A brand name is a part of the brand that you can spell. That includes a combination of letters, numbers, or words. This combination forms a name that identifies and distinguishes a company’s offerings from those of its competitors.
Differences of brand name, trademark and brand mark
Brand names are different from brand marks. The first refers to a combination of letters and numbers. Meanwhile, brand marks are a combination of visual images, elements, or symbols used to identify brands. Examples of brand marks include company logos, coloring, designs, or images. Therefore, we cannot spell brand marks but can only recognize by looking at them.
Furthermore, trademarks include a combination of names, slogans, logos, sounds, or colors that identify the company or its products or services. For example, Nike Swoosh is a registered trademark for Nike.
Why is the brand name important?
Many companies spend a large portion of the advertising budget on brand name promotions.
The brand name is essential to establish brand identity. It helps consumers to identify and distinguish a company’s offer from its competitors’ offers. Consumers more easily recognize the brand of a product and who the manufacturer is.
A right brand name can be a valuable asset, like the brand itself. Companies use it in various forms of communication between them and consumers, which can apply to one product, series of products, or even a company.
Brand names provide information about the image of a brand or product to consumers. That gives them a signal about product quality. Seeing the BMW brand name on the car is likely to tell consumers more about the quality of the newly introduced car.
Also, brand names are a form of verification about product authenticity (unlike generic brands). Therefore, any product with a particular brand name is often associated with expensive, high quality, or other dimensions of the product.
How to choose a brand name
Choosing the right brand names is an essential part of supporting marketing and promotion strategies. Companies need to find words that have broad and robust appeal and meaning.
Another factor is the ease of spelling in various languages. Let me give you some examples. Ap-pel for Apple, Go-Gel for Google, and Ya-ho for Yahoo. Easy to spell it, right?
Sometimes, brand names are taken from the names of the company’s founders, such as Johnson & Johnson (Robert Wood Johnson I, James Wood Johnson, and Edward Mead Johnson). Or, Kraft Foods (James L. Kraft) and Lacoste (Jean René Lacoste).
In the following, we showed you the ten most valuable brands in the world in 2019. You might get inspiration from spelling their names.
- Amazon USD315.5 billion
- Apple USD309.5 billion
- Google USD309 billion
- Microsoft USD251.2 billion
- Visa USD177.9 billion
- Facebook USD159 billion
- Alibaba USD131.2 billion
- Tencent USD130.9 billion
- McDonald’s USD130.4 billion
- AT&T USD108.4 billion
And, in general, several characteristics make the right brand name are:
- Unique or distinctive. It makes it easier for consumers to remember.
- Give a signal about the quality and benefits of the product. For example, Apple reflects on being innovative and revolutionary.
- Easy to pronounce in various languages. “Google” and “YYYYY, which one is more comfortable to spell?
- Easy to remember. It’s not too long, so it doesn’t take a lot of brain memory to remember it.
- It does not mean “bad” in other languages. Different languages might use the same word but different in meaning. For example, the term “Angel” means difficult in Javanese.
Once created, companies should apply for legal protection for their names. They can register it as a trademark to protect from unauthorized use.
