Why Being So Creative Hurts Sometimes: The Naming Process Dissected
Posted on April 16, 2007
Filed Under General
Every single day millions of dollars are spent in the creative offices all around the globe in a desperate search of the proper name of either a company, product or service. That striking, unforgettable name that will bring tens, hundreds, why not, thousands of passionate clients to a companyaˆ™s outlet and get a head-shattering yearly income as a reward for all the emotionally devastating hours when the loudest noise in the office comes from those creative minds thinking.
Luckily enough, sometimes the attempts to think of an extraordinary name turn out to be fruitful and the result is a powerful and leaving long-lasting traces in the memory name that marketers define as evocative (i.e. Names that sound as “meaningless” but have a strong impact on the audience. Yahoo, Apple Computers, Oracle, etc.). All well and good, the creative department is ecstatic but soon the troubles begin. Why? Because it is a common phenomenon what a group of people believes that will work in benefit may turn to work against the company, service or product. It is very understandable one of the keys to lucrative naming is to try to predict right from the creation how your audience would perceive the name and contact with it. The trap that evocative names hide in their essence is that they directly “play” with the positioning of the company or product or service. A very handy example is the Yahoo search engine:
Yahoo is an evocative nameaˆ“ it doesn’t say anything about the service itself. You would have never ever guessed that the name refers to a search engine, wouldn’t you? But once you know what Yahoo’s purpose is the name comes powerful, directly representing a search engine fast and furious. Building in a snap an associative link between the name Yahoo with its energy, depth and sound, and its possible meaning - a search engine that has the power to become big.
The example above portrays how evocative names may work for you if they have survived the naming test. Yes, it is easier said than done but still to dissect a name of a future to be released product/company/service may become oh-not-so-tough when the process is cut in three simple steps:
Will your name pass the appearance test?
In other words, is your name candidate nice looking visually, let’s say as a logo, on a billboard, in print ads and other advertising materials, on TV screens? Your name will always be presented in diverse contexts, so mind that fact and never forget it. An example: Apple Computers aˆ“ try to read it visual now and you’ll see it has it all. It is neat and nice, and clear and it will definitely look great in so different marketing “surroundings”. And it actually has long proved to be a successful bet. Your name can have the same face, so think it over with care.
Will your name pass the energy and depth test?
Energy in naming is nothing but your name’s vitality. Imagine a name full of life and vital energy, a name that carries the power inside to live through and succeed in any advertising campaign and leave your clients no choice but to remember it. For a very long time. Like Apple Computers does. A rhetorical question here but is there a more vital name than the name of the Apple? We all know aˆ“ an apple a day keeps the doctor away. And solves all our naming problems aˆ“ how true.
Will your name pass the human warmth test?
Humanity in naming is all about a name’s warmth and “human” sounding as opposed to the cold, laboratory, lacking human emotions sound. Think about a comparison between Apple and what else aˆ“ OK, let it be iPod sound. Which one of both you think sounds more human? A very easy trick to measure a name’s human warmth that I recently read in a very clever guide on the topic is to try to use the name candidate as a possible nickname of your kid. I would definitely never nickname my child an iPod but still the iPod name has many other marketing strengths which at this point, are not discussed. The idea is aˆ“ humanity sounding matters. The more human, the better.
Surely the steps above are not exhaustive and don’t represent the full spectrum of tests that you can consider when trying to think of that creative, magic, in one word aˆ“ evocative name. But for anyone just dipping their toes in the deep waters of brand naming, such a clear-cut dissection will help them not drawn but reach the lucrative naming shore.
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