Here are 13 thoughts on brand naming

I have written an article specifically on the issue of naming before. Last week, I chatted with Professor Ma Zhankai, who is currently researching naming. After the discussion, I came up with some new insights, which are listed below.

1. Duan Yongping, the founder of BBK, once said that adding one more character to the name would cost an extra 10 million yuan in advertising fees. But because one of the characters in BBK is repeated twice, it is counted as 2.5 characters. I once heard Professor Zhang Zhong talk about how when they were working on the Economic Observer, they required reporters to write articles listing the three major financial newspapers. They must have listed: Economic Observer, 21st Century, and China Business News. They deliberately let their competitors' names have more names than their own.

2. But I personally think that the length of the name still depends on the specific situation. A one-character name is actually not easy to remember, so those who register a one-character name will automatically add the previous character, such as "七牌" and "朗酒". Long names are not necessarily difficult to remember, such as "Little Sister Zhang Junya".

3. A good name is worth 100 million in advertising fees, or even more. In the used car industry, Guazi and Youxin seem to spend similar amounts on advertising, but Guazi has a clear advantage because its name is easier to remember. Moreover, Guazi is very smart in occupying product categories. The so-called "second-hand car direct sales network" actually created a new category, although everyone is actually the same. (I saw it on a plane earlier. It was a work by Trout & Co.)

4. The more common the name, the easier it is to remember. Lexus was formerly called Lingzhi, but it became more difficult to remember after the name change. The same principle applies to people's names, as we are more likely to remember flower names than human names. Luo Pang is easier to remember than Luo Zhenyu , and Milk Tea Sister is easier to remember than Zhang Zetian.

There are three very simple indicators to detect a good name. You just need to ask three questions.

5. When you tell someone your name, can they write it out immediately? For example, Guazi used cars, Xiaomi mobile phones, Xiaogou electrical appliances, Haotai clothes racks, etc., but Luoji Siwei and SF Express are not good enough. The vast majority of English names are not good names, for the reasons mentioned above.

6. Can Sogou Input Method be typed directly? If this name can be directly entered using Sogou input method, then it is a common name. Of course not after the brand has advertised heavily.

7. Do you need to switch keyboards when entering this name? Any name that mixes Chinese and English, or numbers and letters, is not a good name because it takes more effort for others to type in your brand name.

8. Homophones, traditional Chinese characters, non-native languages, and uncommon characters are basically not good names.

9. The name of a TV program should generally be 4-5 characters long, because a two-character name is not powerful enough when the host says it. For example, “Super Interview” sounds more powerful than “Interview”, and “I am a singer” sounds better than “singer”.

10. The name should not cause misunderstanding with the following category. For example, Xiaomi mobile phone will not be misunderstood in the category, but Xiaomi cake will cause misunderstanding. Is it a cake made of Xiaomi?

11. When promoting something, include categories if possible, such as Xiaomi mobile phones, Didi Taxi , Xiaogou Electric Appliances, Guazi used cars, Amap, China Merchants Bank, Niu Electric, Dr. Bei toothbrush, Le Caesar Durian Pizza, Turing Robot, Dingdang lock picking, etc.

12. Pursuing the meaning behind a name is actually meaningless because the audience will not accept this information. Just like the design of a logo pursues the meaning behind it, because no one can understand it except the people in the company. Unless the meaning of this name is understandable to the general public.

13. According to Mr. Hua Shan’s theory, the essence of brand naming is to reduce communication costs. It includes recognition cost, memory cost, paraphrase cost, search cost and so on.

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