What’s in a name? While Shakespeare may have believed that the naming of things doesn’t matter, we beg to differ. (That’s right, we’re challenging the Bard.) No matter what industry you’re in, an aptly chosen name can make or break a business.
So, how do you go about landing on the perfect moniker? Well, it’s not that simple. Coming up with a name that evokes the right feeling for your brand without being too on-the-nose, that’s also succinct, memorable, and available requires time, thought, and creativity. We recently had the opportunity to put our naming process to work for a California-based produce company that was looking to rebrand. Here’s a glimpse into what was involved.
Kicking things off
The first step is always getting the right people in the room and engaged with the process. This is when we work with the client team to uncover their key objectives, considerations, and the dos and don’ts of the new brand. We also identify a short list of competitors to help us better understand the brand landscape the name needs to operate in.
Using the competitors our client named, we dove into research and analysis. To identify areas of potential differentiation, we looked at the brand names themselves, as well as their taglines, positioning, promises, personalities, messaging, and imagery. The idea here is to ensure our creative efforts generate enough competitive space.
Between our work with the core client team and our competitive research, we crystallized a few guidelines for our client’s new name as part of criteria development. These are the essentials guiding what the new brand needs to do. For this project, they included:
- Not being cutesy or kid-focused
- Delivering value in a highly price-competitive market
- Year-round availability of produce
- Quality, service, and attention to detail
- Appealing to both consumers and retailers
- Going the extra mile to make their lives easy
Time to dig in
This is where the fun begins. For our first round, we generally provide clients at least three to five creative directions with 100+ names developed. Sound like a lot? It is—which is why we select and highlight a shortlist of 10 options that explore different conceptual directions, naming constructs, and prioritization of the established criteria. All of the candidates go through a desktop trademark and Google search to identify potential conflicts. For this client, the creative concepts we explored included availability, convenience, farming, relationships, taste, and quality.
From quality-focused options like Pick Perfect, to evocative, empowering candidates like Yourchard, to concepts with a little more flavor, like FreshCoast, we explored a range of ideas and constructs. We encouraged the client team to spend some time with the full deck of candidates before providing feedback. It’s always a good idea to let things cook for a few days—don’t run with the first name that grabs you.
We came out of the first round with a contender, SunLink, as well as direction to dig deeper into the idea of perfection and the strong connection the company has with their farmers.
Our second round of exploration was more focused. The client preferred compound English words as a name construct and liked the idea of quality, perfection, and farming/growing, so our team developed another 50-60 candidates that explored these concepts in greater depth. With options like FlavorScape and Golden Grown, they had some modern takes on fruit traditions to consider.
To emphasize their 52-week availability and strong farmer and retailer relationships, the client ultimately landed on SunLink as their new product brand. The new logo developed by our partners at Betsy Todd Creative Design Consultancy builds on the name itself to strengthen the brand’s power. Are you looking to name a new business or rebrand an existing one? Let’s talk.
