Naming a Product | Eat My Words

Yikes! According to research agency AcuPoll, up to 95% of new products introduced each year fail. If you want to be one of the smart 5% who succeeds, you can greatly increase your chances if you have a highly likeable product name. If you have a breakthrough product, you need a breakthrough product name.

The best product names are simple and conceptual. Like the names we create at Eat My Words: a travel make-up kit named Dash; an all-natural energy drink named Bloom; and a gourmet dips for kids named Monkey Dunks.

Here are some additional tips on how to name a product.

Evoke a positive brand experience with a name that makes a powerful emotional connection. What do you want your customer to feel when they experience your product? Let that drive your product name. Sugary beverages have this down. Jolt Cola. Mountain Dew. Red Bull. The fragrance industry also lures us in with enticing names … Beautiful, Fierce, Bombshell, Envy, Passion, Fahrenheit.
Avoid acronyms. FYI, people have ADD. You can only expect them to remember one name – not two. Brand your product with a full name and let the acronym be something you use internally. World of Warcraft is a great name – WOW is a bonus acronym that works really well, but not nearly as powerful as the name is spelled out. They were smart to use the full name to brand the products.
Name your product before you name your company. If you are launching a single product and have yet to name your product or your company, name your product first. You can only expect consumers to remember one name – so make it the name of thing they are actually buying. That’s what you want them to ask for (or Google) by name.
Make sure your product names work as a family. Roomba was the initial product from iRobot. They thought they were onto something when they named their next product, a wet vac, Scooba. Then they were stuck. They ran out of “ba” names. How do their next two robots Verro (pools) and Looj (gutters) fit in? They don’t. Apple had the foresight to name their operating systems related names – even years before they were launched. Tiger, Panther, Jaguar, Leopard, Snow Leopard – they all are part of a family, which makes them easy to identify and remember.

Do not name your product and company the same name. It’s confusing to name your product and company the same thing. And although you may only have one product now, think about the future. What if Apple had named their first computer The Apple? What would they name the dozens of other products that have launched since then? Your company name should be a wide enough umbrella to fit any product name under it. If you do have a product name you love, you can add a modifier to make a company name. For instance, the floor-cleaning robot we named Neato was such a perfect name, we named the company Neato Robotics. A serious modifier like “Robotics” balances the playfulness of Neato and also helps justify the robot’s $399 price tag.

It’s fine to share your product name with another (unrelated) product. When you hear the product name “Explorer,” you most likely think of Ford Explorer or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Many products share the same name, which is fine as long as you are in an unrelated category and you aren’t using a product name that is so well recognized (Hula Hoop, Big Mac) that it could lead to consumer confusion and get you into legal trouble. (Check with a trademark attorney before using any name.)

Don’t get too full of yourself with chest-pounding names that make claims like, “The Country’s Best Yogurt.” (Clearly this company knew they had made a mistake and tried to save themselves by abbreviating the name to TCBY. TCBY is absolutely meaningless and it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, which brings us to our next tip…

For more practical tips on naming your product and a free name evaluation, take our SMILE and SCRATCH Test, which is based on our philosophy that a name should make you smile, instead of scratch your head.

Product Naming Services

At Eat My Words, we name products every day and we’re obviously very good at it. If you’re losing sleep at night trying to do it yourself, we’d love to help you. Give us a shout at (415) 552-7741 or email info@eatmywords.com.