How To Come Up With A Brand Name: The Detailed Guide

Naming a brand is an important step to start a business. A unique name can help your business growth, on the contrary, if the brand name is unsuited that can be a “nightmare” for the marketing department. Here is a detailed guide about the “how to come up with a brand name” process. Following this naming brand process can ensure that your brand name is suitable for your business, memorable, and meaningful. Let’s find out together!

I. Elements of a good brand name

A good brand name is the perfect combination of creativity and strategy. It highlights your company’s mission, vision, and values. At the same time, it also shows personality and uniqueness.

A good brand name tends to fall into one (or more) of the following categories:

• Descriptive: Your brand name can describe to potential customers exactly what your product or service is. Example: Booking.com, PayPal, etc. 
• Evocative: These names use metaphors and suggestions to express the company’s creativity, values and tell a brand story. Some brand name ideas for this category are Nike, Amazon, Uber, etc.
• Blends: These are brand names that combine two (or more) words to make a new word. This is a very popular naming style today, we can think of it as a way of combining both descriptive and evocative. Examples: Photoshop, WhatsApp, Headspace, etc. 
• Invented: This is the best way to differentiate your company and show off your unique brand identity. However, you will have to spend a lot of time telling the brand story as well as making customers aware of your product. Examples: Google, Slack, Zoom, etc.
• Acronymic: Good brand names are usually short and easy to remember. So you can use abbreviations to replace a long name. Keep in mind that meaning is often removed with an acronym, so they may not be the best opinion for storytelling. Examples: BMW, IKEA, IBM, etc.

II. Guide To Brand Naming

To choose a suitable brand name, you need to follow some rules. Otherwise, you can choose a brand name that is not relevant to your brand. These guidelines will help you find a suitable brand name. Let’s learn some rules when choosing a brand name with Enosta below!

Easy to pronounce

Mispronouncing brand names is a problem even for well-known brands. You do not want partners, potential customers, or employees to have to look up how to pronounce your company name on the internet, right? Try to find a name that can be easily spelled. That will make customers more focused on your products instead of focusing on pronouncing your brand name correctly.

Remember easily

How can customers remember your brand name? That is a question that causes many marketers a headache. I don’t know about you, but I often see customers go to convenience stores to buy “Pantene, or Chapstick,…”. Consumers often use several brand names as generic terms, especially for consumer goods! Use a brand name that is short and easy to remember. That is a tip for you. 

Meaningful

Your brand name needs to evoke a positive story or connotation to make it easier for customers to connect your brand values. Some good examples are Nike – The name of the Greek goddess of victory, or Infa: Stand for Intelligent Farm, etc.

Strong Visual Identity

Words have power, but what happens when customers look at your logo and it takes a while to be impressed? In addition to rules such as being easy to pronounce and remember, the brand name also needs to be beautiful on paper and online platforms. Test your logo on both digital printed materials to see if your brand name is too long or difficult to design.

III. Brand naming process

Now is the time to find your brand name. This is an effective way of naming according to the brand positioning strategy. So, take time to search for your brand name through the following process:

Define your brand identity and goals

Defining your brand identity and goals will help you differentiate yourself from the competition. That is also a way to define where your company is in the market. You can get this information from the positioning statement. You can ask yourself these questions to find out more information:

• Why does your company exist? This is your vision.
• What does your company do? This is your mission
• How do you do these things? That refers to your worth. Fun fact, 89% of shoppers are loyal to brands that share their values.
• How do you want to create your brand identity? That is your Brand Personality
• What do you want to achieve with your brand name? Maybe you want your customers immediately understand your product, or highlight your value.

Also, select a brand archetype to determine your brand’s personality. Once you have the answer to the above questions, you can go to the next step. 

Consider your competitors and customers

When choosing a brand name, you should consider customer reviews and surveys. These responses can inform how customers perceive your brand. If you want your customers to feel interested or happy when using your product, a serious brand name will not be a good idea. 

In addition, your industry is also one of the factors to keep in mind. Research the brand names of your competitors. Do they use descriptive or evocative names? How do your competitors describe their brand and vision? This is the basis for you to make your brand different and unique. 

Brainstorm brand name

Brainstorming is a great way to find the right brand name. Some suggestions to help you get more ideas in the brainstorming such as:

• Adjectives that describe your service, product, or brand
• How do customers feel about your brand or how do you want them to feel?
• Words you want to associate with your business.

Refine Your Idea

After the brainstorming session, you had a long list of brand names. That is a good thing your work now is how to sift through it. Consider factors such as:

• Does it fit your brand personality?
• Does it resonate emotionally?
• Does it make sense or connect to your company’s story?
• What does it look like on paper and online platforms?
• Does it have the same domain or anything on social media?
• Is there anything that stands out from the competition?
• Is it short, memorable, and easy to spell?

Try to shorten the list to 10-15 names for the next step.

Get Feedback

This is the final step in “how to come up with a brand name process”. Try to gather feedback from employees, customers, partners, or stakeholders.

After you have gathered feedback, it’s a good idea to translate your list of brand names into different languages. Consider where your company will expand. You should see how some famous companies have created their brand names.

Finally, choose a name that is most suitable and has all of the above factors.

IV. Examples of good brand names

Enouvo IT Solutions

Enouvo IT Solution provides consulting services to customers and develops technology solutions on the web or mobile app platform in markets such as Australia, Canada, USA, Singapore, and France… Helping businesses to transform digital transformation or growth a new idea to bring to market. The brand name Enouvo IT Solution is a combination of two factors:

• Enouvo – Talking about the company’s values is Empowerment – Nouvo – One for all – Uniqueness – Vibe – Outstanding
• IT Solution: Industry and products & services of the company.

Smartos

Smartos stands for Smarter Office Space. The Smartos integration platform offers owner’s rental space management solutions in customers’ journeys. This helps firms optimize operations, cut expenses, and increase business efficiency. Accordingly, this brand name allows people to identify the business sector of Smartos. Furthermore, this is also easy to read, remember, and appropriate for this brand’s modern, friendly, and helpful aspect.

Adidas

Many people often confuse Adidas as an acronym for All Day I Dream About Soccer. However, the truth is not like that. Adidas is named after its founder, Adolf Dassler which is a combination of his nickname “Adi” and the first three letters of his surname Das.

V. Why Enosta can help you

You’ve just read through how to come up with a brand name. You must have seen the great benefits of having a suitable brand name. 

As a companion for many years with SMEs, Enosta understands the problems that businesses are facing. Therefore, we provide you with a comprehensive solution for Branding, including Branding Consultation, Branding Design, etc. 

These are the necessary services for you to bring your idea to market. 

Start with Enosta here!