Brand Marketing: 5 Principles of Brand Naming

1. Coca-Cola and Mengniu join forces, and the new brand name "Ke Niu Le" sparks heated discussions

For example: McDonald’s changed its name to “Golden Arches”. McDonald's management company in China changed its name to "Golden Arches", and this event delighted netizens and joke makers. Various jokes and brand awareness flew together, and for a time, it brought huge attention to McDonald's. This can be regarded as a name change event that brings its own traffic. Although it is only a name change of the operating management company, everyone is discussing the brand they are familiar with as if they were watching a show. Entertainment and fun have become the key points that have attracted much attention this time.

2. A good brand name is the first step to business success

A good name may not promote a bad product, but a bad name will definitely make a good product unsalable. Al Ries and Jack Trout, two famous American advertising experts, believe that: "The name is the hook that hangs the brand on the product ladder in the minds of potential customers."

On the one hand, brand name greatly affects brand association, consumer acceptance and memory, thereby affecting the company's information transmission and having a direct impact on product sales. A good brand name can accurately convey the brand proposition and promise, be friendly, and can accurately convey the brand connotation to consumers, making the brand more refined.

Whisper, a sanitary napkin brand under Procter & Gamble, has an English brand name "whisper" which means: to speak in a low voice, to say privately, to whisper. The Chinese translation of "Hushubao" is great both in pronunciation and meaning.

MontBlanc, a famous stationery brand, means Mont Blanc in English, which is the highest peak in the Alps. MontBlanc is translated into "Mont Blanc" in Chinese, which is more in line with the Chinese mentality of seeking wealth and prosperity, and Alps Candy is a typical brand named after a mountain. It turns out that these brands have a very good reputation among the public.

3. Several principles of brand naming

1. Memory principle

The name of a brand is the starting point of the brand - no matter how many products you have, or how many advertising slogans you have, what ultimately resides in the minds of consumers is always a name.

In the past, it might take ten years to build a brand of a certain scale; but today, every brand can become popular overnight, or disappear in an instant. In this situation, any name that is difficult to understand and remember will not be able to adapt to this fast pace.

Therefore, the first principle of brand naming is to highlight recognition, be simple, memorable and easy to spread. If a brand name is hard to say, hard to pronounce, or difficult to pronounce, it will be difficult for consumers to remember it. On the contrary, a pleasant and catchy name is easy to remember, concise and clear at a glance.

2. Individuality principle

Shakespeare said, "A rose by any other name would smell less sweet." This shows that the name will change people's perception of the personality characteristics of a product. Brand naming must tell potential consumers a brand positioning based on the product’s differentiated characteristics, such as Head & Shoulders’ “anti-dandruff” shampoo, Midea’s “antibacterial” water dispenser, and Sakura Snow’s “moisturizing” shower gel.

But the product should be named according to its characteristics, and the characteristics of the product should not be common to all products. For example, there are Tsingtao "Pure Draft" Beer, Pearl River "Pure Draft" Beer, and Budweiser "Pure Draft" Beer, and "Pure Draft" has become a common name. Product commonalities do not make your brand stand out, and sometimes, they become a burden.

3. Marketing principles

With society being prosperous and economy being highly developed, good names have become a scarce resource. For brand (product) names, what we want is not to register them with the Trademark Office, but to register them in the minds of customers. Therefore, naming must be in line with marketing and in line with the psychology of consumers in order to win the market.

For example, children's products need to take children's psychology into consideration (White Rabbit, Wahaha); elderly health products need to take the psychology of the elderly into consideration (Meobaijin, Golden Partner); the consumers of cosmetics are mainly young women, so the trademark names are fashionable and upward-looking (Oshiman, Bolay), etc.

4. Principle of significance

This principle can be understood at two levels.

The first is that a good brand name can powerfully evoke brand value, including brand value and the value of products and services. Trademark names are generally short and can only show one aspect of the product's characteristics. Therefore, it is necessary to grasp the characteristics and highlight the key points so that they can directly or indirectly convey information about the company or product, such as its characteristics, performance, and the benefits of using it.

A brand name should be familiar and meaningful to consumers. Only in this way can consumers’ memory and impression of the brand be strengthened and better connections can be established between the brand and products and enterprises.

On the other hand, the principle of meaningfulness requires that the brand name be meaningful, which means that the name can contain more information.

A good trademark name can help a brand confirm its existence and establish its image. Today, as products are becoming increasingly homogenized, competition between enterprises is also competition between brands. Eye-catching and clear names are unforgettable, and unique and memorable names are catchy. A well-designed trademark can quickly expand the scope of dissemination and increase product awareness, which is undoubtedly of great significance to product promotion.

Secondly, a good name plays an important role in suggesting brand positioning, symbolizing characteristics, and explaining culture. If the name includes historical, regional and traditional cultural factors, it will make the trademark more profound. A good name tells a story, and stories become one of the magic weapons for brand success.

5. Scalability principle

Another thing to consider when naming a company is to make more preparations for future brand extensions, because once the name is determined, it is a long-term investment.

For example, after years of investment and use, Lexus changed its name back to Lexus. Not to mention the high cost of the new name, the meaning of the name was not understood. More importantly, all the investment made in the name Lexus was wasted, and almost all the assets disappeared.

A good brand (product) name must be the result of comprehensive consideration of many factors and must be in line with consumer characteristics and market demand.