Naming Brands Execution of Branding Strategy
View(s):Last week’s article was on branding and positioning and more specifically on; selecting the competitive strategy on positioning a brand.
It was evident that positioning is strategic because once the competitive position or the base of competition is chosen by a brand, it has to be pursued continuously without making frequent changes. What’s standing between the thought of positioning and actual execution of positioning?
The thought of positioning is what later gets transformed into product, price, place and promotion however in between the two forms of the same strategy, it’s important to understand that there is a point where the brand is not yet born. The birth of a brand is the same as the birth of a baby. When a baby is born, he or she is given a name.
A brand too needs to have a name. In naming a baby, as per the practices in Sri Lanka, at times you may go by the letters prescribed by astrologers. Some may go with the names proposed by family members. Some may come up with names connecting father’s and mother’s names together.
There may be various ways of naming a baby. Naming a brand is taking more or less the same form. There is an art and a science in naming a brand. After naming a brand the next step would be on giving an identity to the brand. What’s the science and art in naming brands and what do the visual hammer and verbal nail got to do with creating brand identity?
Strategic and Scientific angle of brand naming will be discussed later. This week’s focus will be on naming brands. What are alternative options available for naming a brand?
1) After the founder – many brands are named after the founder. Gucci, Ben & Jerry’s, Ralph Lauren, Nestlé etc and in Sri Lanka also there are brands which are created with the name/s of the owners or their family members’ names.
2) Descriptive – these brand names describe what the brands are about. Faceook, WhatsApp (what’s up is commonly used in casual chats), Onefinestay (All about a fine place to stay), All air travel brands such as Thai Air, Singapore Air, Air Asia – in the local context there are brands such as : Pickme, Dialog (Chats), Ran Kahata (Kahata = Tea), Kesha (kasha = hair), Munchee (to say it’s crunchy or a snack) Sidhalepa (Alepa = Balm), Velvet (Soft), Clogard (A guard made with Clove oil), etc
3) Fabricated – Because it’s so hard to find new names, companies like Kleenex and Pinterest have invented names by changing, adding or removing letters or combining two or more words for impact. Made-up names are distinctive and might be easier to copyright. Invented names can be highly unique, but if you’re not careful they will start to sound like pharmaceutical drugs.
Well-known invented brand names examples: Most of the brand names are coming under this name. In the local context there are many fabricated brand names such as: Maliban, Kumarika etc.
4) Metaphor - They work by reflecting imagery and meaning back to the brand.
Metaphor names are interesting to visualize and often can tell a good story.
The Amazon in South America is the world’s largest river – therefore the world’s biggest selection of books, clothes etc. Nike is the Greek goddess of victory. Well-known metaphor brand names examples:
5) Acronym - Acronyms are just short-hand version of a descriptive name. Some acronyms are more strategic. These names are difficult to remember and difficult to copyright Kentucky Fried Chicken switched to KFC, because fried chicken didn’t sound too healthy. And the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Bank changed to HSBC to help the bank expand globally. Well-known acronym brand name examples in the local context are: SLIC – Sri Lanka Insurance, SLT – Sri Lanka Telecom, NDB – National Development Bank, PIM – Postgraduate Institute of Management etc
6) Real Word Names – Real words like Uber or Slack are taken out of a dictionary and suggest attributes or benefits. “Uber” literally means an outstanding example. So it works well for a company with big, bold, broad ambitions beyond ride hailing. It’s hard to find any real words left in a dictionary. Real words may seem like a good idea but in the world of 300 mn companies it’s getting harder to find a name. Well-known suggestive brand names examples in Sri Lanka:
Commercial Bank, Link Natural, Ambewela, Marina, and many other brands.
In addition to naming as described at the beginning, there are many other factors to consider in naming brands which are connected with the overall branding strategy of the company. In addition to coming up with creative names, the challenge is to make sure that it’s something unique, memorable, easy to pronounce and unambiguous…
Before deciding on the name; it’s important to look at the availability of the name which involves legal services in relation to intellectual properties. Registering of brands, checking the availability of brand names, and providing protection for brands will be discussed in next week’s article.
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- SLT logo is special as it’s an acronym which is converted to a brand symbol. The logo shows the receiver (letter S) and the key pad (letter L & T) of the phone in the logo which is remarkably designed.
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- Anslem > Mlesna Anslem Perera is the owner and the name is written in the reverse order
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- Akbar Family name of the founder
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- MAS Mahesh + Sharad + Ajay – three brothers who formed MAS
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- Dinesh > hSenid Name of the founder written in the reverse order
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- Otara + Del = Odel First name and the second name of the founder made the brand name
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- Dilhan + Malik = Dil-Ma Names of the two sons of Meril J Fernando the founder of Dilmah
