A naming strategy, inside a branding strategy, inside a business strategy. A too difficult recipe to master, is it?
When I started working with names, I noticed that many companies looked at naming as a no-brainer. Very often, the responsibility for naming a new product was intertwined with the development team. There was a certain “you created it, you name it”-mentality going on. But evidently, creating names in an ad hoc way is not the road to brand consistency.
While many have since realized the importance of naming as a natural and crucial part of the brand, there is still room for improvement. Companies need a clear business and marketing strategy and the names to back it up.
To achieve this instead of letting your names go astray:
- Take it to the top
Make sure that that the ownership and responsibility of the naming process is on management level.
- Join forces
Integrate your naming strategy into your branding strategy and your branding strategy into your business strategy. Obvious as it seems, many fail along the way.
- Get to the chopper
Work with product names from a helicopter perspective. Look at them as a natural extension of the overall brand and business strategy, instead of isolating them. Tie it all together.
- Say it, don’t spray it
Stick to your branding and naming guidelines to help you see if you’ve gone too creative. If there is no direction, you will just find yourself all over the place. Why not cut yourself some slack in the next naming project?
Or, simply let us help you out.