We create naming strategy and names for products, services and companies. We are naming consultants, not creative pinch-hitters. It means entering the scene while there's still time to hone and solidify a naming-focused strategic approach. And sticking with clients until the hard part (selecting the final name) is complete.

Brands typically hire outside naming agencies to put out quick fires, naming a product shortly before it launches. It's doable, but it isn't ideal, as it doesn't allow for names to be developed in support of the overarching corporate brand's mission. We become naming counsel for clients, developing names that, together, become a springboard for the future vision of the corporate brand.

Given this philosophy, we typically start with the Namescape Strategy Development. Occasionally, we will do a single Name Development project at the outset of a relationship to demonstrate how we work. Given the brands we typically partner with - corporations that are launching multiple products each year - the most effective work we do begins with Namescape Strategy Development - in essence, the blueprint from which subsequent Name Development flows.

Namescape Strategy Development

Names are far too often developed in isolation: defining a product in the short term, but ignoring their greater roles as part of a corporation's namescape (def: a brand's portfolio of names, and how they interrelate to support each other and the overarching brand.) During Namescape Strategy Development, we engage with brand managers and executive leadership to pinpoint naming opportunities at the corporate-brand level and define a vision-consistent plan to guide all future name development.

Clients experience three main benefits: marketing and brand managers with more time to focus on their core work, deeply satisfied and reassured CMO's, and forward-looking, airtight guidelines for future naming, the most seminal form of brand expression.

Diagnosis

Mapping and assessing the brand's current architecture of names: what's working, what isn't, and where new names should take the brand.

Prescription

Outlining a plan for future naming, including written guidelines for name development, standardized evaluation criteria, and specific definition of how ideal names should look, sound, and fit within a future vision for the brand.

Process Optimization

Beyond defining what names should do, we look at what the brand leaders themselves should do... creating a cadence plan to prioritize upcoming initiatives, delivering a "Quick Start" guide that defines exactly what's needed to start an individual Name Development project on the right path, and fostering best practices within clients' organizations to lead to more productive and strategically fruitful naming.

Name Development

Name Development is the process during which we work with clients to develop names for an individual products, services or offerings. It is comprised of four stages: Discovery, Planning, Creation, and Decisioning. Naming as conducted by outside agencies is widely understood as something that focuses on what is merely the third stage of our process - Creation. However, through our experience, we have learned that this isn't sufficient for the type of clients that we serve. Before even starting to create names, we establish project-specific naming priorities and identify key decision-makers on the executive brand level to be involved throughout the process. And after names are created, we further work with clients to make the final name decision.

Discovery

Brands are like people, with personalities, and needs. We get to know them on a personal level, through in-depth research, interviews, and immersion in any existing brand research. Discovery aims to create aligned understanding of the naming challenges and opportunities from the start. All decision-makers - both project-level managers and executive leadership - are defined during this phase.

Planning

Naming without strategy is like basketball without hoops. Archery without a target. You can do it, but it'll feel pretty aimless - and everyone watching stands to be pretty confused (or frightened). That's why, before any naming ensues, we build strategic alignment around well-defined naming priorities, ensuring that names are created and evaluated with constant attention to their unique opportunity to communicate a strategic message.

Creation

If there's one thing all great names have in common, it's distinctiveness. With strategy in hand, we push the creative envelope. Exploring concepts that others haven't, developing names that distinguish a brand's voice from the competition, while advancing its message loudly and clearly.

TM Research: We eliminate the disappointment of not being able to use the perfect name by performing domestic and international trademark screening.

Linguistic Analysis: With the expertise of native-speaking linguists across the globe, we screen all name candidates to identify negative and positive associations, and evaluate pronunciation and overall linguistic efficacy.

Contextual Evaluation: The success of a name hinges on its everyday use. We assess names' performance in the myriad ways they will live in the market, accounting for mispronunciations, abbreviations and all other colloquial mishaps.

Decisioning

The most precarious part of the naming process is moving from name candidates to the final name. Given that the final name is a brand's decision that is least likely to ever change (unlike visual identity or advertising campaigns), it's pretty important. Our emphasis on including this as a specific phase of the naming process therefore seems pretty logical, yet it's what distinguishes us most from other agencies.

We aggregate, organize and interpret all of the evaluative insights needed to make an informed decision. No longer asking CMO's to decide on pure preference, but to decide on strategy. And we work closely with brand leadership to provide the knowledge, guide approval process improvements, and embolden the culture within our clients' organizations that's needed to select great names. We create project-customized decisioning tools to synthesize, contextualize, and prioritize brand leaders' feedback and channel visionary insights into concise conclusions - into final name selection.