I have no idea what mnn.com is, but am delighted to discover it is Mother Nature Network. What a fun name. I begin reading about bone-chilling places I have never heard of, can’t pronounce, and will never be on my bucket list of places to go. (One of the best things about brainstorming online is learning about so many different things I would otherwise not know.)
First on the list is Verkhoyansk, Russia, which is 1,500 miles south of the North Pole and has “1,434 hardy residents who carve out a living in the deep Siberian wilderness.” The word Siberian jumps out at me. Siberia is a funny word that would make a super name for the frozen yogurt store. It implies cold. And considering that Utah is a kind of Siberia (removed from the rest of the population), it’s just the type of self-deprecating name that teens would love. “Mom, I’m going to Siberia with my friends.” Cool.
A little further reading on Mother Nature Network causes me to stumble across Yakutsk, Russia, which you may have heard of from playing the board game Risk. I learn that Yakutsk is known as the coldest city in the world and that “the world’s coldest temperature outside of Antarctica was recorded not far from Yakutsk.” I love the word Antarctica, because it’s similar to Siberia in that it seems like another world and is unexpected and fun. I add it to the list and continue scouring the text for name ideas.
While I don’t find any names on par with Siberia and Antarctica, I do learn that Hell, Norway, has gained notoriety for the combination of its name and subarctic temperatures. Hell freezes over, on average, a third of the year, running from December through March.
Pop culture references make great names because they are familiar. I named a janitorial company Eat My Dust, which was the name of a campy race car movie in the 70s. The name always gets a smile, even from people too young to remember the movie.
Movie Title Madness
Continuing with the exploration of the word cold, my next Google search term is “cold movies.” I see that Populist.com has a list of the “Top 10 Freezing Cold Movies.” (Thank you to everyone who creates lists like these. I love you.) In the top ten, I see Nanook of the North, Dr. Zhivago, and Fargo. These are great movies, but not great names for a yogurt store. On the same search, I see a freaky picture of Jack Nicholson in The Shining, which I then discover is available as a snow globe on Etsy. Are we having fun yet?
Breeze through Some Book Titles
Unlike business and product names, which are protected under trademark law, one cannot trademark a book title. That makes books ripe sources of ideas. (Don’t try to use Harry Potter, though—that’s a whole franchise unto itself.)
An Amazon search of book titles that contain the word cold shows 36,364 results. Of course I don’t plan to go through all of these, but I look at the first few pages. To speed up the skimming process, I limit the results to “images.” This way, I just see the book covers. Many titles—In Cold Blood, Cold Fusion, and The Cold War—have turned up in my other searches. But there are some new ideas, too:
Cold Comfort Farm (Cold Comfort would be a nice name.)
Cold Hearted (playful)
Biting Cold (fun — Biting is a word I liked from the thesaurus search that I thought would be good paired with another word. This one works.)
We’ve covered books. Now let’s move on to music.
Tune into iTunes
As with book titles, song titles (as well as album titles and band names) can’t be trademarked and are up for grabs when it comes to brand names. And song titles make super sticky names because, just like the songs themselves, they get stuck in our head. A song-inspired brand name that I love is the car-sharing company Getaround. Every time I hear or see that name, that classic Beach Boys song starts playing in my head: “Round round get around, I get around, yeah.” One of my favorite song-inspired names was for a chili pepper–infused brownie. I did an iTunes search for words related to heat. The word burn turned up the song made famous by Elvis Presley, “Burning Love.” My mind immediately went to the catchy lyrics, “Hunka hunka burning love.” I knew this would be a love-at-first-sight flavor name—Hunka Hunka Burning Love—made everyone smile.
A song search at the iTunes Store reveals these “cold” titles and band names:
Coldplay (fun!)
“Funky Cold Medina” (makes me laugh, but I’m not sure if teens would know this song. Plus, since Medina also happens to be a Muslim holy city, it might not play well in Utah.)
“Cold as Ice” (nope)
“Stone Cold Bitch” (uh, no)
Tip: Sort songs by popularity, as those will be the ones people know and have emotional connections with.
By now, I’ve exhausted the word cold and have come up with more than a dozen excellent name ideas.
Could you have come up with all of the above names by sitting in a sterile conference room staring at a white board? Doubtful. And you wouldn’t have seen a random picture of two dogs humping in the snow. Just sayin’.
Next, I will repeat this process with the other eleven words on the initial list (eat, treat, cool, etc.) plus all of the new ones I came up with along the way. This process can take weeks (especially after trademark screens eliminate a lot of them), but it always yields more than a hundred name ideas. Come up with at least a few dozen names, as many will get eliminated during trademark screening. You never want to fall in love with just one name.
The Chosen Name
I came up with the winning name while doing an image search for “eat frozen yogurt,” which led me to a lot of photos of plastic spoons in yogurt, which immediately made me think of the phrase “Spoon me.” You never know where a great idea will come from.
The name Spoon Me perfectly fit the brand personality of “hip, fun, and cool.” And it aced the SMILE & SCRATCH Test.
There are more than a dozen Spoon Me locations in North America. The company attributes a lot of its success to the name because it has such great legs. Before one of the stores opens, the “coming soon” sign says, “Spooning Soon.” Door signage playfully cautions, “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Spoon.” In Utah, the “Spooning Hours” warn, “No Spooning on Sunday.” Interiors and branded merchandise feature evocative slogans like, “If you love me, Spoon Me,” and “Shut up and Spoon Me.” And restrooms are graffitied with famous movie slogans with a fun twist, such as “Yo Adrian, let’s Spoon” and “You had me at Spoon Me.” How many T-shirts would they have sold if they had called themselves Zenyo or Swayo?
Of course teens love the name Spoon Me, and surprisingly, the older Mormon couples—who we thought might be offended—find it sweet and endearing because spooning (with your clothes on) is seemingly innocent. Forking, however is a different matter.
ADDITIONAL FREE ONLINE BRAINSTORMING TOOLS
IdiomConnection.com
Wordoid.com
RhymeZone.com
Wordnik.com
Visuwords.com
CHAPTER 6
12 Rules for Building Consensus
Over the years, I have developed twelve rules for reviewing names when there are multiple decision makers involved. I promise you will have much more success finding the name if you follow these guidelines rather than trying to randomly choose the best names.
Before you distribute the list, write a sentence or two of rationale next to each name to help sell it in. At the top of the list, show how the name might be used in a sentence. For example: _______ _______ makes wholesome and healthy snacks that kids love because they taste good and come in fun shapes and flavors.
12 Rules for Reviewing Your Names
Rule 1 Have people initially review the list of names independently, as opposed to in a group. This process allows decision makers on the team to freely express which names they like individually without the trepidation that can occur during group presentations. By giving team members the confidence to fearlessly say what names they like, you also eliminate the pressure for people to echo what the boss likes. This way, no good names go unnoticed and everyone’s opinions are heard.
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sp; Rule 2 The essential question to ask yourself when reviewing the names is not, Do I like it? which is subject to personal bias. The better question to ask is, Is it right? which is much more objective and effective.
Rule 3 Refrain from negative comments. You will have greater success finding a name everyone can agree on if you focus strictly on what works. Negative comments are never helpful in building consensus.
Rule 4 Keep in mind that a name can’t say everything—it can hint at what your brand does or highlight a positive brand experience but should not be expected to say it all.
Rule 5 For a better review experience, print out the list to review on paper instead of viewing it online. Read it multiple times, top to bottom and bottom to top. Give yourself a few days to let all the names sink in.
Rule 6 As tempting as it is, do not share your list with outsiders and ask for their opinions on SurveyMonkey. Asking people what they think or to vote for their favorite name shows a lack of confidence. They are not experts on your brand. You are. They are not knowledgeable about what makes a great name. You are. (If you have read this book!) Imagine if Richard Branson had asked others to weigh in on the name Virgin. It never would have flown. Trust yourself on what feels right to you. When you ask your friends and family, “What do you think of this name?” they interpret it as an invitation to criticize. It’s better just to tell people, “We’re excited to announce our new name …” Please trust me on this. If you ask everyone to chime in, you will end up with a mediocre name that met with the least resistance rather than the very best name.
Rule 7 Keep in mind that your name will rarely appear naked—it will usually appear in context with your logo on a website or within your sales materials. A good way to review company names is to imagine each one on your caller ID, name badge, store sign, website, or business card. Imagine product names on the product, a sales sheet, or on the shelf.
Rule 8 Don’t be afraid to be different. The best names are often the ones that are unfamiliar. Think back to the first time you heard the name Google. Did you love it? No. Do you love it now? Most likely. A little discomfort is a good thing at first—it means you are doing something that people haven’t seen before.
Rule 9 Refrain from looking up domain names this early in the process. If you can’t resist, do not eliminate names that don’t have the pure domain dot-com name available (unless it is a competitor’s website). It’s perfectly acceptable to add a modifier word (e.g., Tesla uses TeslaMotors.com) or to create a memorable phrase (e.g., Peanut Butter & Co. uses ILovePeanutButter.com).
Rule 10 Each reviewer should select at least ten names from the list.
Rule 11 Don’t fall in love with any one name until after you have conducted trademark screens. Expect 30–50 percent of the names you come up with to already be in use or pose conflicts. As a rule of thumb, the hipper the industry, the harder it is to trademark a cool name. Ad agencies, design firms, and gaming companies are very clever, which make those areas extremely challenging for new names. More conservative businesses, such as finance and insurance, have plenty of room for cool names but are completely saturated with pedestrian names.
Rule 12 Have fun! Collect and sort the name lists to see where there is consensus. Then meet as a group to discuss the attributes of the top contenders, choose and rank your top five, and start the trademark screening process.
Don’t Use Focus Groups
Just as I don’t recommend asking your friends and family for their opinions on your names, I strongly discourage focus-group testing. Asking a group of strangers what names they like is asking for trouble. Without fail, a focus group will collectively water down name choices to the safest name instead of the strongest name.
Here are ten brand names that I believe would have been killed if they were presented to focus groups and what I imagine some people might have said:
Fossil
“Dirty old relic, brittle.”
Lush
“An alcoholic.”
Coach
“The worst place to sit in an airplane, angry guy with a whistle.”
Shady Eyewear
“Sounds untrustworthy.”
Skinny Cow
“Implies that if I buy this ice cream, I am fat.”
The Body Shop
“Makes me think of a greasy auto body place.”
True Religion
“Blasphemous!”
MAC Cosmetics
“Makes me think of cheeseburgers and computers.”
Spoon Me
“Leads to teen pregnancy.”
Banana Republic
“Disparaging, belittling.”
Opium Perfume
“Drugs are illegal.”
Congratulations!
By now you should be well on your way to having an awesome name. You have all of the tips, tools, and resources you need to create brand names that make people smile instead of scratch their head. And just as important, you have everything you need to talk a coworker, boss, or colleague out of a bad name and convince them not to give up if an exact-match domain name isn’t available.
I would love to hear about new brand names created as a result of reading this book. Please feel free to share your story with me. I may write about you in my blog or the next edition of this book.
Alexandra Watkins
[email protected]
Twitter: @eatmywords
CHAPTER 7
Pros and Cons
After reading this book, you may be tempted to change your name. While I can’t advise you without knowing your exact situation, I can share the pluses and minuses of name changes.
One concern you may have is that your customers know you by your current business name and won’t be able to find you if you change it. While that may have been the case twenty years ago, now with email, website redirects, blog posts, and social media tools, it’s now easy to keep your customers in the loop. In Chapter 1, I wrote about high-energy public relations pro Lynette Hoy, who after years of using her own name, “Lynette Hoy PR,” changed it to the more evocative Firetalker PR. Her only regret? Not doing it sooner. It’s never too late to change your name.
Pros of Changing Your Name
You can refresh your entire brand at the same time.
You will save time (and save face) not having to explain or apologize for your difficult name.
You will have an excellent reason to get in touch with past and current customers—to tell them about your new name.
Chances are you have many more years in business ahead of you than behind you.
You have thousands of future customers who don’t know your current name and will know you only by your new name. (A good way to imagine this is if you’re a married woman who hasn’t used her maiden name in years. Think of all the people in your life who know you by your married name and how few know you by your maiden name.)
Cons of Changing Your Name
You’ve had it for years and are emotionally attached to it.
It may be difficult to get everyone in the company on board.
The person who came up with it may get hurt feelings.
It can be expensive to print new materials and signage.
You may have to acknowledge that your previous name didn’t pass the SMILE & SCRATCH test.
You may have to get your tattoo removed.
Here are some successful name changes that we’ve done for clients:
Challenge: Jazz organization whose name didn’t strike a chord with their members.
Original Name: Rhythmic Concepts Inc. (RCI)
New Name: Living Jazz
Challenge: Luxury goods website whose name sounded more like a mail order catalog than designer merchandise.
Original Name: Peach Direct
New Name: Venue
Challenge: Organization for high-level women execs whose name was a mouthful, even as an acronym.
Original Name: Forum for Women Entrepreneurs & Executives (FWE&E)
New Name: Watermark
Challenge: Business collaboration software whose descriptive name didn’t stand out in the cloud crowd.
Original Name: CaptureToCloud
New Name: LiveHive
Challenge: Big data company whose confusing name was difficult for customers to pronounce and spell.
Original Name: uCirrus
New Name: Argyle Data (They find diamonds in data patterns.)
Challenge: Specialty grade coffee brand that hires ex-offenders. (While the name Second Chance works as the company name, consumers thought the beans were recycled.)
Original Name: Second Chance
New Name: I Have a Bean
Challenge: Personalized physical therapy platform with a name that needed a little rehab.
Original Name: Respondesign
New Name: Respond Well
RESOURCES
The How Awesome Is Your Name Self-Assessment Tool
Whether you want the confidence to move forward with a brand name or need to get a professional opinion to show your boss that his or her name idea is problematic, this professional assessment and printable report will tell you the truth about your name: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Fun and interactive, the detailed evaluation covers what you learned in the book and links to sites to check trademark availability, slang definitions, and translations in up to 30 languages.
This online companion product is available at:
www.bkconnection.com/ismynameawesome
Trademarking
Hello, My Name is Awesome Page 7
