The brand name is a critical marketing variable in virtually every product category.
A correct name can add real long-term value to your brand, as it can bring benefits such as:
- Highlight (distinction and rapid identification of the product/service)
- Differentiation (vs. competitive brands)
- Memorability
- Positive meanings
- Empathy and appeal for consumers
- Character and personality
that will help your brand to occupy its own, clear and defined space in the minds of consumers.
An incorrect name, on the other hand, can lead to many problems if:
- it is difficult to remember or pronounce correctly,
- has contradictory or ambiguous meanings,
- does not fit the product/service correctly
A bad name can reduce advertising effectiveness, damage image, create barriers to consideration and purchase of the product/service.
In this context, market research plays a vital role in choosing a brand name, variety, line extension, etc.
The Brand Name Test is usually carried out as part of a Concept, Product or Packaging test.
Contributions of research to the process of choosing the brand name
The starting point for developing a new brand is qualitative research.
Why? Because it allows delving into the key aspects that make the consumer link with the category and with the participating brands.
What are the most important consumption motivations related to the category?
What are the most relevant attributes of the category? And the dissatisfied areas or aspects?
What motives and perceptions drive the brand decision process?
How is each of the main competitive brands perceived? What do they communicate?
What benefits do they convey? What are your strengths? And what are its weaknesses?
Qualitative research allows generating valuable inputs that guide creatives and specialists in brand development.
Subsequently, there may be a more or less numerous set of alternatives of brand names, which will need to be evaluated.
If there is a reduced number of alternatives (2 to 4 options), a Quali-quantified Name Testing can be carried out, with two basic purposes:
- Determine which of the brand alternatives best communicates the desired positioning for the brand, and
- Make sure that the selected alternative has positive decoding and appeal for the brand’s target, and that it does not have inappropriate (contradictory) connotations for the product-category.
- If there are many Naming options (20 or more options), you can do:
1° a quantitative screening of names, to select the best 4, 5 or 6 alternatives and then take them to a…
2° a larger test, to measure which of these brand options is more effective in stimulating interest in trying/purchasing or using the new product/service.
These studies can be part of a Product, Packaging or Concept test.
Test design based on independent cells (one cell for each proposed alternative). The cells only differ from each other by the evaluated brand name, in order to measure the effect of the name itself.
At Intermarket we respond to the needs of our clients to be able to accompany them in this process, offering accessible and fast methodologies, 100% online and with a rich and actionable output.
