THE PSYCHOLOGY

OF PRODUCT NAMES
Nick Kolenda

Grab free marketing articles at

www.nickkolenda.com

COPYRIGHT 2016 © KOLENDA ENTERTAINMENT LLC


Step 1: Choose the Correct Type of Name ........................8
What Are the Different Types of Names? .............................................8
Which Name Should You Choose? ...........................................................10
Category 1: Branding Goals .........................................................................................................10
Category 2: Business Goals .........................................................................................................17
Recap .................................................................................................................................................... 21

Step 2: Identify Meaningful Sounds and Letters ...........23

Do Sounds Contain Meaning? ...................................................................23
Arbitrary Hypothesis .....................................................................................................................24
Sound Symbolism ............................................................................................................................25
How Do Sounds Acquire Meaning? .........................................................27
Source 1: Frequency Code ...........................................................................................................27
Source 2: Perceptual Fluency .....................................................................................................28
Source 3: Kinesthetic Fluency ....................................................................................................29
Source 4: Facial Feedback Hypothesis ...................................................................................29
Source 5: Blending ..........................................................................................................................30
What Are the Types of Phonemes? .........................................................32
Vowels ..................................................................................................................................................33
Consonants .........................................................................................................................................34
What Are the Meanings of Phonemes? .................................................35
Physical Size ...................................................................................................................................... 36
Shape .................................................................................................................................................... 37
Speed .................................................................................................................................................... 39
Luminosity .........................................................................................................................................39
Beauty ..................................................................................................................................................40
BenePits ................................................................................................................................................41
Gender ..................................................................................................................................................42
Recap .................................................................................................................................................... 42
What Are the Meanings of Phonaesthemes? .......................................44
What Are the Meanings of Letters? ........................................................48

Step 3: Compose a List of Potential Names .....................50

 Path A: Neologistic Naming Process ......................................................51
A1) Begin With a Meaningful PrePix ........................................................................................51
A2) Arrange Consonants From Front to Back ..................................................................... 53
A3) End With a Relevant Gender Phoneme ......................................................................... 57
A4) Choose the Appropriate Stress ......................................................................................... 58
Recap .................................................................................................................................................... 59
Path B: Associative Naming Process ......................................................62
B1) Create a Semantic Map of the Product ........................................................................... 62
B2) Generate Synonyms of the Primary BenePit ................................................................63
B3) Use a Naming Technique to Generate an Output ...................................................... 65
Path C: Descriptive Naming Process ......................................................70
C1) Create a Semantic Map of the Product ........................................................................... 71
C2) Generate Synonyms of the Primary BenePit ................................................................71
C3) Use a Relevant Naming Technique ..................................................................................72
Recap .................................................................................................................................................... 73
Path D: Deviant Naming Process .............................................................75
D1) Identify the Primary Emotions of Your Product ........................................................ 75
D2) Transform Those Emotions into Visual Labels ..........................................................76
D3) Create Semantic Maps Surrounding Those Labels ................................................... 76
D4) Keep Concrete Nouns that Spark Your Interest ......................................................... 77

Step 4: Choose the Best Name in the List .........................79

Factor 1: Which Names Match the Ideal Length? ...............................80
Factor 2: Which Names Match the Ideal Complexity? ......................83
1. Special Occasion Products ......................................................................................................83
2. Adventurous Products .............................................................................................................. 84
3. Advanced Products ....................................................................................................................84
Factor 3: Is the Name Enticing to Say? ...................................................85
Factor 4: How Many Spelling Variations Exist? .................................86
Solution A: Choose a Name With Fewer Spelling Variations ........................................87
Solution B: Prime the Correct Spelling of the Name ........................................................ 87
Factor 5: What Are Potential Abbreviations? .....................................87
Factor 6: What Are the Translations in Popular Languages? ........88
Factor 7: Does the Name Exist Elsewhere? ..........................................89
Factor 8: Is the .com Domain Available? ...............................................89
 Factor 9: Is the Name Available on Popular Social Platforms? .....89
Factor 10: Should You Add a Version or Number? ............................89
Complexity .........................................................................................................................................90
Numerical Magnitude ....................................................................................................................91
Numerical Fluency ..........................................................................................................................91
Semantic Associations ................................................................................................................... 92
Perceptual Meaning ........................................................................................................................93
Sound Meaning ................................................................................................................................. 93
Factor 11: What Do Your Target Customers Think? .........................94

Final Thoughts .........................................................................95

Quick. Look at the images below. Which is kiki? And which is bouba?

Did you attribute kiki to the pointy shape? And bouba to the rounded
shape?

I did too.

But can you explain why you made that decision?

Probably not, right? For most people, it just “feels right.”

But if your decision was arbitrary, then why do 95% of people make
the same choice (Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001)?

More importantly, why do some names “feel right” for certain

products?

Some researchers argue that names are the most important business
decision. In 1970, Exxon paid $100 million to generate their name
(Kotler et al., 2013).

One Name = $100 Million.

What’s the secret? How can you construct a name — a name with no
inherent meaning — so that it sounds right for your product?

I genuinely wanted to know.

So I spent 200 hours analyzing the academic research on linguistics.

Turns out, there is a science behind it. Certain names sound right for
speciPic reasons.

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I consolidated that research into a four-step naming process. I call it
the Kolenda Naming Process. This article explains that process in
detail.

Visit the original article to see a visual overview of the process.


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 STEP 1: CHOOSE THE
CORRECT TYPE OF
NAME
Certain types of names are better suited for certain products. So let’s
categorize the types of names that exist.

NOTE: I’ll be using the terms product and business

interchangeably. There is a difference. However, that
difference won’t affect this naming process. By the end,
you’ll still generate the most suitable name — regardless
whether you’re naming a product or business.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF NAMES?

In my research, I didn’t Pind speciPic classiPications of brand names. So
let’s change that.

We’ll categorize names on two dimensions: wording and relevance.

Those dimensions create a helpful 2x 2 matrix:

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Based on that diagram, you can probably infer the meanings. But just
in case…

Descriptive – Word or phrase that describes the product

Associative – Nonword(s) that describes the product
Deviant – Word or phrase with no relevance to the product
Neologistic – Nonword(s) with no relevance to the product

I always try to keep my explanations simple. Unfortunately, though, we

need to add more complexity

Those two dimensions — wording and relevance — aren’t mutually

exclusive. They’re spectrums. So although matrices are great…we need
to transform that matrix into a scatterplot.

Let’s illustrate with soaps and detergents:

Look at the neologistic names (bottom-left). Barf isn’t a typo. I actually

found a Persian brand called Barf. I’m guessing they forgot to check
the English translation. Or perhaps they’re targeting an eccentric
market. Who’s to say.

Regardless…Barf and Nivea are both irrelevant to the product.

However, Barf is a word. Nivea is a nonword. You could argue that barf
should be in the deviant section (top-left) because it is a word. But the
intention was neologistic.

Here’s the main takeaway. In that scatterplot, all of those points are
subjective. For any quadrant, some names might be more “word-like”
or “relevant” than others.

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So now that we’ve categorized the names, we can pinpoint which name
would be most effective.

WHICH NAME SHOULD YOU CHOOSE?

Each name offers benePits and drawbacks. And those factors comprise
two categories:

CATEGORY 1: Branding Goals

CATEGORY 2: Business Goals

In this section, I’ll explain which names are more effective for certain
factors in those categories.

CATEGORY 1: BRANDING GOALS

In terms of branding, I chose aive factors that you should consider in a
name:

1. Persuasive
2. Memorable
3. Distinctive
4. Relevant
5. Emotional

Factor 1: Which Names Are More Persuasive?

All types of names can be persuasive. However, you should usually
avoid the top-right and bottom-left of the scatterplot.

Why? The answer involves congruency.

Meyers-Levy, Louie, and Curren (1994) found a U-shaped relationship

between the persuasiveness of a brand name and its congruency with
the product. Persuasive brand names are moderately incongruent with
the product.

For example, I adjusted the names of three popular games below.

The researchers proposed two underlying reasons for that Pinding.

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First, incongruent names capture attention because they trigger
curiosity. Oftentimes, that curiosity produces a pleasant sensation in
our brain (which we misattribute to the product).

Second, incongruent names require more cognitive resources:

“…consumers may assume that all information offered

to them by the marketer is meant to be relevant or
informative and they will consequently try to make
sense of it. If the ambiguous name is uninformative in
the literal or semantic sense, consumers will search
for a pragmatic meaning or reason for the
communication…” (Miller & Kahn, 2005, pp. 87)

Oftentimes, that search for meaning will lead to an “aha” moment. We

discover the connection. We solve the puzzle. And it feels good. In
turn, we misattribute that pleasantness to the name.

“…[consumers] process ads more extensively when

products bear incongruent brand names and they
experience the satisfaction associated with identifying
a meaningful relationship that fits the brand name
with the product...” (Meyers-Levy, Louie, & Curren,
1994 pp. 52)

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However, those benePits only occur with moderately incongruent
products.

With fully congruent names, we have no puzzle to solve

With fully incongruent names, we can’t solve the puzzle

That’s why you should avoid the top-right and bottom-left of the
scatterplot:

A persuasive name isn’t necessarily the “best” name for your business.
You should also weigh the other factors in this section.

Factor 2: Which Names Are More Memorable?

Contrary to popular belief, descriptive names are the least memorable.

But how could that be? Descriptive names explain the product. So how
could they be less memorable than a nonword — a name with no
relevance to the product?

Cheung, Chan, and Sze (2010) used an EEG to determine how we

conceptualize brand names. They found that…

“…brand names tend to be processed through

semantic routes. Similar to proper names and
nonwords, they are represented in the lexical systems
of both hemispheres.” (pg. 1)

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According to our brains, a brand resembles a proper name (e.g., John,
Fred, Mary). And it makes sense. Proper names identify the collective
attributes of a person — much like brands possess various attributes
(e.g., emotion, personality).

But we don’t use descriptive proper names. When is the last time you
met somebody named Tall Skinny Man? You haven’t.

Not only would that name sound unusual, but our brains would also
have trouble encoding it. The descriptive nature would complicate the
encoding process. Descriptive names can work. But they need to
convey the connotation of a name.

Thus, memorable names avoid the extreme top right of the scatterplot.
With soaps and detergents, Wright’s Traditional Soap would be more
memorable than Simple Skin Care.

Likewise, extreme deviant and neologistic names are also less

memorable. Remember the U-shaped relationship between
congruence and persuasion? Memory works the same way.
Memorable names need moderate congruence with the product
(Robertson, 1989).

Thus, memorable names avoid the top-right and extreme left of the
scatterplot:

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Factor 3: Which Names Are More Distinctive?
Not surprisingly, descriptive names are the least distinctive:

“…the name is most essential to pave the road to

distinction. Because unique names – unexpected
names – interesting names – not only stick with us,
but also frame our expectations for the broader brand
experience.” (The Naming Group, 2016)

However, descriptive names aren’t entirely bad. As you’ll see next…

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Factor 4: Which Names Are More Relevant?
In our scatterplot, the type of wording — word vs. nonword — is
neither good nor bad. However, the relevance dimension can help.

Consider books and courses. With informational products, people

often base their purchase on the relevance of the name. If a nonPiction
book doesn’t sound relevant, oftentimes customers will have no need
for it. So relevance can be useful.

Among the four types of names, descriptive names are the most
relevant — followed by associative names.

But here’s an important distinction. Relevance isn’t meaningfulness.

Both deviant and neologisitc names can (and should) be meaningful.

Meaningful names are evaluated more favorably (Kohli, Harich, &
Leuthesser, 2005).

How are those concepts different?

Think of Apple. Apple is a real word — yet the word has nothing to do
with computers. So it’s a deviant name. And it’s positioned toward the
top left of the scatterplot.

However, that relevance is surface-level. If you dig deeper, you’d

realize that the name is meaningful. The Apple “brand” is creative,
unique, and different. So it makes sense to use an unexpected name.
Even though the name is irrelevant, it’s still meaningful.

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The same concept applies to other businesses with deviant names:
Pandora, Amazon, Dove, Tide:

On the surface, those names are irrelevant to the product.

Below the surface, you can extract metaphorical meanings
from those deviant names.

The same concept applies to nonwords. Consider the bouba-kiki effect.

Those words have no semantic associations. Yet 95% of people
associate meaning with those names.

That’s because the sounds —themselves — contain meaning. And

we’ll look at those meanings later.

But here’s the main point. Your name doesn’t need relevance. It can
help some products. But it’s not critical. However, your name should
always be meaningful.

That concept will make more sense throughout the article. For now,
let’s examine the Pinal branding characteristic…

Factor 5: Which Names Are More Emotional?

Because of their metaphorical nature, deviant names can convey the
most emotion.

Suppose that you want your name to convey these characteristics:

Delicate

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 Beautiful
Innocent
Pure

No descriptive name could convey that much information (and still

sound appealing). However, a deviant name could convey all of that
information in four letters: Dove.

CATEGORY 2: BUSINESS GOALS

Every business is different. However, I chose three common business
goals that involve your name:

1. Scalable
2. Legal Protection
3. SEO

Factor 1: Which Names Are More Scalable?

Neologistic names are the most scalable.

With an irrelevant nonword, you begin with a blank canvas. Over time,
you’ll be able to paint the exact perception that you want:

“…with a nonmeaningful name (e.g. Exxon), the

marketer begins with a "clean slate" and can generate
product images without interference from existing
perceptions.” (Robertson, 1989, pp. 66)

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That benePit helps you expand to other countries because of the
language factor:

“The increasingly global nature of many markets

requires that meaningful brand names be translated
to achieve consistent meaning…If flexibility and
adaptability are given higher priority, then a non-
meaningful name is attractive.” (Kohli, Harich, &
Leuthesser, 2005, pp. 1507)

However, a relevant name — though less scalable — can perform

better with smaller budgets:

“…for a given promotional budget, it would be easier to

attain a desired image by building upon the base of
existing, meaningful perceptions rather than starting
with no such perceptual base.” (Robertson, 1989, pp.
66)

Think of it like an automatic vs. manual transmission. Automatic

transmission is easier. But a stick shift will give you greater control.

If your budget is large, then choose greater control

(neologistic)
If your budget is small, then choose the easier route
(descriptive, deviant, associative).

Factor 2: Which Names Offer Legal Protection?

Ross Petty is a professor of Marketing Law at Babson. In a paper, he
describes four categories of trademark strength. Luckily, those
categories align perfectly with the four types of names in this article:

“Most countries recognise roughly four categories of

intrinsic trademark strength. The strongest trade
marks and brand names are fanciful—made-up words
or numbers that have no prior meaning such as
KODAK…The next strongest are arbitrary marks—
words that have meaning but no association with a
particular use such as APPLE computers or CAMEL
cigarettes. The third level of strength is suggestive
marks—words that allude to product features or
performance without actually describing them such as
RAIN DANCE car wax of SURFVIVOR suntan lotion…
The fourth and weakest category of trade names is

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 descriptive words—words that describe the product,
the company founder’s family name or the geographic
origin of the product.” (Petty, 2007, pp. 191-192)

To summarize, these names are ordered from strongest to weakest:

1. Neologistic
2. Deviant
3. Associative
4. Descriptive

Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer. So don’t rely on my advice.

Factor 3: Which Names Are Better for SEO?

I know what some of you are thinking.

Nick, you made a mistake in your initial summary. Descriptive names

have the greatest beneCit for SEO.

If it were 2005, you’d be spot on. This tactic worked like a charm.

Fortunately, (or unfortunately — depending on your vantage point),

those days are gone. Keyword-heavy business names have lost their
power. According to Rand Fishkin, head of Moz:

“For a long time, [exact match domains] did have quite

a bit of power. They've gone down dramatically in
power. These days MozCast is reporting 2.5% to 3%

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 of domains that appear in the top 10 over many
thousands of search results are exact match
domains…it's gone way, way down over the last few
years.” –Whiteboard Friday, Sept. 2014

Nowadays, a catchy and memorable name is more important than a

keyword-heavy brand name.

In fact, descriptive names can be harmful for SEO. If your name is

descriptive, search engines will have trouble identifying your name.
They’ll assume that you’re referring to the topic or description of your
product.

That’s why nonwords are great. Neologisms have no semantic

connections with anything — so they’re entirely unique. Search
engines will easily identify your name.

But deviant names can also work. Even though your name will be
associated with a topic, search engines can make that distinction. You
won’t hear Apple talking about their collection of “Red Delicious” or
“Granny Smith” products. So search engines will know that “Apple”
isn’t referring to the fruit.

If you still want to use a descriptive name, you could combine the old
school with the new school. Suppose that you sell graphic design
services. You could create a unique name for your overall business
(e.g., Colorik), and then use descriptive names to identify the services
in your collection (e.g., Colorik Logo Design, Web Design by Colorik).

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With those naming conventions, you take advantage of co-occurrence.
When people mention your products, your name will be nearby. So it
reinforces the connection between your business and important
keywords:

RECAP
So I haven’t answered the question. Which type of name should you
choose?

If you weigh all eight factors equally, you could use the scatterplot
below. I overlaid each scatterplot. So darker regions signify overlap —
thus a stronger opportunity.

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In the end, any type of name can work. One type isn’t better than
another. You simply need to weigh the importance of each factor.

However, I do have one universal suggestion. You should always avoid

the extreme top-right of the scatterplot.

“…in their simplicity, [descriptive names] pave the way

to daunting brand challenges: competitor
encroachment, loss of trademark, lack of
distinguishing identity, and the hidden killer, consumer
apathy. A name that does not challenge us, does not
excite us or tell us something new is a name that’s far
more likely to blend. And blending is the antithesis of
branding.” (The Naming Group, 2016)

You can still choose descriptive names. But you should push the name
closer to one of the remaining three types.

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 STEP 2: IDENTIFY
MEANINGFUL SOUNDS
AND LETTERS
Let’s try another exercise. Which table is mil? Which is mal?

Over 80% of people assign mal to the big table (Sapir, 1929). Did you?

So that begs the question…

Why do some words — even nonwords — feel like a better “Pit” than
other words? Do certain sounds contain meaning?

Let’s tackle those questions.

DO SOUNDS CONTAIN MEANING?

In order to understand the meanings of sound, you need to know two
concepts in linguistics: arbitrariness and sound symbolism.

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ARBITRARY HYPOTHESIS
Researchers used to believe that language was arbitrary.

The only exception was an onomatopoeic word — a word that

resembles a sound (e.g., woof, bang, Cizz). Otherwise, sounds held no
inherent meaning.

Essentially, it looked like this:

But that belief has lost steam over the past few decades — thanks to
some interesting Pindings:

1. Certain sounds share meaning across all languages.

The bouba-kiki effect produced the same effect for the Himba of
Northern Namibia, an extremely remote population with no written
language (Bremner et al., 2013).

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2. People can decode the meanings of some words in
other languages.
English speakers (with no experience in Japanese) could identify
Japanese words related to pain (Iwasaki, Vinson, & Vigliocco, 2007).

3. Children attach meaning to sounds, even when

they’re too young to read.
The bouba-kiki effect produced the same effect for children as young
as 2.5 years old (Maurer, Pathman, & Mondloch, 2006).

Those Pindings paved the way to…

SOUND SYMBOLISM
Most researchers now accept sound symbolism (see Lockwood &
Dingemanse, 2015 for a review).

SOUND SYMBOLISM - Sounds contain inherent meaning

For example, the sound ‘sn’ is often associated with concepts related
to the mouth and nose (e.g., snore, snout, snack, snort, sniff, sneeze).

At this point, you might be thinking: why don’t we make all

communication symbolic?

We actually tried…

In 1668, John Wilkins wrote a paper that proposed a speciPic

vocabulary. In any given word, the Pirst two letters referred to a
semantic category (among 40 categories in total). And the remaining
letters provided more detail.

It might sound good in theory. But it failed horribly in practice.

Even though arbitrariness and sound symbolism are distinct, you

shouldn’t view them as opposing forces. Their coexistence is very
important.

Our language beneCits from arbitrariness. We need different letters

among related words. Otherwise, we’d create mass confusion:

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 “…if there were a close correspondence between form
and meaning then the possibility of confusing the word
for sheep with the one for cow is increased (e.g., if the
two animals were referred to as feb and peb,
respectively).” (Monaghan, Christiansen, & Fitneva,
2011, pp. 327)

So don’t discount arbitrariness. Rather, you should appreciate the

coexistence of sound symbolism and arbitrariness.

“They can coexist because each brings its own

advantages for learning words and using them in
communication. By supplying perceptual analogies for
vivid communication, sound-symbolism allows for
communication to be effective; by providing the lexicon
with greater depth and distinction, arbitrariness
allows for the efficient communication of
concepts.” (Lockwood & Dingemanse, 2015, pp. 2)

In other words…

Sound symbolism makes communication more vivid

because it reinforces the intended meaning.

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 Arbitrariness makes communication more ef1icient
because it allows a wider selection of letters.

At the end of the day, yes…sounds contain meaning. But how did those
meanings emerge? You need to understand those sources so that you
can apply my naming process on your own.

You won’t understand the applications right now. But you need to
know this information so that everything will “click” later.

So let’s answer that question …

HOW DO SOUNDS ACQUIRE MEANING?

After scouring the research on linguistics, I identiPied aive sources of
meaning:

SOURCE 1: FREQUENCY CODE

Generally, we associate high-pitched sounds with smaller sizes (and
vice versa).

John Ohala is a linguistics professor at Berkley who proposed that

“frequency code.”

“…[the frequency code] associates high acoustic

frequency with the primary meaning of 'small
vocalizer' and thus such secondary meanings as
'subordinate, submissive, non threatening, desirous of
the receiver's goodwill, etc.' and associates with low
acoustic frequency the primary meaning of 'large
vocalizer' and such secondary meanings as 'dominant,
aggressive, threatening, etc.'” (Ohala, 1984)

You can blame our ancestors.

Whenever men were in danger, they wanted to project a low-pitched

bellow to intimidate predators.

Women, on the other hand, wanted to alert help nearby. However, they
couldn’t attract too much attention — otherwise they would alert
more predators in the vicinity.

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That’s why they developed a high-pitch yell:

“Because high-frequency sounds are absorbed into the

air far more readily than low-frequency sounds, the
high-pitched female scream is perfect for summoning
help without signaling other predators. ” (Feinson,
2004)

You can see this behavior in other animals:

When a dog is aggressive, it growls.

When a dog is submissive, it yelps.

We even follow the frequency code when we ask questions — by

raising the intonation of our voice:

“The person asking a question can be viewed as

requiring the cooperation of the person to whom the
question is addressed. Therefore a supplicating
intonation is appropriate. A declarative statement, on
the other hand, signals the speaker’s self-confidence
and control of the information conveyed.” (Ohala,
1997, pp. 3)

Thus, we associate meaning with the tone and pitch of sound.

SOURCE 2: PERCEPTUAL FLUENCY

Processing Pluency plays a powerful role in names — as you’ll see
later.

For now, one type of Pluency is perceptual Cluency. We judge stimuli

based on visual characteristics that are irrelevant to their inherent
meaning. For example, people perceive prices to be smaller in
magnitude when those prices are displayed in a smaller font (Coulter
& Coulter, 2005).

$24.99 seems smaller than $24.99

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Similarly, we infer characteristics about a name based on the visual
characteristics of the letters. Think of the bouba-kiki effect:

“…people might only consider the sound [b] to be

rounder than the sound [k] because the letter b is
rounder than the letter k.” (Lockwood & Dingemanse,
2015, pp. 8)

Among the Pive sources in this list, perceptual Pluency seems to be the
weakest source. But it still has merit.

SOURCE 3: KINESTHETIC FLUENCY

Another common source involves a kinesthetic factor — which I’ll dub
kinesthetic Cluency. We infer qualities about what we’re saying by how
we’re saying it.

With the bouba-kiki effect…

“…articulating kiki involves sharp inflections of the

tongue and relates to the sharpness of the jagged
image and the rounding of the lips and oral cavity
during the articulation of bouba relates to the
roundedness of the images.” (Yardy, 2010, pp. 8)

SOURCE 4: FACIAL FEEDBACK HYPOTHESIS

Similarly, the position of your mouth can also play a role.

I describe the facial feedback hypothesis in Methods of Persuasion. But

here’s the gist. We subconsciously determine our attitudes and
emotions based on our current facial features.

In the classic study, people evaluated a cartoon more favorably when

they were forced to hold a pencil in their mouth — a position that
forced them to smile (Strack, Martin, & Stepper, 1988).

That same principle applies to sound symbolism:

“…the very pronunciation of these sounds require a

specific distortion of the speaker’s face, which

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 reinforces the emotion-response of the
listener.” (Feinson, 2004)

In a clever study, participants were more likely to help recipients if

their name ended with a hard “e” sound — because it forced them to
smile (KnifPin & Shimizu, 2014)

Sure, you could consider naming your product or business with a hard
“e” sound (coincidentally, Pogacar et al. (2014) found that successful
Pirms disproportionately include hard “e” sounds in their name).

But that’s probably overkill. Later I’ll walk you through a more
effective way to Pind conducive sounds for your name.

SOURCE 5: BLENDING
This Pinal factor is pretty interesting. And it might be the most
powerful.

Over time, our language has experienced blending — a process where

we combine words to create a completely new word (see Smith,
2014).

Look at the speciPic years that these words entered our language:

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If we frequently apply the same sound to similar words (e.g., the “-ash”
sound above), we begin to associate that sound with a particular
meaning (e.g., we associate “-ash” with hitting).

Based on my assessment, we associate two types of meaning with

those blended sounds:

1. Valence Meaning
First, we associate a general emotional tone. For example…

“…back vowels such as the [u] sound in dull or ugh are

often found in English words expressing disgust or
dislike (e.g., blunder, bung, bungle, clumsy, muck), and
words beginning with sl also tend to have a negative
connotation (slouch, slut, slime, sloven)…” (Duduciuc,
2015, pp. 113)

2. Semantic Meaning
Second, we also associate concrete semantic meaning.

Consider homophones. For example, exposing people to the word

“bye” can increase their likelihood of purchasing a product — due to
the phonetic similarity with “buy” (Davis & Herr, 2014).

Sounds absurd, right? But here’s why…

Whenever you read a word, you subvocalize those sounds. In turn, you
activate all semantic associations related to that phonetic grouping:

“…consider a consumer reading quietly. She reads an

article ending with “bye” and subvocalizes the word
sound associated with “bye.” This word sound is also
associated with “buy.” At this point, meanings
associated with both “bye” and “buy” are automatically
retrieved from memory.” (Davis & Herr, 2014, pp.
1064-1065)

At this point, the researchers argue that we use a process called

“homophone suppression.” We suppress those unrelated meanings so
that our brain doesn’t integrate them into our perception and
behavior.

However, our brains are lazy. Oftentimes, we become distracted and

we skip that process. When that happens, all of the unrelated

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meanings stay activated — creeping into our perception and behavior.
That’s why bye can make you buy.

The researchers found direct support for that phenomenon, and they
summarized the steps in this process:

But don’t jump the gun. Before naming your product, Byminow
(catchy, right?), you need to understand the meanings behind certain
phonemes.

I know I keep pushing it off, but we just need to tackle one Cinal topic
before discussing those meanings…

WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF PHONEMES?

Before I explain the meanings, you need to understand the categories
of sounds.

First, every word contains one or more phonemes — which are the
smallest units of sound (see Yorkston & Menon, 2004).

Phonemes differ from syllables and letters. Consider the word “the” —
which is comprised of three letters, one syllable, and two phonemes:

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Among the 44 phonemes that exist (Harrington & Johnstone, 1987),
you might assume that each phoneme contains a speciPic meaning.

For example…

An “a” sound means _______

A “b” sound means _______
A “c” sound means _______

Unfortunately, it’s not that cut and dry.

Meanings usually spread to categories of phonemes — not individual

ones. And there are two broad categories: vowels and consonants.

Obvious…right? Well, you need to consider the classiPications within

those phonemes.

VOWELS
We usually categorize vowels using one classiPication.

Classiaication 1: Front vs. Back

The most common classiPication is front vs. back (see Klink, 2000).

With front vowels, the tongue is near the front (e, i, e)

With back vowels, the tongue is near the back (o, a, u)

Pretty straightforward.

But you should know a crucial detail. This category — front vs. back
— is a spectrum (Yorkston & Menon, 2004).

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That distinction is important. Why? Generally, vowels toward the
outermost points will contain the strongest degree of meaning (which
we’ll discuss soon).

CONSONANTS
Consonants can also be categorized as hard and soft. But the following
two classiPications are more common:

Classiaication 1: Voiced vs. Voiceless

This classiPication involves your vocal cords:

Voiced – Sounds that vibrate vocal cords (e.g., b, d, g)

Voiceless – Sounds that don’t vibrate vocal cords (e.g., p, t, f)

Classiaication 2: Fricatives vs. Stops

Another category involves air alow from your mouth:

Fricatives – Sounds where air escapes the mouth (e.g., s, f, z)

Stops – Sounds where air stops at the mouth (e.g., p, k, b)

Just a disclaimer, I’ve excluded certain details to simplify the

explanation. If you want the full scoop (or the full list of phonemes),
you should check some of the references in this section.

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But now that we’ve discussed the categories of sounds, we can Pinally
discuss the meanings of sounds.

WHAT ARE THE MEANINGS OF PHONEMES?

Certain phonemes contain certain meaning. That’s why you should
consider the sounds that will encompass your name. Those phonemes
subconsciously shape the perception of your brand:

“…consumers use information they gather from

phonemes in brand names to infer product attributes
and to evaluate brands…the manner in which phonetic
effects of brand names manifest is automatic in as

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 much as it is uncontrollable, outside awareness and
effortless.” (Yorkston & Menon, 2004, pp. 43)

To create a suitable name, you need to use phonemes that share

meaningful characteristics with your product. That congruency will
increase processing Pluency — and your name will “feel right.”

I summarized these meanings in the initial summary of this article.

But this section will describe each meaning in more detail. And I’ll also
include the speciPic studies where I found this information.

PHYSICAL SIZE
We associate certain sounds with physical size. That’s why most
people make the same decision with mal vs. mil:

Most studies examine physical size. But the meaning involves

metaphorical size as well.

For example, Abel and Gilnert (2008) analyzed the names of 60 cancer
medications. Since companies want their medication to be associated
with tolerable chemotherapy, the researchers believed those names
would correspond with smallness.

And they were right. Most names incorporated sounds that were
congruent with a smaller physical size.

Finally, this meaning also refers to physical distance. Ultan (1978)

analyzed 136 languages. He found that languages use the same vowel
sounds to convey distance:

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 Front vowels convey close distance (e.g., “this”)
Back vowels convey far distance (e.g., “that”)

I condensed all of the research into these tables:

SOURCES: Duduciuc (2015), Klink (2000), Lowrey and Shrum (2007)

SHAPE
Like the bouba-kiki effect, certain sounds convey physical shape. The
most common distinction is angular vs. rounded.

For example, Lowrey and Shrum (2007) found that…

Names with angular sounds are better for products that are
angular or sharp. People preferred Brimley (over Bromley) for
a knife.

Names with rounded sounds are better for products that are
round or smooth. People preferred Bromley (over Brimley) for
a hammer.

SOURCES: Klink (2000), Klink (2003), Yorkston and Menon (2004)

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But this meaning stems beyond tangible shape. In a study with ice
cream, people preferred a rounded name (Frosh) to an angular name
(Frish) because the rounded name conveyed smooth and creamy ice
cream (Yorkston & Menon, 2004).

In fact, this meaning also involves modes of thinking (e.g., thinking

precisely vs. thinking abstractly).

Let’s try another exercise. The person below is performing a sheeb

task. So what is she doing? Take a guess.

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Maglio et al., (2014) asked people the same question — alternating
between a sheeb task and a shoob task.

Turns out, people gave precise answers with the sheeb task (e.g., “she
is writing a list”). When asked about the shoob task, people gave
broader answers (e.g., “she is getting organized”).

SPEED
Another category is speed. The primary distinction is fast vs. slow.

Here are the meanings.

SOURCES: Robertson (1989), Klink (2000)

LUMINOSITY
Sounds can also be luminous. Certain sounds can be bright vs. dark.

SOURCES: Robertson (1989), Klink (2003), Hirata et al. (2011)

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BEAUTY
Next is beauty. Sounds can be sophisticated vs. rugged.

Unfortunately, I could only Pind evidence connecting front vowels to

sophistication and back vowels to ruggedness (Klink & Athaide, 2012).

Based on the research, though, I would argue the following meanings:

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BENEFITS
Earlier, I mentioned that shape (angular vs. rounded) is associated
with modes of thinking (thinking precisely vs. thinking abstractly).

Those modes are important because they inPluence our evaluation of

products:

When people think precisely, short-term benePits are more

important
When people think abstractly, long-term benePits are more
important

Researchers found support in product names. In one study, Maglio et

al. (2014) showed participants a medical treatment that relieved pain.

They wanted to know which name would be more effective —

depending on the benePits:

Dari was more effective for short-term treatments

(because it contained phonemes associated with precise
thinking)

Daru was more effective for long-term treatments

(because it contained phonemes associated with abstract
thinking)

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Before choosing a name, determine the type of benePits that you offer.
Are they short-term or long-term? Use relevant phonemes in your
name.

GENDER
The Pinal category is gender. Do you position your product toward
males or females?

I summarized the research into this table:

SOURCES: Wu, Klink, and Guo (2013), Klink (2000), Guevremont and
Grohmann (2015)

RECAP
In this past section, you may have noticed something peculiar.

Did you notice that the same vowels and consonants consistently
appeared together? For any given meaning, you’ll usually be using one
of those groups (see the following page).

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Those groups are important to understand.

Don’t perceive these meanings to be concrete labels. Even if a

particular adjective doesn’t appear in that diagram, oftentimes you
can still choose the side that would be most appropriate.

Beer is a great example. Imagine two different beers, One is “cold,

clean, and crisp.” The other is “smooth, mellow, and rich.”

Those adjectives don’t appear in the previous groups. However, guess

which group would be most appropriate for each beer.

Do you have your guess? Turns out…

“…words with front vowel sounds [Group 1] would be

preferred as brand names for a beer described as
“cold, clean, and crisp,” but words with back vowel
sounds [Group 2] would be preferred when the beer
was described as “smooth, mellow, and rich.” (Lowrey
& Shrum, 2007, pp. 409)

Sure, you could argue that those adjectives correspond to the

luminosity of the beer (i.e., light beer vs. dark beer). But hopefully you
can see the fuzzy abstract nature of those groups.

WHAT ARE THE MEANINGS OF

PHONAESTHEMES?
This article has focused on phonemes. But we should also consider the
meanings of phonaesthemes.

Let’s try two exercises.

Exercise 1:
What’s the meaning of glon? It’s a nonword, so give it a dePinition.

Got it? Great.

Magnus (2000) asked people the same question. Turns out, over 25%
of people gave dePinitions related to light or vision.

I’ll explain why in a second. But let’s try another exercise.

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Exercise 2:
This time, you’ll create a nonword based on a dePinition. Here’s the
dePinition: to scrape the black stuff off overdone toast.

So invent a word to match the dePinition.

Magnus (2000) asked people that question too. Turns out, 27% of
people created a word that started with sk-.

So now the main question: why is there so much consistency?

Well, in those examples, sk- and gl- are phonaesthemes.

PHONAESTHEME – A pair of phonemes that (1) occur

frequently in language and (2) contain meaning.

Phonaesthemes are distinct from sufPixes and prePixes (e.g., -ing, -ly, -
ed). Phonaesthemes can’t be added to (or subtracted from) words.

For example, the most commonly cited phonaesthemes — gl- and sn-
— both contain meaning (see Bergen, 2001). But you can’t add or
subtract them.

The true dePinition is more complex (see Bergen, 2004). But that’s the
nutshell.

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So how do phonaesthemes acquire meaning?

Well, remember blending? Many phonaesthemes emerge from

blending (see Smith, 2014).

When we blend two words (e.g., bat + mash = bash), some phonemes
remain in the new word. And if those phonemes consistently remain
across new blends, then those sounds get attributed to an increasingly
larger number of related words.

“According to such “snowballing effect” theory, a

group of phonemes in related words (for example, by
common etymology) becomes over time associated
with the meaning of these words and given the right
conditions starts to attract other words with the
same phoneme into a cluster…” (Abramova,
Fernandez, & Sangati, 2013 pp. 1696)

Researchers are still trying to identify the semantic meanings of

phonaesthemes (see Abramova et al., 2013). However, an analysis of
260 million words indicates that semantic connections do exist (Otis &
Sagi, 2008).

I dug through different studies on phonaesthemes, and I pieced

together the following table summarizing the potential semantic
meanings.

No need to memorize it. Just use this table as a reference guide.

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SOURCES: Otis and Sagi (2008); Abramova, Fernandez, and Sangati
(2013); Feinson (2004); Kwon (2015); Smith (2014)

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WHAT ARE THE MEANINGS OF LETTERS?
In addition to phonemes and phonaesthemes, individual letters might
also contain meaning.

The research on this topic is less clear. So I recommend sticking with

the previous information.

But I needed to include this section — otherwise my quest for

comprehension would be incomplete. And that’d be a shame.

In one study, Feinson (2004) found that people whose names begin
with ‘J’ are 3x more likely to become millionaires than people whose
names that begin with ‘N.’

Side Note: Thanks, Mom.

Feinson describes his study in The Secret Universe of Names.

First, he analyzed the initial letters of 63 million names in the U.S.

Census. Then he compared those frequencies to the names of
successful people in different Pields:

“By cross-referencing the initial letters of the sixty-

three million individuals with the first letters in the
names of eighteen thousand successful people in
business, arts, medicine, politics, and professional
sports, I undertook to establish whether or not
patterns of success or failure could be determined
based solely on names.” (pp. xxxiv)

He found a number of fascinating — yet conceptually plausible —

Pindings. For example…

“…people whose first names begin with the strongly

pronounced letters (B, T, J, C, K, D, etc.) proved to be
highly successful in professional sports, whereas
those with names containing gently pronounced
initials (H, S, M, N, V, W, and L) consistently failed to
make their mark in athletics.” (pp. xxxiv)

Below is a summary of his Pindings. If your industry matches one of

these Pields, then consider using the corresponding letters in your
name.


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STEP 3: COMPOSE A LIST
OF POTENTIAL NAMES
So…let’s recap.

At this point, you’ve accomplished these steps:

Chose the ideal type of name (Step 1)

IdentiPied meaningful phonemes (Step 2)

This step will teach you how to compose names based on those
factors.

However, this process largely depends on the type of name that you’ve
chosen. So you’ll need to choose one of these paths:

This section explains a step-by-step process for each path.

However, even if you know the ideal path, you should still read all four
processes. Each path contains information that will apply to any name
choice.

Let’s start with the Pirst path…

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PATH A: NEOLOGISTIC NAMING PROCESS

To compose a neologistic name, follow these steps:

A1: Begin With a Meaningful PrePix

A2: Arrange Consonants From Front to Back
A3: End With a Relevant Gender Phoneme
A4: Choose the Appropriate Stress

A1) BEGIN WITH A MEANINGFUL PREFIX

The beginning of your name is crucial. Think of it like an anchoring
mechanism.

Consider charm prices — prices that end in 9, 99, or 95 (e.g., $2.99).

Thanks to anchoring, people perceive those prices to be lower than
standard prices (Thomas & Morwitz, 2005). When people encounter a
charm price, their brain encodes the magnitude of that price before
reaching the end of it:

“…while evaluating “2.99,” the magnitude encoding

process starts as soon as our eyes encounter the
digit “2.” Consequently, the encoded magnitude of
$2.99 gets anchored on the leftmost digit (i.e., $2)
and becomes significantly lower than the encoded

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 magnitude of $3.00” (Thomas & Morwitz, 2005, pp.
55)

Names work the same way. When people read your name, their brain
will start encoding the name before reaching the end of it. So those
initial phonemes prime certain meanings — which inPluence the
perception of the remaining name.

When people reach the end of your name —milliseconds later —

they’ve already developed beliefs and opinions about your product.
That’s why the beginning is so crucial.

When constructing your name, search for a relevant meaning in the

list of phonaesthemes (see the previous step).

If you Pind one, then huzzah! Position it toward the beginning of your
name.

If you can’t Pind one, then scan this list of Latin prePixes.

And if you still can’t Pind anything, then consider using a plosive
consonant:

“Plosives are consonants such as b, c, d, g, k, p, and t,

which, when pronounced, produce an explosive,
popping sound. Brand names beginning with plosives
were found to produce significantly better recall and
recognition.” (Robertson, 1989, pp. 63)

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A2) ARRANGE CONSONANTS FROM FRONT TO BACK
Naming is an art and science. You might assume that we’ve reached
the “art” portion of naming. But not quite. We can still use science in
this process.

Here’s a pop quiz.

In the table below, each row contains a pair of names. Both names
contain the same letters — except in a different order.

Topolinski et al. (2014) asked participants to evaluate various names.

Can you guess which column consistently outperformed the other?

Got your answer?

If you guessed the airst column…you’re correct. Congrats. Your prize

is in the mail.

And I’d wager that most of you chose the Pirst column. Those names
simply feel right, don’t they?

But now a follow up question…what makes the Pirst column different

from the second column? Why do those names feel right? Can you spot
the underlying factor?

The answer involves the direction of articulation. In the Pirst column…

The beginning letters contain sounds that you construct with

the front of the mouth (e.g., B, F, M, P).

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 The ending letters contain sounds that you construct with
back of the mouth (e.g., K, G).

The second column is the exact opposite:

Hmm. That triggers another question. Why does that matter?

Well, the researchers conducted a few studies to pinpoint the answer.

In the end, they attributed the reason to an approach vs. avoidance
mechanism.

Based on evolution (and our digestive system), we associate meaning

with spitting and swallowing. We ingest benePicial stimuli. We throw
up harmful stimuli. And that association plays a role in articulation:

“…the mere articulation of inward words (featuring

consonantal stricture spots wandering from the front
to the rear of the mouth) would induce an affective
and motivational state associated with deglutition [i.e.,
swallowing], namely a positive state of approach. In
contrast, the articulation of outward words (featuring
consonantal structure spots wandering from the rear
to the front of the mouth) would induce an affective
and motivational state associated with expectoration
[i.e., spitting], namely a negative state of
avoidance.” (Topolinsk et al, 2014, pp. 6-7)

In other words…

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It sounds absurd, I know. But additional research shows that inward
brand names generate a higher willingness-to-pay, among many other
benePits (Topolisnki, Zurn, & Schneider, 2015).

Still not convinced? I hear ya. I was also uncertain about it. The
explanation just didn’t feel right.

So I kept digging, and I eventually found a dissertation by a student of

those researchers. And the student’s explanation sounded more
plausible.

Bakhtiari (2015) analyzed English and German words. The researcher

found that both languages contain a higher proportion of “inward”
words. Outward words are simply less common.

That means people develop higher “pronunciation Pluency” for inward

words. We can pronounce those words more easily because we’ve had
more practice.

Thus, with an easier pronunciation, those words sound more pleasant.

Bakhtiari (2015) found direct support in 10 of 11 experiments. Pretty
convincing.

So I recommend following that insight. Arrange the consonants from

front to back…

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A3) END WITH A RELEVANT GENDER PHONEME
Cassidy et al. (1999) analyzed 490 common names in English. They
found that gender-speciPic names share common properties

Among the names that ended in consonants, 80% belonged to

males (e.g., Bob, Ted)

Among the names that ended in vowels, 72% belonged to

females (e.g., Sue, Mary)

In fact, you knew this already. Don’t believe me? Consider the name
Chris. It’s usually a male name. But we can transform it into a female
name by adding vowel phonemes at the end:

• Chris —> Chrissy

• Chris —> Krista
• Chris —> Christie

And it’s not some Pluke. We do it often — with many names:

• Nick —> Nicki

• James —> Jamie
• Carl —> Carla
• Eric —> Erica
• Pat —> Patti
• Vic —> Vicki

And the list goes on…

More importantly, researchers found that those cues inPluence the

perception of brand names:

“…the evolution of names in this century was affected

by how male or female they sounded and that
knowledge of phonological cues to gender influences
the perception and structure of brand
names.” (Cassidy et al., 1990, pp. 362)

In their experiment, those researchers presented people with

different words. If the word ended in a consonant, people classiPied it
toward males 70% of the time. Even 4-year-olds made the same
classiPication 66% of the time.

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Use that insight in your product name…

If your product is targeting males, end your name with a

consonant

If your product is targeting females, end your name with a

vowel

Alternatively, you could also end with a relevant Latin sufPix (see this
list).

Either way, repeat the previous steps to compile a sizable list of

names.

A4) CHOOSE THE APPROPRIATE STRESS

Before you choose the Pinal name, you need to consider the stress.
With nonwords, you control the pronunciation.

Consider the name, Buleka. You could pronounce that name in

different ways:

BOO-LAY-KUH
BOO-LEE-KUH

Those options stress the second syllable (i.e., the “e” in the name). But
perhaps you want to stress the Pirst syllable:

BEW-LUH-KUH
BOO-LUH-KUH

And there are other options too. But how do know which
pronunciation to choose?

I’d recommend choosing the name that “feels right.” If it sounds right
to you, it probably sounds right to your customers.

That said, you could base your decision on science. SpeciPically, you
could consider the intended part of speech. Is your name a noun or a
verb?

Linguists have found a unique insight in our language (see Bergen,

2001):

Nouns usually stress the Cirst syllable

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 Verbs usually stress the second syllable

Consider these words: record, permit, and compound. Those words can
be nouns and verbs — depending on the stress.

Most importantly, that concept applies to nonwords. If a nonword

stresses the initial syllable, people are more likely to classify it as a
noun (Kelly, 1988). And people identify the word more quickly
(Bergen, 2001).

So follow that insight…

If you want your name to be a noun, stress the initial syllable

If you want your name to be a verb, stress the Cinal syllable

If you’re unsure, you could also consider gender. When Cassidy et al.
(1999) analyzed 490 names, they found another insight:

Male names tend to stress the Cirst syllable (e.g., Richard,

Arthur, Thomas)

Female names tend to tress the second syllable (e.g., Christine,

Michelle, Irene)

At this point, you’ve compiled a sizable list of names. Now you would
proceed to Step 5 so that you can choose the Pinal name. But we’ll get
there soon.

RECAP
Suppose that I invented an upscale and elegant calculator. We’ll use
this calculator example throughout each naming process.

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Here are the steps for a neologistic name:

1) Begin With a Meaningful Preaix

I searched for a relevant meaning among the phonaesthemes and
Latin prePixes.

I found these:

BR: Bright (breezy, brisk, brilliant)

PR: Prized (present, praise, prince)
UTILIS: Useful (utility, utilitarian)

They’re not super relevant. So I might change them. We’ll see.

2) Arrange Consonants From Front to Back

Earlier, I would have chosen Group 1 phonemes (because of the
associations with fast and sophisticated). Using that group, I
highlighted phonemes in our consonant spectrum.

The blue phonemes belong to Group 1.

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Don’t feel constricted, though. You could still use other phonemes. The
blue phonemes simply have the strongest association with my
product.

At this point, I’ll use the front vowels (also from Group 1) to generate
possible names along that spectrum. But Pirst…

3) End With a Relevant Gender Phoneme

My product seems more masculine. So I’ll end it with a consonant
plosive.

In the consonant spectrum, the “K” is highlighted in the last row. So I’ll
use that phoneme.

Based on the previous steps, I generated these names:

Utilik
Previk
Prezik
Prazik
Privelik
Brevik
Brezik
Brazik
Brivelik

Keep in mind…neologistic names are irrelevant to a product. The main

benePit is the scalability of those names.

In other words, avoid using a neologistic name for one speciCic product
(e.g., one calculator). Use neologistic names for a large business
producing multiple products (e.g., a product line of different
calculators).

4) Choose the Appropriate Stress

I want my name to be a noun. So all of those names will stress the Pirst
syllable (except the trisyllabic names — those names sound better
when you stress the second syllable).

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PATH B: ASSOCIATIVE NAMING PROCESS

Some websites offer automatic name generators. Most of them are

pretty frivolous. And they’re unhelpful for a serious name choice.

However, Ozbal and Strapparava (2012) describe a useful one. Their

automated process is more sophisticated because it incorporates
semantic relationships into the name. So if you’re familiar with
programming, you should check out their paper.

Otherwise, you can follow these steps:

B1: Create a Semantic Map of the Product

B2: Compile Synonyms of Your Primary BenePit
B3: Use a Naming Technique to Generate an Output

By dePinition, associative names require some relevance. In this

process, the Pirst two steps will create the relevance. And the Pinal step
will morph that relevance into a nonword that “feels right” for your
product.

B1) CREATE A SEMANTIC MAP OF THE PRODUCT

In order to generate a relevant name, you need a list of words that are
semantically related to your product.

To generate those words, I’ll create a semantic map for our calculator:

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Don’t write adjectives. You’re only interested in concrete semantic
relationships. So focus on nouns.

Also, don’t stray far from the central bubble. All words should have
some association with a calculator.

B2) GENERATE SYNONYMS OF THE PRIMARY

BENEFIT
Those semantic words are the most important step in this process.
Your eventual name will sound more Pitting because of them.

However, you could also incorporate a benePit in your name. People

evaluate names more favorably when they contain a positive attribute
(Kohli, Harich, & Leuthesser, 2005).

So determine the primary benePit of your product. Why should people

buy your product over the competition?

The answer will usually involve price or quality. Here are some
example benePits:

PRICE: Cheap, Convenient

QUALITY: Fast, Powerful, Reliable, Secure, Versatile, Elegant, Fun

Choose one or two benePits that most accurately portray your product.
With our calculator, I’ll choose elegant and intelligent.

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In the previous step, we created a semantic map. In this step, however,
we need words that match the core meaning of our benePits. We need
synonyms.

So enter your primary benePits into a thesaurus.

I entered “elegant” and “intelligent” into this thesaurus, and I updated

our input with the most relevant synonyms:

If you want to increase that list, you could (a) expand your semantic
map or (b) enter new related words into a thesaurus. But we’ll stick
with our input.

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B3) USE A NAMING TECHNIQUE TO GENERATE AN
OUTPUT
Ah, the fun part.

At this point, we generated our input. Now we’ll transform that input
into potential names.

After studying brand names (and linguistics), I compiled the following

techniques. You just enter portions of your input to generate an
output.

For most techniques, you should rely more heavily on the semantic
input (because that’s where the “relevance” will emerge). But you can
choose whatever input you want.

You’ll get the idea once you see examples. I included some real
business names, as well as potential names for our calculator.

Let me know if you think I’m missing a technique.

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Tip: This technique is the most powerful. By choosing a semantic term
and benePit, you create a new word that captures the core essence of
your product — the main goal of any name.

Tip: Don’t forget to look for a relevant Latin prePix.

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Tip: Don’t forget to look for a relevant Latin sufPix. Also, these sufPixes
seem popular and trendy: -able, -ero, -eto, -ies -ify, -io, -ism, -ium, -ly, -
ora, -ous, -sy, -tek.

Tip: Refer to the meanings of phonemes (Step 3) to Pind sounds that

would be benePicial for your product.

Tip: Yep…doesn’t seem conducive for a calculator. But it could work

for your product.

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Tip: I found those translations by pasting my semantic terms into
Google Translate. Then I checked different languages so that I could
look for a catchy name.

Keep using all of those techniques until you’ve compiled a sizable list
of potential names. Then proceed to the Pinal step.

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If you need more ideas, you can check out this list of company
etymologies.

To summarize, here are the names that we compiled for our

calculator:

I like some of those names. But what if none of the names sound
Pitting?

In that case, you might have chosen the wrong type of name. Reassess
your branding and business goals (Step 1) to see if you should choose
a different type of name.

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PATH C: DESCRIPTIVE NAMING PROCESS

Rarely choose a purely descriptive name. If you do, you leave no room
for inference or interpretation — which is needed for persuasion (as I
explained earlier).

Thus, descriptive names should incorporate elements from the other

types (i.e., neologistic, associative, and deviant).

According to the scatterplot, deviant and associative names are the

most similar.

However, deviant names — by dePinition — require irrelevance. So

those names defeat the purpose of descriptive names. Descriptive
names are benePicial because they provide relevance.

So that leaves associative names. Thus, the descriptive naming process

is similar to the associative naming process:

C1: Create a Semantic Map of the Product

C2: Generate Synonyms of the Primary BenePit
C3: Use a Relevant Naming Technique

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C1) CREATE A SEMANTIC MAP OF THE PRODUCT
This step is the same. Identify the primary term for your product (e.g.,
calculator), and then create a semantic map surrounding that term.

C2) GENERATE SYNONYMS OF THE PRIMARY

BENEFIT
At this point, you will have generated the same input from the
associative naming process.

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C3) USE A RELEVANT NAMING TECHNIQUE
I compiled a list of descriptive naming techniques. Simply enter
portions of your input into these techniques to generate potential
names.

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Note: The Geography Technique can sometimes limit expansion. But it
can be effective if the location has a strong reputation for your
product. Sadly, it doesn’t work for calculators.

RECAP
A descriptive name doesn’t “sound right” for a calculator. So let’s
quickly summarize a product where a descriptive name could work.

Consider the name of my online training course, The Blog Boost. Here
was my thought process for the name.

Step 1: Choose the Ideal Type of Name

Since the product was informational, I viewed relevance to be very

important. So I chose a descriptive name.

Step 2: Identify Meaningful Sounds and Letters

This step doesn’t play a role with descriptive names. Since you’re
choosing words that already possess semantic meaning, you don’t
need to adjust phonemes.

Step 3: Compile a List of Potential Names

In the course, I explain how I used content marketing to grow my

email list to 5,000 subscribers. So I chose the primary terms of “blog”
and “audience.” And I generated synonyms for the primary benePits of
“enhance” and “increase.”

Pure descriptive names are bland. Nobody wants to enroll in a course

called “Increase Blog TrafPic.” It’s not distinctive. It’s not memorable.
It’s not persuasive.

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So I wanted to use a phonetic technique (e.g., alliteration, rhyming).
Research shows that phonetic devices have powerful effects on
memory, emotion, and general preference (e.g., Boers &
Lindstromberg, 2005).

I compared the semantic terms with the benePits to see if I could

create a name with alliteration or rhyming. Lo and behold, I could…

…The Blog Boost was born.

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PATH D: DEVIANT NAMING PROCESS

Deviant names work best for emotional products. With a metaphor,

you can capture the essence of multiple emotions. Think of the Dove
example from earlier.

To Pind the right deviant name, follow these steps:

D1: Identify the Primary Emotions of Your Product

D2: Transform Those Emotions into Visual Labels
D3: Create Semantic Maps Surrounding Those Labels
D4: Keep Concrete Nouns that Spark Your Interest

D1) IDENTIFY THE PRIMARY EMOTIONS OF YOUR

PRODUCT
Deviant names should capture the emotion of your product. When
that happens, customers will remember your name more easily.
Consider state-dependent memory:

“…one is more likely to recall happy thoughts when in a

happy mood, romantic memories when in a romantic
mood, and so on. Therefore, when a customer is
thinking about an emotional product category such as
cologne, it should be easier to recall matching

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 emotional brand names, such as Kiss or
Love.” (Robertson, 1989, pp. 65)

So what type of emotions would customers experience with a

calculator? Well, it depends on the positioning, right?

Suppose that you position your calculator to be very robust. It has tons
of features and accessories.

One relevant emotion could be an overwhelmed feeling. We usually

associate that emotion with negativity. But it can be good if customers
feel overwhelmed by the features and benePits of your calculator.

In fact, you might have experienced that emotion with this article. You
might have felt overwhelmed by the obnoxious size (yet
simultaneously excited to dig through it).

So let’s use “overwhelmed” as our primary emotion.

D2) TRANSFORM THOSE EMOTIONS INTO VISUAL

LABELS
Next, you need to make the emotion tangible.

When I visualize feeling overwhelmed, I think of some gigantic

monster overlooking me. So I’m going to choose “giant” as the visual
label.

If our output doesn’t accurately represent our product, we can always

return to create a new label.

D3) CREATE SEMANTIC MAPS SURROUNDING

THOSE LABELS
Below is a semantic map that I created for our “giant” label:

Don’t be afraid to add words that seem irrelevant. But don’t stray too
far from the central label.

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D4) KEEP CONCRETE NOUNS THAT SPARK YOUR
INTEREST
Once you create the semantic map, eliminate everything except
concrete nouns.

Why keep nouns? Because your name will be more memorable…

“Concrete nouns, with tangible, visual referents (e.g.,

"dog") more easily elicit these mental images than
abstract nouns (e.g., "justice"). Therefore, concrete
brand names such as Dove, Mustang, Rabbit, and
Apple should inherently be more easily learned and/or
retrieved from memory than abstract names such as
Pledge, Tempo, Ban or Bold.” (Robertson, 1989, pp.
65)

Plus, nouns can be triggered (see Berger, 2013). Whenever people

encounter the original meaning of your name (e.g., an apple), they’ll
be triggered to think of your company (e.g., Apple). That process
occurs subconsciously.

At this point, compile the nouns that sound promising. I liked these
names:

Goliath
Babel
Behemoth

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 Mammoth
Titan

Also, don’t be afraid to transform those deviant names. Although you

might relinquish some of the inherent emotion — which is the main
benePit of a deviant name — you could play around with the
associative naming techniques:

Homophone Technique: Behemoth —> Behemath

Blend Technique: Behemoth + Genius = Behemius
Sufaix Technique: Titan + -icus = Titanicus

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 STEP 4: CHOOSE THE
BEST NAME IN THE LIST
In the previous step, we generated these names for our hypothetical
calculator:

In this current step, I’ll teach you how to pinpoint the best name by
using various factors. I organized these factors in the most logical
sequence. So think of them as a funnel:

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In this step, you’ll pour in the names that you composed. Then you’ll
eliminate names at each factor. When you reach the bottom of the
funnel, you’ll be left with the ideal name for your product.

Some factors may seem obvious. And I’ll breeze over those factors.

But you should read this entire section because some explanations are
unexpected.

FACTOR 1: WHICH NAMES MATCH THE IDEAL

LENGTH?
Let’s do another exercise. Invent a name for each polygon:

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I’ll get to your answers in a second.

Most naming “gurus” recommend that you choose a short name. And
it’s usually a good option. But it’s not always the case.

Consider the evolution of language. Over time, words have become

longer and more complex:

“We can often deduce at what point a particular word

entered our language purely by evaluating the word’s
simplicity. Think about domain names on the Internet.
When we see a website called Books.com, Buy.com, or
Frames.com, we know those sites must have been
reserved fairly early in the creation of the Internet in
comparison to sites like Buybookshere.com…words
associated with fundamental survival needs tend to be
short and simple (cow, dog, head, face, ear, eye, nose,
toe, stone)…This concept also affects the way people
perceive our names. Names that are short, abrupt,
and simple tend to signify no-nonsense, down-to-earth,
active individuals, while longer multi-syllable names
evoke complex and imaginative
personalities.” (Feinson, 2004)

Generally, longer words convey ideas that are more complex.

Topolinski et al. (2014) tested that claim by analyzing a random group

of English words. Turns out, they found a signiPicant correlation
between syllabic length and visual complexity. Objects that are more
complex generally have more syllables in their name.

Consider the names that you invented for the polygons above.

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Those researchers conducted another study where they gave people
that same task. And the results were consistent. People invented
longer words for the more complex polygon. Did you?

Those Pindings also stem from processing Cluency (see Alter &
Oppenheimer, 2009 for a review). We infer characteristics about a
stimulus (e.g., brand name), based on characteristics that are
irrelevant to its intrinsic quality (e.g., the length of the name).

Remember the pricing example? People perceive prices to be smaller

in magnitude if those prices are displayed in a smaller font size
(Coulter & Coulter, 2005).

The physical size is irrelevant to the magnitude. And we know that.

But our brain has trouble distinguishing those two concepts.

The same applies to language. Even if you were unfamiliar with

Pluency, you still follow it. When you communicate, you adjust
auditory and visual cues to align with Pluency.

Consider the intonation in these two sentences:

The pie was huge.

The pie was huuuuuuuge.

To convey a greater perceived size, you extend the length of “huge.”

Perhaps you also gesture by spreading your hands — enlarging your
body — to reinforce the sheer size of the pie.

The phonetic length of “huge” is arbitrary. But you associate it with

physical size. Based on our communication style, we seem to have a
preconceived and intuitive understanding of Pluency. Go, humans.

But here’s the takeaway.

Your customers will judge your product based on the physical length
of your name:

If your name is short, you convey attributes that people

associate with directness and smallness.

If your name is long, you convey attributes that people

associate with complexity and largeness.

And the ideal choice will depend on the positioning of your product.

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 Do you position your product to be a simple or elegant
solution? Then a short name will reinforce the essence of
that simplicity.

Do you position your product toward experts because it

contains a ton of features? Then a long name could
reinforce the large size and complexity of your offering.

That advice might seem unorthodox. Again, most “gurus” recommend

a short name. However, researchers emphasize the importance of
name Cit. A name that “sounds right” is usually better than a name that
“sounds good” (Robertson, 1989).

FACTOR 2: WHICH NAMES MATCH THE IDEAL

COMPLEXITY?
The same concept applies to complexity.

For most products, you’ll want to choose a simple name. Simple names
increase Pluency — which increases the perceived familiarity of your
product.

Usually, you want people to perceive your product to be familiar.

Familiarity is good…most of the time.

Here are three types of products where you might want to choose a
slightly more complex name so that you reduce familiarity.

1. SPECIAL OCCASION PRODUCTS

If customers purchase your product for a special occasion, you should
reduce the Pluency of your name:

“In the context of everyday products, increased

fluency is a positive cue that the product is familiar
and safe which leads to higher evaluation of
products…However, in the context of special occasion
high-end products, higher fluency serves as a negative
cue that indicates abundance and familiarity of
products that translates into lower value… Thus,
difficulty (and not ease) of processing of such

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 products will make them feel more
special…” (Pocheptsova, Labroo & Dhar, 2010)

Those researchers exposed people to different fonts for a gourmet

cheese. People were more likely to buy the cheese when the font was
difPicult to read.

Even though the study involved font, the underlying factor was
disCluency. So you’ll achieve the same outcome by using a slightly more
complex name.

2. ADVENTUROUS PRODUCTS
Familiarity has a connotation with safe and boring — which is bad for
adventurous products.

Song and Schwarz (2009) exposed people to different roller coasters:

Some names were easy to pronounce (e.g., Chunta,

Ohanzee, Tihkoosue)

Some names were difaicult to pronounce (e.g.,

Vaiveahtoishi, Tsiischili, Heammawihio)

Participants viewed rides to be more exciting when the names were

difPicult to pronounce.

3. ADVANCED PRODUCTS
If you position your product to be technologically advanced, you don’t
want people to experience familiarity.

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Thus, a complex name can reinforce a perception that your product is
advanced:

“…depending on how the fluency feeling is interpreted

in the context of initial judgment task (e.g.
advancedness vs. risk), disfluent drug names can
positively influence a patient’s perception of the drug,
reversing the typical fluency effect.” (Cho, 2014)

Now, all that said, be careful if you choose a complex name.

Oftentimes, Pluency will involve perceptions of familiarity. But it could
trigger other interpretations.

Think of drug names. People could interpret disPluency in two ways:

Good: The drug is more advanced

Bad: The drug is more hazardous

What determines that interpretation? There’s no dePinitive answer.

But it probably stems from a preconceived opinion about your
product. So you should pay close attention to your branding and
positioning.

In the end, never choose a very complex name. When in doubt, choose
a short and simple name.

FACTOR 3: IS THE NAME ENTICING TO SAY?

Assuming that you chose a simple name, you’ll want a name with an
easy pronunciation.

But here’s a fun fact. Do you know why customers prefer names that
are easy to pronounce? The answer involves Pluency. But there’s more
to the story.

Whenever you see a written word, you engage in subvocal

pronunciation. You mutter that word to yourself. Oftentimes without
realizing it.

More importantly, subvocalization reinforces Pluency. When you

encounter the name again, you’ll subvocalize it more quickly — which
feels good. And then you misattribute that pleasantness to the
product.

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However, here’s the interesting tidbit. If someone’s mouth is occupied
(e.g., chewing gum), they can’t subvocalize. So they don’t experience
that pleasantness (and they don’t make that misattribution).

It sounds weird, but multiple studies show that people are more
resilient to ads when their mouths are occupied, such as chewing gum
(Topolinski, Lidner, & Freudenberg, 2014).

Thus, to increase Pluency, you need a name that’s fun or enticing to say
— a name that encourages subvocalication.

Earlier I explained the importance of arranging consonants from front

to back (see Topolinski et al., 2014). Although it enhances
pronunciation, those names aren’t necessarily enticing to say.

To create an enticing name, consider adding phonetic repetition:

“The presence of such repetitive sounds is usually

pleasing to the ear and helps to generate a general
pleasant feeling which contributes to the connotative
meaning established for the name.” (Robertson, 1989,
pp. 67)

Two potential techniques include The Alliteration Technique (e.g.,

Best Buy) or The Rhyme Technique (e.g., FitBit).

Those repetitive sounds make your name more tantalizing. You’ll

encourage people to subvocalize — which enhances their perception
of your product (Argo, Popa, & Smith, 2010).

FACTOR 4: HOW MANY SPELLING VARIATIONS

EXIST?
Ziegler et al. (1997) analyzed 2,694 monosyllabic words. Turns out,
over 72% of syllables in English can be spelled more than one way.

Chances are good: your names can be spelled more than one way. And
that can be problematic when customers hear your name.

But you have two solutions…

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SOLUTION A: CHOOSE A NAME WITH FEWER
SPELLING VARIATIONS
Consider the detergent, Purex:

“…upon hearing an ad for the laundry detergent Purex

a literate English speaker would know to spell it as p-u-
r-e-x….the letters p-u-r-e-x are the only letters that
would produce such a sound in English” (Luna,
Carnevale, & Lerman, 2013, pp. 37)

You won’t be as lucky with other names.

SOLUTION B: PRIME THE CORRECT SPELLING OF

THE NAME

Oftentimes you’ll still be drawn toward a name — even though it could

have multiple spellings.

In that case, you could encourage the correct spelling by including a

similarly spelled word near your name:

“…the spelling of a nonword may be enhanced by the

spelling of a word heard immediately before that
contains the same spelling pattern as the target
nonword. For example, in lexical priming a real word
that sounds and is spelled like the nonword is
presented before the nonword (e.g., “rose” before
Bose)” (Luna, Carnevale, & Lerman, 2013, pp. 38)

FACTOR 5: WHAT ARE POTENTIAL

ABBREVIATIONS?
If your name is more than one word, it’s inevitable. When people talk
about your brand online, they WILL abbreviate it — whether you like
it or not.

So if your name is the Amazing New Ultimate Store. Well…guess what?

You got a problem, ANUS.

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You need to choose a name that — when abbreviated — is still
brandable.

Ideally, the abbreviation should also be easy-to-pronounce. Consistent

with Pluency, Alter and Oppenheimer (2006) found that stocks with
easy-to-pronounce ticker symbols (e.g., COF) outperform stocks with
difPicult-to-pronounce ticker symbols (e.g., XRI).

FACTOR 6: WHAT ARE THE TRANSLATIONS IN

POPULAR LANGUAGES?
Barf Detergent isn’t the only translation blunder.

The Honda Fitta sounds great, doesn’t it?

It’s cool. It’s young. It’s hip.

Well, too bad it’s Swedish for female genitalia. Yep…Honda wasn’t too
happy.

(though I wonder if they changed their slogan: small on the outside, big
on the inside)

Anyway, here are some other blunders:

Mazda renamed their Laputa minivan because “puta”

means “prostitute” in Spanish.

Clairol renamed their Mist Stick because “mist” means

manure in German.

Mitsubishi renamed their Pajero because “pajero”

meanings “wanker” in Spanish.

Reebok renamed their Incubus sneaker because, in

medieval folklore, an “incubus” was a demon who ravished
women in their sleep.

When Exxon spent $100 million to name their company,

they tested names in 54 languages. They discovered that
one name — Enco — referred to a stalled engine in
Japanese.

SOURCES: Duduciuc, 2015; Kotler et al., 2013

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Don’t make the same mistake. Once you narrow down potential
names, check the translations in popular languages.

FACTOR 7: DOES THE NAME EXIST

ELSEWHERE?
Search the names in Google. What results shows up?

FACTOR 8: IS THE .COM DOMAIN AVAILABLE?

The .com domain will become less important over time. But it’s still
important today. So don’t forget to check.

FACTOR 9: IS THE NAME AVAILABLE ON

POPULAR SOCIAL PLATFORMS?
This factor isn’t make or break. But it’s something to consider.

FACTOR 10: SHOULD YOU ADD A VERSION OR

NUMBER?
Many products incorporate numbers. You’ll Pind examples
everywhere…

WD-40
7-UP
Boeing 767
Xbox 360
Canon T5i

Those “alphanumeric brands” use different formats — small numbers,

large numbers, letters, numerals. For example, here are some real
calculator names:

Ti-84
Casio fx-115ES

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 Avalon A-25X
Sharp EL-501XBWH

Pavia and Costa (1993) found that alphanumeric names work best for
two types of products:

Technical (e.g., electronic, computers, calculators)

Chemically Formulated (e.g., drugs, fuel, vitamin-rich food)

But why do they work?

Well, the researchers found that people use those numbers to infer
characteristics about the product. For example, people estimated a
higher seat capacity in an aircraft:

“…we asked participants to estimate the number of

seats in two aircrafts of equivalent capacity (i.e.,
Airbus A330 vs. Boeing B767)… Consistent with our
premise, 25 of the 61 participants (i.e., 41%) thought
that “767” stands for the number of passengers,
capacity, number of seats, etc” (Yan & Duclos, 2013,
pp. 180-181)

Seat capacity is an explicit association. But most associations occur

subconsciously.

So how can you choose the ideal version or number? Here are some
factors to consider:

COMPLEXITY
How simple or complex should it be? The answer depends on the
complexity of your original name (see Factor 2).

Suppose that you wanted a simple name for your calculator. So you
chose Titan because it was short and distinct.

If you then create Titan BH-X25GHL…well…that defeats the purpose,

doesn’t it? To maintain simplicity, you need a simple number (e.g.,
Titan 200).

Now, a complex version could work. If you position your calculator to

be very advanced, a disPluent name could be effective. People could

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attribute that disPluency to the advancedness of your product (see
Cho, 2014). But it depends on your positioning.

NUMERICAL MAGNITUDE
Which computer do you prefer?

X-100
X-200

All else equal, consumers prefer the X-200 (the higher magnitude).

The reason stems from a “higher is better” heuristic. Consumers

perceive those products to be more advanced:

“…consumers with low need for cognition use simple

brand name heuristics and make their decisions based
on the assumption that alphanumeric brands with
higher numeric portions correspond to more advanced
products.” (Gunasti & Ross, 2010, pp. 678)

If your product is the Pirst in your product line, then check the
competition. What versions or numbers are they using? Consider
using a higher magnitude.

You’ll also trigger an anchoring effect. Yan and Duclos (2013) found
that customers perceived a $500 MP3 player to be a better value when
it was called M-600 (rather than M-500). You can refer to my book,
Methods of Persuasion, for a detailed explanation.

NUMERICAL FLUENCY
Based on numerical cognition, we process certain numbers more
easily (which inPluences our preference for those numbers).

Here are some tips.

Tip 1: Use a Rounded Number

Kettle and Haubel (2009) conducted a few experiments on
roundedness. They found that people prefer round numbers because
of higher Pluency:

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 “…people prefer numbers that are products of 25 and
10 (e.g., 50%, $125). People rate risky prospects
comprised of those numbers as more attractive, and
choose those prospects over similar prospects
comprised of nonfluent numbers.” (pp. 150)

Tip 2: Use a Composite Number

If you don’t use a round number, then at least use a composite number
(a number that isn’t prime).

Janiszewski and King (2011) exposed people to different

alphanumeric names. People consistently preferred names with
composite numbers:

Cars: Volvo S12 was better than Volvo S29

Body Spray: Axe 16 was better than Axe 17
Contact Lenses: Solus 36 was better than Solus 37

Tip 3: Incorporate Divisors Near Your Name

Even if you choose a composite number, you can further increase
Pluency.

In the previous study, Janiszewski and King (2011) created ads for
each product. In each ad, they incorporated divisors of the composite
number:

Volvo S12: They displayed a 62 in the license plate (6 x 2 = 12)

Axe 16: They displayed a 4 on a hotel door.
Solus 36: They emphasized “6 colors. 6 Pits.”

In each case, those divisors increased Pluency (and people evaluated

those names more favorably).

That tactic also works with prices. People were more likely to buy a
$24 pizza deal when they read an ad containing divisors (e.g., “4 small
pizzas up to 6 toppings”). Refer to Tactic 33 in my pricing article.

SEMANTIC ASSOCIATIONS
We’ve looked at magnitude, complexity, and numerical Pluency. But
you should also consider potential associations with the number.

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Certain numbers (e.g., 7) are associated with certain concepts (e.g.,
luck). And those associations can inPluence the perception of your
name (see Ang, 1997).

PERCEPTUAL MEANING
Thanks to perceptual Pluency, people will infer qualities about your
product using the visual characteristics of your numerals.

Consider the numbers, 1 and 8:

1 is straight
8 is round

If the physical shape of your product is meaningful, then you might

want to choose a corresponding numeral (i.e., 1 for straight products,
8 for round products).

But you could also consider the metaphorical associations with those
characteristics.

For example, people usually associate straightness with symbolic

concepts — like straightforwardness, directness, or honesty. If those
adjectives describe your product, then you might want to choose a
visually straight numeral.

If you’re not familiar with Pluency, those claims might sound strange.
But a lot of research supports it (see Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009).

SOUND MEANING
Earlier I chose Titan 200 as an example. And I didn’t choose it
arbitrarily. I chose it because of the alliteration.

We usually categorize alliteration under orthography (i.e. the spelling

of words). But don’t make that mistake. Even if your name uses a
numeral (e.g., 200), always consider the phonetics of that number
(e.g., “too hundred”).

When possible, strongly consider an alliterative number (e.g., Titan

200).

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Davis, Bagchi, and Block (2012) examined alliteration with quantities,
names, and prices. They exposed people to two different sequences:

10 Teven for $10

10 Teven for $9.70

Not surprisingly, the alliterative presentation was more effective:

“Participants found the fully alliterative presentation

(10 Teven for $10) to be a more attractive offer,
more attention grabbing, had higher purchase
intentions for the product, were happier with the deal,
and thought the deal was a better value, than the
alternate presentation” (pp. 600)

I know that experiment is different from our current needs (not to

mention, the amount of alliteration was amazingly excessive). But the
core takeaway still stands: alliteration can be powerful in a brand
name.

Also, don’t forget the phoneme meanings that I explained in Step 3.

Choose a numeral with meaningful phonemes.

FACTOR 11: WHAT DO YOUR TARGET

CUSTOMERS THINK?
Here’s the Pinal — and most important — factor in this list.

You’ve removed the weaker names. Now you’re left with the top
contenders. All of these names are viable names for your product or
business. Now you just need to pinpoint the ideal name.

So…let’s ask the people that matter. What do customers think of the
names that you compiled?

Don’t ask if they “like” the name. Instead, pinpoint the meanings that
they associate with those names. Choose the name that most
accurately portrays your product.


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 FINAL THOUGHTS
I spent 200 hours analyzing the research. And I can safely say….this
article is the most comprehensive and concrete resource on naming a
product or business.

This topic seems Pluffy on the outside. But it’s extremely complex. I
spent a ton of time trying to Pit the pieces together in a logical
sequence. So if you see an error or omission, please let me know.

Finally, don’t treat this article as a formula. Sure, I explained the

science. But don’t forget…naming is also an art. Every product is
different. You can adapt the steps to suit your needs.

And if you’re reading this guide, then I’m guessing you’re a subscriber
to my blog. If not, you can check out my other articles.

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