What’s in a name? Quite a bit, when it comes to businesses and products, says Christopher Johnson, aka The Name Inspector, a Seattle-based consultant who helps companies create names that indelibly brand their products and services.
Johnson, who earned a doctoral degree in linguistics, got into the name game by working for a naming company while earning an undergraduate degree. In graduate school, he worked part time for Lexicon Branding Inc., which helped develop such well-known names as Pentium, PowerBook, OnStar, BlackBerry, Dasani, Febreze and Swiffer.
At Lexicon, Johnson honed his craft by writing name descriptions for clients, in which he’d explain the specific benefits of particular names. That helped him develop a knack for creating names. Several years ago, Johnson started blogging for fun about names and linguistics under the moniker The Name Inspector. It soon turned into a full-time gig, specializing in developing names for startup, high-tech companies.
Pumper talked with Johnson about the complexities of naming businesses – specifically zeroing in on how he would go about naming a septic service company.
Pumper: What’s the most important thing to think about when naming a company?
Johnson: A lot depends on the product and the business. But typically, the most important thing is to identify what you’re talking about in an interesting and engaging way, which usually means doing it indirectly. Indirect communication is the best way to good naming.
What makes a name interesting is the process of interpretation people go through when they hear a name. People don’t focus on it consciously … if it’s directly descriptive, the process is a very short journey – it doesn’t lead anywhere and it isn’t interesting. But if you communicate indirectly, you go on an interesting journey and see interesting things along the way, and those are what become a part of your basis for a brand.
Pumper: Can you provide an example?
Johnson: One of my favorites is Apple, because literally speaking, apples have little to do with computers. But the word apple has many associations. On one level, there’s the cultural symbolism of the apple – things like eating from the tree of knowledge, an association with Isaac Newton discovering gravity and a fruit school kids give to their teachers. But more crucially, Apple is a simple object that’s easy to use. There’s no need to peel it; you just take a bite out of it and eat it. It makes what might otherwise be daunting technology seem very accessible, just by associating it with a simple piece of fruit.
Pumper: How would you come up with a name for a septic service company?
Johnson: First I’d have to learn about the company and the set of attributes that make it uniquely appealing. So I’d have a conversation with the owner – let’s call him Joe – and any colleagues he’d want to include, and ask some questions. I’d want to know what kind of image they’d like to project with their brand, and how that fits in with what their competitors are doing. I’d also find out if there are any words and ideas Joe definitely wants to include in or exclude from the name. For example, it might be important to include the name of a geographic locale, or to avoid using a particular word that’s overused by competitors.
Based on my conversation with Joe, I’d recommend a style of name and some “message goals” – a short list of simple ideas and feelings for the name to call to mind.
The next step would be to think about strategies for communicating the message goals. Using images, metaphors, and other imaginative associations – is often the best way to go. Also, in this line of business, it might be important not to get too explicit about the details of the work.
Armed with message goals and communication strategies, I’d create lists of name ideas. I’d screen them for availability as .com domains and do a preliminary trademark screening. After the first round of work, I’d present a list of ideas considered and a short list of recommended names taken from the longer list. Then I’d task Joe to go over the list and share his responses, positive and negative, to the recommended names and any of the names from the longer list he cares to comment on.
After Joe has selected a short list of name ideas, he might want to do some preliminary market research with customers. I’d advise him about how to do that, because there are common mistakes that make a lot of name research useless. Once he’s about ready to go with a name, I’d suggest that he have a trademark attorney evaluate the viability of the name as a trademark.
Once Joe has chosen a name, I can propose taglines and make recommendations about how to play off the name in website copy and other verbal branding material.
Pumper: What’s a common mistake people make when naming a company or product?
Johnson: One mistake is to come up with a name that has negative and inappropriate connotations. A good example is a French company that created an online video product and named it Stupeflix. The rational was that the product was stupendous, but everyone interpreted it as stupid.
Another common mistake touches on indirect communication – thinking that the name needs to be very descriptive. But that doesn’t allow consumers to make that imaginative leap that creates an interesting connection. This issue comes up when testing names during market research. When people are asked what would make a good name for a hypothetical company or product, they gravitate toward the most descriptive names. That’s because they see their task as matching a name to a product or company. But that doesn’t necessarily lead to the best name because it might not communicate it in the most engaging way.
Pumper: What does this mean to septic or portable sanitation businesses?
Johnson: It means you can’t assume something that’s meaningful to you is also meaningful to customers. Naming a company after a family member, for instance, might be meaningful to you, but not to customers. I’m not saying it’s always bad, because it can convey a lot of positive things – that there are real people behind the company, or that it makes the company seem more personal.
The general issue to be concerned about, regardless of industry, is taking potential customers’ perspectives and understanding what will be meaningful to them, and that can be hard to do. Because it’s an act of imagination – a creative act that requires work.
Pumper: Using bathroom humor in marketing is a somewhat contentious issue in this industry. What are your thoughts about companies that boast they are, for example, No. 1 in the No. 2 business?
Johnson: It seems to me that in the septic industry, it’s not so much an issue of understanding what (service companies) do, but seeing what they do in a positive light. I can see how jokey names might not always work … and I can see how this would be a big issue in the industry.
There’s no simple answer. Humor can play an important role (in marketing). But there are a number of things to consider … if everyone uses humor, it loses its power and becomes less interesting and less effective. So you could differentiate yourself by avoiding the same jokes that everyone else uses.
I can see how playing on the humorous aspects of dealing with human waste still acknowledges what the business is about. But distancing (the business from what it does) can often be a bad thing because potential customers can regard it as dishonest. Humor can be positive because it’s an honest way of acknowledging reality. However, the challenge is for someone to come up with a fresh way of naming a company that doesn’t rely on the same kinds of jokes and also doesn’t fall into the trap of distancing the company from the reality of the business.
Pumper: But don’t those characterizations devalue the professionalism of the company, and therefore make it hard to charge for services like a professional?
Johnson: There are different ways to be funny, and not all of them need to devalue a brand. Broad “potty” humor will make a company seem less professional, but a name or tagline with a subtle wink can enhance a brand. It really depends on the imagery and associations the humor draws on. A name like Royal Flush, for instance, is funny without being crude, and manages to evoke both luxurious living and winning at poker, so it’s compatible with a professional image. A name like A Dirty Job involves similar wordplay, but focuses on aspects of the work that make it seem menial, and therefore makes it harder to project a professional image.
Pumper: How important are taglines and slogans to company names?
Johnson: The company name is what people will repeat most often, so that’s why it’s so important. But there’s a place for taglines, too, because they can complement the name. If the name is very indirect, a tagline can provide a hint about how to interpret it. I don’t discourage people from using them because they can be very useful.
Some of the best taglines are the simplest and most conversational, like Nike’s, “Just do it.” It sounds very conversational – something you could say to yourself, whether you’re a couch potato or an elite athlete. There are a lot of different scenarios that phrase fits into and evokes, which is what makes it powerful.
The same is true for the McDonald’s tagline, “I’m loving it.” It sounds like something you’d say while you’re eating the food. It’s a statement of you being in the act of something and enjoying it, so it engages your imagination in a very specific way. Just like Budweiser’s “This Bud’s for you,” which evokes a situation where someone is handing you a beer. That’s what memorable taglines do – evoke a specific scenario.
Christopher Johnson can be reached through his blog, www.thenameinspector.com.
