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The wrong name for your product or service can be the difference between success and failure. So, how do you choose the right name? That’s what I discuss in this episode with Alexandra Watkins.
Alexandra is a leading and outspoken authority on brand names with buzz. If you have ever eaten a Wendy’s Baconator, you have literally eaten the words. For nearly 20 years, she and her naming firm, Eat My Words, have created love-at-first sight brand names for countless companies including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Disney, Twitter, and Google.
Alexandra has a few acronyms in the book, my favorite two are the SMILE test and the SCRATCH test. Her philosophy is that a name should make you smile instead of scratch your head. People like to “get it” and feel clued in, not clueless.
SMILE outlines the qualities of a super sticky name. It’s the five qualities that make a name great.
The SMILE Test
Suggestive: If it’s suggestive you want your name to suggest a positive brand experience and clue people into what you do.
Memorable: Meaning that it’s based on something familiar that people already know as opposed to something unfamiliar and foreign.
Imagery: This aids in memory, just like something based on the familiar.
Legs: Meaning it lends itself to a theme, it has legs to walk on and carry itself throughout your branding and marketing messaging.
Emotional: It’s important that your name makes an emotional connection with your target audience or else it will just go right over their head.
What is imagery?
Alexandra uses the example of a bike lock company named “Kryptonite”. When you hear the name Kryptonite you can picture something in your head because you’re familiar with kryptonite from Superman. Compare that to a similar U-shaped bike lock named “ABUS”. Your brain has no imagery when it hears that name, so there’s nothing to latch onto.
Think about it, you hear that name and then you’re in the bike shop a month later and you’re trying to remember the name, maybe by picturing it. You’re going through your brain’s dusty filing cabinet to retrieve that piece of information. If it’s based on something that’s already in your knowledge base, like Kryptonite, it will be easier to remember if there’s a picture associated with it.
Here are two more examples of imagery:
The Church of Cupcakes. There are all kinds of things you can imagine for the Church of Cupcakes. It creates a picture in your head.
A frozen yogurt franchise that she named “Spoon Me”. It’s funny and memorable and hints at the spoon you get with frozen yogurt.
If the name of your product or service fails the SCRATCH test it’s time to scratch it off your list because it makes people scratch their head with confusion. Here’s what the acronym means:
The SCRATCH Test
Spelling Challenged: If your name looks like a typo scratch it off the list, it will forever frustrate people.
Copycat: You don’t want to copy somebody else. Nobody likes copycats; we learned that early on in school. Why be somebody else when you can be yourself? In the bigger picture of things, you don’t want to open yourself up to trademark infringement.
Restrictive: This is where you have a name that limits your future growth. You don’t want to get trapped with a name that pigeonholes you into one business if you’re eventually going to be doing something else. Examples include 24-hour fitness. What if eventually they don’t want to be open 24 hours? Another example is 1-800-FLOWERS which sells more than flowers, but you wouldn’t know that from the name. Diapers.com sells more than diapers and, again, you wouldn’t know that from the name.
Annoying: This means that your name frustrates people. You want your name to be friction-free. An example of a source of frustration could be if you spell your name with a number in it, people won’t always be able to spell it correctly.
Totally Ambiguous: This means that nobody knows what you do. You want your name to be welcoming, the opposite of annoying.
Curse of Knowledge: This means that you know what it means but nobody else does.
Hard to Pronounce: Your name should be intuitive to pronounce and only pronounced one way. An example of what not to do is the company “Cricut”. They meant it to be pronounced “cricket” but people could see it as “cry-cut”.
In this episode we also discuss:
- Why naming your company primarily based on available domain names is the wrong way to go.
- What to do if your existing company’s domain name is taken.
- More branding tips to make your marketing messages memorable.
- …and more golden nuggets of advice!
You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”
About the Guest
Alexandra Watkins is a leading and outspoken authority on brand names with buzz. If you have ever eaten a Wendy’s Baconator, you have literally eaten the words.
For nearly 20 years, she and her naming firm, Eat My Words, have created love-at-first sight brand names for countless companies including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Disney, Twitter, and Google.
Her own “Name Hall of Fame” includes frozen yogurt franchise Spoon Me, the robotic vacuum Neato, Burger King’s Mac n’ Cheetos, and Spanish language school Gringo Lingo. The vertical farming company she named Plenty was recently named one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential Companies.
Alexandra is a former Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center Author in Residence. Her breakthrough creativity book, Hello, My Name is Awesome: How to Create Brand Names That Stick, was named a Top 10 Marketing Book by Inc. Magazine and Branding Journal. She lives by the beach in her Barbie Dream House.
Connect with Alexandra!
Eat My Words: www.eatmywords.com
Hello, My Name Is Awesome Book: eatmywords.com/brand-names-book
Free SMILE & SCRATCH Name Evaluation Test: eatmywords.com/free-name-evaluation-test
Free Brand Names Mini Masterclass: eatmywords.com/learn-about-brand-names-class
Professional Name Review with Alexandra: www.pronamereview.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrawatkins
Facebook: www.facebook.com/EatMyWordsNames
