Lexicon News
What's In a Name?
Bobbie Gossage, Gruner + Jahl PublishingJuly, 2004
The best brand names are fun to say and make people want to do business with you. Does yours measure up?
...Naming experts say that, ideally, the goal of a name shouldn't be to make your company sound bigger or to inspire trust. Those things will come naturally as your company grows and delivers on its promises. The best names do more than that: They subconsciously convey a feeling, highlighting a company's or product's strengths. When brainstorming for names, think about your company's mission, advises David Placek, founder of Lexicon Branding® in Sausalito, Calif., which is responsible for creating memorable names such as BlackBerry and OnStar. What are you trying to accomplish? What is it like to do business with you? And lighten up, Placek says.
Consider the BlackBerry. At the time the product was ready to be released, its main competitor was Motorola's PageWriter 2000. The BlackBerry team, which had been toying with the name PocketLink, realized that it needed something less literal. It sought the help of Lexicon®, which suggested naming the product after a small fruit. The first thought was strawberry, but that sounded too slow. Eventually, Lexicon® came up with BlackBerry, which not only sounded great (because of the crisp consonants and vowels) but also had alliteration and symmetry that would make it memorable. What's more, for a piece of technical equipment, the name was pleasing, not intimidating. "You want a name that your employees and customers will want to say," says Anthony Shore, creative director of brand consulting firm Landor Associates, "a name that, when you hear it, your mind goes places."
Easier said than done. But at Lexicon®, Placek and his staff work to reduce naming to a science. They have performed countless linguistic studies to develop a system to analyze how vowel and consonant sounds affect perceptions. For instance, they say that the P and B in PowerBook (another Lexicon® coinage) connote strength and reliability. In contrast, a name with slower and softer sounds might be more appropriate for a cosmetics line.
...And don't be discouraged if your name fails to communicate everything you had hoped. "In reality, you end up with about four to nine letters," says Placek, "and they can really only convey one or two things about you." Above all, great company names only enhance and cement a firm's image in the minds of customers. As Shakespeare said: "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." If your company delivers a great product or service, people will seek you out.