Brand naming methodology

There is a story in the advertising industry that can be said to be the biggest scandal of this century:

The Prado was renamed as Prado.

In 2004, Toyota launched the Prado on the market. Some predecessor made Chinese stone lions salute the Prado, which triggered a public relations crisis. The bridge is the Marco Polo Bridge, the lion is the Lion of National Destiny, and the time is when visiting the Yasukuni Shrine. Several forces competed with each other, public opinion was in an uproar, and the overbearing advertisement became a political incident that insulted China.

Following closely, Toyota's car brands changed their names one after another. Not only did the Prado become the Prado, the Land Cruiser was changed to the Land Cruiser, and even the Lexus was changed to the Lexus.

As an advertiser of the next generation, when I look back at the generations ahead, I just want to yell: What the hell is this?

How sad it is that such good names are ruined by a set of manuscripts. People today may not be very clear about what happened back then, but Brother Lang knows that information carries energy and names contain wealth . A good name can be passed down for thousands of years, but a bad name can also cause loss of money and life.

Going back in time, another brand name change during the Republic of China laid the foundation for brand communication and provided a model for later advertisers.

In the early years of the Republic of China, Coca-Cola still had a clumsy transliteration name: 蝌蚪咬蜡. The name sounds bland. In the second year of entering China, Coca-Cola offered a reward of 350 pounds for new names. It is said that the famous writer and translator Jiang Yi saw the news in the Times, pondered it for a night, and came up with this popular new name: Coca-Cola.

From then on, Coca-Cola became famous throughout China and became the business card of the era.

Toyota is not so vulnerable that it did not fall because of the name change controversy. However, the wasted advertising resources and the process of re-establishing brand awareness are also an additional cost.

The name change of Ke Ke Ken Wa to Coca-Cola set an example for the entire advertising industry: if the brand name is changed well, the communication efficiency is bound to be high.

So, what kind of brand name is considered a good name? How can you come up with a good name for your brand?

1. Phenomenon: Entity reference in brand naming

The signified and signifier of language regulate and mark things in our collective memory. For example, the symbol "apple" is a "signifier", and what it refers to is the physical "apple" hanging on the tree or sold in the supermarket.

Conventional rules allow us to reach a general consensus on certain things as a group, which in turn enables communication and information exchange. The world is thus connected.

In other words, in the collective consciousness, some words must be standardized and interpreted so that their "signifier" points to a fixed "signified" and constructs a universally recognized world of language concepts.

During this process, people determined the original meaning, derived meaning, subtext and other norms of words, which took a very long time. These consensus elements, symbols, and languages ​​are actually the "super symbols or super discourses" often mentioned in Hua & Hua's methodology, and are also the "nails of language and hammers of vision" mentioned in positioning theory. They are the concentrated embodiment of the collective subconscious of mankind.

For a brand, it is easier to generate linkage by linking with the symbols of the collective subconscious of human beings, and of course the communication efficiency will be higher. That is, a collective symbol is mobilized and possessed by the brand in a brainwashing manner. Then it naturally exists in the human brain, thereby subtly influencing consumers.

Following this line of thought, you will find that the signifier of "apple" remains, but its referent is different in different contexts: at the fruit stall, it refers to the fruit "apple"; but on the electronics shopping street, it refers to the mobile phone "apple".

Did you notice? "Apple", a symbol of basic human consensus, has been extended to mean "an American brand". People in the Qing Dynasty certainly did not have this concept in their minds. They had the "apple" on the apple tree in their minds, but not the "apple" in the "iPhone".

Further reflection: From the perspective of communication efficiency, if a brand is named after an entity that is well-known to the public and exists in everyone's mind, people will naturally be more familiar with and remember the brand. Because those physical concepts already exist, we just need to "connect" them, which will make it easier to establish the brand.

This is the way of thinking that many brands usually use when naming: choosing words that have substantive meaning.

For example: Apple, Amazon, Xiaomi, Elephant, Puppy, Zhu Bajie, Jindouyun, Little Lajiao, Ant, Tmall, Three Squirrels, Himalaya and other brands and products all use this naming method.

At the same time, it has been proven that these brands are also among the best in their respective categories. Although good naming is not a necessary condition for brand success, in a sense, it can be said to be a sufficient condition.

Compared with words without any specific meaning, words with substantial meaning (concrete and tangible images expressed by their connotations) are bound to be better and faster to remember and spread, and have a more profound impact.

This is a kind of common sense knowledge that you and I can feel. For example, when these names are put together, the difference between "apple" and "pingye", "xiaomi" and "mida", "moon" and "yuexiang" is obvious.

For example, the next car company case that Brother Lang is going to introduce is Great Wall Motors.

2. Essence: Four Elements of Brand Naming

Why do I care about the Great Wall? Because the names Great Wall has given to its cars in the past two years are so interesting. Moreover, the brand name of Great Wall itself is quite prominent among car companies and it is a concrete image. A millennium image from China, the Great Wall.

Think about the many TV brands that were popular in China back then: Changhong, Yellow River, Yangtze River, Swan, Peony, Panda, and Beijing. They all adopted this naming rule and relied on well-known physical images.

Great Wall entered the market with pickup trucks and became the number one pickup truck brand in China. It then used positioning theory to enter the urban SUV category and launched the Haval brand. Its popular product Haval H6 has always topped the list, which is truly a legend.

But if you look closely, the name Haval is slightly worse than Great Wall. It has an empty meaning, so it needs larger-scale promotion and publicity to make people recognize it. Fortunately, Haval has strong product power and consistent differentiated positioning, and it has lived up to expectations and remained on the throne.

Haval Motors’ original names were all extended from the H series plus numbers, such as H5, H6, H9, H2S, etc. However, at this year’s auto show, the entire series suddenly changed their names, which surprised me. I exclaimed, “Wow, the marketing power is so strong!”

With the introduction of the word "cannon", their fancy naming officially began. Immediately afterwards, the car name "Big Dog" selected by netizens was divided into Husky, Labrador, Border Collie, and Wangcai Hahaha; the auto show also launched Haval First Love, and the products are divided into freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, which is interesting and a topic of discussion.

Similarly, Great Wall's new energy brand "ORA" launched a team of cute pets, including various "good cats", "white cats" and "black cats", which makes people think of a saying, "No matter whether the cat is white or black, a cat that catches mice is a good cat", which is very topical. Coupled with the cat-like pet attributes of its design language and all its cute attributes, it is bound to capture many female users.

The most surprising thing is not these. At the end of the year, Wei-style hard-core off-road vehicle "Tank 300" will be launched. Just listen to the name routine, their car is called "Tank", which is more popular and better-sounding than VV5 and VV7. As expected, with the dual support of product strength and brand power, the Tank 300 became an instant hit.

Compared with the past experience of car companies changing the name of Prado from Prado and Lexus from Lingzhi, this is much smarter.

The same domestic car brands, Hongqi, Geely, Baojun, Trumpchi, BYD, have completely different perceptions when compared in terms of naming. Some of them are very vivid and can be remembered firmly.

Among them, I have to praise BYD. Although the brand naming is not very good and needs explanation to know the meaning of "build your dream", their product naming is awesome! Qin, Han, Tang, Song and Yuan are named after Chinese dynasties, making use of the powerful Eastern IP. How smart and amazing.

You will find that behind these amazing names, there are a series of rules. From the rules, you can immediately judge which ones are good, and you can also learn how to name them in the future.

A) The meaning is clear

Those familiar names almost all point to a clear meaning. Some have substantive meanings, some are commendatory words, and some are colloquialisms. Such a name has a certain fixed meaning that is commonly accepted. It does not produce too much "noise" when expressed and can be communicated more directly.

B) There is a sense of picture

Poetry is good at imagery, and "imagery" refers to richer connotations and more tangible pictures. From a word, you can directly associate it with a picture. This is the power of naming. For example, the Great Wall, Hongqi, BMW, Big Dog, Tank, etc. mentioned above.

C) Easy to understand

If you don't express yourself clearly, no one can understand you. The same goes for brands. If a brand name is difficult to understand and no one recognizes the characters, it will be almost impossible for the company to grow big and strong.

Take the name of the company I registered for my previous business, "Gao Gao Culture", for example. Many people don't know the character "Gao" and pronounce it as "Dai", so "Gao Gao Culture" became "Dai Dai Culture". If it is not easy to understand, it cannot be effectively disseminated.

D) Positive meaning

Good meaning, more popular. This is an indisputable fact. This principle is also the minimum requirement for naming famous brands, such as "Mercedes-Benz", "Geely", "Changan", "Bentium", etc. Positive brand associations make people feel good and provide energy for corporate brand building.

On the contrary, you cannot name a car brand "Slow Horse" or a restaurant "Shit". These are basic conditions.

A good name meets all four of the above conditions at almost the same time. It is catchy, easy to remember, and has good meaning.

3. Method: The logic of brand naming

The naming methods are actually the same. It’s just a matter of finding, looking, and enriching. If that doesn’t work, repeat it.

"Look for it."

Find the most influential name from the collective consciousness. For example, quote from classics, borrow from poems and songs, and find the most appropriate word.

For example, "IKEA", good name. From the Book of Songs: "The peach tree is young and tender, its flowers are bright and beautiful. The daughter is getting married, and she is suitable for her family."

For example, "Revlon" comes from "The clouds look like clothes and the flowers look like faces; the spring breeze blows on the threshold of Revlon." The beautiful association and poetic imagery arouse longing and yearning.

For example, "Xiaomi" comes from the mess when the company was founded, and also from Lei Jun's "Xiaomi plus a rifle".

"Second look".

See if it meets the four elements, whether it has a clear direction, whether it has a visual sense, whether it is easy to understand, and whether it has a positive meaning?

Some names leave a deep impression on you as soon as you see them. For example, "subway" is transliterated as "赛百味". The English translation is clear and has a vivid image, but when translated into Chinese, it is given a positive associative meaning, which makes the name more upgraded.

However, some names are neutral words in themselves, but they may also give people positive brand associations. For example, "Nongfu Spring", the name itself is very ordinary, with a simple meaning: farmer and spring. But the whole association is all about pure and natural feeling, and then the advertisements were launched such as "Nongfu Spring is a little sweet" and "Nature's porter", etc., to establish the brand with the help of advertisements.

"Three richnesses".

Some names are general images. If they are directly derived, although they meet the four elements, they are still very ordinary. what to do? Add something new to it and instantly create a new feeling.

"Blue Moon" is one of these. "The moon" is an image in poetry and lyrics throughout the ages, but it is used too many times. Adding other attributes to it leaves a deep impression and memory perception on people.

We have seen many yellow moons, but has anyone ever seen a blue moon?

Through continuous enrichment, an ordinary name can also be upgraded across the board. Another example is our domestic drinking water brand, Wahaha. This is really a magical name. It is named with onomatopoeia and combined with the Chinese character "wa", which makes it look innocent and childish, which is really surprising.

If it doesn't work, repeat it.

First look, second look, third enrich. What if it doesn’t work? Then we can only start from the beginning, continue searching, and repeat the logic. Everyone understands the principles of many methods, but everyone's knowledge framework and interests are different, so if you don't get a good answer, you might as well start over and start again.

Note that many business names do not have what I would consider to be “good names”, but that does not hinder their business success. Because a good business name is not a necessary condition for success. The success of a company depends on many different aspects, including products, channels, resources, connections, technology, etc. It cannot be generalized.

However, as far as I know, names with specific directions are indeed better than general names. A good name can really help spread and shape the brand.

This is also why I think the name of Golden Arches is actually better than McDonald's. It’s just because over the years, we have invested more emotions in “McDonald’s” and have become very familiar with it, so the name change caused discomfort to everyone.

If there were two names put in front of me when McDonald's first entered China, one called "McDonald's" and the other called "Golden Arches", I would definitely vote for the latter.

Author: Qu Tailang

Source: Qu Tailang (qutailang1991)