You didn’t create your product or company overnight; so don’t expect to name it overnight either. Naming is a process that works best when ample time is spent exploring the vast creative possibilities. Plan ahead and allocate up to six weeks for a full naming process. The more time you allow, the more time your naming firm has to turn over every stone in the search for your perfect name. A good client will give their naming firm sufficient time to do their job, and in return a good naming firm will provide a fantastic range of naming options.

Unfortunately, extenuating circumstances come up, and sometimes you just don’t have a lot of time. Naming specialists can still help – we know how to turn things around quickly if there’s no other option – within reason, of course!

Still, if you have a choice in the matter, don’t put naming off until the last minute. Call your friendly naming specialists as early as you can.

This is part two in a ten-part CatchThis series. Check back every Monday morning for subsequent naming tips. Check out previous Naming Tips here.

Tags: naming advice, naming experts, naming firm, naming specialist, Naming Tips
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I thought this article on renaming airports was interesting. Wouldn’t it be great fun to help name an airport? (Somehow, I don’t think Catchword will get the nod for that work.)

Tags: airline naming, airport naming, celebrity names
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We recently made some interior design upgrades in our office. (See next week’s post for some visual examples.) Part of our redesign included swapping out our old Catchword sign for a new and improved one. Some of the old letters stuck around and we like to play word jumble with them, concocting all sorts of fun phrases. Here’s one I created when my iMac suffered a power supply failure last Friday. These G5 iMacs sure aren’t the sturdiest machines Apple ever built. (Notice the clever rearrangement of “d” to make a “p.”)

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Tags: fun with words
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Clients often ask us, “Now that I have a new company name, what’s next?” There’s still much to do, from announcing your name internally and externally to handling legal and administrative details. We’ve put together a handy-dandy guide to help you launch your new company name.

We’ve divided your name launch into five categories: Legal and Administrative, Marketing and Identity, Internal Communications, External Communications, and Technology.

Check out our guide by clicking the image above, or by clicking here.

If you find you need professional help, give us a call. We have strong relationships with firms that specialize in highly effective name launches.

Tags: company name launch, Launching Your New Company Name, Name Launch, new company name
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Occasionally we encounter start-up technology clients who tell us they want their name to be so popular it gets turned into a verb. Like, Google or Xerox. Oh ho ho, no you don’t! These big-name companies spend a lot of money fighting the genericization of their famous brand names. They all want to protect themselves from their brand name becoming so generic that they lose their trademark rights.

Case in point. Kleenex recently took out this full page ad in Brandweek; surely not pocket change. (Keep reading after the image for more of the blog post.)

If you can’t quite read the text, it says:

You don’t need a Social Security number to get your identity stolen. When you spend nearly a century building a name that people know and trust, the last thing you want is people calling any old tissue a Kleenex® Tissue. Simply put, ‘Kleenex’ is a brand name and should always be followed by an ® and the word ‘Tissue.’ Please help us keep our identity, ours.

The upside of having your name used as the generic term, or as a “verb” is that you own top-of-mind presence with the consumer. The downside is that when your name becomes synonymous with the category name, any one of your competitors (or all of them!) can use it to describe their own similar product.
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Tags: generic name, kleenex
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Catchword has been in the naming business for ten years, and its founders even longer than that! Consequently, Catchword has accumulated a wealth of experience about the right and wrong ways to conduct a naming project. We know it’s tough for our clients: Budget constraints, ever-changing deadlines, and fickle managerial whim all make it difficult to run a smooth marketing or branding project. To make matters even more complicated, naming is often an ad hoc need for which you may not have planned.

That’s where Catchword comes in. We’re here to make your life a little bit easier. Just to show you how helpful we can be, we thought we would offer some key bits of advice before a naming project drops in your lap. The following series covers a host of naming tips based on questions that our clients ask us regularly. What better way to facilitate a smooth naming process than to answer some of your questions in advance? The more information you have, the better prepared you’ll be when it comes time to name your company or name your product!

Find our first weekly tip below, and check back every Monday morning for the next couple of months for subsequent naming tips.

Naming Tip #1) Use a specialized naming firm.

Everyone thinks she or he is an expert at naming; most are mistaken. Even though you named your pet beagle Darwin, that doesn’t mean you have all the necessary tools to create a powerful and lasting brand. Beyond the fresh creative perspective necessary to generate great names, you also need naming-specific knowledge on how to guide the process smoothly. And let’s not forget about dealing with the challenging psychology of picking a final name.

Dedicated naming specialists are prepared for all of these twists and turns. They do this type of work day-in and day-out, 365 - 24/7. Even the bigger branding firms who include naming in their list of capabilities can’t claim to be devoted naming experts. You wouldn’t trust your heart transplant to a general practitioner, would you? Of course not. Trust the specialists. Hire a naming firm with a smart creative outlook, and a track record for launching successful, eye-catching names.

Choosing a specialized naming firm will help you in the long run. They are certain to present options you would have never come up with on your own. These exciting names are also likely to have a higher degree of legal and domain availability than ones you come with on your own. Additionally, you’ll have peace-of-mind knowing that the experts are taking this project off your plate, while you focus on other important tasks on your to-do list.

Tags: naming advice, naming experts, naming firm, naming specialist, Naming Tips
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Ten years ago this spring, three youngish whippersnappers, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, opened the doors at Catchword Branding. Since then, we’ve gone from a small startup working with a handful of up-and-coming firms to a full-service bicoastal naming agency with a roster of blue chip clients.

In honor of our 10th anniversary, we’d like you to have a copy of our first ever Brand Name Owner’s Manual. It’s a driver’s guide for that most critical marketing vehicle: your name. We hope that it tickles your funnybone (and even proves useful from time to time).

Now this manual isn’t meant to be a serious how-to guide for creating names. (For that, we recommend an accomplished name development firm.) But there are plenty of tips for avoiding common perils of naming—and steering towards a name that will give your brand traction. (Check out our tricks for evaluating names and screening names, among other lessons we’ve learned over the years that have helped us to help brand stewards like you.)

Of course, if the last decade didn’t offer us an opportunity to collaborate with you we certainly hope this next one will!

Warmest regards, and happy birthday to us! It’s been a great ride…

The Catchword Team

Click the image above (or click here) to read our Brand Name Owner’s Manual.

Tags: Brand Name Owner's Manual, Brand Naming, naming advice, naming guide
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I saw a recent ad in the New York Times announcing the name change of the management consulting group of Booz Allen Hamilton to just Booz & Company. At first I thought it was a joke – maybe something management consultants do to one another instead of putting cellophane on the toilet on April Fool’s Day. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was not a joke; just a poor decision.

I remember when Anderson split into two groups. The accountants kept Anderson (only to destroy that brand a few years later with front-page ties to Enron and other corrupt companies) while the consultants forged a brave new brand: Accenture. At the time, the new name was ridiculed by the media, the branding world, and by most employees. Sadly, most new names suffer this fate. However, as the brand took hold (and the old name suffered an even worse fate), much of the criticism faded. Today, Accenture is viewed as a strong brand name, and a great case study for how successful name changes can be.

Which brings us back to Booz. I’m sure I’m not the only one who chuckled at this truncation. Any of the other co-founders would have been better – Hamilton & Co. has a nice ring to it. Booz? Please. Do you really think clients want to trust their company’s future to a bunch of … Boozers? Boozos? Loozers? C’mon.

Why did they make this move? A cascade of tactical errors. First, I’m guessing they tried to come up with something new. Maybe the hired a big naming company to suggest a few ideas. When none of those “jumped off the page” (a phrase heard all too often by naming consultants like me), they gave up. Never mind that they probably passed on dozens of solid brand names that just needed a little support to get off the ground. Remember, these are the smartest guys in the room.

Second, they looked at their competition. Not a very strong group of brands, I’ll concede. PricewaterhouseCoopers – the name that’s so long they had to shrink it just to fit it on the letterhead. IBM GBS – because we thought more initials would add clarity. Bain – almost as bad as Booz. These names are the bane of my existence. Don’t even get me started on Monday – thank goodness that name was taken off the market. (As I have said many times before, please folks, let your trusted naming consultant help you! Naming is not best left to the bean counters and graphic designers.)

Finally, they considered their existing assets. I can hear the conversation now … the head of the branding committee says: “Everyone calls us Booz anyway. It’s shorthand for the company name. If we just use that, we can bridge our equity back to the old brand, but still separate from the Government Services Group. It’s perfect! (Heck, at least it’s better than Bain.)”

And there was one poor soul, in the back of the room, too afraid to speak up and say WHAT EVERYONE ELSE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THINKING: “Um, excuse me for being difficult, but … do we really want to brand ourselves after alcohol? Does that have the tone of serious business we are looking for? And, forgive my insolence, but hasn’t Mr. Booz been dead for like fifty years? Oh, and one more thing … instead of looking backward to our old glory years and dead founders, couldn’t we use this as an opportunity to move our brand forward, into new territory with new messaging and new strategic positioning to help us better compete with our better-branded competitors? Isn’t that what we would tell our clients to do? No? Oh, well forget I said anything. Go on.” A Dilbert moment if there ever was.

These guys are supposed to represent the smartest of the smart. I say they don’t know diddely squat about branding. Next time, call a naming professional. I’d be happy to help. “Consultants-R-Us”? “Consultopia”? “Strategery Consultified”? No? I’ve got more. Wait, come back…

Tags: Booz & Company, Booz Allen Hamilton, name change, naming faux pas
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