Is your company's name an asset or a liability? There's no middle ground here. If it doesn't capture attention, create interest through curiosity and identify, then it's a liability.

Naming a company is rarely a matter of linguistic luck. Crafting a memorable and valuable name requires an open mind capable of seeing today's cross-cultural marketplace without prejudice. It also demands a basic understanding of individual and group psychology. Add to that the written an spoken characteristics of a name and you delve into emotion and design.

The unique composition of letters that designates and differentiates you can be a powerful business advantage. But the wrong name can hinder and even halt growth. So whether you are a new enterprise or an existing one considering change, start by asking yourself what you want your new name to do for your organization?

Where do names come from? You can find interesting, new and memorable solutions through sheer exploration or through proven creative methods. Of course working with a company who has traveled the path before can help streamline the journey toward a happy result. For many companies, the process of naming (and branding) is often an afterthought.

Typically, the founder names the company. First products are descriptively named. The assumption is that the names aren't that important, that the amount of money you put into advertising is what will get you noticed. This is wrong and wasteful. This method worked fine in the early 1900's, but it is increasingly ineffective in today's saturated marketplace. There are simply too many companies and products out there for anyone to remember without consistent encounters (they call this marketing and advertising). Only the ones with the most memorable names stand a chance. And that's true whether you invest millions into advertising or nothing at all. Advertising is essential and can get you seen; it cannot, however, guarantee that you will be remembered. And being remembered is the currency of business success.

The reality is: Two equal products will begin the real competition with their names. So, if naming has become that important to modern business, why have so many companies dropped the ball when it comes to choosing their name? Usually, industry trends and other tendencies build barriers to creative thinking.

An important first step when naming a business, product or service is to figure out just what it is that your new name should be doing for you. Most people think that the name should describe what you do or make. Intuition dictates that this will save you the time and money of explanation, which actually turns out not to be true. Why not?

Names almost never operate in a vacuum away from the actual product, service, photograph or other "descriptor." For example, the name of a beer doesn't need to say "beer" in any way. It's most often on the bottle or the can, so "beer" is understood. It must however differentiate. To say "beer" in the actual name would actually be redundant.

Ultimately a descriptive name only has value to a small town sole proprietor who relies on their sign as a key means of advertising to local passersby. And if the only marketing you'll ever do is the sign on your front door, then by all means go the descriptive route. But for those of you with greater aspirations, consider that "describing" it with words that hundreds of competitors already use serves only to blend you into the competitive forest.

Differentiation demands that you open your options a bit. Imagine for a moment that you are responsible for naming a new coffee company that will operate nationally. Now imagine that the name "Starbucks" sits in front of you among others in a list. Would you see it as a standout candidate for the new company name? Or would you pass it by in favor of more obvious names with "cafe" or "java" in them. Now be honest with yourself. Your future could be riding on this decision. If you would have passed by "Starbucks" (most would have) then keep reading because I am going to unveil the secrets behind great names.

Protect yourself from the pigeonhole. Descriptive names habitually confine a company's growth. To illustrate, among the 30 or so online bookstores, only one has achieved steady growth by expanding into other product offerings. The company, Amazon, has become synonymous with "books" yet its name has no descriptive value whatsoever. It illustrates the value of being strategically "different." And by using a name that has many valuable traits (to be discussed shortly), the company is not pigeonholed as simply a bookseller. Remind yourself that the name will appear on a website, a storefront, in a news article or press release, on a business card, on the product itself, in advertisements, or, at its most naked, in a conversation where it will be connected to whatever buzz got it in the conversation in the first place.

So it never operates separate from the company it represents. There is simply no imaginable circumstance in which a name will have to explain itself. This is fortunate, because having a descriptive name is actually a counterproductive marketing move which requires an enormous amount of effort to overcome. A

descriptive naming strategy overlooks the fact that the whole point of marketing is to separate yourself from the pack. It actually works against you, causing you to fade into the background, indistinguishable from the bulk of your competitors who make these mistakes day-in-day-out. To prove my point, try to name three of Amazon's competitors: 1.______________________ 2.______________________ 3.______________________ Hard, isn't it?

Now search online for 'online booksellers' and you'll see the herd of well-intended companies trying to edge into Amazon's arena. And pay attention to their names. Notice how many use a descriptive name. But ultimately it's not the name that should be blamed for getting stuck in the marketing mud. It's those who make the mud -- the committee. 


How committees sabotage great names


A naming project can quickly run aground if the names being considered are judged without the context of a clear positioning platform, a thorough competitive analysis, and an intimate understanding of how names work and what they can do.

Two things can bring down a valuable name: (1) pedestrian comments and evaluations by people who have little or no brand design/naming experience and (2) putting too much stock in intuition. The names below grew out of smart informed selection teams who understood how to reach beyond ill-guided comments and intuitive interpretations to grab something that was different and durable.

Below each of these excellent names I've included comments that I would expect from a typical board of directors. And believe me, these companies do not have "typical" boards of directors. Starbucks 
* What does that say about coffee? 
* Shouldn't the logo have a star in it? 
* A siren? "Starbucks" I don't get it
* Sounds like a space cowboy

Virgin Airlines 
* Virgin says were "new at this."
* People want experienced airlines, not "virgins." Caterpillar 
* We're going to use an insect as our name? 
* It sounds wimpy and weak 
* Can't we come up with something stronger? Oracle 
* Too mystic and fantasy like 
* People will make fun of us
* Serious people don't need "Oracles." The Limited 
* Limited is negative
* Are you crazy. If anything we are "un"-limited
* Sounds too expensive  

Morphemes. Friend of Foe? 
Morphemes are word parts, components that can be deconstructed and recombined to create new words or names. As you can imagine, this is the Pandora's box of naming. And indeed, both good and very bad names come from this method. Good ones include: Acura, Lucent and Verizon. Bad ones, well, heres a short list (notice how clumsy these are compared to the previous three): Aquent, Aspirient, Axent, Axient, Bizient, Candescent, Cendant, Cerent, Chordiant, Clarent, Comergent, Conexant, Consilient, Cotelligent, Equant, Ixtant, Livent, Mergent, Navigant, Naviant, Noviant, Novient, Omnient, Ravisent, Sequant, Spirent, Taligent, Teligent, Thrivent, Versant, Versent, Vitalent and Vivient.

As with overly descriptive names, these monikers are not part of an elegant solution, they are usually the seeds of a branding nightmare. This type of name is chosen for (1) a domain name, (2) consensus building, and (3) as a shortcut to trademark approval. At some point in the process marketing left the room, and nobody seemed to notice. And while they may technically be unique, it's at the level of a snowflake in a snow bank. They use awkward fragments that are so removed from the original word that no glimmer of meaning remains.

Evocative Names 


The third type of name is the evocative name. These include the aforementioned Amazon, Apple, Stingray, Oracle, Virgin, Yahoo, etc. While everyone respects evocative naming when done well, most corporations don't go down this road because it's the toughest to understand and execute. However, it can yield the most valuable result. Due to their clear language, they require thorough legal approval to ensure availability within a business sector. But as Yahoo and Amazon prove, the available list is far from exhausted for those willing to go for the most valuable name they can find.

DIFFERENTIATE


Start by analyzing your competition. What types of names are common among them? Are they all projecting a similar attitude? Do their similarities offer you a huge opportunity to stand out from the crowd?

Apple needed to distance itself from the cold, unapproachable, complicated imagery created by the computer companies at the time who had sterile names like IBM, NEC, DEC, ADPAC, Cincom, Dylakor, Input, Integral Systems, Sperry Rand, SAP, PSDI, Syncsort, and Tesseract.

They needed to reverse the entrenched view of computers in order to get people to use them at home. They were looking for a name that was not like a traditional computer company, and supported a positioning strategy that was to be perceived as simple, warm, human, approachable and different. And I mean literally "different."

Apple wanted people to actually speak the word "different" when talking about the company. They succeeded. 



POSITIONING


The next step is to carefully define your positioning. The goal is to position yourself in a way that cuts through all of the noise out there. The goal is to have your audience personalize the experience of your brand, to make an emotional connection with it, and ultimately to take you in. To redefine and own the territory.

For example, Starbucks has done this with almost effortless ease. They grin every time a small independent "cafe" opens preaching "higher quality" and other boasts of "personal touch" and "service." Go into almost any Starbucks and you'll find people living the brand (the place, the social atmosphere, the casual feeling, the friendly vibe, and yes the coffee too). They are delivering much more than coffee and that's exactly why people go. 



One of the most important things that the best of the best brands accomplish is to be thought of as greater than the goods and services offered, to create an aspiration. Nike's "Just Do It' helps them rise above selling sneakers. Apple's "Think Different" is bigger than computers. And as we just described, Starbucks is way beyond coffee. 



On a product level, Snapple, Jeep, Silk, Michelin etc. are tapping into something outside of the narrow definition of what it is they do, allowing the consumer to make the connection, to personalize the experience. This type of active engagement created by playing off of images that everyone is already carrying around in their heads is an essential ingredient in creating a great name.



Qualities of Powerful Names


Once you have a clear idea of the brand positioning for your company or product, the name you pick should contain as many of the following qualities as possible. The more of them that are present, the more powerful the name: SELF-PROPELLING
* A name that people will talk about.
* Curiosity as value.
* The name is a story in itself, whether it's at the local bar, on the job, or on CNBC. 
EMOTION - HUMAN 
* What does the name suggest?
* Does it make you feel good?
* Does it make you smile? (see our logo) 
* Does it lock into your brain?
* Does it make you want to know more? POETRY, RHYTHM
* How does the name physically look and sound?
* How does it roll off the tongue?
* How much internal electricity does it have?
* How does it sound the millionth time?
* Will people remember it? PERSONALITY
* Does the name have attitude?
* Does it exude qualities like confidence, mystery, presence, warmth, and a sense of humor?
* Is it provocative, engaging?
* Is it a tough act to follow? DEEP WELL
* Is the name a constant source of inspiration for advertising and marketing?
* Does it have "legs"?
* Does it work on many of different levels? 


The secret to a great name:
The key is to step outside the box that the industry -- any industry -- has drawn for itself, and to do it in a fresh way that hits home with the audience. Decision Making
Clearly, you are not just choosing a name, you are also making a number of important decisions in order to find the right public signature and flag that will forge connections with your market.
Most corporations have no problem delegating marketing and advertising issues to the marketing department, but when naming is involved, especially naming the company itself or key products, suddenly everyone wants to have a say in the process, and it can quickly become politically and emotionally charged. Therefore, it is essential that you keep the number of people involved in a naming project to a minimum, that they all understand the ideas outlined above and most important of all, they have real authority.