Naming a brand is one of the most important yet overlooked aspects of building a strategic brand.
There are specialists who dedicate their lives to the craft and Rob Meyerson is one such specialist.
In this episode of the Brand Master Podcast we dive into the brand naming process and how to create a great brand name We’ll cover topics such as…
The Importance Of Language
Key Attributes Of A Great Brand Name
Brand Naming Mistakes
Brand Naming In The Brand Strategy Timeline
And much more…
So if you want to learn how to create a great brand name from scratch from someone who’s been there and done it right at the top, then stick around for this article.
Question #1
Why Is The Brand Name So Important?

Stephen Houraghan
We talk so much about the logo and the visual identity, the strategy and, all of these statements are all important within the brand strategy development, but really brand naming kind of seems to get overlooked in terms of just how important it is.
Can you talk to me a little bit about how you see the importance of brand naming?

Rob Meyerson (Summarized)
I guess a lot of times our clients come to us with a name, and maybe they’ve just named the business staff for themselves or taking it upon themselves.
But in instances where a name is needed or renaming is needed, I think it’s really important.
I usually outline three reasons how important brand naming is:
1. Language Is Powerful
We use language everyday, to explain our thoughts and the more articulate we are, the better we can communicate those thoughts.
But we’ve all had experiences with reading something or listening to the lyrics of a song or listening to a really inspirational speech and feeling not only the explanatory power of language, but the emotional resonance that that language can have as well.
2. Naming A Brand Is Difficult
Look no further than, Boaty McBoatface and all these other horror stories that we hear brands that mean something terrible in another language. Companies that have had to rebrand because they got sued by another company for using a similar name it’s just hard to get right and if you’ve tried it yourself, you probably have experienced that.
3. A Good Name Is A Good Investment
It’s the one brand asset that I can think of that really should not change and there’s often good reason for a logo to at least be evolved and updated or redesigned every five to seven years, or websites, even more often, but if it’s the name of the company or the name of a product, hopefully just stays the same for the life of that company or product.
Question #2
What Are The Key Attributes Of A Great Brand Name?

Stephen Houraghan
What would you say would be the kind of attributes that are most important within a brand name or, put it in another way, what would you say would be the main job of the brand name?

Rob Meyerson (summarised)
The main job or key attribute for a brand name is to make the name memorable, especially if you’re at the company level. So that may only be one of several goals or a name, but, but memorability is a key goal and I think there are a number of different ways you can achieve that sometimes though, if you’re just naming.
We are called upon sometimes to name the features of a piece of software to help, this is another sort of, part of verbal identity its like a naming taxonomy.
So we’ve got a hundred features and we just want to make sure that they all have names that people can understand and data, we don’t over reuse the same words and in that scenario, it’s not about memorability as much as it is just clear communication.
So sometimes that’s more of the goal. So it kind of depends on what level you’re doing the naming at, but yeah,
memorability is one of the most important jobs of the brand name.