Your brand name often delivers the first impression of your business. People see it on signage and collateral. They hear it and use it in conversation. They touch it on screens. Your brand name is enduring - so it's critical to get it right.
A company or product’s name is one of its most important attributes:
The types of brand name you use can make it easy or difficult for customers to identify you – so take the opportunity to reflect your brand essence, and make a real impact on your target customers.
There are three different types of brand names: descriptive, associative and abstract.
These names are more literal, specific and self-explanatory. The attributes or benefits of the product or service are inherent in the name. Descriptive names generally need less support, however they may not be as distinctive. Examples of descriptive brand names include Just Jeans and Australia Post.
These names allude to a benefit or attribute, but are more obtuse. They are sometimes compound names where two attributes or benefits are brought together. Examples of associative brand names include Jetstar and Origin Energy.
These names are generally more unique and distinctive. However, because they are abstract, they need more explanation, communication and support for people to make the connection between the brand name and what it represents. Examples of abstract brand names include Apple, Google and Virgin.
Keep in mind that you can use suffixes to provide further explanation to your brand name. Suffixes can allow to embrace more abstract names while adding sense and context to your brand name. For example, compare the names “Koala” and “Koala Financial Services”. Suffixes can also provide a practical benefit in that they increase domain availability, something that can prove quite challenging. For example, you may be able to secure koalafinancialservices.com.au but not koala.com.au.
Creating the right brand name requires brand insights, a proven process and imagination. Our team is experienced in writing strong, clear naming briefs, generating long lists and applying filters, screens and preliminary searches to derive a recommended short list. We have created many new brand names for our clients - talk to us to learn more.
BrandMatters uses a proprietary, 13-point checklist to evaluate the brand names that we generate. Amongst the most important criteria, are: