response by seeing how they reacted it to it. Names are an organic and rhythmic words meant to be repeated. Often times, saying it out loud in front of people makes this rhythm easier to identify.  

5.  Create incentives and create competition.

You have a few good names that you produced and like. Now let’s take it one step further. Issue challenges to your friends, start from scratch and offer people an incentive to come up with a better name than yours. For example, when Steve was naming the iMac, he announced: “We already have a name we like a lot, but I want you guys to see if you can beat it. The name is MacMan.” Remove analysis paralysis and do your best to avoid coming up with perfection all at once. Competition often breads excellence.

6.  Set a deadline and stick to it.

Competition along with a deadline is a deadly combination when coming up with a name. Steve would set hard deadlines and would add this note to his team’s task list: “Now you’ve only got one week left to come up with a better name, or it’s going to be MacMan.” This introduced the element of time. No longer was the drawing board a giant white canvas, now it was slowly running out of room. Steve used the same technique with the name Apple. “We simply decided we were going to call it Apple computers unless someone suggested a better name by 5 o’clock that day. So the name stayed.”

7.  Go to market.

When you have the best name you can come up with and shipping at the right time is more important than finding the exact perfect name, go with it. Apple, iMac, iPod, Siri and other product names were all a result of Steve and his team not being able to find better alternatives. The rest is history.