Carrying on from last week, here are a couple of additional functions a brand name can assume aside from identifying the company, product, service or event.

The name can help in the selling process for the product, primarily by stating or implying a benefit. Think Easy-Off Oven Cleaner. Or Healthy Choice. Or Die-Hard. Or Secure Horizons.

Closely allied with the benefit-imparting function is the emotional trigger. Here the name is used to stir something in the “gut”.

Perhaps mystery (Obsession) or domesticity (Hearth & Home), or patriotism (Minute Man), or security (RightGard) can be aroused simply through the name.

But quite often the name won’t be able to function as either a benefit or emotional trigger for a number of reasons: legal, professional, competitive and/or strategic. If this is the case, it’s usually time to create a tagline that states the benefit or acts as the trigger.

Martin Jelsema
303-242-5975

Branding related posts:

1. Naming Tips – Number 40 in a Series
2. Naming Tips – Number 32 in a Series
3. Naming Tips: Number 5 in a Series
4. Branding Basics – Step 10
5. Naming tips – number 37 in a series