One of the earliest and most visible steps in developing a strong brand is choosing the right name.  Branding veteran Mike Carr offers five great tips for selecting the right name for your brand.

Naming Tip #1: MEMORABILITY

Think about building a brand as a war.  In a war, there are many battles to be fought, some of which are OK to lose.  But, there are a few key battles you must win to win the war. The key battle when it comes to the brand name is memorability.  If the name is sticky, if it gets inside the head of your target quickly and isn’t forgotten, then you can spend your budget building preference in your brand.  If the name isn’t memorable, you often burn through your budget just trying to build awareness. You then have nothing left to build your brand.  You lose the war.

Naming Tip #2:  NO NEGATIVES

Don’t allow anyone in your naming session to say anything negative until the very end.  New names are inherently fragile.  Allowing critical comments to surface too quickly kills off some great ideas.  Also, the majority of what you’ll come up with in your naming session is garbage, anyway. So focusing on what you don’t like is distracting.

Naming Tip #3:  BE AN ADVOCATE.

Taking the negative off of the table isn’t enough.  You need to encourage everyone to advocate for their favorite names rather than be the silent skeptic.  Ask everyone to pick their favorites and share with the group what they like about them.  Or if they don’t like the whole name, ask them to talk about the part of it they do like.  Is the idea behind the name appealing to them?  Is there a root embedded in the name that they find intriguing?  Do they have any new ideas to suggest using an existing name as a starting point?  What you are after during this process is for everyone to become as engaged and as upbeat as possible.  You will find yourselves talking one another into names that you initially weren’t that excited about.

Naming Tip #4:  THINK LIKE A CUSTOMER.

Try to react to each idea as a prospective customer might react to it.  Maybe they’ll react positively to a name that connects with them emotionally, rather than a more literal or descriptive name that is easier to understand but sounds like all of the others that are already out there. Or maybe they’ll look at a number of different names before deciding what to buy. Thinking like your customers and prospects is what great naming is all about.

Naming Tip #5:  GO WITH A RISKIER NAME.

The best names are rarely the safest. They’re typically the riskiest. There is no such thing as a perfect name.  The names with the greatest potential often have the most glaring weaknesses.  So focus on the potential a name brings to a table.  Is it memorable?  Is it easy to say and spell?  Does it connect emotionally?  Is it engaging?  Does it differentiate from the competitive set?  Is it a name that generates excitement and passion.  A name people want to talk about.  An engaging, sticky name.