Product naming
Encyclopedia
Product naming is the discipline of deciding what a product will be called, and is very similar in concept and approach to the process of deciding on a name for a company or organization. Product naming is considered a critical part of the brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...

ing process, which includes all of the marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

 activities that affect the brand image, such as positioning and the design of logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...

, packaging and the product
Product (business)
In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...

 itself. Product naming involves the application of creative and linguistic strategy and results in a brand name that becomes a product’s shorthand.

The process involved in product naming can take months or years to complete. Some key steps include specifying the objectives of the branding, developing the product name itself, evaluating names through target market testing and focus groups, choosing a final product name, and finally identifying it as a trademark it for protection.

Principles

A key ingredient in launching a successful company is the selection of its name.
Product names that are considered generally sound have several qualities in common.
  • They strategically distinguish the product from its competitors by conveying its unique positioning
  • They hold appeal for the product’s target audience
  • They imply the brand’s benefit
  • They are available for legal protection.
  • They allow companies to bond with their customers to create loyalty.
  • They have a symbolic association that fortifies the image of a company or a product to the consumers.
  • They help motivate customers to buy the product.
  • They can buy a product image and name.

Acronyms and Initials

Names created from the initials of longer names: AFLAC
Aflac
Aflac Incorporated is the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States, founded in 1955 and based in Columbus, Georgia. In the United States, Aflac underwrites a wide range of insurance policies, but is perhaps more known for its payroll deduction insurance coverage, which pays...

, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

, M&M
M&M
M&M may refer to:* M&M's, a chocolate confectionery coated with hard candy shell* Eminem, stage name of rap artist Marshall Mathers III* "M+M's", a song by the American band Blink-182 from Cheshire Cat...

 (for Forrest Mars
Forrest Mars
Forrest Mars may refer to:*Forrest Mars, Sr., deceased head of Mars, Incorporated*Forrest Mars, Jr., his son...

 and Bruce Murrie).

Amalgam

Names created by taking parts of words and putting them together: Nabisco
Nabisco
Nabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...

 (National Biscuit Company).

Alliteration and Rhyme

Fun to say, and particularly memorable: Nutter Butter
Nutter Butter
Nutter Butters are a Nabisco brand peanut-shaped sandwich cookie with a peanut butter filling, which was introduced to the public in 1969.Invented by Ivar Aavatsmark....

, YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

, Piggly Wiggly
Piggly Wiggly
Piggly Wiggly is a supermarket chain operating in the Midwestern and Southern regions of the United States, run by Piggly Wiggly, LLC, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers. The current company headquarters is in Keene, New Hampshire....

.

Descriptive

Descriptive names ascribe to the product a characteristic: Toys R Us, General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

.

Evocative

Invoke a vivid image that alludes to a brand benefit: London Fog
London fog
London fog may refer to:*London Fog , a 1960s nightclub on the Sunset Strip where The Doors first played as a house band*London Fog , an alcoholic drink made with gin and Pernod*London Fog , an Earl Grey tea-based drink...

, Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...

.

Founders' Names

Use the name of a founder of founder family member: Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...

, Wendy's
Wendy's
Wendy's is an international fast food chain restaurant founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The company decided to move its headquarters to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. It has been owned by Triarc since 2008...

.

Ingredients

Base the name on ingredients: Clorox
Clorox
The Clorox Company is a US-based manufacturer of various food and chemical products based in Oakland, California, which is best known for its bleach product, Clorox.- History :...

 for chlorine plus sodium hydroxide, Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...

 for the digestive enzyme pepsin.

Geography

Chose a name associated with company/product location: eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...

 for East Bay, Fuji
Fuji
-People:* Mr. Fuji, ring name of wrestling and manager Harry Fujiwara* Keiko Fuji, a Japanese singer of the 1960s and 1970s, and mother of Hikaru Utada* Sumiko Fuji, a Japanese actressFictional characters* Fuji , a character in the Stormwatch series...

 for the tallest mountain in Japan.

Merged

When two companies merge into one, sometimes both names are kept: ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...

, Rolls Royce.

Personification

Create a character or adopt an existing personage: Green Giant
Green Giant
Green Giant and Le Sueur are brands of frozen and canned vegetables owned by General Mills. The mascot of Green Giant is the Jolly Green Giant....

, Midas Mufflers.

Onomatopoeia

Use a sound associated with a product function or other brand idea: Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

, Meow Mix
Meow Mix
Meow Mix is a variety of dry and wet cat food known for its advertising jingle. It is a product of Del Monte Foods.-Company background:The Meow Mix Company operates from a facility in Decatur, Alabama, and also produces Alley Cat brand cat food products. Originally a product of Ralston Purina,...

.

Clever Statement

Names don't have to be just a word or two: Seven for All Mankind
Seven for all Mankind
7 For All Mankind is a brand of designer jeans founded by Michael Glasser, Peter Koral, and Jerome Dahan in 2000 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Since 2007, it has been owned by the VF Corporation.7 for All Mankind began by designing women's jeans...

, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! is a butter substitute produced by Becel/Flora/Promise, which is a subsidiary of Unilever. It was introduced to the United States in 1986 and later to the United Kingdom and Canada in 1991. The product was put on the market in Germany in 2011. Due to the length of...

.

Product naming techniques

Linguistically, names are developed by combining morphemes, phonemes and syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....

 to create a desired representation of a product.

Morphemes differ from words in that many morphemes may not be able to stand alone. The Sprint name is composed of a single word
Word
In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...

 and a single morpheme. Conversely, a brand like Acuvue is composed of two morphemes, each with a distinct meaning. While "vue" may be able to stand as its own word, "acu" is seen as a prefix
Prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...

 or a bound morpheme
Bound morpheme
In morphology, a bound morpheme is a morpheme that only appears as part of a larger word; a free morpheme is one that can stand alone.Affixes are always bound. English language affixes are either prefixes or suffixes. E.g., -ment in "shipment" and pre- in "prefix"...

 that must connect to a free morpheme like "vue."

Phonemes are minimal units of sound. Depending on the speaker’s accent, the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 has about 44 phonemes. In product naming, names that are phonetically easy to pronounce and that are well balanced with vowels and consonants have an advantage over those that are not. Likewise, names that begin with or stress plosive consonant sounds B, hard C, D, G, K, P or T are often used because of their attention-getting quality. Some phoneme sounds in English, for example L, V, F and W are thought of as feminine, while others such as X, M and Z are viewed as masculine.

Syntax, or word order, is key to consumers’ perceptions of a product name. Banana Republic would not carry the same meaning were it changed to "Republic Banana." Syntax also has significant implications for the naming of global products, because syntax has been argued to cross the barrier from one language to another. (See the pioneering work on Universal Grammar
Universal grammar
Universal grammar is a theory in linguistics that suggests that there are properties that all possible natural human languages have.Usually credited to Noam Chomsky, the theory suggests that some rules of grammar are hard-wired into the brain, and manifest themselves without being taught...

 by Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...

)

Some specific product naming techniques, including a combination of morphemes, phonemes and syntax are shown in the graph below.
Method Brand
Alliteration
Alliteration
In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of Three or more words or phrases. Alliteration has historically developed largely through poetry, in which it more narrowly refers to the repetition of a consonant in any syllables that, according to...

Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...

Oxymoron
Oxymoron
An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms...

Krispy Kreme
Krispy Kreme
Krispy Kreme is the name of an international chain of doughnut stores that was founded by Vernon Rudolph in 1937 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The parent company of Krispy Kreme is Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc...

Combination Walkman
Walkman
Walkman is a Sony brand tradename originally used for portable audio cassette, and now used to market Sony's portable audio and video players as well as a line of Sony Ericsson mobile phones...

Tautology
Tautology (rhetoric)
Tautology is an unnecessary or unessential repetition of meaning, using different and dissimilar words that effectively say the same thing...

Crown Royal
Crown Royal
Crown Royal is a blended Canadian whisky, 40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof. The brand is currently owned by Diageo, who purchased it when the Seagram portfolio was dissolved in the year 2000. It is the top-selling Canadian whisky in the United States....

Theronym Mustang
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. It was initially based on the second generation North American Ford Falcon, a compact car. Introduced early on April 17, 1964, as a "1964½" model, the 1965 Mustang was the automaker's most successful launch since the Model A...

Mimetics Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

Eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...

Trump Tower
Trump Tower (New York)
Trump Tower is a 58-story mixed-use skyscraper located at 725 Fifth Avenue, at the corner of East 56th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was developed by Donald Trump and the Equitable Life Assurance Company, and designed by Der Scutt of Swanke, Hayden Connell...

Description Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Cinnamon Toast Crunch is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by General Mills and Nestle. The cereal was first produced in 1984...

Synecdoche
Synecdoche
Synecdoche , meaning "simultaneous understanding") is a figure of speech in which a term is used in one of the following ways:* Part of something is used to refer to the whole thing , or...

Staples
Poetics
Poetics
Aristotle's Poetics is the earliest-surviving work of dramatic theory and the first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory...

USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

Metonymy
Metonymy
Metonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept...

Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...

Allusion
Allusion
An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, people, places, events, literary work, myths, or works of art, either directly or by implication. M. H...

London Fog
London Fog (company)
London Fog is a large manufacturer of coats and other clothes.The company was founded in 1923 as the Londontown clothing company by Israel Myers.During World War II, the company was known for making waterproof clothing for the United States Navy....

Haplology
Haplology
Haplology is defined as the elimination of a syllable when two consecutive identical or similar syllables occur. The phenomenon was identified by American philologist Maurice Bloomfield in the 20th century...

Land O'Lakes
Land O'Lakes
Land O'Lakes is a member-owned agricultural cooperative based in Arden Hills, Minnesota, focusing on the dairy industry. The co-op states that it has about 3200 producer-members, 1000 member-cooperatives, and about 9000 employees who process and distribute products for about 300,000 agricultural...

Clipping
Clipping (morphology)
In linguistics, clipping is the word formation process which consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts . Clipping is also known as "truncation" or "shortening."...

Fed Ex
Morphological borrowing
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...

Nikon
Nikon
, also known as just Nikon, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging. Its products include cameras, binoculars, microscopes, measurement instruments, and the steppers used in the photolithography steps of semiconductor fabrication, of which...

Omission RAZR
Acronym adaptation BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...

Acronym KFC
KFC
KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States. KFC has been a brand and operating segment, termed a concept of Yum! Brands since 1997 when that company was spun off from PepsiCo as Tricon Global...

Founder's name Ferrari
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...

Classical roots Pentium
Arbitrary Apple
Reduplication
Reduplication
Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....

Spic and Span
Spic and Span
Spic and Span is a major U.S. brand of all-purpose household cleaner, invented by housewives Elizabeth "Bet" MacDonald and Naomi Stenglein in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1933. The women experimented until they came up with a formula that included equal parts of ground-up glue, sodium carbonate, and...


Owning a Name: Trademarks, URLs and beyond

A consideration companies find important in developing a product name is its "trademarkability
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

." Product name trademarks may be established in a number of ways:
  • In many countries, including the United States, names can be used as trademarks without formal registration through first use or common law—simply to protect an established product’s name and reputation.
  • Product names can be formally registered within a state, with protection limited to that state’s borders.
  • In the United States, a federal trademark registration is filed with the USPTO and offered protection for as long as the mark is in use.
  • The preeminent system for registering international trademarks in multiple jurisdictions is the Madrid system
    Madrid system
    For the Madrid Protocol relating to mining in the Antarctic see Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic TreatyThe Madrid system for the international registration of marks, also conveniently known as the Madrid System, is the primary international system for facilitating the...

    .


In addition, protecting a trademark is just as important as the initial process of registration. Trademark rights are maintained through actual use of the trademark, and will diminish over time if a trademark is not actively used.

Companies need to consider whether they can own a name in the digital realm. Owning a dotcom is critical for some companies, as is owning a brand name on Facebook, Twitter, and other types of sites. In modern communication, the trademark is just the start of owning a name.

International considerations

Because English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 is widely viewed as a global language, with over 380 million native speakers, many international trademarks are created in English. Still, language differences present difficulties when using a trademark internationally.

Product naming faux pas

Many companies have stumbled across the importance of considering language differences in marketing new products.
  • Mitsubishi
    Mitsubishi
    The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...

     Pajero is called Montero in spanish speaking countries because Pajero means wanker
  • Reebok
    Reebok
    Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of the German sportswear company Adidas since 2005, is a producer of Athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...

     named a women’s sneaker Incubus. In medieval folklore, an incubus
    Incubus
    An incubus is a male demon that has sexual intercourse with sleeping women.Incubus may also refer to:- Film :* Incubus , a film in Esperanto starring William Shatner* Incubus , a horror film starring Tara Reid...

     was a demon who ravished women in their sleep.
  • The Honda Fitta was, according to a popular urban legend, renamed Jazz after discovering that fitta is Norwegian and Swedish slang for the female genitals.
  • A drink in Japan called Calpis, when pronounced, sounds exactly like cow piss. The product is marketed in North America under the Calpico brand.
  • Bimbo
    Bimbo
    Bimbo, in its popular English language usage, describes a woman who is physically attractive but is perceived to have a low intelligence or poor education. The term can also be used to describe a woman who acts in a sexually promiscuous manner...

     is a Mexican baking conglomerate; in English the term describes a woman who is physically attractive but is perceived to have a low intelligence or poor education.

Notable naming companies

  • Interbrand
    Interbrand
    Interbrand, a division of Omnicom, is a global branding consultancy, specializing in vast brand services, including brand analytics, brand strategy, brand valuation, corporate design, digital brand management, and naming...

     (Omnicom)
  • Landor
    Landor Associates
    Landor Associates is a San Francisco-based brand and creative design consultancy. Founded by Walter Landor and his wife Josephine in 1941, Landor pioneered many of the research, design and consulting methodologies that are now standard in the branding industry.-Operations:Landor offers brand...

     (WPP)
  • Siegel+Gale (Omnicom)
  • Master-McNeil
    Master-McNeil
    Master-McNeil, Inc. is a naming firm that focuses on naming products, companies, and brands. The Berkeley, California firm was founded in 1988 by SB Master and is one of the four original naming firms in the world....

  • Strategic Name Development
    Strategic Name Development
    Strategic Name Development is a naming company co-founded in 1992 by William Lozito and Diane Prange. The company’s work spans from naming and nomenclature systems to brand architecture and brand name research....

  • Endmark
  • A Hundred Monkeys
    A Hundred Monkeys
    A Hundred Monkeys is a naming company based in San Francisco, California. A Hundred Monkeys was founded in 1992 by Danny Altman, the former co-founder of Altman & Manley, an ad agency and design firm with locations in Boston and San Francisco....

  • Catchword Branding
    Catchword Branding
    Catchword Branding is a naming firm that develops product and company names. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Catchword creates brand names, corporate names, and slogans for industries including technology, consumer products, financial services, and healthcare.Catchword's process for...

  • Namebase
    NameBase
    NameBase is a web-based cross-indexed database of names that focuses on individuals involved in the international intelligence community, U.S. foreign policy, crime, and business...

  • Lippincott
    Lippincott
    Lippincott is a consulting firm that primarily deals with brand strategy and the development of corporate identities. The firm was founded in 1943 by J. Gordon Lippincott and Walter P. Margulies as Lippincott & Margulies....


See also

  • Brand architecture
    Brand architecture
    Brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organizational entity. It is the way in which the brands within a company’s portfolio are related to, and differentiated from, one another...

  • Brand development
  • Corporate identity
    Corporate identity
    In Corporate Communications, a corporate identity is the "persona" of a corporation which is designed to accord with and facilitate the attainment of business objectives...

  • List of company name etymologies
  • List of renamed products
  • Name generator
  • Naming
  • Naming firms
    Naming firms
    Unlike their full service marketing counterparts, naming firms specialize entirely in the linguistic art/science of creating product and company names. Currently there are about 50 naming firms globally. Naming has become big business, with some larger companies investing upwards of $500,000 to...

  • Product naming convention
    Product naming convention
    -Introduction:A product naming convention is a process of product or good description or titling. Consistent use of alphanumeric characters and separating devices defines a Naming convention...

  • Project code name
  • Rebranding
    Rebranding
    Rebranding is the creation of a new name, term, symbol, design, or a combination of them for an established brand with the intention of developing a differentiated position in the mind of stakeholders and competitors....

  • Seasonal packaging
    Seasonal packaging
    Seasonal packaging is a way of marketing a product and sparking sales in consumer segments that infrequently buys the product by wrapping the product in a package closlely related to seasons such as Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, back-to-school,...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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