How To Come Up With A Business Name (Brand Name Ideas, Examples & Strategy)

What's up brand builders Stephen Houraghan here at BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this video you're going to learn how to choose an epic brand name for your business so you can step away from the tasks within the whole spectrum of branding and that's because of the sentimentality attached to it when we name things when we learn to name things growing up we'll name things that we're emotionally attached to we'll name our toys we'll name our first pet then we might name our first car when it comes along and then we'll start to name our children as they

come along and then ultimately we'll name our businesses so when it comes to naming a brand for the first time that task usually falls to the business owner now most business owners will approach this task in the same way that they approach any other task when naming anything else throughout their lives they'll approach it with that sentimentality point of view and listen i'm not saying that sentimentality doesn't play a role i mean if the business owner is emotionally attached to the business and there is that sentimentality there then they're far more likely to get behind

the business but really when it comes to naming a brand it's all about the audience it's all about connecting with the audience with who they are with what they want and that sentimentality doesn't really come into play nobody really cares about who the owner's dog was or what street they first lived on and if the business owner takes that sentimentality into naming their business then it misses the opportunity to connect with who the audience is and that is ultimately the role of the name of the brand is to connect with that audience so what is

the goal of the brand name well the brand name has multiple goals but the main goal that it has is memorability the brand needs to be remembered and that name plays a really important role in whether or not the brand will be remembered but memorability is not the only task that the brand name has the brand name plants a seed in the mind of the audience so that the audience remembers the brand but that seed then needs to grow and that grows into the image and the position that the brand wants to own in the

mind of the audience so what makes a great brand name well as i've already covered it's not sentimentality and if you're able to remove the task from the business owner or if the business owner is able to step away from that sentimentality then the outcome is far more likely to be effective but there are two main characteristics of a great brand name the first as we've already covered is memorable it needs to be memorable that is the job of the brand name if the brand name is forgotten if the audience cannot remember what the brand

is called then the brand name has failed in its primary task it needs to be remembered if it's catchy and that adds to the memorability great but that is the task of the brand name it needs to be remembered the second characteristic is that it needs to be strategic it needs to help to solidify a position in the mind of the audience and solidify that image of how the brand wants to be remembered so if those two characteristics are included in the brand name in that it's memorable and it is strategic then it's well on

the way to being a great brand name so let's take a look at a few brand name ideas an example now the first brand name idea is the founder brand so this is where the brand is named after the founder and there are a couple of very famous examples here in both mcdonald's and ford mcdonald's named by the mcdonald's brothers and ford named by henry ford the next example of a brand name idea is the descriptive brand name so this is where the brand name describes what the company actually does so an example here would

be coffee club or toys r us after that we have the aligned brand name so this is where the brand name uses associations or metaphors to align with an idea so i'll give you an example here amazon aligns with the vastness of the amazon jungle and virgin alliance with that idea of new and innovative next up is the invented brand name now the invented brand name has no real meaning or association essentially it's a figment of somebody's imagination and the word actually doesn't exist so a couple of examples here would be google or pixar or

xerox lexical brand names are where related words are combined to enhance memorability so you might have two words with the same first letter so an example of this would be dunkin donuts or krispy kreme next up is the acronym brand name now to be honest i'm not a big fan of this brand name type and it's definitely not something that i would recommend any of my clients do but that's not to say that it can't work and there are some very famous examples of acronym brand names such as bmw mtv and ibm and then finally

we have the geographical brand name and essentially these brands are aligning themselves to a flag or an origin from where they've come and that usually comes with a certain type of reputation so an example here would be singapore airlines or swiss brand so how do you choose a brand name well i'm going to give you a six step process that you can use to choose or find a great brand name for your own business or for your clients step number one create your buyer persona now as i mentioned earlier the brand name is not about

the founders not about the business owner and it's not about their sentimentality it's about the audience who they are what they're looking for what they want what they're feeling and when you understand the image that you want to create in the mind of your audience that's when you can create a really effective brand name but first step is understanding who that audience is so go out and create your audience avatar step number two define your differentiator now this is the strategic aspect of the brand name if your differentiator the position that you want to own

in the mind of your audience is included or associated with the brand name then the chances of your audience remembering your brand for that image or for that position is significantly increased so make sure you define your differentiator that you know what it is you know the position that you want to take in the mind of your audience before naming your brand step number three is brainstorm keywords so now that you know who the audience is and you know the difference that you want to own in their mind that you want to be known for

in the marketplace now you can start to gather ideas for your brand name now this needs to be exhaustive and there is no bad idea at this stage you want to get out everything you want to include every single word that can be even loosely associated with your audience or the difference that you want to own in their mind so take the time here to exhaust out every single idea possible in both keywords and brand name ideas and take your time with this really exhausted and go as far as you possibly can step number four

is integrate amalgamate and consolidate now this step really is dependent on the previous step being exhaustive in that you have taken the time to get as many ideas and as many keywords as possible because here you're going to merge you're going to truncate you're going to extend and really push the boundaries in terms of what's possible you're going to merge words together you're going to chop words up you're going to create something out of nothing and really the more time you take with this the more chances you have of coming up with something new and

something unique so really involve a heavy dose of creativity here take the time to integrate amalgamate and consolidate step number five is quality filtered now chances are if you've done this correctly you are going to have a lot of crap remember i said earlier that there is no bad idea early on and you want to exhaust as many avenues as possible but when you get to step number five here you're going to have a lot of crap and you're going to need to filter all of that through some quality control and the quality control that

you want to filter it through is to ask is it memorable is it strategic and is it concise if you're able to filter it through that quality control and it comes out the other side and it takes all of those boxes then you're well on the way and step number six real world application so this is where you apply your brand name into the real world so you stack it up alongside the competitors within your industry you stack it alongside the global brands of the world to see how it fits to see if it feels

right for your brand you can also put this into submission statements into some vision statements into industry sentences to see how it fits within your industry and how it fits for your brand now look there is a reason that business owners get hung up on the brand name partly because it's sentimental to them but partly because it's extremely important the brand name is one of the most difficult things to change within a brand so essentially it's like marriage once you choose that name it is very difficult to change so you need to make sure that

the name has strategy behind it you need to make sure that it is memorable you need to make sure that it's going to stand the test of time and represent your brand for the image that you want to own in the mind of your audience but if you get it right not only can it enhance the memorability of your brand it can act as a pollinator to sprinkle the mind of your audience with the seed that is your brand position now once you plant that seed the tagline and the slogan can act as the rain

to help that seed grow if you want to understand the strategic difference between the tagline and the slogan then this video will help you out until next time brand like a master and i'll see you in the next video