It’s all about communicating something relevant! Check out our latest #tellthetruths video for some tips and examples of what we mean when we say that you should use a differentiating element of meaning as your brand name’s backbone.
How To Make Better Brand Names
This video originally appeared in LinkedIn.
If you enjoyed this video, check out:
A Name Can’t Be ALL The Things
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi, everyone. It’s Rebeca with BrandTrue, and today I want to talk about how to make better brand names. There’s a lot of different ways to do it. I want to specifically hone in on this idea of making some attribute of your brand or your category be really the backbone of your name. In other words, that the name should convey something really relevant.
So, I sometimes poo poo brands that are family names. That’s why. There’s nothing inherently wrong with them. It’s just a lost opportunity to take something that’s really going to communicate transparently who you are and what you do. You’ve lost the opportunity to do that when you’re, you know, Smith, right? So, I think two examples of this, one good and one bad, would help.
I was thinking about Homeshake, which is a real estate startup that I talked about recently. By putting home in the name, they’re, I think, trying to give it that relevant context, but there’s too many companies with that – “home.” So it does ground it, but it doesn’t differentiate it in any way. And of course, “shake” is kind of disturbing in the context of a home. So that name doesn’t do it.
But I also wrote recently on here, on LinkedIn about BRUNT Workwear, and I think it’s a great example of this. It doesn’t literally say, you know, the descriptor says workwear. The name BRUNT doesn’t do it. Well, it doesn’t have to because “workwear” covered it, but the attributes that BRUNT adds in are really relevant and really powerful. BRUNT says to you that this is durable, that it can take a licking. It sounds strong. It sounds masculine, which is an appropriate context in work wear no matter who’s wearing it. So, thinking about what it is that you’re trying to communicate and how are you connecting really relevantly is really at the heart of making great brand names. That’s what I think. Let me know what you think. Thanks. Bye!
