Whether you’re naming your business for the first time or renaming an established brand, arriving at an agreed-upon and memorable brand name that unilaterally aligns leadership, appeals to your external audiences, is free of trademark issues and comes with an available URL is not easy. The process, however, can be straightforward.
Do Your Brand Naming Research
Just as you might when developing new messaging or a visual brand identity, it’s important to review external factors that can impact the adoptability, believability and marketability of the brand name. A few activities in this arena include:
- Examining business objectives, vision and mission. Even if the company is brand new, it has an ethos — one likely born out of the founder’s desire to change the industry for the better. Pairing that long-term vision with the mission — what employees will do every day to make that vision a reality — can offer a great deal of inspiration for naming the business, as well as shaping the tone. So, too, can the company’s growth goals. Where will the business be in five, 10 or even 15 years? How likely is it to expand its reach into new industries or be acquired by a competitor? Knowing how much room to leave for change can direct brainstorming efforts.
- Understanding your audiences. For many B2B companies, potential customers are the number one consideration when naming the brand. Appealing to their unique needs or desires may direct the name to be benefit-oriented or convey a certain level of service. For other businesses, shareholders or members of the Board may take priority. Ensuring their voice is heard in the process can be important for buy-in. For this, AvreaFoster recommends hosting a discovery session to better understand their objectives and preferences. Though, keep in mind, their commentary may be more esoteric. AvreaFoster was once told by a client’s Board of Directors that they wanted the new brand name to “sound like a mountain.” We got it.
- Listening to employees. We would be remiss if we left current employees out of the mix of valued audiences. Especially for existing brands that have achieved brand equity, employees are critical to the success of the new brand name. While we do not recommend employees participate in brainstorming name options, we do advocate for involving them in the process. This can simply mean communicating milestones of the naming process and reminding employees why the change is necessary. It can also mean polling employees for their insights on strategic direction for the new name (done to coincide with development of the scorecard below). AvreaFoster did this for a recent renaming project, and the results of the employee poll helped us create name options that could be swiftly adopted by employees and also reinforced leadership’s decision to change the name — making the process to identify a name and create a new visual brand identity much smoother.
- Auditing the peer landscape. The last thing anyone wants is a brand name that makes people think of a competitor, whether that’s because it sounds like a competitor’s brand name, echoes one of their solutions or even just uses terminology present in the competitor’s current messaging. That’s why it’s important to examine recurring themes in the peer landscape, including how many brand names start with the same letter; are the same number of syllables; and evoke the same tone, feeling or key message. While the selected brand name doesn’t have to refrain from all peer connections, there is power in standing out from the crowd.
Develop a Brand Naming Scorecard
The sheer number of possible directions one can explore when concepting a brand name can be dizzying. That’s why we always kick off naming engagements with a brand naming workshop designed to align leaders and decision-makers — as best as we are able — around key components of the new brand name. The results of this brand naming workshop inform a sort of scorecard that our naming experts can use to brainstorm in one key direction or narrowed directions.
Equally important, the scorecard helps to remind our clients of agreed-upon strategy when presenting name options — supporting rationale for adopting each name presented and preventing rogue strategies or new, personal preferences from being introduced mid-engagement. While each workshop is tailored to the specific interests of our client’s business, a typical session will include these steps.
- Rationale for the change (if applicable): For those changing their brand name, it is critical to align leadership on why the change is necessary and to consistently remind those decision-makers of this with every touch point along the journey. We have made it to this point in client engagements only to find misalignment or — dare we say — major disagreement within the company’s leadership team to change the brand name at all. While it may make some uncomfortable, it is a very necessary conversation to have — and one that may be better facilitated by a neutral third party.
- Preferences on name types: There are typically seven name types presented for clients to mull over: descriptive (E*TRADE), evocative (Nike), inventive (Xerox), lexical (Krazy Glue), acronyms (IBM), geographical (Arizona Title) and founder (Boeing).
As a strategic partner that understands our clients’ business models, we can typically identify three or four of these as non-viable immediately, allowing our client to freely discuss the merits of others. While the result may be two or three name types, this is significantly better than going into brainstorming with seven possible strategic options. - Direction for tone and associated imagery: This exercise can offer a selection of imagery to guide decision-makers toward a particular image they want the name to evoke. We have also simply presented written options for clients to rank as a group, such as, “The new name should A) sound innovative, technology-driven; B) bridge to the organization’s vision; or C) make an emotional, more human impact.”
- Messaging themes: Less subjective than the exercise to capture tone, this part of the workshop dives into very specific themes the client may want the new name to convey. Working off of a brand positioning statement, these themes are largely dependent on the unique qualities of the company, its solutions and value proposition to the market. Again, we always ask clients to rank themes. Examples from previous client work have included data insights, cost reductions and access to care. The results sometimes reveal misalignment within the leadership team, but most often capture a consensus in one or two messaging directions.
- Personality traits: One of our favorite parts of the naming workshop, the results of the personality traits exercise help to shape the brand experience and tone of voice of the brand overall, as well as draw lines around the new name. We like to present a sliding scale around four personality traits: Clever vs. straightforward, modest vs. bold, technical vs. human, and down-to-earth vs. aspirational.
- Reflections of the peer landscape: No workshop is complete without a general discussion around the client’s peer landscape and reflecting on what is admired — whether that’s the imagery the names invoke, the tone they capture or the message they convey. Without fail, the conversation will turn to what’s lacking in the names of peers. This can be just as valuable as positive feedback, allowing leaders the opportunity to communicate what they don’t want in a name.
Trust the Process (and the Brand Naming Experts)
When the front-end work is thorough and documented, we find the brainstorming and presentation of viable, relevant brand names goes very well. Some of our clients have even called it fun. Don’t get us wrong — it is work and, sometimes, even if the majority of leaders prefer one brand name, you might be faced with a single risk-averse leader who struggles to commit. When hand-wringing like this begins, we sometimes suggest a very narrowed focus group around the top two or three brand names. For us, “narrowed” means a poll of three to five industry and/or sales and marketing experts with a vested interest in the brand name.
We have needed to intercept clients who tried to bring naming initiatives in-house or used outside partners inexperienced with brand naming, especially in the B2B world. In these instances, they come to us nearly exhausted — emotionally, as well as of time and budget. Our advice is to start with experienced naming veterans, preferably with the chops to have delicate and sometimes difficult conversations with your company’s leadership team.
After all, brand naming is a high-stakes business. A thoughtful brand name can propel the company to achieve its objectives and drive market momentum for years to come, while a poorly chosen brand name can severely hinder it.
Next Steps: Bringing Your B2B Brand Name to Life
At AvreaFoster, we’ve spent 30+ years helping B2B brands navigate this journey — delivering names that drive engagement, differentiate in the market and support long-term business goals. Want to see our approach in action? Explore how we helped Arrive Health and Ventric Health develop names that align with their vision, resonate with key audiences and position them for success.
Are you curious about crafting a winning brand name for your B2B business? Let us help.
