Why to Create a New Brand Name

Have you ever thought of why your parents gave you a name? Or if you and your brother never had a name how difficult it would have been for the teacher to call you or your friend when you don’t have any name. Same is the case with the products. If you go to the market to purchase soap how would you let the shopkeeper know that you need Pears or Lux had their parent companies not named them, as both are soaps?

The brand name puts a face on every company. Names like McDonald’s, Amazon.com, GM, Apple, Intel, and a host of others have long become significant members of pop culture vocabulary. They’ve also given consumers a point of reference when thinking about a company. Many of us don’t realize that companies often spend millions of rupees coming up with their names. They hire experts, conduct research, and test the market before making a decision.

What are The Characteristics of Good Brand Names?

Firms usually don’t have a lot of time to inform customers about their name, so skillful firms create names that are easy to learn and remember. So, what makes a brand name easy to learn and remember?

• It is sufficiently different to attract attention – Would your firm’s name attract your attention if you saw it the first time?
• The name evokes interest – Rhymes and humor are some ways to gain interest, but there are others as well. Think about your target audience and what would interest them.
• The name elicits a picture or image – Names that do this are “dual coded,” in the sense that people remember them most because the name is stored in pictures and words.
• The name is meaningful – This is hard to do when you use a nonsense word for a name. It can be overcome with lots of advertising, but names that are inherently more meaningful to customers are more readily stored in memory. More important, the name should have associations that are meaningful to customers in that they convey the benefits that customers want.
• The name has some emotion – Emotional associations are easier to learn and remember.
• The name is simple – Simple names are easier to learn and remember than complicated names.

A Brand Name summarizes various relevant and irrelevant aspects as well as copy, audio and visual aspects of a product, which a human being can sense. It provides an identity beyond doubt. And identity differentiates. Since branding is a concept that exists to create identifiable differentiation, the brand name becomes a key marketing tool.

Or we can say a brand name is

• The basic core indicator of the brand
• The basis for awareness
• The basis for communication effects
• The basis for sales measurement and

Brand name can

• Help create association(s) in the mind that act as descriptors, as to what it is and what it does. Xerox is a fitting example.
• It provides entry barrier in its category once it gets established. Some appropriate examples are Burnol, Surf and Dettol.
• Through time and use it becomes a valuable asset. Tata and Godrej are good examples.

It has been observed, what a brand name is all about could vary over a time continuum. It is the effect of what the brand does, what its competitor does, how customers change, how technology changes, how customer interactivity changes, etc.