Brand & CX
1 Jun 2024
5 Min Read
What's In a Name? Turning Words into Brands
With insights from Matter Of Form Strategy Director James Lees, who has masterminded many names in his time, we unpick the art of turning mere words into brand worlds – from the nuances of nomenclature to the stories behind luxury favourites, culminating in actionable takeaways for those in need of a name.
Takeaways To Streamline The Brand Naming Process
For those ready to rise to the challenge, we'd urge you to stick to three fundamentals.
01
Force Objectivity The process is going to be different for every naming project. What works for a founder-led boutique won't for a global enterprise. We have a set of proprietary frameworks and criteria we work against to ensure we make progress in our creativity, alongside our clients. It's a collaborative process. But with collaboration comes more voices, more subjectivity. The best and only place to start with a name is to map your parameters. It is an absolute must.
02
Loosen Up Bad ideas can lead to the very best. Don't limit your thinking beyond the criteria you've set – and even then, rules are made to be broken. In our process, we'll generate thousands of potential names to find the right one. And then a thousand more. Begin by being unafraid of breadth, let your ideas flow unfiltered. Because your framework is already in place to filter and narrow your selection pool later on.
03
Overcome Uncertainty (Hopefully) you'll have made a selection based on reason. Whether a reference to criteria or a feeling. Coming down to a final choice, uncertainty can be usual. If you’re having second thoughts, know that the stage after naming – branding, visual identity, experience design – will be where the names take on more value and meaning, overcoming the uncertainty that may rear its head when it’s just a word on a page, before associations have begun to build and value starts to bud. If, after that, you’re still uncertain, call us.
Brand & CX
