What’s in a name? Three tips to kick-start your brand naming project

Naming can be one of the toughest aspects of creating a new brand, and it’s only getting harder. As more and more businesses appear across Australia and the world, the number of viable names available in your industry will begin to diminish.

Of course that’s not to say naming is a lost cause, quite the opposite, a well thought out brand name is something that can put your company in a strong position from the start.

To make things a little easier we’ve put together three tips to get you started on your road to naming.

Do your research

It’s more than likely you’ll have a name in mind for your business before you even start thinking about branding, but that doesn’t mean it’s the name you should go with.

Look into your expected competitor’s names, and see if there are similarities that could leave your idea out of the question. It’s worth checking ASIC and ATMOSS for conflicts with already registered businesses and trademarked words respectively. You should also thoroughly check Google search results to make sure it has no hidden meaning or context for a name idea that is unknown to you.

Even if there aren’t clashes, it’s worth thinking about whether your target market will react to the name in the same way you do. Creativity is great, but it doesn’t necessarily pay the bills.

If your name is too abstract you could lose out in the long run, think about the emotional connection of names and put yourself in the shoes of your target market. Is there even a slim chance your idea could alienate, confuse or anger them? If so it’s probably best to put it on the scrapheap. Which takes us to the next point.

Don’t be afraid to burn through names

As with most creative processes, there will likely be a few avenues that you explore for naming, and with these will come a lot of ideas that don’t hit the mark. I’m not saying this accusingly, it’s just inevitable.

Even names that don’t work have merit though, showing them to someone to gauge their feedback can spark further ideas, hopefully ones which have more merit.

Each iteration of naming that you go through will refine the process and help you reach the end result.

Talk to a professional

Full transparency here – we’re not saying this to sell you our services, it’s just something that can be more than worth your time. The thing about dealing with a branding agency is that you will be freeing up your mind from the turmoil that naming can be, and you will be utilising the brains of people who do this kind of thing on a daily basis.

As impartial observers of your industry, agencies will be able to look at your naming project without any prior emotional investment. You will also be leveraging their past experience and gain invaluable insights into how consumers react to names.

The avenues creative professionals take to explore a brand name may also surprise you, and result in a killer name that you would have never stumbled across by yourself.

If you need help picking a brand name for your business, get in touch with Bellman today, not only can we make your brand sound good, but our experienced designers can deliver the full package.