Choosing a brand-name: Going beyond the rhetoric

Choosing a brand name is a tricky process.
Asking how to go about choosing is even trickier.

People who emphasise how critical it is to get it right, will talk about how Nike (named after the Greek Goddess of Victory) would have been a dud in its previous avatar of Blue Ribbon Sports, or of how the friendliness and simplicity of Apple Computer made it stand out in the tech-heavy, IBM-dominated personal computer industry. Could it have achieved similar success if it were named something as geeky as Altair 8800, another computer released around the same time when Apple was founded?

On the other hand are the cynics, calling the entire process a waste of time. They talk about how Coca-Cola gets its name simply from its ingredients, Pepsi from a condition it was supposed to be a treatment for, or that Mercedes was named so, only because a car-seller/racing-enthusiast asked it to be named after his daughter. If these origins can also lead to great successes, "What's in a name"?

Both these schools of thought explain their stand by cherry-picking success stories.
And both are non-starters to help the actual process of choosing a brand name.

So how do you go about it?

1. Start with the purpose of branding
Usually, the purpose of branding is said to be to stand out or to be memorable. But these are more evaluation parameters. The purpose of branding is to establish a reputation before customers can actually experience the brand.

The reputation could come from the credibility of founders (Chanel), or uniqueness of its ingredients (Coca-Cola), or some unique processes (Blaupunkt). Or it could just "explain" the product by association (Motorola).

Brands who are first-movers want to become the default choice and communicate the same through ubiquity - Android as an OS for mobile devices, Walkman as the personal audio player and lighter alternative to the boombox, etc.

2. Go for uniqueness
Pharma and ingredient branding are great examples here. Naming a medicine brand after its ingredient molecules is helpful but not unique if all companies are doing this. It wouldn't be wise to name your shampoo after its active ingredient 'panthenol', if Pantene already exists as a brand in the market.

A caveat here: uniqueness doesn't necessarily mean exclusivity. A brand can stand out by being inclusive too. Big Bazaar is one such example.

3. Look for a great brand story
Stories, especially origin stories make for great memorability and even reputation. But they may not exist and need to be invented. Hence I say "look for". Häagen-Dazs is an invented name that wanted to convey an “aura of the old-world traditions and craftsmanship.”

4. Build the brand elements
 Here comes the complete package - aesthetics like colours and designs, hard factors like physical structures and product features, and soft factors like brand personality, and customer service.

5. Rebrand if you can, and only if you must.
Flipkart started out as a book e-tailer and later, became a marketplace and one of India's biggest e-commerce companies. Should it have changed its name? Maybe. But it would have been expensive, and perhaps unnecessary. On the other hand, a hatchback from Tata Motors 'Zica' had to go for re-branding after emergence of 'zika virus' as a carrier of contagious diseases.

Hope this outline helps you go beyond the rhetoric.

Feel something can be added to the list? Add your comments.