Creating or rejuvenating a brand is the challenge that launched a thousand tasks. It’s our bread and butter here at Brandality, and we love every part of it, but before we get carried away with colour palettes and typography there’s one crucial factor: the name.

A brand name can be the winning formula or the thorn in the side for any organisation. Great brand names ignite positive associations, fuel recognition and inspire action, the wrong name hinders all marketing efforts and potential for growth.

There’s a reason why many agencies steer clear of brand naming, it’s very challenging! The battle isn’t so much about generating the names, it’s actually finding one that is available. ‘On so many occasions we’ve hit an EUREKA! moment and thought we’ve engineered the perfect name, only to discover it’s already in use. We know that 90% of the battle is finding a name that has all the key components available – such as trademark, domain name and Companies House. These are very easy for anyone to register, even if it’s just an idea, meaning that the most amazing, perfect, spot-on brand name simply might not be up for grabs.’ Said Adam Arnold, Founder and Creative Director of Brandality.

Knowing me, knowing you
As with every project at Brandality, we’re very customer-focused, no not our customers, but our customer’s customers – after all it’s them we’re building the brand for. Creating customer profiles is one of the key starting points and a core element in our brand naming strategy. ‘It’s more than just demographics, we actually craft personalities and put a face and a name to them. We even go as far as defining what they do at the weekend, what they read and what car they drive.’ Said Adam. ‘Having a physical representation of these profiles to hand allows the designers to reflect on them during the conceptual stage. They’ve also proven invaluable in the decision-making process with many of our clients using them… ‘what would Jill prefer?’.

Going global
Increasingly, and particularly with the advent of online commerce, many of our clients are expecting to trade internationally. Creating brand names to work in multiple territories brings a whole new level of complexities to consider. It wasn’t until we began working more closely with clients in the pet industry that we discovered “pet” in French roughly translates as…well, not something you’d want to feed an animal, to put it politely.

Looking as good as it sounds
For many, the first encounter they have with your brand is actually visually. It therefore needs to look engaging and fit for purpose. If it has to work within the confounds of a package, for example, having a long or complex name would not be suitable. Seeing the name and applying it visually onto relevant mediums is an important part of our name testing process.

Tried and tested
Quite often a brand name may seem good at the start, but over time and when put into practice fails to live up to initial expectations. For this reason, we have formulated a brand name testing process – one we have continually refined over the last 15 years. Running the names through this process ensures each name is tested in context.

Talking the talk, walking the walk
At Brandality, we’re living proof of our work: we’re our own advert. We started out under a different name, and as we matured so did our focus – so we realised we needed a name that reflected this (more on that decision another time!).

“Brandality” was inspired by two core words that are absolutely at the heart of what we do: brand, and personality. What sounds so simple was a long road fuelled by creatives, coffee and the occasional dog-related distraction… but we’re OK with that, because this is what we do.

Don’t leave your brand name to chance or simply fall back on a default. The perfect name is out there, you just need the right people to find it.

Get in touch to chat about your band naming project