How to make a good brand name - a quick how to guide
After bringing dozens of successful brands to life we’ve figured out a simple way to go about naming brands. From past experience we know how easy it is to get stuck at this stage so here’s a break down of your process so you can get a good brand name and then keep moving forward.
Study your market. The information gathering stage. Simply browse your competitors or similar companies in your space. Get a feel for the types of brand names they use. Your brand name should be prototypical of this space. In other words customers should perceive your brand name as familiar and in keeping with the marketplace. An example - if you’re trying to name a cosmetics brand but call it ‘Jimbobs accessories’ customers will think your brand is about DIY products rather than beauty. But if you name your brand Jessicas’ Assessories then quickly the name starts to convey the right meaning.
Passes The Radio Test. This is a simple test where someone says your brand name over the radio and people will be able to remember the name find it easily.
The rules for this are no more than three words, no hyphen, no spelling ambiguity and a simple domain extension like .com, .co, .org etc.Consider all the ways in which a customer might misspell your brand name in their head and try to make the brand name as crystal clear as possible. If you can get a kid to remember your brand name easily you’re on the right track. It should be that simple.
Use a credible Domain extension
.com is still king when it comes to domain names. But quite often a lot of great ideas are already taken on a .com domain. But then there’s alternatives like .co, .net or .org. Or if your market is geo specific try country domains like .co.uk, .us or com.au.
And now many people are more accustomed to seeing business type domain endings like .agency, .store. The advantage of these domain endings is that you have a larger list of possible names to start with.Word cloud & Brainstorm. We like to write down a big list of nice evocative words that fit our marketplace. Then we just randomly play with combinations until we get a few that sound good. Then we check to see if the name passes the radio test.
This stage is easier said than done as sometimes it’s hard to generate a pool of ideas to begin with. But handily there’s lots of simple tools around. Try out free domain generation idea websites like https://domainwheel.com/ This is a great site as it quickly generates lots of alternative ideas when you find your .com option is taken.The mindset we have is to generate as many ideas as possible to then filter down. Sometimes the only way to get a good feel for what you want is to eliminate lots of ideas that you don’t!
Market Feedback. Just because you think your brand name is cool doesn’t mean your market will. Get as much market feedback as you can. Ideally feedback from people that are likely to be a customer.
Brand Naming Services. Sometimes you just don’t have time to sit down and go through the above process. Other priorities beckon. In that case there’s many outsourcing services you can try.