David Maricich, President & Chief Creative Officer, Maricich Health
When starting a brand, finding the right name can be one of the most difficult tasks to undertake.
It serves as the foundation for the brand’s identity and is often one of the first things that goes into foundational designs. In a very small physical space, brand owners must convey what they do, who they are, and what makes them special.
Making this decision isn’t easy, but there are steps you can take to make sure you land on a satisfying name at the start of your branding journey. This article will provide an overview of some ways you can strategically design your brand name to reflect your company’s identity and show creativity to your future customers.
How to Design a Creative Brand Name
Define Fundamentals
Before beginning the naming process, it’s important to fully develop the foundational traits of your brand. Beyond designing a product, take time to determine your brand’s audience, business goals, and positioning, as well as your core values and service approach. Having a firm understanding of what your brand is and what it stands for will be invaluable in a number of future decisions, but it’s most helpful when building out the presentation of your identity.
Set Naming Goals
Determining what you want your name to accomplish is another important decision to make before beginning. Decide what’s important to you in a brand name, including traits like feeling, pronounceability, domain cost, and others. Setting out personal preferences before generating ideas will save time and prevent confusion later in the process.
Generate Ideas, Then Narrow Down
Once you’ve decided on a fundamental direction for your name, it’s time to begin thinking of ideas. Spend some time creating a list of basic pitches that can be picked from later. It’s useful not to be too critical in this initial brainstorming phase, as it creates more sources of inspiration for later. This also makes it less likely that a good idea will be shut down before it can be considered.
After creating a large list, re-read the concepts and select a small number that feel especially promising. Regularly referring back to your established preferences and brand identity keeps your selections relevant and high-quality.
Create Mockups and Tests
Generating some test materials with these promising candidates can help you narrow your list down even further. Insert potential names into sentences, search queries, conversations, and low-resource mockups to get a general feel for how that name would feel in everyday use. Experiment with verbal and visual applications to get a strong understanding of which names continue to interest you.
Check Against Competitors and Languages
Now armed with only a handful of options, you can research the remaining candidates to ensure they’re available and don’t have any unintended meanings in pop culture or other languages. Conducting this research before becoming set on a name prevents costly renaming procedures later in the branding process.
Connect The Story
After making a final decision, spend time defining the story and meaning of the name, as well as how it relates to your larger identity. Customers will want your name to feel impactful and meaningful, and recording this meaning at the name’s conception helps keep this story genuine and accurate.
Types of Brand Names
Effective brand names often fall into one of these four categories.
- Interpretive: Suggests an aspect of the brand without direct reference, leaving room for additional interpretation.
- Descriptive: Literally describes what the business is, or what goods it provides. Strategically effective, but often difficult to trademark.
- Emotive: Aims to produce a specific feeling in its audience, such as reassurance, familiarity, or nostalgia.
- Abstract: Without their own inherent meaning or connection to the brand. Versatile and easy to trademark, but more difficult to establish identity and meaning within.
Benefits of a Strong Brand Name
Makes Strong First Impressions
Before a customer understands your product, identity, mission, or values, they understand your name. Buyers are making judgments about your brand every time they engage with a unique element, and your brand’s name represents the front line of these interactions. Being intentional with your brand’s name from the outset guides the rest of your identity and sets your brand up for long-term success, especially in high-stakes industries like healthcare.
Saves Resources and Keeps Momentum
Strategically naming your brand at the start of the design process reduces the likelihood that you will have to rename it later, either due to preference or legality. Renaming your brand later in the process can be highly expensive, so spending time ensuring a good fit at the start can save money over time. A good naming process guards against both trademark conflicts and impulsive decisions, making it easier for your brand name to stay in customers’ minds and build valuable recognition.
Allows for Growth
Your brand will evolve over time, but the wrong name can cap this growth. Choosing a name that is relevant but not restrictive enables your brand to change and expand as it grows. Though it might seem initially unlikely that your brand will expand into other categories or services, choosing a less confining name allows you to meet that prospect if it does arise.
Final Overview
Naming a brand is one of the first and most important tasks that an entrepreneur must complete. It serves as the foundation for the many other marketing projects that lie ahead, and as a guiding light for the brand’s developing identity. When approached as a creative task, produced names can be flashy, but unrelated to the brand. When approached purely from a strategy perspective, produced names are relevant, but not narratively satisfying. The key to an effective brand name is to blend strategy and creativity into a well-documented brainstorming process.
Understand your brand’s fundamentals, define what you’re seeking in a name, and make a list of initial ideas. From that list, create mockups and test materials, then check the availability of top options, make a final decision, and define that name’s meaning and story. This strategic process will reduce the chances of a costly renaming process later in your brand’s journey, and ensures you’re armed with a name that communicates your company’s business goals and unique traits. A brand’s name is its first impression to customers, so getting it right is the foundation for a highly successful organization.
About the Author
David Maricich, President & Chief Creative Officer of Maricich Health, has spent more than 20 years leading healthcare innovation, branding, marketing, and communications initiatives for hospitals, health systems, and Fortune 500 healthcare companies across the U.S. and internationally. He has led growth, advocacy, and change-management campaigns while helping organizations improve public health outcomes through strategic, creative communications.