Naming: The things not to dodge.
There’s close to 56 million active trademarks globally. Over 360 million registered domain names. The chances are that the name you want for your brand or business has already been taken.
As a regular advisor to clients and agencies on creating brand names, I’m very familiar with the excitement of getting to that gem of a name — only for it to be ditched due to the realisation of it not being available.
Surprisingly, when you do get a great name that you can own, many don’t feel the need to protect it.
Now for the good news.
Naming doesn’t have to be a painful process, but it needs to be well-thought through. Some businesses will know instinctively when a name is right. Others prefer to give prospective names to focus groups and online surveys to get unfiltered and unbiased responses.
As well as all the fun to be had in exploring and creating names, here’s two critical stages that many don’t realise the importance of — or just ignore.
Trademarking
As well as the obvious Google search, there’s a need to undertake trademark prescreening too. I urge anyone creating a brand name to engage with a trademark lawyer. If you’re working with a naming specialist, or an agency, they will guide you in the right direction. Otherwise, you risk losing time, money and soul working with a name that you ultimately can’t own or legally use.
Take the example of Louis Vuiton Dak — a South Korean fried chicken restaurant. They lost their legal battle against luxury goods firm Louis Vuitton for using the name which is a play on the word meaning “whole chicken” in Korean.
Who would have thought that a restauranteur would find himself going to battle with a luxury goods powerhouse? But it’s an example whereby trademark cases are not just fought for within similar business domains.
Think about linguistics
Another important step is linguistic screening. Whilst a word may be perfectly acceptable in English, it may have inappropriate or offensive meaning in other languages.
Today’s glocal world means that it’s critical for brands to have a more cultural language fit. There’s numerous examples of brands that have had these challenges that have marred their success in different parts of the world.
The Chevrolet “Nova “sold very poorly in Latin America. It was because “no va” means “won’t go” in Spanish
The Ford “Pinto” failed miserable in the America’s back in the 70’s. The masculine look of the vehicle itself was doomed by the name being slang for “small penis” in Latin America
And then Clairol introduced a curling iron for the German market named “Mist Stick”. Sales were slow. Perhaps because “mist” in German means manure.
Simple errors that the big brands can eventually ride through, but for the smaller players and startups it can be catastrophic.
Conclusion
It should always be remembered that, naming, while important, is still only one aspect of a brand’s strategy. But names need to do more than just appear as a badge — they need to fit on a tweet, be simple to say, be legal and hold up anywhere in the world.
