Naming. Art or science? - Part 2
Bring method to the madness to avoid the common pitfalls.
Welcome to part 2 of the series on the art of naming product features. Picking the right name sets the tone for your product’s story, an essential step that’s often overlooked. If you missed part 1, it’s waiting for you here.
Today, I’ll be covering three more common pitfalls in the naming process and sharing tips to help you avoid them. With these insights, you'll find navigating the naming journey a bit easier and more straightforward. Let’s dive in.
I love a good naming brainstorming session, but in order for it to work and be effective, we need to first set up some boundaries.
Framing brings focus
To focus, you need to decide what's going to be your strategic naming framework and make sure it's aligned with your company’s brand strategy.
The Spectrum of Distinctiveness in branding lays out a range for how product names can be crafted, from generic to arbitrary, with descriptive, associative, and deviant names occupying the spaces in between.
The more generic a name is, the less distinctive it is too. An example of a product with a generic name could be "Table Salt." This name merely describes the product without any attempt at branding or differentiation.
Descriptive names use real words and the difference with generic names is that descriptive names tend to describe disruptive attributes. A great example is "Snapchat." This app name describes its core functionality—sending photos (snaps) that disappear (chat) after a brief period. The name is straightforward, indicating a disruptive approach to instant messaging and photo sharing by focusing on ephemeral content.
Associative names use recognizable words that suggest benefits, they evoke an attitude and sometimes are shortened long descriptive terms. "Red Bull" is an example of associative name. It doesn't directly describe the product (an energy drink), but it evokes feelings of energy and power.
Deviant names provide an innovative meaning, they use real words but have no relevance to the product. The name "Apple" has no connection to computers, smartphones, or technology. Yet, it has become synonymous with innovation, quality, and design in the tech industry.
Arbitrary names are new, invented words, with no relevance to the product, that acquire meaning over time. They provide strong trademark but require significant marketing effort to embed them with meaning and brand association. "Google" is a prime example of an arbitrary name. Derived from the mathematical term "googol," it signifies nothing about the search engine's function or the internet.
Other factors to consider are ease of pronunciation, translation or meaning in other languages, and availability of domain names. Setting boundaries will streamline the naming process and make it easier to choose the right name.
Now that we have our framework, we are ready to jump on a naming brainstorming session.
Great, so we emerge from that session with a name, right? Not so fast my friend. Enter pitfall number five.
It's easy to get attached to a name that sounds perfect at first glance. However, it's important to thoroughly test and research a name before finalizing it. This includes checking for trademark availability, ensuring it doesn't have negative connotations in different languages or cultures, and testing it with your target audience. Taking the time to thoroughly vet a name can save you from potential issues down the line.
For testing a name with the target audience, my go-to is to run qualitative and quantitative research to find out how appealing, persuasive, believable, and unique is the name.
In my approach to quantitative analysis, I like to use a method known as sequential monadic testing. This involves presenting participants with one name at a time, allowing them to evaluate each one in isolation through rounds of questions. This technique is great at pinpointing subtle distinctions among the names. After testing each name, I incorporate a bake-off question, prompting participants to choose their preferred name from the entire set. This step proves useful, especially when the data suggests more than one possible conclusion.
You probably have heard that content is king. And that’s true.
But to me, context is King Kong.
There's a very important question we must ask when we do our due-diligence that will help us paint the full picture and get full context. That question is: WHY?
Asking WHY to ourselves, to stakeholders, to prospects...
Asking WHY helps us to dig deeper to get that extra context.
Context is a must to be able to make an educated decision.
Remember it's not just about picking a cool name. It's like finding the secret sauce that makes your product pop! But hey, if you're feeling stuck I've got something special for you. I’m very soon launching a Naming Workshop! Designed for both solo flyers and team players, in this workshop we'll tackle naming challenges, share insights, and unlock the secrets to creating names that resonate and stick.
Part 1 of this series is available here