Choosing the best name for your product can be easier than you think if you consult with the consumer. Your future success may depend on the right choice of name, so it’s essential to find a name that is accepted by your target audience and conveys your brand’s values. To this end, market research offers the possibility of finding the name you need through the product naming test. Read on to find out what it consists of!
What is product naming?
Naming refers to the name attributed to a new product or service, which considerably influences consumers’ first impressions.
Therefore, it must have certain characteristics to have a correct impact on consumers’ minds, such as, for example:
- Easy to remember
- Original
- Simple spelling
- Different from the rest of the products or services of the competition
- Not be difficult to pronounce
- Arouse interest in the public
- Not present negative connotations
Importance of product naming
Choosing the right name for your product is essential to market penetration. The name must convey the brand values and arouse emotions in the consumer. Your target market must identify your product’s most valuable attributes just by seeing or hearing it.
If you have a name that conveys the values of the product, you can even get the consumer to relate the name of a product with the generic name of the product, as in the case of Kleenex and Popsicle.
Types of naming
Depending on what a brand’s product name conveys, there are different types of naming:
- Invented names: those created outside the existing language. They are words created to be related to the product, for example, Google (which comes from the word googol, which means 10 raised to the power 100).
- Descriptive names: they indicate the product’s function or the type of service offered. It’s mainly used in cases where the product or service doesn’t reveal its function at first sight. It’s prevalent to create a name by combining two words, for example, Facebook (face+book).
- Metaphorical names are much more suggestive and seek to evoke some intrinsic value in the word itself, such as Nike, which owes its name to the Greek goddess of victory.
- Proper names: are usually used to name the product or service with the name of its founder, such as Ferrari.
- Associative names: linked to a characteristic that the brand represents and that gives it strength, for example, Mango, a fruit that made one of the brand’s founders fall in love with it, and being an accessible name for all languages.
- Arbitrary names: those that have an emotional connection with the product, but don’t describe it—for example, Desigual, whose concept implies that what it offers differs from the rest.
- Acronymic and alphanumeric names: those that combine numbers and letters. An example is Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).
- Geographical names: refer to the geographical location related to the brand, such as Patagonia or Columbia.
- Historical names: inspired by historical characters whose values are sought to align with the brand identity. This is the case of Tesla, which makes honors to Nicola Tesla.
When choosing one type of name or another, it’s essential to make it according to its objective. Internet searches and keywords related to your brand can be a source of inspiration. Even inventing words can be a good product naming strategy to launch a new product successfully.
8 tips for choosing a product name
One of the main requirements for choosing a product or service name that will not fail is originality. Anything that conveys plagiarism, repetition, or boredom ends up falling on deaf ears, in addition to running the risk of the brand working on the brand awareness of the competition.
In addition to originality, some tips that may be useful are:
- Make it appealing to your potential customers.
- The name should have an impact on brand recognition.
- Be clear and concise: short names tend to have a better impact.
- Be easy to remember.
- Be clear and easy to pronounce.
- Evoke emotions: names not only serve to mention a product, but they can also convey emotions or feelings to awaken in the consumer the need to purchase the product or service. For example, Satisfyer implies the benefit that the consumer gets by making use of the product.
- Leave diminutives for specific cases such as, for example, products for babies.
- If the product is to be marketed in different markets, the name must comply with the above-mentioned requirements in the local language of the market.
All recommendations are valid for creating a successful brand naming.
Always test with your target audience any aspect that is important for your brand, either through a concept test, a price analysis, a Claim Test, or a Packaging Test.
Product naming process
Generally, the perfect name for a product is not achieved by thinking about it for a few minutes but is the result of a creative process. A process in which it’s necessary to brainstorm and come up with concepts related to the characteristics of the product or service you want to convey. Sharing ideas with others makes finding common points easier and seeing the elements that should stand out from the rest.
For brainstorming, quantitative and qualitative research tools help develop ideas through creative techniques and allow the consumer’s voice to be included in the creation process.
Once you have different name proposals for your product or service, it’s important to test them with your target audience to find out if the desired effect is achieved, if they understand your idea or if any changes need to be made. To do this, you can test the name that you think has the most potential or test different proposals simultaneously with a monadic test to identify the name with the most potential. The benefits of testing potential product names are critical to success.
When creating the questionnaire for the naming test, questions that address the degree of attractiveness of the name, its originality, and its associated meanings should be included. In addition to aspects related to the personality of the brand and the profile of its target market, as well as formulating aspects related to the alternatives that the consumer has in the market.
Are you ready to test your potential brand names with your target audience? Try Zinklar now!
