www.ideasbig.com

Brand Naming Tips & Trade Secrets

BreakthroughBranding

Neil M. Brown

www.ideasbig.com

>>Breakthrough Branding: Brand Naming Tips & Trade Secrets

Contents:

PREFACE .........................................................................................................................................6

Chapters:

1. Naming: The Most Important Marketing Decision ......................................9

2. What’s Your Name Type? ..........................................................................................13

3. Secret Sauce: The Naming Process .....................................................................17

Case Study: Naming a Beer ...............................................................................22

4. Do-It-Yourself Names ..................................................................................................29

Case Study: Naming Contests ...........................................................................32

5. Tips on Taglines ..............................................................................................................37

Case Study: Cookie Taglines ................................................................................40

6. Trademark Registration ..............................................................................................43

Generic Trademarks ................................................................................................47

7. The Domain Name Game ..........................................................................................49

Breakthrough Branding ›› Brand Naming Tips & Trade Secrets 5

8. More Brand Naming Case Studies ........................................................................53

Naming a Tech Start-Up .......................................................................................54

Naming a Non-Profit ..............................................................................................58

Naming an Online Retailer ..................................................................................61

Naming a Pharmaceutical Company ...........................................................64

Naming a Hand Tool ..............................................................................................67

9. Best and Worst Brands and Names .......................................................................71

The Interbrand Best Global Brands ..................................................................72

Great Brand Names ............................................................................................. 74

Bad Brand Names ....................................................................................................76

10. Branding Beyond Naming .......................................................................................83

Survey .............................................................................................................................86

Visual Branding .........................................................................................................88

11. Confessions of a Namer .............................................................................................95

Show Me the Money ...............................................................................................97

12. Naming Resources .................................................................................................... 101

About:

The Author .............................................................................................................................. 107

IDeas BIG™ ............................................................................................................................... 107

www.ideasbig.com

Naming a company, start-up, product or service is hard work, complex

and often rife with mistakes. Billion dollar companies screw this up every

year, while under-funded start-ups launch into the stratosphere with a

name that seems brilliant and full of meaning, with little or no advertising.

Intuitively, your brand name is the foundation of all that is marketing.

A great name is an advertisement in itself. A name can do more for achieving

desired positioning than a budget the size of Australia’s GDP (exaggeration

intended). The best names tell a story, and make marketing easier.

A breakthrough name can garner free publicity, just because of the name.

What if Google launched with its original name BackRub? Would it be

as successful? We know the product is great, but is the brand name Google

more memorable and interesting? Of course.

As we will share in the first chapter, naming is very important, yet so

often botched up. Despite the extreme amount of strategy and creativity

required to develop an effective brand name, often everyone in the company

feels compelled, and capable of contributing to name development.

This book is a naming tell all. Lay it all out there. Set the record straight.

Preface>>

Breakthrough Branding ›› Brand Naming Tips & Trade Secrets 7

Breakthrough Branding: Brand Naming Tips & Trade Secrets will,

hopefully, give you an understanding and appreciation for this art and

science of naming.

There are types of names that will help you understand the most effective

naming for your scenario. A disciplined naming process will be shared that

entails category and customer insight, competitive positioning and more.

Tips on taglines, trademarks, and domains will be detailed. Case studies will

demonstrate how to develop great names.

Names of the most successful brands in the world will be evaluated—

along with some of the greatest names in history—and some of the worst

names. Visual branding will be considered. Finally, the naming resources

used by the author will be divulged, including websites and books.

Breakthrough Branding: Brand Naming Tips & Trade Secrets is brought

to you by IDeas BIG (brand identity group), and written by chief

branding officer, Neil M. Brown.

Breakthrough Branding ›› Brand Naming Tips & Trade Secrets 107

>>About IDeas BIGIDeas BIG™ (brand identity group) is a branding and name development

consultancy that assists organizations with creating business, product and

service names, taglines, domain names, trademark registration and more.

Founded by Neil Brown, IDeas BIG provides full-service brand

development and naming services, using such proprietary processes as Name

Optimization™, competitive mapping and name scoring. The same tools

and techniques used in name development projects for billion dollar clients.

“With the saturation of brand names, and high failure rate of new products,

effective naming is more critical than ever,” says Neil Brown, company founder

and “chief naming officer.”

He adds, “IDeas BIG fills a need for smaller companies, and even national

companies needing breakthrough names, but cannot afford to spend thousands

of dollars with a boutique branding consultancy, or millions with a branding

division of an advertising holding company.”

About the Author

Author Neil M. Brown is founder and chief branding officer of IDeas

BIG (brand identity group), a full-service branding agency, including

name development, and visual identity creation. Prior to IDeas BIG,

Brown was a brand manager, and chief marketing officer (CMO)

for major manufacturers in multiple industries. Neil earned an MBA from Northern Illinois

University, and has published in Advertising Age, BtoB magazine, Marketing News, and more.