Naming and PositioningAllan Tan

What’s in a Name

Word/s to address or refer to a person, animal,

place, thing, or business.

Importance

• First thing people see, hear, and remember.

• People judge your company from the name.

• It makes emotional connection to your customers.

• It drives traffic and discoverability (e.g. Google

search, App Store).

• A good name can get you through the door.

Hard and Difficult

• It’s a mix of art, science and

perseverance.

• It must be short, and yet

represent your vision and

values.

• It must be available (domain,

SEC/DTI).

Expensive

$1,000,000.00

More Expensive

$100,000,000.00

Accent on the Future

First Step

1. Know your vision. – Look for the root word.

1. Know your

position/competition.– Look for the differentiator.

1. Know your target market. – Look for common words.

Next Step

• Enumerate and brainstorm with your team.

• Set a deadline to finalize.

• Hedge on strong search words using Adwords

Research

• Research name usage on social media using– http://namechk.com/

• Check if available in SEC, DTI, IPO (Trademark)– If not available, use it as a brand instead of

company name.– Avoid conflict in names.

• They were trying to come up with names that fit with the theme of a mobile phone buzzing an update in your pocket.

• Name was picked out of a hat.

Directed Fate

Sounds good and available

Composition

Selected ingredients: coca leaves and kola nuts.

Experiential

The fact that it also gives the drinker some extra “pep”.

Digestive enzyme pepsin.

Personal

Zynga is named after CEO Mark Pincus’s late American Bulldog, Zinga. The name means African warrior princess.

Memorable Acronym

The acronym for “Technology, Entertainment & Design”.With tagline “Ideas worth spreading”.

Etymology and Synonyms

• http://www.etymonline.com/

• http://www.powerthesaurus.org/

• http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Foreign Language

• German language word meaning "over", "above" or

"across”

• Latin : http://www.latindictionary.net

• Nearly 60% of English words are defined from Latin

Visual Inspiration

Compound Words

Portmanteau

• Combination of taking parts (but not all) of two (or

more) words or their sounds (morphemes) and their

meanings into a single new word.

• For Example: – Spoon + Fork = Spork – British + Fitness = Britness

• http://www.werdmerge.com/

• http://www.namerobot.com/

• http://www.portmanteaur.com/

Prefix , Suffix

• Common Prefixes: my-, our-, the-, all-, in-, on-, un-

• Common Suffixes: -ly, -sy, -er, -it, -ie, -io, -am, -ia,

-ora, -ero, -ist, -ism, -ium, -ble, -ify, -ous, -ing

• onSwipe, inDinero, Alltuition, Mycityway, Nestio,

Goodsie, Spotify, Shopify, Posterous, bitly

• http://wordoid.com/

Misspell the Words

Add Numbers

Domain Names

“Names are underrated, but domains names are

(increasingly) overrated.“ - Chris Dixon

•Square, Dropbox, Box.net all started with temp

domains.

•Check for available domain names using– If not available, use prefix (e.g. go-, in-, get-) or

suffix (e.g. –now,-online)

Domain Names

• Square was squareup.com

• DropBox was getdropbox.com

• Facebook was thefacebook.com

• Instagram was instagr.am

• Twitter was twttr.com

• Foursquare was playfoursquare.com

• Basecamp is basecamphq.com

• Pocket is getpocket.com

• Bitly was/is bit.ly

Logo 101

Inspirations

Inspirations

It is about telling stories.

Classic

Tools

Tagline 101

• Do I need a tagline?

No.

• A tagline is a small amount of text which serves to

clarify a thought for, or designed with a form of,

dramatic effect.

Tagline 101

• When do I need a tagline?– When name and logo is not enough.– When reposition in the industry.

• Qualities of a great tagline– Short, catchy and memorable.– Express brand values, personality and position– Evoke emotional response

Ranking

Test

• Ask your friends, family, working group what they

associate to the name.

• Send out survey to your mailing list.

• Crowdsource Opinion– http://www.zipinion.com/– 5 Seconds Test (http://usabilityhub.com/)

Insights From Experience

Other Tips

• Convey your Vision, Competition, Target Market to

designer or brand team.

• Do not use public domain clipart, images.

• Make sure it is available and not trademarked.

• Consider printing on shirt, letterhead, and other

materials.

Resources

http://jasonfrasca.com/deconstructing-everyday-blog/tools-to-

name-your-startup-company/

http://www.igorinternational.com:7080/process/igor-naming-

guide.pdf

http://mashable.com/2012/10/04/startup-naming/

http://justcreative.com/2009/07/27/what-makes-a-good-logo/

http://pipedreamstudio.com/whats-tagline-need-one/

http://stocklogos.com/topic/famous-logo-designs-and-how-

much-did-they-cost

Thank you

Allan C. Tan, SCEA, PMPCEO/President

Email: allan@ideyatech.com

http://www.ideyatech.com/

allanctan

@allanctan ph.linkedin.com/in/allanctan/