Tag: Brand Names

How Important is a Brand Name during an Economic Downturn?

I have been emailing back and forth with a Branding & Marketing reader who works with brands in New York City.  We’ve been talking about the importance of a brand name during an economic downturn. There are probably many schools of thought on this, so rather than post my opinion first and elicit everyone else to comment, I thought I’d throw his questions out there to start the “water cooler” conversation about brands. I’ll put my two cents in later! 

Craig Hoffman asks:

  • Do you think that brands are more important or less important during down economic climates?
  • Do you think brands are more valuable or less valuable during down economic climates?
  • Is there anything about this climate in particular that effects those answers in general?
  • Have you ever seen any deep datasets about customer behavior in relation to brands for changes in economic climates?

So what do you think? How important is branding and a brand name? Let us know your thoughts!

Finding Your Brand Name: Tips for Creating a GREAT Name

Over the past several weeks Martin Jelsema, at The Branding Blog, has offered a series of tips for naming a brand to use for a product, company or new category.

Since my company just completed a similar project for a client, I know the value of his suggestions. Here are his first seven naming tips:

Naming Tip 1: Reverse the order, alliteration & rhyming Example: Strategic Innovations becomes Innovations Strategic which is more memorable.

Naming Tip 2: Action verbs; possessive names Examples: Hooked on Phonics, Victoria’s Secrets

Naming Tip 3: Use reference books Everyone knows about the Thesaurus & Dictionary but Martin links to some unusual ones.

Naming Tip 4: Use parts of two words; alternative spellings Example: Webolution, Byerlympics, Champale

Naming Tip 5: Descriptive root word; colors; numbers Example: Red Bull, Yellow Book

Naming Tip 6: Initials; geographic places Example: N’Orlins Gumbo, El Paso Mexican foods or small towns like: Cold Creek, Green Leaf, Sweet Water

Naming Tip 7: Two-part proper names; visual devices Example: McNuggets, O’Cedar, MacFrugal

Check back at his blog often, because he keeps adding to the series! For instance, his last tip was just posted this past Friday.

Martin is a generous blogger and doesn’t hold back in sharing his knowledge. To me, his blog a prime example of mentoring, learning and the power of web 2.0. Thanks, Martin!

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Branding, Brand Names, Brainstorming Names, Naming, Martin Jelsema