Characteristics Of The Product.
The name of the product:
Short, sweet and easily pronounced
The ideal name for customers to remember, and for you to use to cut through the industry
noise, is probably short and sweet and easily pronounced. This means it will have two or
three syllables (or even one), and it will work on the phone or internet even if people have
never seen or heard it before. If they have to be told how to spell it once, that is OK (and
may even help with recall). But if they have to be told a second time, that is a problem. One
of the sticky consonants (k,q,x,z) can help with recall.
Unique within its industry
Your name doesn't need to be weird or clunky, but it does need to not sound like all the rest
of your direct competitors. HotJobs.com, BAJobs.com, Careers.com, CareerJunction.com,
LocalJobs.com are all easily lost in the crowd. But Monster.com stands out dramatically -
even though it does not describe what they do! In practice, it has become brand shorthand
for job searches, just like Starbucks has become shorthand for coffee.
Legally available and defensible
Your lawyers think this should be item one of course. Regardless, what is the point of
starting any company or marketing campaign if you cannot have full rights in the name?
Your best defense is always a magic ® - which only can be issued by the USPTO (or
equivalent agency in other countries). If the USPTO won't issue a registration certificate
because they judge it to be generic, then you have problem (2) above anyway. Common
law trademark searches are also critically important.
Good alliteration, especially if a longer name
Sometimes a longer name does have a place in marketing. After all, the most famous brand
in the world, Coca Cola, is four syllables. But notice how smoothly it rolls off the tongue.
Linguists will tell you it has good alliteration.
Does not lend itself to abbreviations
If you have a long descriptive name, people will abbreviate it quickly. OK, we know it
worked for IBM, AT&T, CBS etc., but how many years and how many branding dollars do
you have? For a small company, this means you quickly become YASI (Yet Another Set of
Initials) and drown in the initial bit bucket. At least make sure the trademark part (brand
part) of your tradename is a name and not initials. E.g. Ford is the trademark for Ford Motor
Car Company. Leave FMCC etc. to the legal documents only. But who or what are AMA, CCI,
etc.?
Flexible and expandable
Too many people try to describe their company rather than name it. Copyland, Copydata,
Copyshop, QuickCopy all define what they do - and are barely distinguishable from one
another. But Kinkos stands out dramatically and did not pigeonhole them into only copy
services. Today, of course, they are Fedex Kinkos, and can offer a raft of services without
needing to update their name, unlike Texas Instruments that doesn't even make
instruments.
Linguistically clean
What are the root origins of the name? How is it pronounced by a Spanish, Italian,
Japanese, Portuguese or French native speaker? What does it mean in these languages? You
need to support these languages just to do business in North America nowadays, especially
in the populous areas of California, New York, Texas, Illinois, Florida and Canada.
Will not age quickly
Is your name hip and topical? If you are in the fashion trend business this might be fine. But
otherwise, be very careful of "in" words or expressions. They will be superseded sooner or
later. They may also not play well across all demographics. Many markets have their own
"industry-speak" and slang. The worst of these are in "geekdom"! Names with classical
roots tend to endure more easily.
Embraces company personality
Two competitors, entering the same market at the same time with directly competing
products, will pick different names because every company and management team has its
own personality. This means the executives must be involved in the decision making
process. Your agency can tell you if the name fits, not if you are comfortable with it.
Fits within company's brand portfolio
The company name, division names and product names are all part of your brand portfolio.
Do these sound like they all come from the same family? While this is a specific problem
with merged companies, everyone's naming architecture needs to be properly managed to
maximize your brand power and intellectual property portfolio.
General Characteristics of the product
To an investor, a good product makes then wealthy
To a user of a niche market product, it satisfies their needs exceedingly well
To a repairman, its serviceable
To the world, its ecological
To an assembler, it’s easy and quick to build
