STEP 3: DEVELOPING NAMES

Naming Tip Don't be afraid to be bold. Distinguish yourself from your competitors. Don't imitate them. You think everyone felt comfortable with Virgin?

Brainstorming Sessions
Focus on ideas, not names. Group name-creation sessions are rarely productive. Instead, collaboratively identify 10 conceptual areas for exploration and divide them among your team. Assigning a limited number of conceptual areas to each person will allow everyone to dig deep instead of merely scratch the surface, resulting in a richer and more diverse name list.

Free-Association Exercises
Control leads to people in control…leads to air-traffic control…leads to planes…leads to pilots…leads to flying…leads to things in flight…leads to birds…leads to birds with control…leads to hummingbirds…leads to Hillstar, a species of hummingbird. Ah, interesting name!

Metaphor Explorations
Virgin. Safari. Amazon. Naked Juices. These are all good examples of effective use of metaphor in naming. Each marketer found a unique, indirect and memorable way to communicate their core messaging. These names were immediately distinctive and provided rich brand-building opportunities. Plus, they were more likely to be available as trademarks.

Creative Relay Exercise
It's a simple idea but incredibly effective. Have everyone on your name development team share a short list of their names with each other. Then, in piggyback fashion, use each other's ideas to create altogether new names. Make sure you're buckled in because your creative list is about to take off.

Naming Tip See past your prejudices. Just because a name reminds you of your nerdy Uncle Ted doesn’t mean it’s a bad name. Many a great name has bitten the dust because someone couldn’t see past their personal preconceptions and idiosyncratic experiences.

Naming Tip Embrace the dark side. Most juicy words have lots of connotations—positive, negative, neutral—depending on the context. Just because a good name has a dark side isn't a reason to kill it. Its edginess might work in your favor and help you get noticed—as long as the name's darker associations don't overshadow its relevant ones.

Out-of-Category Inspirations
"Chocolate" for a cell phone? "Juicy" for clothing? "Apple" for a computer? Some of the most unexpected and effective names may come from out-of-category inspirations. Pick an industry other than your own and consider words specific to that industry. Now, try to imagine those words as names for your product or service. For instance, naming a new high-energy health bar? Check out the language in a motocross magazine. Racer Bars? Hurricane Bars? Flyaway Bars? Why not?

Foreign Language Exploration
Don't just limit yourself to the Romance languages! Consider a language like Swahili, which is rich in words with an alternating consonant-vowel construction that is very easy to pronounce. There are many excellent translation resources online, including YourDictionary, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Pahlavi Dictionary, Free Online Dictionaries (English to and from other languages), and WordReference.com.

Naming Tip Try to take a break of at least 1-2 days between when you generate creative and when you identify a shortlist. You'll be able to see your work with fresher eyes.Generate a long creative list; the more the merrier. Much of what you come up with won't be available, so you'll need considerable quantity.

Visual Stimulants
Check out those unsolicited catalogs that keep piling up in your mailbox, your wife's Vogue, your husband's GQ, your children's artwork, and of course the world around you! Some of the best creative name ideas come from visual stimulants, including magazines of all sorts. Supplement your text-based name development with lots of visual triggers.

You'll want to keep your CFI running for at least one week, or until such time as you have several hundred possible names to consider. That may sound like a lot, but it will help ensure that you choose the right brand name for your marketing vehicle. (Professional naming firms typically come up with several thousand names!) And note: after employing your remaining name development tools (see below) and narrowing down your list of names to only the most exciting and viable ideas, it may be necessary to restart your CFI.

Caution While you may experience epiphany in naming, it's pretty unusual. Like a well-tuned automobile, names need a bit of time to "warm up." Expecting epiphany upon first glance would be akin to expecting your car to jump into the fast lane when you first turn the ignition. Don't rush to judgment: give a name a few hours (or even a few days) to get into gear.

Naming Tip To get a sense for your naming style, think about existing names in the marketplace you like and dislike, including—but not limited to—those of your competitors.