A brand name is an element that allows customers to identify and differentiate the brand from other products. Choosing a brand name requires careful consideration as it represents the key concept of the product or service in an economical and efficient way. The brand name is perhaps the most valuable assets that a company possesses. It lends credibility to the efficacy of the product and offers quality assurance by letting customers know what they can expect from the brand.
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What is a Brand Name
An arbitrarily adopted name that is given by a maker to a product or service to distinguish it as produced or sold by that maker or product and that may be used and protected as a trademark.
Characteristics of a Good Brand Name
A successful brand name should include as many of the below-mentioned characteristics as possible:
- It should be distinctive and unique. In the market there are sufficient and overly worked symbols and names. A distinctive and unique brand name will be easy for customers to remember but, they can also distinguish the brand from other similar products.
- It should be appropriate: Having a brand name which is surrounded by a certain level of mystique in the minds of the customers is a good characteristic. For example, Carefree tends to be an appropriate brand name for sanitary towels.
- Brand name should be suggestive: It should be well-chosen and suggestive towards quality or should associate with any form of superiority. For example, VIP travelers are suggestive towards providing superior quality of traveling for a distinct class of people.
- It needs to be adaptable to new products: Another good characteristic of a good brand name is that it should be adaptable to new product lines. For example, Videocon was a good brand name for TV and VCR’s however, when the company extended its product line to washing machines and refrigerators, most of the sales appeal was lost because of the brand name.
- It should be easy to remember: Brand names should be easy to read, spell and pronounce. Examples of easy yet effective brand names are Tide, Ariel, Gold Spot, etc.
- It should be capable of legal registration and protection.
- It should explain the qualities and benefit s of the product or service.
- It should be able to indicate concrete qualities.
- It needs to be easily converted into foreign languages.
- It should avoid portraying bad meaning in other languages or categories, for example, NOVA is not a good brand name for a bike in Spain as it means ‘doesn’t go’.
Examples of Good Brand Names
Naming a brand is a very important thing that any company does and requires careful attention when doing so. Some examples of the good brand name are as follows:
Wrangler: The features of the product were originally designed to appeal to the Cowboys. Jeans manufactured by Wrangler were quintessential western from its launch in the 40’s.
Champion: The name embeds accomplishment and power within itself. This spark plug maker was in the list of Fortune 500 Companies and once remained the top choice of racing and auto enthusiasts.
Dove: This brand hits consumers on the emotional level. A dove symbolizes gentleness, purity, peacefulness and softness. These attributes are the same which a woman would want in their skin and hair care.
Walkman: The original Sony Walkman audio player was a pioneer in transforming the way of listening music and offered the convenience of listening to music anywhere at any time. The brand name – Walkman – did not describe the product rather; it explained what can be done with it.
Google: Google means the equivalent of ten which is raised to the power of hundred. This represented the mission of the company to organize the huge amount of information that is available on the web.
Twitter: For a social media network, Twitter is the best brand name as it clearly conveys the brand experience.
Process of Choosing a Successful Brand Name
Define your Branding Objectives. Explaining branding objectives on the basis of six criterions which includes suggestive, descriptive, classical, compound, fanciful and arbitrary. It is very important to understand the role of brand in the branding strategy of the company and within the whole marketing plan along with a detailed description of the niche market.
Generating different names. Companies can make use of potential sources of names such as organization, employees and management, professional consultants and agencies along with current or potential customers.
Screening names on the grounds of brand objectives, This allows having a more synchronized list. Additionally, it should be easily pronounceable, must not have any connotations, should meet legal requirements, etc.
Gathering extensive research about the selected names. Making an extensive research over the finalized brand names is required; however, many times, this search is undertaken on a sequential basis.
Make consumers a part of the process. This is important to re-confirm the expectations with respect to the meaningfulness and remembrance of the brand name. The features and characteristics of the product, its price and promotion should be shown to the customers so that they can understand the purpose of the brand name.
