For many, nothing is as intimidating as a blank sheet of paper. If you read my guide to deciding IF you need a trademark and decided, "Yes!" this post is for you. Some firms out there will come up with brand names for you, but I will walk you through a process I call "Brandstorming," which could help you save hundreds of thousands in consulting expenses. This process will get you from the intimidating blank page to a list of potential names in 5 steps and a few hours.
Step 1) Choose Your Group and a Location
Brandstorming is a team effort and only works in person. First, you will want to build a cross-functional team of at least five people but no more than 10. You want diverse ideas but not too many people so that you can get through the session in your set timeframe.
Cross-functional perspectives are essential. You want representation from commercial teams (e.g., marketing, sales, business development) who bring customer experience but also want to bring in views from other aspects of your organization who bring fresh perspectives (e.g., finance, HR, Operations).
Remember, you are not looking for the most creative people in your organization, and everyone is innovative in their way. Most important is picking people open to following a process rather than pushing their ideas or agendas.
Once you have a team in place, choose a location where you can all gather in person and has plenty of space for whiteboards, flip charts, or some other way to write and post information for all to easily see. Once you have a location, set a time frame of four hours. You may only use some of the allotted time, but you want to take your time with the process to get the best results.
If whiteboard space is limited, arrange for your room to have portable whiteboards or flip charts that you can write on to make it easy for everyone to see. You will also want to provide pads of paper and pens for all of your participants.
Step 2) Lay the Ground Rules
Setting expectations before and during the meeting will help you achieve stronger results, stay focused, and give you some bounds to reign in the group. This starts with your invite to the group and should include the objective of the meeting and the base expectations for the group. The key will be asking people to come open to the process, be engaged, and level set that the meeting results will not be a final decision on a name. These three things will help you focus on ideation rather than a final result.
Below is an example invite:
"Thank you for agreeing to be part of our Brandstorming session. Our objective will be to create a prioritized list of potential names to consider for our new XYZ product. You do not need to prepare anything before this meeting. We ask that you show up on time, engage in the process, and keep an open mind."
On the day of your Brandstorming session, you should emphasize and expand upon the points. Write your objective somewhere everyone can see for the entire session (e.g., not on a slide that goes away), and then bullet some of the expectations for the session below. Some ideas to consider for expectations are:
Minimize distractions with email and phones, step out if an emergency.
Judgment-free space - no bad ideas.
Engage and contribute.
Avoid side-bars, ideas should be shared with the group.
Ask questions.
Focus on the process, not the results.
Be mindful of your share-of-voice.
These will help start your session strong and will be directions to reference should the team get off the trail.
Step 3) Brandstorm
Before the fun part begins, you need to start with what names you CAN'T use or get close to. This should be a simple list of existing company and competitive trademarks in the same category as the trademark you are trying to develop. These should be listed somewhere separate from your objective and directions. Start with what you know and then ask the group to add on. Then, someone who is very familiar with the product, service, or process you are brandstorming on should give a 5-10 minute overview of what the product is, what it does, and its value for customers.
Now the fun begins! Brandstorming is a series of ideation and sharing built on the premise that most brand names fall into two categories:
1) Words with Meaning - These words have meaning to your customers and industry. Examples include Tesla, Samsung, Meta, Target, and Nike.
2) Mashables - These are combinations of words with meanings that are smashed together to make a new word. Examples include Salesforce, Palmolive, and Netflix.
There are some exceptions to the above such as founder names (e.g., McDonald's, Toyota, PwC) and phonetic sounds, but for the most part, trademarks fall into the two categories above.
Brandstorming consists of multiple 30-minute sessions where teams ideate independently for 10 - 15 minutes and then share their ideas with the group for 10 - 20 minutes. Each whiteboard or flip chart page should be dedicated to one of these sessions. The facilitator will ask the group to think about the questions below, write down their ideas, and then will write the ideas up for all to see. The goal should have more than 20 ideas for each question.
To provide examples for the below, let's imagine that the XYZ product we are naming is a new type of metal alloy. Here is the order of brandstorming questions:
Write down words your customers feel have a literal meaning to XYZ product and the industry. (Ex. metal, rock, mining, elements, metallurgy, melting.) After listing, ask the team to write down their top three words, share, and then put a star next to the words the team picks.
Write down the value customers get with XYZ product. (Ex. safe, save time, cheaper, simple, easy, light, strong, efficient, conductive.) After listing, ask the team to write down their top three words, share, and then put a star next to the words the team picks,
Write down words your customers want in this type of product. (Ex. Quality, Reliable, discreet, sustainable, low-carbon, innovative, recyclable) After listing, ask the team to write down their top three words, share, and then put a star next to the words the team picks.
Take a short break. You should have great words, and your team needs time to re-energize. After the break, you'll want to ask two more questions:
Looking at the words they have come up with, write down words that describe the feelings you want customers to think or say when using this product. (Ex. Joy, Secure, Satisfied, Logical, Relieved, Wowed, Amazed). After listing, ask the team to write down their top three words, share, and then put a star next to the words the team picks.
Looking at the words they have come up with, think of people, animals, and things that exemplify these terms. (Ex. Air, Guard, Sherpa, Tiger, Shock, Technology, Newton, Watch). After listing, ask the team to write down their top three words, share, and then put a star next to the words the team picks.
Take another short break so your team can re-energize before the final session. While the team is on break, the facilitator should organize each of the five lists of words above into one spot so the entire team can easily see. Once the team is back, you will ask them to spend two 15-minute sessions making mashables of the words they have come up with (Ex. AirRock, MetalLight, EasyElement, ReliaStrong, SustainUrgy). This can involve taking parts of the words and putting them together in different ways. Spend 15 minutes and then ask the team to share what they've come up with, write it down somewhere new, and repeat the above in another 15-minute session with shareout. Doing it twice allows for the chance to reduce duplicates while building creativity.
Step 4) Prioritize
You should now have a list of dozens of words and mashables that could be potential brand names. The last step of brandstorming is prioritizing these.
This portion should take about 30-45 minutes and start with a quick bit from the facilitator about what the goals of a brand name should be, including:
Easy to Say, Read, and Speak by Customers
Easily Remembered by Customers
Unique in the Industry
Exemplify the Value of the Product
Write these up somewhere new and then ask the team to spend 10 minutes picking their top three words (not mashables yet) that meet these four criteria. Spend 10 minutes having the team share and circle the ones people like in a new color. If more than one team member picked the same word, put a "+" in the circle.
Finally, do the same for the mashable words, spending 10 minutes letting the team decide on their top three and then 10 minutes sharing.
Congratulations! You now have a list of potential names for your new product. The team's work is done, but before you wrap, you should thank them for their time, energy, and attention and discuss what will happen in the final step. Before leaving the room, take pictures of everything if you need to return to it. Create an electronic list of the team's top names, whether they were words or mashables, the number of "votes" they received, and what the word or mashable exemplifies.
Step 5) Pressure Test
The brandstorming session you just held should have given you a list of ideas, but not everything you come up with will be able to achieve trademark status. Your ideas will need to pass through various "filters" to determine what is aligned with your brand, defensible, and makes sense to customers.
Test for Duplication | The first filter you will want to apply is to eliminate any words that are too close to trademarks you already have or trademarks of your competition. Go back to the list you created and eliminate any names too close to either. You should also research competitive brands that may not have come up in the room.
Test for Defensibility | The second filter relates to whether you can successfully claim a trademark around the names you've come up with. You can do some of this by searching resources like the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) here. Type in your names and search for any live registrations in similar industries, with similar customers, for similar types of products. You can take a first pass, but you should always consult legal expertise to confirm your findings. Eliminate any names you do not think will be able to seek trademark or registered trademark status.
Test for Brand | The third filter tests the names you have for your company's brand. This is a subjective process but should involve those responsible for the brand. For example, if your brand is built around concepts like innovation and strength in the industry and you have a name like "DinoSoft," you may want to eliminate these from your list.
Test with Customers | The fourth filter tests the names you have with your end customers. These people will see the name and, over time, will build their perceptions of it. This is best done through focus groups but can also be done through surveys or one-on-one sessions. The key is to ask the same questions across different customers and to have a high enough sampling of customers to drive out bias. In non-markettese, you want to avoid talking to one customer, having them say it's great, to find out later the rest of your customers don't understand it.
After you've done these five steps, if you have multiple names left to consider, return them to the original Brandstorming team and ask for their top three favorites in priority order. After this, you will have come up with a list of prioritized potential names that exemplify your new offering that make sense as a trademark - saving your company a lot of expense and setting your brand up for success as you build brand awareness and perception with your customers.
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