The brand name marketing rules you don’t know!

If Wanglaoji's name change was just a marketing trick, then the chain retail brand "Gome" changing its name to "Real Joy" a few days ago was a real name change that caused quite a stir.

As the most direct symbol for consumers to recognize a brand, the brand name is crucial to the development of the brand. Choosing a good name can not only make the brand quickly known to the public, but in marketing promotion, the brand name can also become a communication carrier with its own marketing value.

Today, let’s talk about the marketing secrets hidden in brand names.

1. Under the primacy effect, brand name is brand positioning

The primacy effect was first proposed by American psychologist Latane. It refers to the influence of the first impression formed by two parties on their future relationship, that is, the effect of "prejudice".

A person's name consists of a surname and a given name, so people can know your surname at a glance. If you have the same surname, you will often be closer to each other. The brand name is also a business card of the brand, which conveys its information to consumers at the first time and leaves the first impression.

Therefore, a good brand name is more than just a combination of words, it can also tell consumers, "who I am" and "what I do", which is the brand positioning.

For example, industry positioning.

Alipay directly states that it is an application about "payment"; Taobao is an e-commerce platform that allows you to buy products online; Toutiao is a general information platform that publishes the latest and fastest information; Huolala is a platform for transporting goods; Heytea, Nayuki Tea, and Chayan Yuese are all new tea brands at first glance.

These are all industry-based brand names.

For example, functional positioning.

Taking the brands under Procter & Gamble as an example, many product categories are well distinguished by brand names.

The laundry brands are called "Tide" and "Ariel", the cleaning and care brand is called "Safeguard", the shampoo and hair care brands are called "Pantene" and "Head & Shoulders", and the toothpaste brand is called "Crest". Each brand name indicates its functional attributes, and consumers will not confuse them at all.

For example, tonal positioning.

The tone here refers to whether the brand is a luxury product or a mass consumer product, high-end or mid-to-low-end.

For example, the world-renowned luxury brand "Dior" is a combination of "God" and "gold" in French, and the name reflects the high-end grade of the brand.

Fast food chain brands such as Lao Xiang Ji, Yonghe King, Xiao Yang Sheng Jian, Mian Dian Wang, and Lao Niang Jiu have their names reflecting their people-friendly and down-to-earth qualities, thus attracting more popular customers to shop in their stores.

The ancients said that if the name is not right, the words will not flow, and if the words are not flowing, things will not be accomplished.

Marketing gurus Ries and Trout also emphasized: In marketing, the most important decision you make is what to name your product.

It can be said that a brand name has paved the way for the brand's future and destiny and determined how the brand will gain a foothold in the market.

Therefore, naming a brand is even more important than naming a person. It is not a simple matter of looking up a dictionary or consulting a fortune teller. Instead, it requires comprehensive consideration of various factors and is the product of careful thought.

2. A brand name that can “speak” has the power of communication

For consumers, if they want to make them remember a brand name, they can achieve their goal through repeated advertising. But the marketing value of a brand name is by no means limited to this.

What brands need to do is to give their brand names more value and meaning, so that they can have the power to establish emotional communication with consumers.

For example.

Lenovo has a very famous slogan: What will happen to the world if humans lose Lenovo?

The classic feature of this slogan is its double entendre, which refers to both the brand name and human imagination. Imagination is crucial to the development of human society, and the Lenovo brand also plays an important role in the development of science and technology.

Just a short slogan has elevated Lenovo's brand value. This is the communicative power of the brand name.

Let’s look at two more animated pictures, one from Google and the other from Baidu.

These two brands have continuously strengthened users' awareness of the brand names through creative design of the brand names, and built up diversified emotional connections between users and the brands.

In addition to the entire brand name, individual letters or Chinese characters in the brand name can also be singled out for marketing ideas.

For example, the “Bring the Joy Home” Spring Festival marketing IP created by PepsiCo for 10 consecutive years is based on the word “joy” in the brand name.

In 2020, Weiquan Daily C created creative ideas around the "C" in the brand name, combining "C" with rainbows, bitten donuts, sleeping cats, swings, crescent moons, smiling faces, and other scenes that represent happiness and healing. With a very warm tone, it conveyed the brand's happy proposition of #Drink juice every day and laugh every day#.

Without exception, the marketing of these brands has made the brand names no longer just cold words, but words that "can speak". They can convey brand emotions with warmth and attitude to consumers, thus enabling dialogue and emotional communication between brands and consumers.

3. Brand names that understand “social” have their own communication power

In the era of social marketing, brand marketing can no longer be a one-way “self-entertainment” communication. Only by interacting and playing with consumers can a brand win the love and dependence of consumers.

This is the charm of social marketing.

Just like two people who want to get to know each other must first exchange business cards to know each other’s names, brands that want to interact socially with consumers can also start with their names.

Here we have to mention the "Wanglaoji name change incident" mentioned at the beginning.

While launching the Spring Festival "Surname Can", Wanglaoji also has an interactive gameplay, that is, consumers can go to the WeChat mini program "Wanglaoji Official Mall" to customize their own exclusive surname can.

The reason why Wang Laoji is called "Wang Laoji" is because its founder's surname is Wang, and his name is Wang Zebang during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty. Taking advantage of the Spring Festival marketing opportunity, Wanglaoji's interactive gameplay of "changing its own surname" can be said to have effectively stimulated consumers' desire to participate and made consumers feel respected and valued.

Each bottle of surname can also enhances the brand influence of Wanglaoji among consumers and strengthens consumers' emotional recognition of Wanglaoji.

At this point, I believe some people have already thought of the fact that Fangtai once changed its name, using "Mrs. Yang", "Mrs. Zhou", "Mrs. Li" and "Mrs. Zhao" to affirm the value and status of every wife in the family, making the entire marketing full of a warm tone.

Fangtai also launched the "Audition for the Leading Actress" activity, allowing each wife to break people's stereotypes about "wife" by producing her own exclusive poster. In the end, the event attracted more than 100,000 female participants, and Fotile took this opportunity to complete close social interaction with consumers. Vivid posters also enhance the brand's communication power.

Ele.me, on the other hand, has turned name-changing marketing into a long-term marketing strategy for the brand.

From changing its name to "Have you fed the cat?", "Have you bought vegetables?", "Have you eaten melon?", "Have you taken care of your health?", "Have you got hair loss?", etc., Ele.me has found an excellent communication point to establish an emotional dialogue with consumers through the brand name. By contracting to lay out offline posters in subway scenes and printing words such as "Have you read?", "Have you taken your kids for a walk?", and "Have you lifted weights?" on the blue knight's work clothes, Ele.me has maximized the value of its brand name.

Not only that, Ele.me has also further enhanced the dissemination of "Xle.me" by cooperating with brands.

The joint launch of the "Wangleme" professional can, a delivery boy version, with Wangzai, and the social interaction on Pepsi's "Leleme" site have broadened the brand boundaries of Ele.me, allowing the Ele.me brand name to successfully penetrate into people's lives and the minds of consumers, continuously amplifying the brand value of Ele.me.

4. A brand name with a sense of humor will attract a lot of attention

The company jointly opened by Mengniu and Coca-Cola is called "Ke Niule", Xtep registered the trademarks "Tebufu" and "Tebiefu", Bilibili registered "Hehehe", Tencent registered "Change"... In the past year, we have seen too many "weird" company names and trademark names.

This also points to another trend. In the Internet age, a brand name that is interesting and topical can often attract people's attention and grab the attention of Internet users.

For example, during the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2020, Tencent used the homophonic pun of "Chang'e" to launch a marketing campaign centered on "Chang'e". Tencent opened a pop-up store called "The Goose Store" downstairs of the company, selling dolls, bookmarks, skateboards and other peripherals. It had a lot of fun playing with the memes of its own "Goose Factory" and attracted a lot of public attention.

JD.com’s Spring Festival marketing tells us that there are no brand names without meaning, only brands that don’t try hard to come up with meanings.

As the Spring Festival is approaching, JD.com and the movie "Detective Chinatown 3" have a dream collaboration and launched a short film with a very festive atmosphere of the New Year, "Detective Chinatown: Laba Code". After layers of revelations, the film finally brings out the core message - buy New Year's goods on JD.com! Watch Detective Chinatown, make trouble in Tokyo! The film cleverly combines Tokyo, where the story of "Detective Chinatown 3" takes place, with JD.com's New Year Festival, instantly standing out in the New Year Festival marketing.

In the era of information explosion, how can brand marketing catch the attention of consumers in the vast and chaotic ocean of information? A strategy with interesting and meaningful content can often achieve unexpected success.

In this case, why not give yourself a name that will attract some attention? When a brand becomes discussed, it also becomes well-known, thus gaining the centripetal force to attract consumers. I think the same considerations were behind Gome’s name change to “Real Joy”.

5. In the new consumption environment, how to give a brand a good name?

Consumption is gradually upgrading and the young Generation Z is rising. So in the new consumption environment, what is a good brand name?

1. Good name, easy to remember

Shi Yuzhu once said: "If a name is not catchy and hard to remember, it often takes dozens of times more advertising effort to make it memorable."

A brand name that is easy to remember and spread is always the primary condition for brand naming.

Here is a counter-example.

When Coca-Cola first entered China, its name was a direct transliteration of “tadpole gnawing wax”. The difficult-to-pronounce name made it difficult for Coca-Cola to open up the Chinese market. Later, it was renamed Coca-Cola, and sales soared.

There is also the Anhui fast food chain Lao Xiang Ji, which became popular in 2020. It was actually called "Feixi Old Hen" before. The name itself has great geographical limitations, and it is too long, which is not conducive to brand communication and market expansion. The three-word "Lao Xiang Ji" is easier for consumers to remember.

2. Good name, young

In recent years, many new internet celebrity brands have begun to emerge. In order to better penetrate the young market and highlight the youthful tone of the brand, these brands often cater to the aesthetic preferences and consumption needs of young people when naming their brands and give them names that are particularly expressive.

For example, the bottled beverage brand Genki Forest initially adopted a Japanese style, using the rare character "気" to arouse the curiosity of young people; the instant coffee brand Santonban, from its name you can tell that the brand focuses on the leisure scenes of young people after meals; the instant food brand Zihaiguo, focuses on the "one-person meal" track, and the word "zihai" is very consistent with the current life status of young people.

In addition, some brand names come with stories and cultural heritage, which are very consistent with the upgraded consumption concepts of young people.

For example, the name Hua Xizi comes from Su Dongpo's "If I want to compare the West Lake to Xi Shi, light makeup or heavy makeup is always suitable", which not only fits the brand's identity label of being born in Hangzhou, but also has a very ancient Chinese style.

Zhong Xue Gao, which is homophonic to "Zhong Ice Cream", fits the brand's vision of "striving to become a high-end ice cream brand in China". It also echoes the product's unique shape of "Chinese tiles", becoming Zhong Xue Gao's unique brand feature.

3. Good names have taboos

When Chinese people choose a name, they often "tell fortunes" based on the birth date and the five elements and eight trigrams to choose a name that is nice and meaningful to avoid breaking taboos. The same goes for brand naming.

Avoid infringement.

In 2020, the case of "Jordan v. Jordan Sports Infringement" finally came to an end. The court ruled that Jordan Sports should stop using the "Jordan" trade name, and then "Jordan Sports" was renamed "Zhong Qiao Sports". Although "Jordan Sports" has made a lot of money by relying on the fame of "Jordan", I believe consumers still feel cheated.

Today, as consumers’ awareness of rights protection grows, infringements often cause irreparable damage to a brand’s image.

Avoid rigid imitation.

In 2020, the news that "Cha Yan Guan Se's lawsuit against Cha Yan Yue Se was dismissed by the court" caused quite a stir on the Internet. This year, the topic of "Cha Yan Yue Se counter-sues Cha Yan Guan Se for unfair competition" once again became a hot search on Weibo.

In both public opinions, Cha Yan Yue Se won almost overwhelming support.

This is because in the eyes of many people, Cha Yan Guan Se is just an imitator of Cha Yan Yue Se and a copycat product, which is despised by consumers.

You know, young people nowadays pursue personalized consumption. When a brand rigidly imitates another brand, it is difficult to win supporters.

VI. Conclusion

American marketing guru Al Ries believes: "From a long-term perspective, the most important thing for a brand is its name."

The knowledge points contained in the brand name are actually no simpler than the Yin-Yang and Eight Trigrams that fortune tellers understand.

However, after choosing a good name, how to make this name play a more important role in brand marketing is also an issue that a brand needs to consider.

When brand marketing reaches a dead end, perhaps a brand name that you are very familiar with can lead marketing into a new direction.