Starting a business, launching a new product or simply looking for a new start; those are a few of the reasons that lead people to seek names for their brands. Once the decision to look for a name has been made, the next obvious question is: How do you name a brand? In the past, traditionally, most companies would take their founder’s name – usually because the companies would be passed from father to son for generations. On top of…
Read more >
A brand name isn’t necessarily a neologism. It isn’t rare for a word to be used as a brand name (ex: Apple, Windows, Bonobo, etc.). This can lead to legal issues when this word is used by another brand for one of its products. Is this a word and therefore everybody can use it or is it a protected brand name? The general principle, known as “the Principle of Specification”, is that a word, a household name can only be…
Read more >I had a conversation at a recent pitch meeting that I think is worth expanding on and sharing. I was asked by a potential client what I felt were some of the most common things that can go wrong during a naming process, the effect that they can have and how to best guard against them. What was interesting was that he wanted to know what mistakes were made by the client themselves so that he could try to stop…
Read more >
