Building the Perfect Beast

The Igor Naming Guide

Everything you've always wanted to know about naming companies, products and services. Compiled from the Igor website into one handy, SHORTER guide.

Version: Short version 1.3 Date: May 23, 2011

This document will be updated regularly with new content. Please check the Naming Guide Download Page of the Igor website for the latest version: http://www.igorinternational.com/guide All Material 2010 Igor

Igor
177 Post Street, Suite 650 San Francisco, CA 94108 415.248.5800 contact@igorinternational.com www.igorinternational.com

Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide

2010 Igor

Contents
I. Overview | 1
Creating Great Product and Company Names | 2

II. The Six Steps of the Igor Process | 3

Step 1: Competitive Analysis | 3 Step 2: Positioning | 4 Step 3: Name / Brand Development | 4 Step 4: Trademark Prescreening | 9 Step 5: Creative / Testing | 9 Step 6: Name and Tagline | 10

III. Naming Tools | 11

A. Naming Process Filters Evocative Names | 11 B. Name Evaluation | 13 Blank Name Evaluation Chart | 15 C. Name Taxonomy Charts | 16

IV. Selected Igor Names | 17

I. Overview
The best product & company names require the least advertising. They are advertisements. Great names are a powerful force in the branding, marketing and advertising campaigns of the companies they work for. They differentiate you from competitors, make an emotional connection with your audience, and help to build a brand that ignites the passions of your customers. At Igor, we believe that a powerful name is the result of a powerful positioning strategy. The key is to find a fresh way into the hearts and minds of your customers, redefine and own the conversation in your industry, and engage people on as many levels as possible. The best product and company names represent the ultimate process of boiling these ideas down into a word or two.

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Creating Great Product and Company Names

Successful product and company names may appear to have been created by magic, but it is possible to develop names that are dynamic, effective and fully leverage a brand's potential if you have the right process in place. A process that is clear, insightful, logical and focused will lead to a name and tagline that are powerful components of your brand strategy, and pave the way for buy-in throughout your organization. Before you begin, it is essential to decide what you want your new product or company name to do for you. To make that decision, you need to understand the possibilities. A name can:

Achieve separation from your competitors Demonstrate to the world that you are different Reinforce a unique positioning platform Create positive and lasting engagement with your audience Be unforgettable Propel itself through the world on its own, becoming a no-cost, self-sustaining PR vehicle Provide a deep well of marketing and advertising images Be the genesis of a brand that rises above the goods and services you provide Completely dominate a category

Every naming project is unique and our process is customized for each of them. We make sure that all aspects of a work plan are designed to complement your naming project, corporate culture, approval process and timeframe. As with any plan, it's all about inspired execution. While we hold fast to the belief that every one of the six steps outlined in our process, from an initial competitive analysis to final product or company names and taglines, is vital to all naming projects, we understand that your marketing people may well have worked through some of them before contacting us. Consequently, our process is flexible enough to be tailored to the specific needs of your company. Whether we are developing product or company names, the six steps outlined below are what gives us the ability to create powerful and lasting brands: 1. Competitive Analysis Our process begins with a thorough competitive analysis, in which we quantify the tone and strength of competitive company names or product names. Creating such a document helps your naming team decide where they need to go with the positioning, branding and naming of your company or product. 2. Positioning The next step is to help you refine and define your brand positioning. The more specific and nuanced your positioning is, the more effective the name will be.

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All great product and company names work in concert with the positioning of the businesses they speak for. 3. Name/Brand Development Product or company name development begins by applying the positioning strategy to figure out what you want your new name to do for your marketing, branding and advertising efforts. 4. Trademark We prescreen names under development through our trademark attorney to determine the likelihood that your company will be able to procure the names. We do this in order to feel confident that the names your attorney submits for final trademark screening and application have been deemed by an attorney as likely to pass muster for registration. If not, valuable time is lost. 5. Creative/Testing A standard part of our naming process is the production of creative support materials to flesh-out potential names, and market research testing when appropriate. These may include stories, ad treatments, or graphic layouts featuring leading name candidates. 6. Name and Tagline Final names and taglines, along with a well-defined positioning strategy, are the outcome of our process.

II. The Six Steps of the Igor Process

To ensure that the name you choose is as dynamic, effective and fully leveraged as possible, you need to have the right process in place. A process that is clear, insightful, logical and focused will lead to a name and tagline that are powerful components of your brand strategy, and pave the way for buy-in throughout your organization.

STEP 1: Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis is an essential first step of any naming process. How are your competitors positioning themselves? What types of names are common among them? Are their names projecting a similar attitude? Do their similarities offer you a huge opportunity to stand out from the crowd? How does your business or product differ from the competition? How can a name help you define or redefine your brand? Can you change and own the conversation in your industry? Should you? Quantifying the tone and strength of competitive company names or product names is an empowering foundation for any naming project. Creating such a document helps your naming team decide where they need to go with the positioning, branding and naming of your company or product. It also keeps the naming process focused on creating a name that is a powerful marketing asset, one that works overtime for your brand and against your competitors. 3

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We display the results of a given sector of names in the form of taxonomy charts (see below).

STEP 2: Positioning
Our next step is to help you refine and define your brand positioning. The more specific and nuanced your positioning is, the more effective the name will be. All great names work in concert with the positioning of the business or product they speak for. The best positioning finds a way to reinvigorate or change the conversation that an industry has been having with its consumers. Our positioning process is predicated on understanding everything about your brand, where it's been and where it's headed. The resulting naming process is based on a forward-looking positioning strategy that takes into account your brand, your competition, and your entire sector. While it's important to understand what competitors are doing in order to act in a distinctive and powerful way, it's also useful to learn from their mistakes and successes. For instance, the company that became Apple needed to distance itself from the cold, unapproachable, complicated imagery created by the other computer companies at the time that had names like IBM, NEC, DEC, ADPAC, Cincom, Dylakor, Input, Integral Systems, Sperry Rand, SAP, PSDI, Syncsort, and Tesseract. The new company needed to reverse the entrenched view of computers in order to get people to use them at home. They were looking for a name that was unlike the names of traditional computer companies, a name that also supported a brand positioning strategy that was to be perceived as simple, warm, human, approachable and different. Of course, once they had a clear positioning platform in place, there were still hundreds of potential names for the new company to consider. The process for finding that one perfect name is detailed in the next section.

STEP 3: Name / Brand Development

The first step in name development is deciding what you want your new name to do for your marketing, branding and advertising efforts. Making this decision allows you to narrow your name search to a certain category of name. The relative strengths and weakness of the four major categories of names are discussed in this section:

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1. Functional / Descriptive Product & Company Names When descriptive names work: When a company names products and their brand strategy is to direct the bulk of brand equity to the company name. Examples of companies that follow this name strategy are BMW, Martha Stewart and Subway. When descriptive names don't work: When they are company names. Company names that are descriptive are asked to perform only one task: explaining to the world the business that you are in. This is an unnecessary and counterproductive choice. The downside here is many-fold. This naming strategy creates a situation that needlessly taxes a marketing and advertising budget because descriptive company names are drawn from a small pool of relevant keywords, causing them to blend together and fade into the background, indistinguishable from the bulk of their competitors - the antithesis of marketing. As an example of the "brand fade out" caused by choosing descriptive company names, consider the names of the following branding and naming companies:

Brand/Branding Companies Brand-DNA (.com) Brand-DNA (.net) Brand A Brand 2.0 Brand Design Brand Doctors Brand Evolve Brand Evolution Brand Forward Brand Juice Brand Ladder Brand Link Brand Maverick Brand Mechanics Brand Meta Brand People Brand Positioning Brand Salt Brand Scope Brand Sequence Brand Slinger Brand Solutions Brand Vista Independent Branding Not Just Any Branding The Better Branding Company The Brand Company The Brand Consultancy

Name/Naming Companies ABC Name Bank Brighter Naming Moore Names Name Development Name Evolution Name Generator Name-It Name Lab Name One Name Pharm Name Quest Name Razor Name Sale Name Sharks Name-Shop Name Stormers Name Tag Name Trade Name Works Name Works Namebase Naming Naming Systems Naming Workshop Namington Strategic Name Development The Naming Company Wise Name

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These kinds of company names are easily avoided if a thorough competitive analysis is performed and if the people doing the naming understand the following basic concept: The notion of describing a business in the name assumes that company names will exist at some point without contextual support, which is impossible. Company names will appear on websites, store fronts, in news articles or press releases, on business cards, in advertisements, or, at their most naked, in conversations. There are simply no imaginable circumstances in which company names can exist without contextual, explanatory support, which means they are free to perform more productive tasks. 2. Invented Product & Corporation Names There are basically two types of invented names for products or corporations: 1) Names built upon Greek and Latin roots. Examples: Acquient, Agilent, Alliant, Aquent. The upside:

These names breeze through the trademark process because they are unique, eliminating the potential for trademark conflict. For companies looking for a hassle-free way to secure a domain name without a modifier, this is a fairly painless route to go. They are free of negative connotations. Because these names are built upon Greek and Latin morphemes, they are felt to be serious sounding. For the above reasons, these are the easiest names to push through the approval process at gigantic global corporations.

The downside:

Because these types of names are built on Greek and Latin morphemes, you need the advertising budget of a gigantic global corporation to imbue them with meaning and get people to remember them. While they don't carry any direct negative messages, such names do cast a cold, sanitized persona. These are names with no potential marketing energy -- they are imagefree and emotionally void.

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2) Poetically constructed names that are based on rhythm and the experience of saying them. Examples: Snapple, Oreo, Google, Kleenex. The upside:

They breeze through the trademark process. Easy domain name acquisition. By design, the target audience likes saying these names, which helps propel and saturate them throughout the target audience. Highly memorable. Emotionally engaging. They are rich with potential marketing energy.

The downside:

Tougher for a marketing department to get corporate approval for. When making a case for a name based on things like "fun to say, memorable, viral, and emotionally engaging," you need to present a solid, quantifiable case. Igor can show you how.

3. Experiential Product & Corporate Names Experiential names offer a direct connection to something real, to a part of direct human experience. They rise above descriptive names because their message is more about the experience than the task. For instance, in the web portal space, descriptive product names include Infoseek, GoTo, FindWhat, AllTheWeb, etc. Experiential names of web portals include such product names as Explorer, Magellan, Navigator, and Safari. The upside:

These names make sense to the consumer. They map to the consumer's experience with the company or product. Because they require little explanation, experiential names are easily approved in a corporate process. They work best for products within a brand strategy designed to accumulate brand equity for both the company and the product. Experiential company and product names are most effective for the early entrants in a business sector, becoming less effective for later adopters.

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The downside:

Because they are so intuitive, experiential names are embraced across many industries with high frequency, making them harder to trademark. These are names that tend to be historically common in the branding world. Their over-usage makes them less effective in the long run. For instance, while Explorer, Navigator and Safari are web portal names, they are also the names of SUVs. The similarity in tone of these names across an industry is indicative of similarities in positioning. As web portal names, Explorer, Navigator, Safari and Magellan are all saying exactly the same things in exactly the same ways to exactly the same people. Consequently, they aren't pulling any weight when it comes to differentiating a brand.

4. Evocative Product & Company Names One important way that evocative names differ from others is that they evoke the positioning of a company or product, rather than describing a function or a direct experience. Continuing with more examples of web portal company names: InfoSeek, LookSmart = functional Explorer, Navigator = experiential Yahoo = positioning (Evocative) Another example, from the airline sector: Trans World Airlines = functional United = experiential Virgin = positioning (Evocative) and finally, from the computer industry: Digital Equipment = functional Gateway = experiential Apple = positioning (Evocative) The upside:

A rare type of name, making it a powerful differentiator. Nonlinear and multidimensional, making it deeply engaging. Helps create a brand image that is bigger than the goods and services a company offers. Trademark process is better than average.

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When created in sync with positioning, it is a branding force that can dominate an industry.

The downside:

When created out of sync with brand positioning, it's an ugly mess. Because evocative product and company names are created to compliment positioning rather than goods and services, they are the toughest type of names to get corporate approval for, being a bit of an abstraction for those outside the marketing department.

STEP 4: Trademark Prescreening of Names

During a naming project, we prescreen all names we present to clients against the USPTO trademark database, to make sure no time is wasted considering names for a project that do not have a good chance of being available for registration. We also engage the services of several fine trademark attorneys, who can screen names with greater precision and offer their professional feedback as well. We do this in order to feel confident that the names your attorney submits for final trademark screening and application have been deemed by an attorney as likely to pass muster for registration. If not, valuable time is lost. Other options include international trademark screening performed by one of our trademark attorneys, a global linguistic check of leading names in fifteen languages, and detailed NameProtect trademark and common law searches.

STEP 5: Creative / Testing

These are tasks that are constantly performed throughout our process. However, near the end of every project it comes time decide which of the leading name candidates will best serve our clients. At this point, the job is to exhaustively and specifically flesh out the relative strengths of each name. We present names with a range of taglines and contextual positioning support in the form of print ads or commercial treatments. This presentation is key to helping everyone involved understand how a given product or company name could work in your marketing and advertising campaigns. It lifts the naming process out of the realm of theory and breathes life into the names, a vital step in the decision-making process. These same materials are designed to work seamlessly for any focus group testing or market research that you feel is necessary. We can advise you and/or run the testing 9

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phase for you if you wish. And we have extensive experience presenting positioning, brand strategies, names and taglines to boards of directors.

STEP 6: Name and Tagline

Once a name is chosen, we more fully develop a range of taglines, images and language that help you pinpoint the most effective, perfectly nuanced personality with which to present your name. A key point at this stage is exploring how different taglines and collateral can shift and enhance the efficacy of your name and brand. For example, here are a few ad lines and taglines that the name Igor brings to the table: Igor. Get over the hump. Igor. A few spare parts and a good storm. (The ingredients of all innovation.) Igor. Throw the switch. Igor. Bringing your vision to life. Igor. A Moveable Beast. Igor. Own your shadow. Igor. Talk of the town. Igor. No job too horrifying. Igor. The other white meat. Igor. Never say die. Igor. A good brain is hard to find. Igor. Alive. Igor. Better living through science. Igor. Building the perfect beast. And on and on and on. When deciding between names for your own project, go ahead and make a list of taglines for each potential name. It will make the decision-making process crystal clear, because if you can't get inspired by a particular name, your customers aren't likely to. One of the most important things that the best brands accomplish is being thought of as greater than the goods and services offered. Nike's "Just Do It" helps them rise above selling sneakers. Apple's "Think Different" is bigger than computers. Fannie Mae's "We're in the American Dream Business" elevates them from mere mortgage brokers. Like names, taglines come in four flavors. Sometimes it makes sense for an evocative name to be launched with a functional tagline, migrating to an evocative tagline over time. The specifics of your business, where it is going, and the state of your industry will define which of the many different combinations of types of name and types of tagline will be most effective.

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III. Naming Tools

IIIA. Naming Process Filters Evocative Names
One of the keys to successful company and product naming is understanding exactly how your audience will interact with a new name. Creating a filter that evaluates names in the same way that your target market will is essential to both creating the best name possible and to getting that name approved and implemented by your company. Since an evocative name is one of the toughest to develop and obtain buy-in for, we've detailed one of the necessary filters here. The biggest challenge that evocative names (see page 7 above) face in surviving a naming exercise is the fact that they portray the positioning of a company or product rather than the goods and services or the experience of those goods and services. Unless everyone understands the positioning and the correlation between it and an evocative name, this is the type of feedback that evocative names will generate: Virgin Airlines

Says "we're new at this" Public wants airlines to be experienced, safe and professional Investors wont take us seriously Religious people will be offended

Caterpillar

Tiny, creepy-crawly bug Not macho enough easy to squash Why not "bull" or "workhorse"? Destroys trees, crops, responsible for famine

Banana Republic

Derogatory cultural slur You'll be picketed by people from small, hot countries

Yahoo!

Yahoo!! It's Mountain Dew! Yoohoo! Its a chocolate drink in a can! Nobody will take stock quotes and world news seriously from a bunch of "Yahoos"

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Oracle

Unscientific Unreliable Only foretold death and destruction Only fools put their faith in an Oracle Sounds like "orifice" people will make fun of us

The Gap

Means something is missing The Generation Gap is a bad thing we want to sell clothes to all generations In need of repair Incomplete Negative

Stingray

A slow, ugly, and dangerous fish slow, ugly and dangerous are the last qualities we want to associate with our fast, powerful, sexy sports car The "bottom feeding fish" part isn't helping either

Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac

I don't want hillbilly residents of Dogpatch handling my finances. They don't sound serious, and this is about a very serious matter.

Clearly, the public doesn't think about names in this fashion, but internal naming committees almost always do. Getting a committee to acknowledge this difference and to interact as the public does is step one. Having the naming committee evaluate evocative names based on their positioning is the next step: Virgin Positioning: different, confident, exciting, alive, human, provocative, fun. The innovative name forces people to create a separate box in their head to put it in. B Qualities: Self-propelling, Connects Emotionally, Personality, Deep Well.
A

Oracle

Positioning: different, confident, superhuman, evocative, powerful, forward thinking. Qualities: Self-propelling, Connects Emotionally, Personality, Deep Well. 12

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IIIB. Name Evaluation

When considering potential names for your company, product or service, it is vital that the process be kept as objective as possible, and that subjective personal responses to names, such as "I like it" or I don't like it" or "I don't like it because it reminds me of an old girlfriend/boyfriend" are exactly that subjective and personal, and have no bearing on whether or not a potential name will actually work in the marketplace as a powerful brand that supports all your positioning goals. All well and good, but clients often ask us to be more specific, to explain objectively just what makes a name work. With that in mind, we created a straightforward way to dissect potential names into the following nine categories to make it easier to understand why name work or don't work, and to more easily weigh the pros and cons of one name versus another: Appearance Simply how the name looks as a visual signifier, in a logo, an ad, on a billboard, etc. The name will always be seen in context, but it will be seen, so looks are important. Distinctive How differentiated is a given name from its competition. Being distinctive is only one element that goes into making a name memorable, but it is a required element, since if a name is not distinct from a sea of similar names it will not be memorable. Its important, when judging distinctiveness, to always consider the name in the context of the product it will serve, and among the competition it will spar with for the consumers attention. Depth Layer upon layer of meaning and association. Names with great depth never reveal all they have to offer all at once, but keep surprising you with new ideas. Energy How vital and full of life is the name? Does it have buzz? Can it carry an ad campaign on its shoulders? Is it a force to be reckoned with? These are all aspects of a names energy level. Humanity A measure of a names warmth, its "humanness," as opposed to names that are cold, clinical, unemotional. Another though not foolproof way to think about this category is to imagine each of the names as a nickname for one of your children. Positioning How relevant the name is to the positioning of the product or company being named, the service offered, or to the industry served. Further, how many relevant messages does the name map to? Sound Again, while always existing in a context of some sort or another, the name WILL be heard, in radio or television commercials, being presented at a trade show, or simply being discussed in a cocktail party conversation. Sound is twofold not only how a name sounds, but how easily it is spoken by those who matter most: the potential customer. Word of mouth is a big part of the marketing of a company, product or service 13

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with a great name, but if people arent comfortable saying the name, the word wont get out. "33" The force of brand magic, and the word-of-mouth buzz that a name is likely to generate. Refers to the mysterious "33" printed on the back of Rolling Rock beer bottles from decades that everybody talks about because nobody is really sure what it means. "33" is that certain something that makes people lean forward and want to learn more about a brand, and to want to share the brand with others. The "33" angle is different for each name. Trademark As in the ugly, meat hook reality of trademark availability. Scoring is easy here, as there are only three options, and nothing is subjective: 10 = likely available for trademark; 5 = may be available for trademark; and 0 = not likely available for trademark. All of the names on this list have been prescreened by a trademarked attorney and have been deemed "likely" for trademark registration. These are the categories we scrupulously consider every name we present to clients, and we've done it so much that it has become second nature to us. But for those just stepping into these confusing brand waters, it often helps to rate names in each of these categories and compare the rankings. In the table below, we have attempted to quantify our impressions of several brand names in the music / media downloading sector by assigning up to 10 points in each of the nine categories; the more points, the better (90 maximum total points):

1. We can't know the actual positioning of established brands, so we're treating these names as if they hadn't been used yet and are under consideration for a product which has the primary positioning goals of being a very unique, energetic name that has the potential to become a powerful brand that is lodged in the heads of millions of consumers. 2. Since these are all established brands that all own their respective trademarks, they each get an automatic score of "10". For names under consideration during an actual naming project, for simplicity you may choose one of three options: "10" = likely available for trademark; "5" = may be available for trademark; and "0" = not likely available for trademark (at which point the name should be removed from consideration).

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Blank Chart Here is a blank chart you can use as an exercise to evaluate names you are considering for your own project and see how well they support the positioning of your brand. Be sure to add some of your most successful competitors to this list, so you can accurately gauge how well your names can compete in the marketplace. Assign up to 10 points in each of the nine categories; the more points, the better (90 maximum total points):

1. How well a given name supports your core positioning for the brand you are developing. 2. For names under consideration during a naming project, for simplicity you may choose one of three options: "10" = likely available for trademark; "5" = may be available for trademark; and "0" = not likely available for trademark (at which point the name should be removed from consideration).

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IIIC. Name Taxonomy Charts

We developed the name taxonomy format to bring an elegant simplicity to a complex set of intertwined naming elements. The taxonomy chart keeps the process focused on the competitive aspect, forces you to quantify both the negative and positive attributes of each name under consideration, sets a high standard for you to meet, and gives everyone involved a clean and easy framework in which to disparage, insult, and belittle each other Taxonomy of Airline Names
Before Virgin came along, all the airlines had the same kind of name: either Functional names that were descriptive of the region they fly over (Northwest, Southwest, American, etc.), or Experiential names that tried to speak to a higher aspiration (United, Vanguard). Along came Virgin into an industry without any strong, evocative brands, setting the bar higher than probably any other name in any industry. Now new airline names have begun to enter the fray in the space created between Virgin and the rest of the pack. FUNCTIONAL 5 4 JetBlue INVENTED EXPERIENTIAL EVOCATIVE Virgin Ted Jazz Hooters Aloha Olympic Qantas* Alitalia Midway Trans World Pan American Delta Continental American Alaska AeroMexico Air France British Airways Northwest Southwest U.S. Airways Eastern America West World Airways Go Zip Vanguard Song Frontier Tower Air 5 4

2 1

2 1

United

-1

-1

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-2

Express Jet ValueJet AirJet EasyJet FUNCTIONAL INVENTED EXPERIENTIAL EVOCATIVE

-2

* Qantas is actually an acronym for "Queensland And Northern Territory Air Service." However, we're classifying the name as Invented rather than Functional because most people do not know what Qantas stands for, it is not written all in upper case as most acronyms are, it is longer than most acronyms, and indeed, it has been successfully branded as an entity in itself, not for what it may stand for, which in fact is never even mentioned.

Taxonomy of the Company Names of Naming Companies

Behold the companies in our very own industry, naming company names in the company of the names of other naming company names. Are we biased in our opinion? Absolutely. We believe strongly that the name a naming company names itself is a clue to the kinds of company names they believe in. And if a naming company cannot manage to give itself a distinctive, memorable name that sets itself apart from the slew of competitors you see below, a company name that can evolve into a strong brand within the industry and come to represent more than just the goods and services being offered, how can they possibly convince others that what they fail to do in their own company name they can somehow magically do for their clients? So a call to arms is in order: Namers, name thyself well! Because you've got company. FUNCTIONAL INVENTED EXPERIENTIAL EVOCATIVE

5 4 3

A Hundred Monkeys

Igor

4 Catchword

Tipping Sprung*

Idiom Lexicon Metaphor

WildOutWest (WOW)

Applebaum Addison Ashton Brand Group Hayden Group

Good Characters Word for Word

Tungsten

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Landor Lippincott Mercer Master McNeil Rivkin & Associates Russell Mark Group Siegel & Gale Wolff Olins

0
ABC Name Bank Brighter Naming Moore Names Name Designer Name Development Name Evolution Name Generator NAME-IT NameLab Name One Name Pharm NameQuest Name Razor NameSale Name Sharks Name-Shop NameStormers Name Tag NameTrade Namebase NameWorks Naming Systems Naming Workshop Namington Namix Strategic Name Development The Naming Company Wise Name

Cintara

Capsule

-1

Namix Nomen Nomenon Nomina Nomino

Bizword Comspring Logoistic Macroworks Mnemonic

Brains On Fire One Big Roach

-1

-2

Brand-DNA Brand A Brand 2.0 Brand Channel Brand Design Brand Doctors Brand Evolve Brand Evolution Brand Fidelity Brand Forward Brand Institute Brand Juice Brand Ladder Brand Link Brand Maverick Brand Mechanics

Blue Taco

-2

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Brand Meta Brand People Brand Positioning Brand Salt Brandscape Brand Scope Brand Sequence Brand Slinger Brand Solutions Brand Spark Brand Vista CoreBrand Future Brand Independent Branding Interbrand Not Just Any Branding The Better Branding Company The Brand Company The Brand Consultancy Trading Brands

FUNCTIONAL

INVENTED

EXPERIENTIAL

EVOCATIVE

*Tipping Sprung: Yes it does sound like a random invented paring in the Bearing Point mode, but it's actually the names of the two founders, so it goes into the Functinal category, where it rates higher than the rest for being a little more unique and memorable

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Taxonomy of Computer Port Technology Consumer Product Names

Comparing the names of computer networking technologies, peripheral device ports and the devices that love them. FUNCTIONAL INVENTED EXPERIENTIAL EVOCATIVE Airport FireWire Wi-Fi Bluetooth * Clik! Full Metal Card Magic Gate Bullet Drive ClipperCom Credit Card Star Card

5 4 3 2

5 4 3 2

Aerocard iLink

JumpDrive

CompactFlash Linx Memory Stick Micro Vault Microdrive Turbo Flash USB Aopen Busport Easidock Easyshare Hi-Phone Megahertz PCI PCXpocket SmartSwitch SwapSmart 802.11a 802.11b 802.11g CARDport IEEE 1394 PCMCIA FUNCTIONAL INVENTED

Cruzer ExpressCard

Pyro

-1

Linear Navman RealPort

-1

-2

Netelligent

Cyber CyberExpress

-2

EXPERIENTIAL

EVOCATIVE

* Bluetooth: Harald I Bluetooth (Danish Harald Bltand) was the King of Denmark between 940 and 985 AD. However, since most non-Danes probably aren't familiar with this bit of history, we are treating the name as Invented. The history behind the name does provide a story to tell, giving the name greater depth, and thus a higher ranking, than it would if it were just a random pairing such as Blue Martini.

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Taxonomy of Search Engine, Browser and Web Portal Names

Here are some names you may be familiar with in the Internet industry. Note how many search engines went with Functional names that include the words "search/seek" or "crawler/spider". FUNCTIONAL 5 4 3 Google Magellan Safari Firefox Explorer Navigator Ask Jeeves Excite Netscape Snap Altavista Cyberdog Dogpile Fathead Northern Light INVENTED EXPERIENTIAL EVOCATIVE Yahoo! 5 4 3

Mozilla

Camino

A9

Mamma Opera Overture

-1

AOL GoTo HotBot ICQ MSN Open Directory AllTheWeb Cyber411 FindWhat.com InfiniSearch Infoseek InfoTiger LookSmart MegaSpider MetaGopher MonsterCrawler Planet Search QuestFinder SavvySearch Search King SearchPort SuperCrawler

Alexa Inktomi * Lycos Teoma Thunderstone WiseNut

goHip mySimon

iCab Rex

-1

-2

-2

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WebCrawler What-U-Seek FUNCTIONAL INVENTED EXPERIENTIAL EVOCATIVE

* Inktomi: In Lakota mythology, Iktomi is a spider-trickster god and a culture-hero for the Lakota people. But since most people don't know that (or care), we are treating it as an Invented name. And besides, the "spider/crawler" metaphor has been pretty thoroughly mined by search engines.

Taxonomy of Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) Names

This chart of SUV names reveals a singular positioning strategy that permeates most of the brand names in this industry, resulting in the bulk of these names being assigned low marks on this scale. It's not that the names themselves are poor. Rather, it's because the names don't help to differentiate one vehicle from another; many of them are variations on the same theme (rugged, outdoorsy) and not pulling any marketing weight. Why does Suburban rate an elevated position? Because it's the most refreshingly different and honest name in the Experiential category. FUNCTIONAL 5 4 3 Hummer Jackaroo Jeepster Amigo Aviator Sidekick Blazer Discovery Defender Escape Excursion Expedition Explorer Forester Freelander Mountaineer Navigator Scout Tracker Suburban INVENTED Jeep EXPERIENTIAL EVOCATIVE 5 4 3

Element

Xterra

Avalanche Cayenne Safari

Land Cruiser Overland Range Rover Pathfinder TrailBlazer Travelall

Unimog

Armada Frontier Highlander Matrix Passport Samurai Silverado Tundra Typhoon

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Trooper Wrangler Aztek Bordeux Bronco Cherokee Comanche Durango Kahuna Montana Montero Murano Navaho Rainier Rodeo Santa Fe Sequoia Sonoma Sorento Tacoma Tahoe Touareg Yukon

-1

4Runner Rav4

Grand Vitara Korando

Envoy Liberty Rendezvous Tribute

-1

-2

CR-V EVX EX LX 470 MDX ML55 QX4 SLX SRX X5 XC90 XL-7 FUNCTIONAL

Terracross VehiCROSS

Bravada Escalade Sportage

Axiom

-2

INVENTED

EXPERIENTIAL

EVOCATIVE

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Blank Name Taxonomy Chart Here is a blank name taxonomy chart you can print. Try plotting your and your competition's product or company names on this chart and see how they sort out. FUNCTIONAL INVENTED EXPERIENTIAL EVOCATIVE

-1

-1

-2

-2

FUNCTIONAL

INVENTED

EXPERIENTIAL

EVOCATIVE

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IV. Selected Igor names

Here is a selection of names we've created case studies for each of these names can be found at http://www.igorinternational.com/clients/case-studies-naming-branding.php

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See more: http://www.igorinternational.com/clients/case-studies-naming-branding.php

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