Choosing a new brand name is not as simple as “Do I like it? Okay, let’s go with it!” Whether it is to be your flagship brand or just a new product or service in your line, there are many factors to consider in choosing a new brand name. In this post and the others in this series, I am walking you through the most important of those factors.
In my earlier posts in this series, I discussed the importance of getting good legal advice, of understanding the function of trademarks, and of deciding whether your marketing plans require exclusivity on the name. The next step is less conceptual and more practical in nature:
"I only chose ONE name candidate!"
Step 4: Choose Several Potential Trademarks That Fit Your Branding and Marketing Objectives
Once you have sorted out the previous steps, you can use the conclusions you’ve draw to begin selecting potential brand names that fit your branding and marketing objectives. This is the fun part!
It’s best to choose a list of several names that would be acceptable, and try to avoid becoming too attached to any one name. It is a good idea to rank the names in terms of your preference, however.
Why is choosing several candidates a good idea? Simply put, it can save you time and heartache in the brand clearance process.
You should be planning to subject your brand name candidate(s) to a number of evaluations. For instance, you may want to test your proposed brand with consumers. If you plan to market internationally, you may want to get international reaction to the brand. If nothing else, you absolutely should have your brand name searched by experienced attorney, to make certain it is available for your use and (hopefully) registrable with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
A brand name candidate may drop out of contention for a number of reasons. A name may turn out to be unavailable, it may be unregistrable, may not play well with consumers, or may even have an unintended significance as regards your product or service. (I once saw a name candidate for a major international brand get far, far down the approval process before someone realized that in the UK, the word was a slang term for what our British friends might call “an unsavoury sexual practice.”)
Obviously, this evaluation and searching process takes time – something that often comes into short supply as you move down the path towards your brand launch. If you tie yourself to only one name, you may find it unavailable and have to start over from the beginning. If you have chosen several candidates and run your evaluation tracks simultaneously, you are much more likely to end up with a viable candidate and take the shortest amount of time to do so.
If you have ranked your candidates in order of preference, your trademark counsel can run preliminary “knock-out” searches on them all in that order. That way, if the preliminary search turns up an obvious block to any of the names you can discard that candidate without wasting the cost and time for the other evaluations.
I also mentioned emotional investment above. If you choose only one candidate and become too attached to it, you may be inclined to ignore poor evaluation results and plunge forward with the name despite all the problems it may bring down upon you. Making a list of possible candidates makes that occurrence far less likely.
