What's up brand builders! Stephen Houraghan here of BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this
video you're gonna learn how to name your brand effectively in seven simple
steps so you can help your audience to not just remember your brand but to
remember why your brand is so different from your competitors.
now if you're new to the channel and you want actionable brand strategy tips and
techniques to grow your business then hit that subscribe button and the notification
bell and you'll be well on your way now as people we start naming things from a
very young age if you think about it as toddlers we start naming our toys our
teddy bears our first blankie or our first pet and then as we get older when
we get into our teenage years we'll start giving our friends nicknames we might
name our first car and then as we become adults will start naming our children
and then after all of that we start to name our businesses now this is the
experience that most of us have with naming something and that basically
means that any business owner naming their business for the first time is
naming their business from a point of experience of sentimentality now don't
get me wrong it is very very important that any business owner is connected to
the business and the brand that they're building that they have an emotional
connection to that business and they believe in that business but if you make
business decisions or branding decisions based off emotion well then your brand
is destined to fail and that's exactly what the naming of your business and
your brand is it is a strategic decision you see your brand strategy and your
entire brand aims to influence the minds of your audience as to why your brand
should be remembered as to what position your brand is taking in the marketplace
and if your brand name doesn't align with what that position is then it's a
missed opportunity to help solidify that position so if you're building your own
brand and you've named that brand it's time to be objective if you're speaking
with a client and they've named their brand it's time to offer some advice but
in both cases you can follow this simple 7-step process to make sure that the
name that you select for your brand is aligned to the position that you want
to own in the mind of your audience and helps them to understand and remember
why they should remember your brand step number one know your audience
now when you name your favorite toy or your dog or your cat or your car you're
naming that for you but when it comes to your business you're not naming your
business you're not naming your brand for you you're naming your brand for
your audience because it's your audience that you're trying to appeal to it's
your audience's mind that you're trying to influence so make sure you know who
that audience is make sure you know what they want before you go deciding what
your brand name should be step number two know your position so once you know
your audience and you know what they want then you've got a good basis for
defining your position and essentially your position is how you're gonna appeal
to your audience what you're gonna tell them that'll make them think yeah this
brand is different this brand offers value this brand is different to
everything else out there in the marketplace and this is the reason I
should remember this brand so be really clear on what position you're trying to
own in the mind of your audience because this will form the foundation of what
your brand name should be based on step number three gather positional keywords
so once you've defined that position that you want to own in the mind of your
audience then think of all the related words got to do with that position think
of all the associated words all of the synonyms that could be related to that
position and gather all of those up if you can name your brand forged from the
words that defines the position that you're trying to own well that is the
basis for a really strong name step number four merge morph and make believe
so essentially what this means is get creative with all of those
keywords that you've gathered now sometimes a name will jump out at you
pretty quickly when you have all of those keywords sitting in front of you
but that's not always the case sometimes you could be sitting there hours
sometimes you could be sitting there days but really take the time to go
through each one of those keywords and see what you can pull out of it see if
you can dissect those keywords merge with other keywords change the spelling
change the meaning use analogies or metaphors or cliches
and really take the time to come up with a unique brand name step number five
quality selections so if you've really exhausted the last step well then you
should have upwards of fifty names now some of those might just be off-the-cuff
names that you don't really feel are going to hold any weight but you want to
push that as much as possible the more names you come up with the more chances
you have of finding a really unique name but it is really important here that you
play devil's advocate with the names that you've come up with don't just
settle for a name remember this is the business this is the brand that you want
to go on and be successful so it might take a few hours as I said it might take
a few days but the name is so really really important so really give it the
time that it deserves and really put it through that quality check and ask the
question is it really memorable is it really distinctive would I choose this
name for my brand and is this gonna be memorable in five or 10 years time step
number six check availability now this can be a bit heart-wrenching because if
you put so much time and effort to come up and find a really really unique brand
name and then you go and check on Google and you realize that somebody has it it
can tear the heart out of you if you've put so much time into it but
unfortunately it's what you need to do you need to check whether or not it's
available there's no point in pushing ahead with a brand name if somebody else
in your space has that so check availability check if the URL is
available check if the social handles are available and check if the trademark
is available as well and step number seven apply your brand name in the real
world so take the name that you selected and put it side-by-side with some of the
biggest brands in the world put it side-by-side with Apple and with Nike
and ask does this brand name hold water doesn't really feel unique in amongst
these global brands so take the time to put it into real-world situations
put it into mission statements and value statements maybe some messages some
social posts and really get a feel for how that
brand name sounds how it sounds rolling off the tongue how it sounds within
messages so you can really quality test the name and see if it feels like it
would survive in the real world now the reason I did this video today is because
I was going through this exact process today I was going through my own brand
naming process for a brand that I'm working on and it took me longer than I
hoped and it usually does it usually takes me a long time to come up with a
really good brand name because I don't settle I don't settle for the first name
and I really try to push as many viable options as possible and that's what I
did today and after hours upon hours upon hours coming back to the same names
over and over again I landed on a name that was truly unique and it was so
simplistic it was just taking an existing word slightly adjusting the
spelling and it sounds great and the dot-com is available so I'm really happy
with it now it hasn't been approved by the client yet it's gone over to the
client today but I just wanted to talk through the fact that coming up with a
brand name is not easy coming up with a really unique name takes time and some
of the best names in the world might look like they've been created in
seconds but it is the most simplistic names that take the longest to come up
with and if you're in graphic design if you're in brand design you'll be able to
relate to this because it is the most simplistic logos that take the longest
to come up with if you present a logo that looks really really easy and it
looks like somebody could have come up with it in seconds chances are it took a
long time to come up with that logo because coming up with something so
simplistic is deceptively difficult so if you're naming a brand at the moment
whether it's your own brand or a client's brand take the time to go
through these seven steps push each one of them as far as you can go and if you
push hard enough you might just come up with a brand name that'll make you go if
( yes! yes! I did it! )
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there's some really helpful resources on there as well so get yourself involved
but I'd love to hand it over to you now what is your brand naming process do you
have one in place are there any steps that you can take from this process into
your own process do you have any challenges when it comes to brand naming
or any questions at all let me know in the comments below I'll do my best to
answer all of those until next time brand like a master and I will see you in the
next video!