Name Game Eight!

We finally come around (out of order) to my numero uno, most important nugget in coming up with a great company name (or tagline, or product name or service name)…

Tip Eight: Clarity, Clarity, Clarity!

This means no “cutesy” or “clever” names.  If you ever have to explain anything, for any reason, EVER, it is by definition a bad name.  To avoid this pitfall, don’t use:

• Clevr spelling
• Hy-phens
• Under_Scores
• Sub.Domains.com
• MaydUpp Werdz
• Perilously dificult to spell words

Heed the KISS principle … Keep It Simple Stupid (or any other final “S” word you choose).  Here’s a standard to follow;

Let’s say you’re standing in line at a grocery store and you’re chatting with an old family friend.  Gray-haired Ethel is 90 years old and has never used the Internet.  If Ethel gets home from her shopping spree, later in the day, she should STILL remember the name of your new gig.  Yes, it needs to be THAT clear.  If loving, caring, motivated family-friend Ethel can’t remember it, you can be sure that a large percentage of a rushed, uncaring, quick to click consumer audience is going to forget it even faster!

Don’t fight yourself!  “Clarity” as the first rule will make the process of coming up with a fab name infinitely easier.

Go Ahead, Socialize ...

Name Game Seven!

Which TV commercials are easier to visualize in your mind … Target or Walmart?  You likely said “Target” because of their heavy use of the color red and their immediately recognizable target logo.  If you said “Walmart” it was likely because of the bouncing smiley face.

Which ads can you describe … Apple computer or Dell computer?  You likely said “Apple” because of the clean, fresh, unique approach to all of their marketing and the immediately recognizable apple logo.

Tip Seven: Make your brand visual!  Look at any industry and you’ll see a myriad of competitors.  Some brands may have more “legs” for a variety of reasons but there’ll usually be one or two that stand out for you because their names are highly visual in nature (like Apple and Target).  Let me say that another way — being visual isn’t the only measure of the soundness of a brand but it can help make a brand stand out from a crowd (especially for people who learn visually).

Creating a visual brand is like putting fresh oil in a car.  It may or may not make a huge difference but it will more than likely make your forward progress a little smoother.  Make it as easy as possible for consumers to remember you.  Like we say here at Acorn Creative … GO NUTS!

Go Ahead, Socialize ...

Other than the Dole pineapple empire, can you name one other Hawaiian brand?  And even Dole isn’t reallllly a Hawaiian company — James Dole came over from the mainland to found the company in 1851. The likely reason Hawaiian names aren’t the basis of power-house brands is because they’re so flippin’ hard to read, hard to pronounce and hard to remember (At least for us “Howlies” - Hawaiian slang for non-natives).  If you’ve ever been to Hawaii, you’ll know what I mean.  Ask for directions and you’ll get something like:

“Take the kaapalula highway to kaapapuu. Take a right on uppukaka street and then a left on kupajava lane. If you go past the pupukippilala mall, you’ve gone too far.”

Uhhhhh …. riiight.

Time for Name Game Round Six:

Your name should be:

• Easy to read (silently … no moving your lips)
• Easy to pronouce.  It should flow off the tongue like velvet.
• Difficult to miss-spell.

OK, before I get a flood of emails from hoards of irate Hawaiians, please understand that I LOVE the beauty of your language.  It’s just hard for me to adapt.  Put me up in a shack on a beach for a year or two and I’m sure I’ll come to my senses!

Go Ahead, Socialize ...

Name Game Five!

You’ve brainstormed. You’ve found cliches. You’ve found related words and phrases. You’ve found HUNDREDS more words and phrases. You’ve plowed through homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, homophones, idioms and words that were just kinda like the others. Your brain is abuzz with fabulous ideas, catchy phrases and great names.

Here’s the buzz-kill — the giant killer of finding a great name. And we can blame it all on those friendly folks we call “domain name traders”. When you find that great name, you’ll go to a name registrar (or a registrar search tool like Better Whois) and find that your perfect name is likely taken. GRRRRRR! What’s worse, is it’s not taken by a like-minded entrepreneur, it’s been snagged by a sleaze-bag domain name trader that’s profiting off of your desire for that name. It’s either back to the drawing board OR cough up their exorbitant fees. Although it will feel like these leaches are sucking the life-blood out of you, if they’re only asking for a couple of hundred dollars, I hope you can see how buying the name is a lot easier (albeit more financially and ethically painful) than spending another few days in a search.

Well, for this post, that’s tip number one!: Don’t get married to a name until you find out that the “.com” and the “.net” are both available. Also, understand that this is definitely going to be a problem for you so you’ll want to pull out your extra thick skin … you’re gonna need it.

Tip two for this post: Next, check to see if there are any competing companies on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office web site. Although this is NOT legal advice, and you most definitely should seek advice from a qualified attorney who specializes in Intellectual Property law, it is possible to do a quickie check at the USPTO. If you go to the site and immediately find a conflict, you can again free up your brain and comfortably return to the drawing board without too much anguish. If you don’t find a conflict, you’ll want to have your attorney perform a “clearance search” to confirm that there aren’t any potential problems. Even then, your new, great name isn’t safe until the USPTO gives you the official “thumbs up” that you’re the new owner of the “mark”… which may take years!

To do a search at USPTO.gov;

Click on “How to Search” in the top nav.
Click “SEARCH trademarks now”
Click Free Form Search (Advanced Search)
In the “Search Term” box, type your new name IN QUOTES
Click “Submit Query”

I’ll be working with my IP attorney to try to give you mo’ bettah advice on this complex process in the future. If you’re looking for an IP attorney (especially if you live in the lovely Lakes Region of NH), feel free to contact Trademark Guru Mike Persson … and tell him I said “hi” (we’re working on his website as we speak).

Go Ahead, Socialize ...

The Name Game Part Four!

The concept of “pig” and the concept of “latin” are both quite different than “pig latin”. Combining words creates new meaning and nuance that can’t be ignored. While evaluating taglines, we think one worders (eg “Rise”-United Airlines or “Invent”-Hewlett Packard) miss out on the opportunity of tapping into subtle meaning acquired by combining two or three words together.

From our last couple of exercises you have a pretty serious list of words and phrases … possibly hundreds. Start mixing, matching and mashing to take your name campaign to the next level.

When combining words be sure to take advantage of some of these strategies:

Aliteration: Words that begin with the same letter sound nice one after the other. So says Sally Sue … sometimes.
Rhyming: Can turn a phrase into a craze.
Kinda Like: It may not rhyme. It may not be a homonym. It may not even be spelled similarly. If one word is “kinda like” another, it can sometimes lead you to a very interesting and unexpected phrase.

The juxtaposition and crashing together of ideas, words and phrases is where real naming power comes from.

Go Ahead, Socialize ...

Here’s the third edition of the Name Game.

Tip Three:  Learn the secret of Nyms.  No, not the cartoon about talking mice!  If you tried out tip two and now have a three column table with A LOT of words, phrases and ideas but you still don’t see something that resonates with you, try this.  Add five more columns and title them “Synonyms”, “Antonyms”, “Homonyms” (plus Homophones and Homographs in that column) and “Idioms” … you have my permission to call that column “Idionyms”. I’ll know what you mean. In the last column add “Acronyms”.  This last one is a low probability approach but it is interesting.

For synonyms and antonyms the best resource is www.Thesaurus.com.  A good list of Homonyms can be found at Alan Cooper’s homonym web site. 

A fabulous resource is www.Dictionary.com for a list of alternate meanings, idiomatic expressions (slang) and to get an even bigger list of synonyms and antonyms.

Try AcronymFinder.com for TBLOA (the best list of acronyms).

An example:  If you’re a wedding consultant and you have “rose” on your list of related words, you’d find:

Synonyms: arise, proceed, mount, succeed, advance, dream world, hope, idealism, idealization, rosy picture, cardinal points, degrees, direction symbol, map symbol, compass rose, degrees, half points, quarter points, blush, burn, color, color up, crimson, flame, glow, go red, mantle, pink, pinken, redden, rose, rouge, suffuse, be suffused, blare, blaze, blush, brighten, burn, color, crimson, fill, flame, flare, flush, gleam, glimmer, glisten, glitter, ignite, kindle, light, mantle, pink, pinken, redden, rose, rouge, shine, smolder, thrill, tingle, twinkle, alluring, auspicious, bright, encouraging, favorable, glowing, hopeful, likely, optimistic, pleasing, promising, reassuring, rose-colored, roseate, sunny
 
Antonyms: sink, fall, descend, fail, decrease, worsen, retire

Homo-nyms, -graphs, -phones: Rhos, Roes, Rows (as a boat), Rows (like columns), Rose (to ascend)

Alternate meanings:  Several dozen of them!

Idioms: MANY … including “coming up roses”

and finally…

Acronyms:  How about “Reconnaissance Operations and Secret Enforcement” or “Repository of Scholarly Eprints”

INDEED, taking this approach is a great way to overload your brain with ideas. Hundreds and hundreds of ideas.  You’ll likely get overwhelmed. That’s expected. Look at each of these ideas as a little seed.  In short order, ONE of those initial ideas will germinate into … well … a rose!

Go Ahead, Socialize ...

As the universe would have it, my recent posting on name generation was followed by (via serendipity) me stumbling on this Wired News story by Lore Sjöberg.  A humorous article worth reading if you’re in a name search mode.

Go Ahead, Socialize ...