July 25, 2008

The $99 Brand Name


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In an effort to reduce the intimidation factor at the beginning of a new project, we often tell our clients that while they may not realize it, every one of them has naming experience. We’ve all named something in our lives, be it a pet, a child, or a nickname for our car or a friend. What I didn’t know is there is, in fact, a structured way for all of us to be professional namers. Clicking through a recent email that breached my spam filter, I came across a new competitor for Addison Whitney: NameThis.com.

This site offers “three world-validated names for your thingamajig in 48 hours”…all for the bargain price of $99. Eighty percent of this fee is distributed back to participating site members, meaning those who helped create or influence the winning names actually get paid for their ideas. Of course, there is no guarantee that the customer submitting the naming request is going to like the winning candidates or that they’ll be legally viable. If you were starting a new business, would you be willing to spend $99 to give a group of average citizens a shot at naming your company, product, service or website?

Contributed by: Ashley Hollingsworth

One Comment

  1. Ninh Nguyen   July 27, 2008 9:22 pm / Reply

    This is an interesting website. Yet another sign of social networking at work. In my mind the only organization that would benefit from this is a firm that wants a sampling of what the world has to say about naming but without influencing the strategic direction of the brand itself. Unbiased opinion is always great to see but what about the realistic application of using these names?

    In working in this industry for a few years now I would like to bring up three points.

    1.) The website does not disclose how their “fancy math machine” operates. Key question would be what does it analyze? What is the rationale behind the names? How popular is the site? Is a vote by X number of people enough to use the name?

    2.) Does the recommended name fit with the product’s brand attributes? Does it represent the proper associations the organization wants this new product/service to reflect? As an example the name could be very soft in tone but the vision for marketing this product could be aimed at a more edgy crowd that requires a name that has more of a tough resonating sound. Or if the strategy is to target a luxury market but the end result is a brand better suited for the lower end segment.

    3.) My biggest concern is the screening or lack of screening that is conducted from this service. There are legal issues to consider in using a name as well translation factors to keep in mind. Does is mean something it shouldn’t in say Chinese?

    I hope that this site does succeed but at the end of the day professional review of these social experiments is always advised. I’m looking forward to tracking this site and seeing if organizations do in fact go forth with the created names that one day they could turn into a true brand.

    Remember a name alone won’t create a brand the brand is built over time through proper investment and strategic targeted messaging. One of my favorite brand experts, David Aaker, describes a brand as “A set of assets (or liabilities) linked to a brand’s name and symbol that adds to (or subtracts from) the value provided by a product or service…”

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