Branding For Dummies®

Chapter 7. Naming Your Brand

In This Chapter

• Realizing the power of a great brand name

• Brainstorming and choosing your brand name

• Claiming your name on the Web

• Registering and protecting your name

If you haven't yet named your brand, you just opened to what may be the most important chapter in this book.

Naming your brand is by far the most challenging, momentous, and necessary phase in the process of branding. Before you can proceed to develop a brand identity, you need a name that's appropriate, available, appealing, and enduring. Truly, naming a brand is as important — and as difficult — as naming a baby.

Other elements of your brand — including your logo, tagline, and color scheme — may evolve over time, but your name will remain constant. From the day you announce your name, it's the key that unlocks your brand image in the minds of your consumers.

This chapter sheds light on the value of your brand name, how to recognize the characteristics of a good name, and how to come up with and protect a name that works well from the start and long into your successful future.

What's In a Name?

The right name distinguishes you from all other businesses, and ideally, it establishes your personality, brand character, market position, and the nature of your offering. The very best name accomplishes the following objectives:

• It reflects the brand character you want your business to project.

• It's descriptive of your offering.

• It creates an association to the meaning of your brand.

• It's easy and pleasant ...