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I just finished up “Hello My Name is Awesome”, by Alexandra Watkins which is a great short book on naming your company that I’ve seen @TaylorPearsonMe recommend a few times
I was interested because a few years back I hired the firm that named Starbucks to help me name a company.
I was interested because a few years back I hired the firm that named Starbucks to help me name a company.
Long story short, I didn’t use any of their suggested names. They had an interesting and very thoughtful process that I think hangs together intellectually, but creatively, the results just didn’t work, at least for me.
What I like about Hello My Name is Awesome, is that the authors background is in copywriting at @Ogilvy and the books seems rooted there.
Her approach to naming at her firm @eatmywords feels like an intense copywriting session where she writes one headline that gets used forever
Her approach to naming at her firm @eatmywords feels like an intense copywriting session where she writes one headline that gets used forever
In a nutshell her philosophy is that a “a name should make you smile instead of scratch your head.”
She then blows out that simple philosophy with more detail using what she calls the SMILE/SCRATCH test:
She then blows out that simple philosophy with more detail using what she calls the SMILE/SCRATCH test:
Good names make you SMILE because they are:
- Suggestive: evokes something about the brand
- Meaningful: resonates w audience
- Imagery: visually evocative
- Legs: Lends itself to extended mileage
- Emotional: moves people
- Suggestive: evokes something about the brand
- Meaningful: resonates w audience
- Imagery: visually evocative
- Legs: Lends itself to extended mileage
- Emotional: moves people
Bad names make you SCRATCH your head because they are
- Spelling challenged
- Copycat: similar to competitors names
- Restrictive: limit future growth
- Annoying: frustrate customers
- Tame
- Curse of knowledge: makes sense only to insiders
- Hard to pronounce
- Spelling challenged
- Copycat: similar to competitors names
- Restrictive: limit future growth
- Annoying: frustrate customers
- Tame
- Curse of knowledge: makes sense only to insiders
- Hard to pronounce
The magic of this framework to me is that it’s very tied into to the fact that MOST of we buy stuff is emotional
Good names make you smile. Some examples from the book
- Gringo Lingo (a school teaching Spanish)
- Fat Bastard Wine
- Firetalker Public Relations
Good names make you smile. Some examples from the book
- Gringo Lingo (a school teaching Spanish)
- Fat Bastard Wine
- Firetalker Public Relations
Some other good nuggets:
- The B-school story about the Chevy NOVA not selling in Spain is pure fiction
- Owning your brand name URL is not a good goal- just add a word and focus on writing a great name
- Naming by committee and naming via drinking wine are both dumb
- The B-school story about the Chevy NOVA not selling in Spain is pure fiction
- Owning your brand name URL is not a good goal- just add a word and focus on writing a great name
- Naming by committee and naming via drinking wine are both dumb
Recommended for copywriting nerds and anyone making anything!
