Question 1

What are the 7 criteria for a successful product name?

Accepted Answer

For a product name to be successful, it must be memorable, meaningful, positive, distinct, easy, searchable, and legal. You need your product name to be memorable because you want your target market to look for it and tell others about it. If they can’t remember your product’s name, they can’t buy it or recommend it. In order to be memorable, it has to be meaningful to your target market so that it resonates and stays with them. The meaning could be in the form of information about what it does and why they should covet it or a feeling that it gives them which they will want to experience again. Of course, the meaning has to be a positive association or your target market will not be attracted to it and may even be repelled by it. If your product name conveys positive meaning but is not distinct from competition, your target market may get confused or may not remember your product. If your product name is too similar to an established competitor’s, your marketing dollars could actually contribute to your competitor’s growth. On the other hand, if the product name is similar but your product stands out in other ways in the purchase environment, your product might benefit from your competitor’s marketing investments. Your product name also needs to be easy to write and pronounce so that your target market will talk about it and grow your product via word of mouth. Because so much discussion and shopping happens online, it is important that your product name be searchable. A funky spelling might make the name more memorable and distinct, increasing the likelihood that someone will enter it into a search engine properly and possibly increasing the likelihood that the search engine will find it. On the other hand, it might make it harder to find if people hear it but don’t see it, or if the search engine automatically “corrects” the spelling. Finally, the name must also be legal. If the name has already been trademarked by someone else, you might encounter legal difficulties if you market your product under the same name. An expert in product name development can help you with the research that will benchmark your alternatives against these criteria across cultures, as needed, via primary research with your target market, SEO testing, and trademark searches.

Question 2

What are the 5 types of product names?

Accepted Answer

When brainstorming product names to test, you may want to use these 5 types of product names as probes: descriptive, evocative or metaphorical, whimsical or made-up, compound or blended words, and misspelled words or deviant spellings. Although these types are not mutually exclusive, each one sends your mind in a different direction when used as a probe. A descriptive name communicates information about the product, such as what it does or its main differentiating benefit. For example, if you developed a cylinder that people could place over the head and shoulders while they sleep that keeps dangerous atmosphere from entering their lungs, you might consider calling it “Life-Protek” or “Life-Protek Mechanism.” This would accurately, but perhaps not fully, communicate the main purpose of the product. An evocative name triggers a certain feeling or memory of an experience that you want to associate with your product and may be metaphorical or allegorical. If you invented a personal flying machine, you might call it “Flapple,” which suggests how a bird propels itself through the air via use of its wings. Stretching the point, conjoining “flap” and “apple” suggest the ability to fly for long distances, but only to someone who knows that a fruit fly can cover nearly nine miles in a single flight. To others, the images of “flapping” and “apple” might evoke the feeling of temptation - if they relate these images to the stories of Icarus (wanting to fly too close to the sun) and Adam (eating the forbidden fruit of knowledge). If these associations resonate with your target market, this might be a good name to use. A made-up name, such as “Ubik,” doesn’t tell you much about the product except that it might be innovative. If you were to market a spray that prevents objects from regressing to their earlier forms, you might find it difficult to create a name that adequately communicates this functionally, so “Ubik” might send a message to your target market that this product is different and that it’s worth the effort to find out more about it. For another product, a more whimsical name, like “Swibble,” might communicate that it is intended to be fun or entertaining. Sometimes, creating a compound or blended word will help explain the product while increasing the probability that the name will not duplicate an existing name. For example, if your product reads someone’s thoughts and visualizes them in colored patterns, a potential blended name might be “Cephalochromoscope,” which suggests head, color, and scanning. If you created a line of artificial organs, the blended term “Artiforg” might express its purpose and benefits effectively to your target market. Deviant or alternative spellings can grab attention while communicating that your product has the characteristics of the properly spelled word but that it is a name, not a word. Deliberately misspelling or otherwise taking liberties with real words can make the name stand out and might make it easier to search for when it becomes popular enough to be recognized by search engines. However, your target market may not know how to spell it if they hear it but don’t see it, and search engines might automatically “correct” the spelling if it doesn’t understand that it refers to a product. Using these types of names as probes can help you brainstorm outside the box, and product naming experts can help you decide which ones fit with your existing strategies and how to test them with your target market.

Question 3

What kind of research is conducted for product name development?

Accepted Answer

Research for product name development can include quantitative research, qualitative research, and, most likely, secondary or desk research. Which of these are conducted, how they are designed, and in what sequence they occur will depend on your existing product line and research you have already done for it, your preferences, and your resources. However, you will always want to do a trademark search to make sure the likely names are available before you invest in testing and developing them, and you will likely want to do a search to make sure your preferred domain names are available. Other kinds of secondary research can be extremely valuable. For example, a review of names of current products and those in related categories can give you a sense of whether there is any consistent naming pattern in practice that creates expectations among the target market, then decide whether to follow the pattern or differentiate against it. Existing names might be an obvious topic to research, but you may also want to take a longitudinal view and look at products that failed and how they were named, past name changes and what precipitated them, and announcements or rumors of any impending products. If you are marketing the product internationally, linguistic searches can help you avoid disastrous missteps. Secondary research can help you define a clear context around your naming endeavor, and may also inspire you with new ideas to test. It is also important to conduct primary research with your target market, and research to understand and define it has likely preceded the naming effort. The target market is the ultimate judge and jury who will rule on your product name’s success or failure, so you will likely want to test your case in mock trials before you commit. Some prefer to conduct qualitative research, such as focus groups or in-depth interviews, some prefer quantitative, such as surveys, and some prefer both. In some cases, time and budget will dictate which approach is feasible for you. In both quantitative and qualitative research, you will have the opportunity to present names, logos, and other stimuli and to ask for structured and unstructured responses. You will also have the opportunity to have participants react to different levels of exposure to the product concept and names, and this is an important design aspect to think through because the level of exposure your target market will experience in reality will vary. How will they react if they hear the name but are unfamiliar with the product? When they first hear what the product does for them, will the name reinforce expectations or contradict them? Will they experience the name differently if they hear it versus see it, or if they see it with or without the logo or with or without the packaging? Will your planned marketing and advertising add dimensions to this experience? Will their initial reaction matter as much as how they feel over time after repeated exposures? In addition to focus groups, interviews, and surveys, consider neuromarketing and biometric research to directly measure their responses. Will they be excited or bored when they hear or see the name? Will the name even register in their minds? Nonconscious measures can help you gain a complete understanding of how your product names affect your target market with variable levels of context, such as logos and packaging. Finally, usability testing may also be appropriate, in the sense of whether your target market can find the product on the web after they see or hear the name. Such a test is challenging because your product does not exist on the web yet, with or without that name, but some product naming experts may have developed solutions for this.

Question 4

What questions should be asked in product name development research?

Accepted Answer

When you use focus groups, in-depth interviews, or surveys to develop product names, you need to ask questions of participants. Ultimately, you want to know which name they prefer, the intensity of their reactions, the emotions or thoughts they experience when they see or hear the names, and how different names influence their perceptions and expectations of the attributes of the product. You will also want to know how the name influences their preference for your offering versus competitive alternatives and how it affects their likelihood to purchase. Those who advocate survey research for product naming typically follow a standard script, and qualitative researchers may or may not follow a similar script. First, they explain the product concept, then introduce names and ask participants to rate how much they like each or to rank them. For one or more names, they will ask for ratings on a set of attributes that apply to the product. The participant will express how they expect the product described earlier to perform on each attribute if it had the proposed name, and they may also collect verbatim reactions or other suggestions for names. Typically, they will also ask the participant how willing they would be to purchase a product with that name and may ask for comparisons to competitive products. Before you decide whether to follow this script, to customize it, or to create your own, consider the following issues and how they relate to your objectives and where you are in your process. Do you want to know if the names you propose fit the product description, or do you want to know what product your target market expects when they hear the name before being told about the concept? If you ask about multiple names in the same survey or interview, will a participant’s responses to one influence their responses to another? If they won’t see multiple names in the market, how realistic is the question as designed? If these issues concern you, you may want to consider A/B testing instead of trying to measure each potential name in each survey. Similarly, do you want to prompt them with attributes that you believe are relevant for the product or category, or do you want the target market to tell you which attributes are relevant? Prompting them with attributes before asking them for their expectations will bias them, and you may never find out how impactful the name could have been. However, if you have already conducted research to determine the attributes, there is probably little risk to using them as probes. Finally, as much as you might want to know how much a proposed product name will influence likelihood to purchase it or how much more it would be preferred over a competitor’s product, you need to ask yourself if you literally believe that someone can give you an accurate response in the context of a survey. No matter how much information you give them, they are likely to have much richer information about products that actually exist and that they purchase and use. Even if you give them “enough” information in the survey, will that skew the results toward your product because a) they would be unlikely to have that much information in reality and b) you have made your product much more prominent in their minds than it would be if they were actually shopping for it? You must also consider that while you may be comfortable with how you will interpret these responses, can you be sure that someone else in your organization won’t take the results too literally? Ultimately, you know your information objectives, and these will lead you to the likely questions to ask, which may end up looking very similar to the “standard” approach. The design challenge may not be which questions to ask, but how to sequence them and how much to show each participant, both in terms of information and alternatives. An expert in product naming research can walk you through these challenges and help you make the right trade-offs which will result in research that maximizes your confidence.

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