Brand naming crash course

Let's talk branding

In this episode, I give a 'crash course' on brand naming. How important is the brand name for a brand? How do we decide whether we need a new name? And how do actually craft a new brand name? Let's find out!

We talk about

• The must-haves for a brand name:
  • Easy to pronounce (multiple languages?)
  • Easy to remember (2 syllables, or simple)
  • Distinctive from competitors
  • Creates the right 'feeling'
  • Can be owned (legally)
• Nice to haves
  • Personal history links
  • Key themes to explore, for example, 'mountaineering', ...
  • .com can be a specific need by a business owner (explore it further)
• No-go's
  • Cultural sensitivities
  • Category cliche's (Flickr, Tumblr,...)
• Reasons to change a brand name:
  • Hard to remember
  • Hard to pronounce or write (try googling it)
  • Not ownable
  • To generic
  • To literal (category)
  • Big shift in the company and want to signal
• Brand naming tools:
  • Trademark research: https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/#/tmview
  • Global trademark database: https://www3.wipo.int/branddb/en/
  • In different languages: https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/
  • Use thesaurus for synonyms and other word relations: https://www.thesaurus.com/
• Interesting people on brand naming: Eli Altman's book 'Don't call it that' is a great starting point.

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