Picking a name is one of the more fun activities in launching a new product.

In my role, I don’t get to pick the final name, our Marketing and Legal teams do that from their purview. But, I do get to influence name options.

Just today I was looking at a few recommended names for a new product launch we have brewing. I even submitted four or five that I thought would make sense.

One of the things I’ve learned about naming a product is that it requires balance. You can’t take it too serious, otherwise you can burn ridiculous amounts of energy, money, and time getting it “just perfect.” You can’t take it lightly, otherwise you end up with a name that your target market doesn’t want to be associated with.

A product name isn’t just a label. It’s a declaration.

Product names are a declaration of a promise to a customer. It’s the thing part of the brand identity, along with visual aspects, of what you hope customers think and feel when they invoke that name.

That said, the amount of liberties you can take with a product name vary by industry and business model.

Naming a B2C product is different than naming a B2B product. You might call a lip gloss “Allure,” but you probably shouldn’t call an account origination platform that name. Also, don’t ask me why I thought of lip gloss. Maybe it is because I saw my wife putting her’s on earlier.

Still, there are some best practices for naming that are largely universal.

Universal Best Practices for Product Naming

In my experience, there are a set of core principles that transcend industries, business models, etc.

• Memorability: Product names should be easy to remember and recall.
• Pronounceable: I’ve seen product names that I can’t figure out how to say. Think about “Google.” No matter your native language, chances are you can say it with ease.
• Relevant: It’s preferable if your product’s name reflects its purpose. We have a product called Jack Henry Wires. Guess what it does? It helps banking back-office and users send wires. Surprise! That said, this is where a lot of people get stuck. They spend too much time trying to find the perfect product name. The name of a product doesn’t always have to make sense immediately. Using “Google” as an example again, no one knew what the hell it was in the beginning. Now its become a verb synonymous with searching the internet.
• Distinctive: Product names should be as distinct as possible. One of the steps in our naming process is ensuring that the name of the product is able to be trademarked. i.e. no one else is using a similar product name that meets the criteria for “reasonable confusion.” Notice I didn’t say unique. It’s hard to come up with truly unique names these days. I’ve been doing some work with company called Cr3dentials. Not Credentials. Cr3dentials. Why the 3? Because Credentials was taken.
• Scalable: Great product names are adaptable. They can evolve as society and times change. Using a word that is too specific in your product name boxes you in. Imagine if Amazon had chosen something with the word “books” in its original name. That would have required an expensive rebrand.
• Global: This is one of the few lessons I remember from my Marketing undergrad days. You should always test names for unintended negative translation or meanings in other languages and culture. This is one of the places I start with a product.

Other Naming Conventions

Another good practice, particularly with software, like the product’s me and my team’s are building, is to focus on utility and functionality.

A great example of this is QuickBooks. It’s name not only conveys relevance, but also the benefit to the user, Quick = fast; Books = Bookkeeping.

What’s great about that type of naming is that it becomes a part of the go-to-market strategy. In fact, naming a product is one of the first go-to-market motions.

Naming also impacts things such as features and pricing tiers.

SaaS products are know for their “freemium” pricing models. That’s a lot better than “cheapium” pricing.

Pricing tiers such as Preferred imply that tier is the favorite pricing tier of customers. But, in reality, it probably isn’t the favorite.

Trademarks and Naming

I am not an attorney. But, I do work with some really talented ones and I’ve learned a lot.

I mentioned earlier that our goal is always to pick a product name we can trademark. Trademarks come in a few flavors that are important to note.

• Fanciful: these are made-up words. They are offer a lot of protection because they are unique. ex. Kodak, which has nothing to do with cameras.
• Arbitrary: These are real words with unrelated context. Ex. Apple for computers or phones.
• Suggestive: A hint towards a function or quality. Ex. think the suntanning product, Coppertone.
• Descriptive: You can manage this one without me, right?
• Generic: Coffee.com; also, who doesn’t love that first sip of morning coffee? Mine was banging this morning.

Remember when I mentioned that naming a product takes balance, and that you could spend too much or too little time on it? In most cases, you need to spend enough time finding an option that you can protect with a trademark.

Product Naming and Other Assets

What you name your product is going to spill into other areas. One of the best examples is website URLs.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to host a budgeting app at https://cookies.com

The same is true for social media handles, although getting a handle that matches your product’s name is tough these days. Which is why people like Cr3dentials had to get creative.

Without question, having a consistent digital footprint with your product’s name is helpful. But, there are ways around it. If coffee.com is taken, maybe you can get drinkcoffee.com or firstsip.com.

A Practical Framework for Naming

Let me leave you with a framework you can leverage the next time you have to name a product.

These are the steps I go through:

• Define the product’s vision, mission, and values
• Conduct market and competitor research
• Brainstorm options
• Screen options with stakeholders
• Reduce the options to the top 3-5
• Perform legal and digital checks on the top options
• Test with target market

Its the last step where a lot of companies go wrong.

Who cares what you think of the jazzy little product name you came up with? If your target market thinks it sucks its all for naught. Make sure you are testing names with your target market. A great time to do this is during the pilot phase of the product’s lifecycle.

That is exactly what the concept of building products in public is all about. Being transparent about your product builds, processes, etc. and leveraging the extra data and information that affords you to make better products.

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