Naming Lessons from the 19th Century

A while back I went to a creative professionals trade show and and picked up a variety of vendor samples.

Today, with virtual products and services, "hands on" marketing samples are getting harder to come by, but one printer's booth caught my eye immediately. His booth was filled with striking white, black, and red Monadnock Paper Mill sample bags.

I was intrigued by the name. First, it breaks a few conventional naming rules. At first glance (unless your familiar with the New Hampshire landmark) the name is rather a mouth full and not exactly easy to spell or type quickly. But it's fun to sound it out--Lots of vowels and hard consonants. I like how it starts with a "softer" M but ends with a harder "nock" sound.

You also have the sense (or at least I did) that it's likely an historic place name from the East Coast, perhaps Native American in origin. According to the Monadnock website, the company origins go back to the early 1800s. It just feels like it comes with a lively history or brand story.

Originally named the Bennington Paper Mills--your standard 1800s industrial brand name-became known as Monadnock, named for the one the region's most celebrated landmarks, Mount Monadnock--from the Algonquin dialect meaning "high point" or "one that stands alone." And in fact, the brand identity includes a red Native American figure standing on a small rise.

Now, we don't all have the luxury of a 100+ year history attached to our brands, but when we are naming there's no harm in asking the question what if we did? What name would honor our heritage? What landmarks could we associate with? What brand name would last 100 years as Monadnock has and why?

If you need help with a rebranding project or a new name, I'd love to talk with you about it just drop us a note at namelancer@hotmail.com.

Questions to Ask Before Changing Your Brand Name

As a naming consultant, I'm often asked how much will it cost to change my business name? That's certainly a valid question. But there are usually some some qualifying questions I need to ask before I can make that assessment.

And I don't want to scare anyone away either, but the fact is the answer is sometimes, probably more than you think or want to spend.

For example, I've read that when FedEx dropped the Kinkos name to become FedEx Office they spent almost, wait for it...$900 million dollars. It's an expenditure I'm assuming they gave some thought to beforehand.

Clearly, some business name changes can be expensive and time consuming. In practice, I've found that the initial consulting stage is just the tip of the naming project iceberg. I highly recommend before you contact a consultant regarding a potential name change, you should be able to answer all the "journalistic" basics: The How, What, Why, When, and Where regarding your brand naming project.

Lets' take a look at WHY and WHERE today. WHY are you changing your name?

Perhaps most important of all be sure you know WHY exactly you want to change the name. I'm not trying to talk myself out of any business but quite honestly there may be another way you can solve that branding issue.

For example, if you have a brand name that seems cumbersome or outdated, perhaps you can give it a boost with a fresh logo, new typeface, or what I call a "name facelift" such as when Federal Express became FedEx. Yes, that's a name and logo change but it's also the path of least resistance, which may be less costly. It may be the type of change you can gradually roll out for example. In this example, we were all calling it FedEx already as the branding giants at Landor pointed out.

When you think through WHY you want to change the name be sure to through the impact your change will have on your customers and prospects--usually there are some positives and negatives. This brings me to another name change tip that I can't emphasize enough.

When you change your name you want to tell the world a positive, upbeat story about your name (not that you you were about to be sued by your cousin for trademark infringement). Be sure your communications staff, PR team, etc. is all on the same united front about the name change.

WHERE will you need to change the name?

Perhaps the largest impact on cost for a name change is WHERE. In other words, think carefully about all the places the name will need to be changed and estimate a cost for those. If you've been a good marketer, you may have hundreds if not thousands of marketing touchpoints that will need to be updated.

Invariably, when I've asked clients to make a list of this brand name inventory they are typically surprised by how many "assets" have a the brand name attached to them somehow. And the little things do add up.

I hope that helps if you are considering a name change, before I go I just have to share a name that made me smile over the weekend. One of my neighbors has remodeling dumpster in his driveway labeled in beautiful font: Garbagio. It was a good reminder that naming, while a serious business, can still be fun.

Beer Name Not so Sunny

I have a general cautionary rule about naming ideas that I tell my clients, if it sounds too obvious or too good to be true, proceed with caution. With the Internet and social media connections it's going to be harder than ever to use well known names and if you do be sure to do your homework.

Along those lines, I'm noticing in today's ultra competitive business environment that companies are becoming more aggressive about about protecting their brand names.

Case in point. Here's an article from the Phoenix Business Journal about a local brewery that probably thought "Sun Devil" was the perfect name for one of their new dark red ales, but alas, ASU said no go. So now the San Tan Brewing Co. is having a beer naming contest instead if you'd like to participate it runs through Feb. 28, 2010.

When A Good Name Goes Bad

It happens everyday in the naming business. There you are with your perfectly good brand name. You've had it a while and it's a name you like quite a bit for some very good reasons. Then BAM out of the blue a GIANT brand decides they like the name too. What do you do?

You have some tough branding naming decisions to make. Do you keep your brand name and ride along on what's likely to be a big budget wave? Of course, you might get towed under the ground swell or lost in the shadows. (Of course, you may also have adequate legal grounds for cease and desist, but this fight may get expensive and complicated.)

I was reading the other day that just this scenario happened to marketing agency (formerly) called Bing. Sound familiar? Here's their renaming story. Need help with your renaming project? Please drop us a line at Namelancer@hotmail.com. We name to please!

Open Season on Available Dot Coms?

Happy Holidays! As a namer, I've found over the past six months that the challenging economy has brought us an unexpected "gift." It seems that the ever elusive great dot com or URL domain name is getting a bit easier register--or at least more affordable to purchase.

I've read that more and more companies are letting go of names they've camped on for years. In fact just a few weeks ago I purchased a dot com name (it's the name of one of my other freelance businesses) that I've been waiting for for over 12 years!

There are hundreds of sites you can check domains, I usually use good ole www.register.com. Or if you are looking to craft a new name here's another fun domain creator/dot com checker I found called Wordoid.

I've worked with dozens of companies over the years who have said, here's the real name we want, but someone already registered it. Even if the owner turned you down before, there's no harm in making another offer, especially if they are not using the name.

Along those lines, be sure you add naming goals to your overall 2010 marketing plan. Will you be launching a new product, line extension, or website? Naming can be a very long process especially when you tack on "pick and protect it" legal step a the end. More than 12 months is not that unusal, so start planning now. Last minute naming is rarely a good thing.

For help with your next naming project, please drop me note at Namelancer@hotmail.com.

P.S. A dot com name makes a fun and unique holiday gift for a friend or colleague.

The Mean Green Naming Machine

As a namer, one rule I tend to be adamant about when it comes to helping name a particular type of product is that somehow the benefit of the product is communicated to the consumer. While this sounds easy, the trick comes in when you want to communicate the product or service strength without being too heavy handed or descriptive.

Take the continued popularity and growth of green or eco-friendly products. By their very nature (no pun intended) these trendy products call for a particular type of name that strongly reinforces he brand’s benefits, organic qualities, simplicity, “greenness,” etc.

But it's not always that easy in practice, for one thing the "organic" marketplace is already becoming crowded, so be sure to elicit some professional naming help if you are developing a green brand.Here’s an Fast Company post about The Top Ten Worst Green Brands. And some some of these are quite bad. I have this thing about the misplace use of "baby" in brand names so Babyganics? Just say no. (But, I have to say, I’m not entirely in agreement with them about the new Nissan Leaf. Personally, I like Leaf better than Prius.)

Looking for affordable naming help for your organic brand or green product? For more information about our $99 naming packages, visit us at Namelancer.

Are You Inuit to Win It?

If only I were Canadian--I could name a whale! (Namers love naming contests, as you might imagine.)

Well, if you are lucky enough to be Canadian, you have a chance enter a name the baby beluga whale contest at the Vancouver Aquarium.

They are suggesting a name honoring the Inuit language. As a namer I love linguistics and Inuit is a fascinating language (or group of languages). I worked with Inuit words several years ago when I worked on an Alaskan food product naming project. As a namer, I love all the letter Qs and Ks and Ys.

For example, Qannik, is snowflake and Kanguyak is daisy, according to one Inuit online dictionary. So the next time you are looking for a name with some unusual linguistic flair check out some Inuit words. And as always, if you need help with your naming project please drop us a line at Namelancer.

(Cute whale photo courtesty of Flickr.)