Trying to decide on 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. Distance you from the cold, unapproachable, complicated brand attributes of competitors with names like IBM, NEC, DEC, ADPAC, Cincom, Dylakor, Input, Integral Systems, Sperry Rand and Syncsort.

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 will inevitably call for testing, reliably in the unreliable form of crowdsourcing or focus groups.

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

When leading metaphorical names are this similar, 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, as doing so is too limiting to achieve tag line greatness. And they make the names one dimensional, by defining them linearly. Imagine, “Virgin Air, A Brand New Experience”. Deadly. Pure hack work.

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. Talk Of The Town.

• 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.

 

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

BOTTOMLINE: The relative amount 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.