What do the 'naming professionals' who came up with products like 'Febreze' and 'BlackBerry' consider important when deciding on a name?
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When promoting a product or brand, it is advantageous if the product name or brand name itself is attractive and has a big impact. American marketing company Lexicon Branding , the company that named products such as the deodorant Febreze , the cleaning product Swiffer , and the smartphone BlackBerry , explains the important points to consider when naming a product or brand.
How to name a product, from the man behind Swiffer and BlackBerry
Swiffer, a tool for cleaning floors, etc.
Febreze is a product known all over the world.
Placek is the founder and president of Lexicon Branding, the company that decided on the brand name.
Lexicon Branding is committed to creating 'remarkable names.'
The impact of the name is enormous.
Lexicon Branding has named 4,000 brands in 19 countries...
BlackBerry
They have come up with names like
The average price for deciding on a name ranges from about $40,000 (about 4.4 million yen) to $250,000 (about 27.5 million yen).
Placek says that brands and product names are worth it: He's spent 30 years coming up with names for various products, and the research required to come up with a good name can be quite costly.
The most important thing about names is the sound of the name, and Lexicon Branding has spent $2 million and five years researching how the sound and pronunciation of letters affect people's perceptions of the name.
After conducting research in the United States as well as other countries such as Poland, France and Japan, Placek says he found some universal rules.
For example, the sound of the alphabet 'V'.
It's a sound that conjures up images of life and vitality, whether you're from Paris or
Among the product names named by Lexicon Branding, the letter V is used, for example in
In addition, the sound of 'B' ...
The sound of 'T' is said to convey a high level of trustworthiness to people.
For example, 'BlackBerry' has two B's.
Although the name BlackBerry does not immediately convey that it is a smartphone, Placek said that 'overly descriptive names' are not a good idea.
People tend to want to use logic to get things done, but it's not logic that ignites the imagination and moves people's hearts.
For example, Placek named a cleaning product 'Swiffer,' which became one of the most successful products Lexicon Branding has ever branded.
In fact, the names 'ProMop' or 'EasyMop' were considered for use.
From the company's perspective, it seems they wanted to appeal to the point that 'we are a big improvement on conventional mops.' However, Placek and his team quickly countered, 'This doesn't look like a mop.'
In addition, Lexicon Branding conducted a survey of 30 cleaning companies ...
It turned out that none of the people who work using mops like mops. Since consumers don't have a good image of the word 'mop,' they decided that adding the word 'mop' to the name was a bad move.
So Lexicon Branding decided to promote a fun image as a strategy to market their new product.
And the product name 'Swiffer' was created from the word 'Sweeping.'
Swiffer has become a product that has sales of $6 billion (about 660 billion yen) in 15 countries around the world.
On the other hand, Placek says it's becoming more difficult to come up with a product or brand name.
One of the reasons for this is the decline in available names. In 2004, there were approximately 1.2 million valid trademarks in the United States.
In 2018, that number increased to 2 million.
In addition, with the spread of the Internet, competitors for products have expanded all over the world.
Not only do you need to stand out among the plethora of products on the market...
It must also work across multiple languages and cultures.
What may sound good in English should not have an ominous or negative connotation in French or any other language.
However, company names, brand names, and product names are what people hear the most, and names are very important in marketing, Placek says.
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