Choosing a new brand name ? Do an A.S.S. count.

ASSOCIATIONS + SLOGANS SCORE

Let’s say you’ve got two metaphorical names under consideration for your new computer company, Apple and Strawberry. Both names meet your brand positioning criteria:

Simple, warm, human, approachable, organic, disruptive.

Half your team champions Apple and the other half love the name Strawberry. It’s pointed out that the names couldn’t be more similar, they are both red fruits, so why not flip a coin and move on?  The Chief Obfuscation Officer calls for a month testing, reliably in the unreliable form of crowdsourcing or focus groups.

At which point you become the hero by jumping in and shouting, “I demand an A.S.S. test!”

A test that takes minutes to complete.

When leading name contenders are locked in a battle, tallying up the number of associations each have in our collective consciousness – in stories, legends, idioms, etc, tells you how emotionally connected people are to them. And reveals what each brings to the table for marketing, branding and advertising campaigns.

 

Apple

• Garden of Eden (apple w/ bite logo)

• Issac Newton (product name)

• William Tell

• Snow White

• The Tree of Life

• McIntosh (product names McIntosh, eMac, iMac, Power Mac, MacBook, Mac Mini)

• One smart apple

• A bad apple

• Easy as apple pie

• An apple a day

• Apple of my eye

• Apple polisher

• Big Apple

• Apples and oranges

• How ’bout them apples?

• Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

• Upset the applecart

 

 Strawberry

• Strawberry Fields

• Strawberry shortcake

• Strawberry blonde

 

Apple vs. Strawberry isn’t a fair fight. But it’s not always so lopsided. If the A.S. portion of the test doesn’t produce a winner, move on to Slogans. Put two names side by side and see which inspires the most taglines that play off the name.

Of course none of the taglines anyone can remember actually play off the company name, they’re too expected and make the name one dimensional.  Imagine, “Virgin, A Brand New Experience” or “Apple, Easy as Pie”.  Deadly.

But the exercise does reveal the power, connectivity and relevance of an unexpected name.

In this example, we’ll imagine we’re naming a creative agency and a leading name contender is Igor:

 

 Igor

• Igor. Bringing Your Vision To Life.

• Igor. Get Over The Hump.

• Igor. A Few Spare Parts and a Good Storm.

• Igor. Throw The Switch.

• Igor. A Moveable Beast.

• Igor. Own Your Shadow.

• Igor. No Job Too Horrifying.

• Igor. The Other White Meat.

• Igor. Never Say Die.

• Igor. A Good Brain Is Hard To Find.

• Igor. Alive!

• Igor. Better Living Through Science.

• Igor. Building The Perfect Beast.

 

BOTTOMLINE: The number of ASSOCIATIONS or SLOGANS that potential brand names generate tells you how emotionally connective each name is and how much branding, marketing & advertising ammunition they contain.

 

More on the existential hell of a naming agency naming itself.