A guide for anyone who needs a name for a product or business - existing or new. We will tell you how to invent, evaluate and choose.
For three months we worked on the renaming of the control panel with hundreds of thousands of users. We were in pain and at the beginning of the journey we really lacked advice. Therefore, when we finished, we decided to collect our experience into instructions. We hope it will be useful to someone.
Should the name be changed
Skip ahead to the next part if you're making a name from scratch. If not, let's find out. This is the most important of the preparatory steps.
A few of our introductions. flagship product - , a hosting control panel, has been on the market for 15 years. In 2019, we planned to release a new version, but decided to change everything. Even a name.
There can be many reasons for changing the name: from the banal βdislikeβ to a bad reputation. In our case, the preconditions were:
- The new product has a different concept, interface and functionality. With it, we reach a new audience, which the cumbersome name "ISPmanager" can scare away.
- The former name is not associated with control panels, but with Internet service providers (ISP, Internet Service Provider), to which it has nothing to do.
- We want to reach foreign partners with a new product and name.
- ISPmanager is hard to write and read.
- Among the competitors there is a panel with a similar name - ISPconfig.
There was only one argument against the name change: 70% of the market in Russia and the CIS uses our panel, and there is a lot of content on the Internet where it can be found.
Total, 5 against 1. It was easy for us to choose, but very scary. Why do you need to change the name? Are there enough reasons?
Who to entrust rebranding
In this article, we tell you how to rebrand yourself. But itβs worth thinking about outsourcing this task anyway. There are pros and cons to all options.
When making a decision, you need to consider:
Time. If you need a name βyesterdayβ, it is better to immediately contact the agency. They can do it quickly, but they can miss the idea and take a long time to refine. If you have time, take it yourself. It took us three months to come up with 30 working options, choose the best one from them and buy the domain from the parking guys.
Budget. Everything is simple here. If you have money, you can go to an agency. If the budget is limited, try it yourself. Please note that money will be required in any case, for example, to purchase a domain or for corporate identity. We definitely decided to give the development of the logo to the agency.
Blurred look. Another reason to βgo outsideβ is the understanding that you do not go beyond the usual decisions, areas, marking time. We had this in the second month of work, in a complete deadlock, we considered the option of hiring consultants. In the end, I didn't have to.
Complexity. Assess the requirements, constraints, product or service. How feasible is this for you, taking into account all the previous points? Does the agency have similar experience?
A little hack. If you understand that you cannot cope on your own, and there is no budget for consultants, use crowdsourcing services. Here are just a few: , or . You describe the task, pay money and accept the results. Or do not accept - everywhere there is a risk.
Which employee will take
Have any of your marketers already been involved in branding, will they be able to organize the process? Do you have a creative team? And what about the knowledge of the language, is it fluent in the company (if you need an international name, not in Russian)? These are the minimum skills that should be considered when creating a working group.
We developed the new name as a team. We needed the opinion of different departments working with the product: marketing, product managers, development, UX. The working group consisted of seven people, but there was only one responsible - a marketer, the author of the article. I was responsible for organizing the process, and also came up with a name (believe me, around the clock). This task has always been the main one on the list, although not the only one.
The product manager, developers, and other members of the team came up with names when inspiration came up, or they did personal brainstorming sessions. The team was needed primarily as people who know more about the product and its concept than others, and who are also able to evaluate options and make a decision.
We tried - and we recommend this to you - not to inflate the composition of the team. Believe me, this will save your nerve cells, which will die in an attempt to take into account very different, sometimes opposing opinions.
What you need to be prepared for
When creating a new name, you will be nervous, angry and give up. I'll tell you about the unpleasant moments that we encountered.
Everything is already taken. An original and worthwhile name may be occupied by another company or product. Coincidences are not always a sentence, but they will demotivate. Do not give up!
Literalism and skepticism. Both you and the team will be unnecessarily skeptical of many options. At such moments, I remembered the bike about Facebook. Surely when someone suggested this name, someone else said: "Not the best option, people will think that we sell books." As you can see, this association did not prevent Facebook from becoming the largest social network in the world.
βBehind great brands is not only and not so much the name, but its history, strategy and innovationβ
I don't like! You will repeat this phrase yourself and hear from colleagues. My advice is this: forbid yourself to say this and explain to the team that βI donβt like itβ is not a criterion for evaluation, but taste.
There will always be comparisons. Team members and clients will use the old name for a long time and compare the new name with it (not always in favor of the latter). Understand, forgive, endure - it will pass.
How to come up with a name
And now the most difficult and interesting thing is the generation of variants of a new name. At this stage, the main task is to come up with as many words as possible that can fit your company and sound good. We will evaluate later. There are many ways to do this, you need to choose a couple and try, and if it doesnβt work out, take others.
Search for ready-made solutions. You can start simple - look at sites that sell domains along with names and even a logo. You can find some really interesting titles there. True, they can cost from $1000 to $20, depending on how creative, concise, and memorable the name is. Life hack: you can bargain there. For ideas - ΠΈ .
Competition among employees. This is a good way to get ideas, but not ready-made options. And also - to diversify the routine and involve employees in marketing. We had 20 participants with hundreds of options, some of which made it to the final stage, and some of which became a source of inspiration. There was no winner, but we chose the 10 most creative ideas and presented the authors with certificates to a good restaurant.
Competition among users. If the brand has a loyal community, you can involve them in creating a new brand. But if there are a lot of disgruntled customers, or you are not sure how the product launch will go, you should think carefully. Assess risks. In our case, this was complicated by the fact that current users did not know the concept of a new product, which means they could not offer anything.
Team brainstorming. Much has been written about brainstorming, you just need to choose the format that suits your task. Here we limit ourselves to a few tips.
- Conduct several assaults with different people.
- Get out of the office (to a camp site or nature, to a coworking or cafe) and make an event out of the assault, and not just another meeting in a negotiation room.
- Go beyond a fixed assault: set up boards in the office where everyone can write down an idea, set up "mailboxes" for ideas, or start a separate thread on an internal portal.
Individual brainstorms. For me, the task of coming up with a name was the main one, so thoughts about naming were spinning in my head around the clock. Ideas overtook at work and business lunch, before going to bed and brushing my teeth. I relied on "remember" or scribbling wherever I could. I still think: maybe this is how I buried something cool? Therefore, I advise you to start one document where all ideas will be stored.
How to evaluate and what to choose
When NN options accumulate in the idea bank, they will need to be evaluated. At the first stage, the scale from βthis is outright nonsense, definitely notβ to βthere is something in thisβ will suffice. A project manager or marketer can evaluate, just common sense is enough. We put all the names in which βsomething existsβ into a separate file or highlight them with color. We put the rest aside, but do not delete it, it will suddenly come in handy.
Here is an important note. The name should sound good and be remembered, distinguish you from competitors, and also be free and legally clear. We will go through these general criteria in this article, but some you need to determine in advance for yourself. For example, should the new name be typical of your market, contain certain cliches, or have continuity with the old one? For example, we have previously abandoned the word panel in the title and our manager (this is part of the entire ISPsystem product line).
Checking for matches and meanings
Ideas that have been screened for nonsense should be checked for coincidences and hidden meanings: are there any of them consonant with swearing or swearing in English? For example, we almost called the product "fat girl".
Here, too, you can and should do without a team. When there are many names, it is convenient to use . The columns will be the names, and the rows will be the factors from the list below.
Verbatim matches. Check in Google and Yandex, with different language settings and from incognito mode, so that the search does not adapt to your profile. If there is the same name, we put a minus in the table, but do not cross it out completely: projects can be amateur, local or abandoned. Exactly cut off if you literally match with a global player, a market player, etc. Also look in the "Pictures" section in the search, it can give out logos of real names or names sold with the domain that were not in the site search.
Free domains. Enter the invented name in the browser line. If the domain is free, fine. If you are busy with a real, "live" site, check the box, but do not cross it out - the registrar may have similar domains. It is difficult to find a free name in the .com zone, with our .ru it is easier. Do not forget about thematic extensions such as .io, .ai, .site, .pro, .software, .shop, etc. If the domain is occupied by a parking attendant, make a note with contacts and price.
Platforms in social networks. Check by the name in the browser line and through the search inside the social network. If the site is already occupied, the output will be to add the word official to the name, for example.
Meaning in other languages. This point is especially important if you have customers all over the world. If the business is local and will not expand, skip it. Google Translate will help here: enter a word and select the "Detect language" option. This way you will know if even a fictional word has a meaning in one of the 100 languages ββthat Google processes.
Hidden meanings in English. Look in , the largest dictionary of English-language slang. Words from all over the world come to English, and the Urban dictionary is replenished by anyone without checking, so you will surely meet your own version here. So it was with us. After that, you need to understand whether the word is really used in this sense: ask Google, native speakers or translators.
Based on all these factors, give a summary of each of the options on your plate. Now the list of options that passed the first two stages of evaluation can be shown to the team.
Show the team
The team will help to weed out the excess, choose the best, or make it clear that more work needs to be done. Together you will identify three or five options, from which, after due diligence, you will choose βthe oneβ.
How to present? If you present the options as just a list, no one will understand anything. If shown at a general meeting, then one person will influence the opinions of the others. To avoid this, we recommend doing the following.
Submit your presentation in person. There are three important points here. First - ask not to discuss and not show to anyone. Explain why this is important. Second, be sure to show logos in your presentation, even a few. For this, it is not necessary (although it is possible) to involve a designer. Use online logo makers and warn your team that this is just an example. And finally, on the slide, briefly describe the idea, show domain options and prices for them, and also indicate whether social networks are free.
Conduct a survey. We sent two questionnaires. The first asked them to list three to five names that were remembered. The second asked ten specific questions to avoid a subjective like/dislike rating. You can take a ready-made template or part of the questions in
Discuss with the whole working group. Now that people have already made their choice, you can discuss the options collectively. In the meeting, display the most memorable names and the ones with the most points.
Legal due diligence
It is necessary to check whether the word you have chosen is a registered trademark. If this is not done, then the use of the new brand may be banned. So you will see trademarks that the search engine did not give out.
Determine your MKTU. First you need to determine the area in which you work, and then check if there are products with your name in it. All goods, works and services are grouped by classes in the International Classification of Goods and Services (ICGS).
Find the codes in the Nice Classification that correspond to your activity. To do this, study or use the search : Enter a word or its root. There can be several codes of the Nice Classification, even all 45. In our case, we focus on two classes: 9 and 42, which include software and its development.
Check in the Russian database. is the Federal Institute of Industrial Property. FIPS maintains patent data banks. Go to , enter a title and check if it's there. This system is paid, but there are also free resources with complete databases, for example, . First, check the direct spelling, then check the options that are similar in sound and meaning. If you decide to name a product LUNI, then you need to look for LUNI, LUNY, LOONI, LOONY, etc.
If a similar name is found, see what class of the Nice Classification it has. If it doesn't match yours, you can take it. If it matches, it will not be possible to register a trademark on a general basis, only through the consent of the current copyright holder. But why do you need such difficulties?
Check in the international database. Trademarks are registered by the World Intellectual Property Organization - WIPO. Go to and do the same: enter the name, look at the classes of the Nice Classification. Then check consonant and similar words.
Choosing
Now we need to weigh the pros and cons of each item on the shortlist. Immediately cut off those that are not suitable for registration as trademarks. Using them is a big risk for a product, company, service. Then evaluate the costs of buying domains and re-analyze the search results. Also ask yourself two main questions:
- Is there a legend behind this name, a story, a trick that can be used in marketing? If yes, it will make life easier for the brand. And you. And even your customers.
- Are you comfortable with this name? Try to live with it for a couple of days, pronounce it, imagine it in different contexts. I presented technical support answers, user questions, business presentations and exhibitions.
We meet with the team and make a decision. If you can't decide between the two, announce a vote among employees or, if you're very brave, customers.
What's next
If you think that this is all over, I hasten to upset you. Everything is just beginning, further - more:
- Buy domains. In addition to the standard ones, it may be worth buying the most successful thematic extensions.
- Develop a logo and corporate identity (we do not recommend trying your hand here).
- Register a trademark (optional), it will take about a year only in the Russian Federation. To start, you do not need to wait for the end of the procedure, it is important that you have the date of acceptance of the application for registration.
- And the most difficult thing is to inform employees, current and potential customers, partners about the rebranding.
What did we get
And now about the results. We named the new panel Vepp (was ISPmanager, remember?).
The new name is consonant with "web" and "app" - what we wanted. Logo development and design we trusted the guys . See what came of it.
Only registered users can participate in the survey. , you are welcome.
How do you like the new name and corporate identity?
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ISPmanager sounds proud. Gimme old school!
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And what, it turned out well. I like!
74 users voted. 18 users abstained.
Source: habr.com