When you have a cold, what do you reach for to blow your nose? How about when you accidently cut yourself? Most people would answer Kleenex (instead of tissue) and Band-Aid (instead of adhesive bandage). Often used interchangeably, these terms actually represent the brand names rather than the products themselves. Other well-known examples include Jet [...]
Category > Naming
The Domain Name Game
Depending on the type of business or product, the availability of a domain name (also called URL or Uniform Resource Locator or website address) may be critical to the name selection. However, most common names, acronyms and interesting domain names are already registered. Why? Because each year over 10 million domain names are registered, with [...]
Sears Needs a New Name - The Importance of Brand Naming
In a recent article from Crain’s Chicago Business, Joseph B. Cahill suggests a bold move for Sears Holdings Corporation – changing their name. Why this bold suggestion? Nothing is working for Sears. They have tried to make acquisitions, switched marketing strategies several times, tested new formats, and reconfigured stores. Sears is a 814-store chain that [...]
How Naming Can Make or Break a Motion Picture
A recent article on motion picture naming called “What’s In a Name?” came from the Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Dodes. The article gives great examples on how naming affects a motion picture, which we found similar to how naming affects any brand. Below you’ll find various parts of the article that we found interesting to [...]
Internal Naming: Why Naming Contests Suck
More often than not, companies of all sizes, start-ups to billion dollar giants, will attempt to develop a new corporate or product name with an internal team. Clearly many successful names have been developed internally, or by a legendary founder. However, companies should be aware of the many factors and issues, best practice processes, and [...]
Golf Ball Naming | An Interesting History on Golf Ball Brands
We found the most interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on golf ball naming. The article A Plea for More Poetry on Golf Balls by John Paul Newport brought some interesting questions to the table, mentioning that the combination of words like “Tour” or “Pro” along with “Z”s and “X”s usually form a golf ball’s [...]
Renaming An Existing Brand: Case Study - AfterMath Claim Science
IdeasBIG, the branding sister agency of Modern Marketing Partners, recently took on the challenge of renaming an existing brand. OBJECTIVE: Rename a corporation to achieve a compelling repositioning in a conservative (health insurance) industry and create a tagline that complements the name. BRIEF: A successful, three-year-old company was feeling growing pains with a legacy name Cannon Cost Solutions, based [...]
Tips for Effective Taglines
Developing effective taglines is a disciplined process that melds insight with positioning strategy and creativity. So what is a tagline, and how can tagline development deliver a breakthrough? Sometimes called tags, positioning taglines, slogans, jingles, unique selling propositions or descriptors, taglines distill your corporate or brand position to a few simple and memorable words—ideally from [...]
Brand Naming Tips: What’s Your Name Type?
Before jumping into brand name development, it’s important to understand the different types of names. Why? Because without this knowledge, there is a tendency only consider certain types of names. In addition, mapping competitor’s name types supports positioning strategy. IDeas BIG categorizes names into three (3) basic types: Literal, Synthesized and Metaphorical. Please note that [...]
10 Steps to Effective Business or Product Naming
Naming a business or product is one of the most important and strategic decisions ever made. No other marketing decision can have as great an impact on success, the level of marketing investment required, or is more expensive to change. In addition, naming is becoming more difficult with record trademark filings and domain registrations. Despite [...]