The eight super rules can help you give your brand a name that everyone will love
Introduction
Marketing practitioners will inevitably encounter a problem, how to Brand name? A competitive name is not only easier for consumers to remember, but also helps the product promotion and marketing process go more smoothly.
For example, "Worsler" is the Chinese name of the famous German beer brand "WARSTEINER" that has just entered the Chinese market. It has made it difficult to promote the product in the Chinese market, and the company has almost delisted. Through consumer interviews and research, they found that the reason for the low sales was that the pronunciation of "Wosler" was very similar to "I am dead", which was incompatible with the values ????of the Chinese people who always emphasize "auspiciousness" and care for "life".
Coca-Cola, which is now familiar to everyone, also fell into naming controversy. When "Coca-Cola" entered Shanghai as early as 1920, it was not called this name. Instead, it was named "Tadpole Wax". As a result, it also fell into the same fate as "Worsler", and its market sales were bleak. . The reason is that "tadpole chewing wax" makes consumers feel that the product is related to tadpoles. In addition, Coca-Cola belongs to the beverage category, and consumers naturally associate it with "dirty water overflowing with tadpoles." Fortunately, the Coca-Cola Company held a prize-winning competition for Chinese names. A Shanghainese named Jiang Yi who was studying in the UK at the time gave them the name "Coca-Cola", which was adopted in one fell swoop and changed Coca-Cola's fate in the Chinese market.
Both the above two examples violate the seventh of the eight principles of brand naming - pay attention to brand associations (see below). In general, a good brand name can walk on its own and go a long way. If you give a good name, you will get twice the result with half the effort; if you give a bad name, you will give up halfway. So, what are the principles or methods for naming?
Here is a summary of the eight framework principles of brand naming for reference by marketers who need to name their brands:
1. Ensure it can be registered 2. Imply categories and services 3. Easy to understand 4. User perspective, in line with consumer tonality 5. Visual and image-based 6. Has stories and feelings 7. Pay attention to brand associations 8. The influence of age and gender cannot be underestimated
1 .Ensure that it can be registered
The most important principle in brand naming is registrability. We registered a brand 20 years ago and it was hassle-free. However, 20 years later, it is difficult to register a brand today. It's not because the registration fee is high (registration with the China Trademark Office only costs a few k), but because someone else may have thought of the name you thought of and registered it before you did. Generally, forward-looking companies will register all names of the same type to prevent competitors from taking side-steps in the future. This is a very real problem. No matter how great an idea you come up with, it will be in vain if someone else signs up first.
“Therefore, whenever you think of a great idea, you should immediately check it on the China Trademark Network and China Industry and Commerce Network to confirm that it can be registered before further optimization, including text design, etc.”
2. Imply categories and services
A good brand name should best imply categories and services. In other words, whatever industry and category you are in, your brand name should be relevant.
For example, Yidao Yongcar means that it is easy to call a car; calling a duck means that it is a brand that sells ducks for delivery; P&G means that the product is a Japanese product. Use consumer goods; Alipay, it is easy to think of it as related to money; WeChat, it is easy to think of it as communicating with others (information transmission); Melatonin, it is easy to think of it as being more precious than the brain (platinum is a precious metal) products.
3. Easy to understand
Every marketer hopes that a successful brand name can be widely disseminated. Whether it’s the Internet or offline word-of-mouth communication.
Just think about it, a consumer wants to introduce your product to a friend, but because your brand name is too convoluted and difficult to remember, the communication is interrupted. Similarly, the names of people are also the same. Some people are called Liu Huan, while others are called Cheng Yixuan. I believe most people have never seen the "Yi" in the second name. Therefore, it is particularly important to be easy to understand. Many advertisers (especially novices) are obsessed with giving names that are too literary and artistic, and understand that not all consumers are great writers or university professors, and most consumers are just ordinary civilians.
For example, a customer I once met wanted to make tea, so he gave him a name like "Ti Yun Tea Ceremony" or "Yunxiang Tea Guest", which made people confused. Many restaurants, in order to show elegance, often use characters such as "Xin", "Miao" and "畾" with complex strokes and difficult to identify. This is a show off and is ineffective for consumers. Just imagine, I want to reserve a seat in advance. I can’t even read the name of your store. How should I tell my friends what store it is. On the contrary, items such as "Diaoye Beef Brisket", "Guoqiao Rice Noodles", "Northeast Dumpling House", "Longjiang Pork Knuckle Rice", etc. will be remembered as soon as you hear them and make people want to go there.
In order to be easy to understand, it is necessary to achieve four "easiness": easy to recognize, easy to write, easy to read, and easy to remember. This requires us to avoid using some uncommon words or vocabulary when naming our brand. Moreover, on the premise that words can be changed, it is best to find some words with fewer strokes.
For example, when Mengniu launched the high-end milk "Deluxe", the "Lun" in it could be written as "Lun" or "Lun". However, they adopted the simplest stroke of "Lun". The purpose is to make the brand name easy to recognize and write. In addition, it is also important for the brand name to be pronounced loudly. Because the loud pronunciation is not only easy to read, but also easy to remember. Wong Lo Kat, Wong Tai Kat, and Jiaduobao are all named using Chinese characters that primary and secondary school students can understand, and they have now become household names. Fangduoduo, Didi Taxi, and Renren use a lot of redundant words to make them read catchy.
4. From the user’s perspective, in line with the consumer’s tonality
From the user’s perspective, analyze the consumer’s tonality. Brand tone should be consistent with consumer tone.
It is also a Q&A community. It is not called "XX Knows". It has a formal name called "Zhihu". The former ends with answers, while the latter starts with the exploration of questions. The target users prefer High-end, this name is consistent with the tone of its target users.
Ofo and Mobike are both premium bicycles. Mobike embodies a literary and artistic atmosphere, and its users are relatively high-end literary and artistic types; while ofo embodies a feeling of the common people. Just imagine that a young man in artistic clothes would choose Mobike without hesitation in front of oFo and Mobike.
5. Visualization and imagery
According to research on the human brain, people can often remember visual things at once, but cannot remember some shy and difficult concepts. .
For example, there are two brands selling black tea, one is Jiqingli and the other is called Three Tea Craftsmen. Obviously, the reason why the latter is immediately remembered by consumers is that it can quickly make the image of three tea masters appear in the consumer's cerebral cortex. Similarly, Three Squirrels (Internet Nut Brand), Three Dads, Apple, BlackBerry (Mobile Phone Brand), Elephant (Condom Brand), and Ant Financial can quickly make consumers remember this principle.
6. Have a story and feelings
If the product has a story and feelings during the creation process, you might as well use it as the basis for naming, which will be beneficial to subsequent marketing promotion and touch. Fan economy. A product with a story and emotions is always more popular with consumers than a cold product.
Three dads, when they had this name, they were not even related to air purifiers, but they attracted a large number of fans. Because "Three Dads" was founded by three fathers who love their children, they devoted themselves to research for the future health of their children, and finally developed an air purifier that can reach 0 PM2.5 in the air outlet. It is a sentimental product. In the minds of fans, is Three Dads a good name? Isn't Three Dads a good name? That doesn't matter anymore. It had a story from the beginning, became a symbol of the product, and had an indestructible feeling, because Emotions are often the best at winning over consumers.
Similarly, Chu Cheng. Consumers who don’t understand the story behind it think it is a new orange variety, but in fact, Chu orange is an extension of Chu Shijian’s name. In the eyes of fans, "Chu Cheng is a state." "What you taste is the spirit!" "This is not eating oranges, it is tasting life." "Tasting Chu Cheng is a life." Behind Chu Cheng is a person Inspiring entrepreneurial stories. Chu Shijian went from being a smoker to being imprisoned, and then starting his own business again at the age of 75. His unyielding spirit has brought tears to the eyes of countless fans.
7. Pay attention to brand association
Brand association means that when consumers see your brand, they will associate it with other things, and whether this thing is good or bad directly affects the brand sales volume.
The reason for this association is often "deep-rooted". It is the result of the qualitative thinking formed by words, dialects, and common sayings over thousands of years. This association can often greatly affect consumers' purchasing emotions.
For example, a strange phenomenon occurred after Shenzhen Airport was named Huangtian International Airport. Although it is top-notch in terms of management and service, many overseas passengers, especially Taiwanese passengers, are unwilling to care about the airport, and instead choose to look far away. Transfer to Hong Kong or Guangzhou Baiyun Airport for flight. The reason for this turned out to be the name, because in the Hokkien language, "Huangtian" and "Huangquan" are homophonic, and passengers can easily associate "going to Huangtian Airport" with "the road to Huangquan!" So the airport was finally renamed "Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport" , "Bao'an" and "Security" are homophonic, which means "keeping safe". After the name change, the number of overseas passengers increased significantly.
An example of successful use of brand association is the "Fu Linmen" brand. "Fu Linmen" edible oil has taken the second place in the bottled oil market in just a few years, and has even surpassed the sales volume of "Arowana" in the East China market. The reason is, in addition to its successful sales strategy, the brand name "Fu Linmen" caters to the "praying" mentality of housewives (over 30 years old). Has great sales guidance power.
8. The influence of age and gender cannot be underestimated
Like people’s names, most brand names also have obvious gender and age characteristics. This type of feature allows consumers to know directly from the name whether the product is a product for men or women, and whether it is suitable for older or younger people without reading the description, shortening the transaction time.
For example, brand names such as "Little Nurse", "Yaqian" and "Estee Lauder" have obvious female characteristics, while brand names such as "Gillette", "Viagra" and "Feilong" are Has obvious male characteristics. As is customary, we will naturally attribute brand names with the word "tang" (such as Tongrentang, Yangshengtang) and "ci" (such as Haci, Keats) as products for the elderly, and brand names with the word "good". Brand names with characters (such as Little Rabbit, Guaiguaihu), "mi" (such as Ma Mi Le, Mimi Bear), "lang" (Xizhilang), "er" (queer), etc. will be judged. It is a children's product. For more marketing techniques and case analysis, please pay attention to the WeChat public account "007 in the Marketing Industry" (beastmkt), which will definitely subvert your traditional marketing concept and open up new marketing horizons!