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NAMING
Naming is a process of a brand name creation. This is a very artistic and a very complex process. In this article, we will tell you in detail about the main stages of the provision of naming services and about the pitfalls that await you along the way.
So, how do you come up with a name for your company, shop, cafe, or product brand? Can you just take a piece of paper, write down any possible names, and then choose the best one?
I’m afraid it's not that simple. With this approach, doubts will quickly overcome you. What is the best name? Do I like both? Have I heard this one somewhere? This name seems OK, but not WOW. Friends criticized the options I came up with, but what they offered me somehow didn’t work. What is to be done? The majority of entrepreneurs come to us with similar questions, often exhausted by their own creativity and research.
First difficulties
The first difficulty: let's reveal a secret – nothing excellent, good, beautiful, or creative exists in nature on its own. It becomes such when you yourself believe in it 100%. And for this to happen, you need to start thinking about the name a little earlier – from the idea, the concept of your brand. As soon as you articulate the value of your business, meaning, idea, positioning, some of the questions about the name will disappear by themselves, and you will clearly see a direction, like a ray of light, showing you the way. Over many years of experience, we have helped many Russian entrepreneurs and multinational companies to develop names for their brands, working in this sequence.
Naming development begins only after understanding the marketing strategy, mission, and values of the company. Without these components, it will not be possible to come up with a name that the creator of the business or product and then everyone else would believe in. If you are faced with such a task, turn to professionals, and preferably to market leaders.
There is another difficulty that could be encountered on the path of faith. Faith in the future name.
The names that are offered to you have not yet become brands. None of them is the name of a billion-dollar company; none of them is the name of the product brand that is on the shelves in every supermarket and in our refrigerators; none of it is the name of a restaurant that you can't go to without booking a table in advance. So far, these are just names that no one knows yet. And most people begin to criticize them, not seeing much potential in them. They are like rough diamonds, which do not sparkle with their dazzling light yet. We haven’t reached the cut stage, but we have to choose now.
To overcome this difficulty and present the names of the future brand to our customers in the best possible way, we visualize them by creating prototypes of logos with corporate identity elements, packaging design that is already on store shelves, signs of entrance groups, as if the brand already exists. Additional customer’s phrases, mentioning the brand name, help us imagine the future for the new brand and help the client to make their best choice, i.e.: “Darling, book a table at NAME”; “And don’t forget to buy NAME”; “We have been working with NAME for 10 years”.
THREE REASONS TO WORK ON NAMING WITH US
NAMING COST
Naming is not a cheap service; and every year its price only increases despite any crises. See for yourself, thousands of trademarks are registered in Russia every year; and over the 30 years of capitalism in the new Russia, more than a million of them have been registered; and their number is growing every year. If you want to register a simple one-word name such as Happiness or Care, you won't be able to do so as those names are already taken. Even combinations of such popular words are already taken in many classes. Therefore, every year it becomes more and more difficult for developers to find new, bright, and working names that would be universal, corresponding to the essence of the brand, and at the same time potentially patentable. On the other hand, business representatives are beginning to understand the value of this work better and better. Big risks can arise at this stage if it is approached with the wrong outlook. The low cost of work can result in the fact that developers would skimp on the client at some point; and the latter may be denied registration. And it is not only the time and money spent on development that are at stake. There may be a release of goods with a name that has not been registered, and it can result in a disruption in the supply to federal chains, and this is much more serious. Large companies prefer not to be stingy, as investments in creating a name for a future brand pay off in the first months.
In 2012, the Selo Zelenoe dairy products brand for which we developed the name, logo, and packaging design, earned 550 million roubles in gross revenue. In 2020, this brand already had a revenue of 13.7 billion roubles, having entered other product categories. In 2017, the EPICA yogurt brand for which we also developed the name and design, earned 1.5 billion roubles for Ehrmann in Russia in the first year after its launch. Is it worth saving in this case? It's easier to do everything right. As you can see, a sustainable business is able to create a professional naming.
What can those who are only at the beginning of their journey as entrepreneurs do? They can come up with a name themselves and even conduct an express check using one of the name checking services that you can find on the Internet. If all is well, then hire a patent office to register the name. If the muse didn’t come to you, take your own name as the brand name. Many successful companies have the names of their founders: Ford, Ogilvy, McKinsey, Tinkoff, Dymov, etc. If you are a cocky startup with ambitions, then come up with a name for yourself, as I did at the beginning of my business journey. Good luck with your business!
Name development
20 names that have passed the initial check in one of the classes of the Nice Classification
Registration of the selected name with Rospatent
full check of applications + filing an application + obtaining a patent; includes all state fees
Naming project roadmap
As mentioned above, the process of name development should only be started when you can clearly articulate the idea of your brand, its positioning, as well as the communication model of interaction with your buyers, whom, along with their desires and problems standing in their way, you can also picture well. If you have already gone through with all this and you have a sustainable idea about it, you can start from the fifth stage.
The main stages of creating a company’s brand are:
Conducting a situational analysis.
At this stage, the team of our expert developers needs to dive into our client's business, possibly conducting the necessary research and reviewing the client's current research, if they have any. They have to understand its basis, main competitors, its customers and their main problems.
The purpose of the stage: to dive into the nuances of the client's business, understanding of their customer, and studying the offers of their competitors.
Essential specialists (3 employees): project manager, a group of brand strategists.
Developing positioning hypotheses.
On the basis of the information received, at this stage, we offer positioning hypothesis options; a presentation of value options for the future brand, consisting of a description of the buyer’s basic problems depending on the buyer’s worldview; a presentation of solutions to the described problems with evidence-based ways to solve them that are possible for our client – RTB (reasons to believe – reasons to believe that the client will be able to solve the problem).
The purpose of the stage: to choose one positioning hypothesis for the further development of the brand.
Essential specialists (3 employees): project manager, a group of brand strategists.
Developing a brand platform.
We elaborate the chosen positioning hypothesis into a brand platform, developing a classic brand pyramid, describing all its components from attributes to benefits (rational and emotional), to values, to the character of the brand, to the essence of the brand, and we also formulate the mission and role of the company's brand.
The purpose of the stage: to develop a brand platform document that fully describes the positioning of the company's brand and defines its key value.
Essential specialists (3 employees): project manager, a group of brand strategists.
Developing a brand communication strategy.
On the basis of the brand platform developed in the previous stage, we will draw up a brand promotion strategy and a promotion story – storytelling, identify contacts and main points of contact with the buyer.
The purpose of the stage: to develop a brand communication strategy document so that all parties understand the communication model and the plan for further promotion. And also to develop a technical requirement (a brief) for creating a company’s brand name (if necessary).
Essential specialists (3 employees): project manager, a group of brand strategists.
An alternative – "team" – approach.
With this approach, we will go through the first four stages in our Vysota Workshop with your team of line managers in just 2 days and with complete immersion of your employees in the world of your buyer.
The purpose of the Vysota Workshop is to create company positioning, determine the key business value for your customer, develop new ideas for a product and communication with customers, create a brand’s main communication legend, a brand role, a brand mission, and express the essence of the brand in one sentence (slogan) together with a cross-functional team of our client for effective subsequent management of a brand and key employees of a company.
Read more about it here
Essential specialists (4 employees): project manager, a group of brand strategists; the Vysota Workshop is led by Andrey Gornov, CEO of Getbrand.
Creating a name of a corporate brand.
At this stage, we offer name options that correspond to a technical requirement for development. In the first submission, we present 20 names that have been run through the database of registered trademarks for the relevant class of the Nice Classification. If this is not enough, we will present 10 more names.
The purpose of the stage: to choose one name for the subsequent registration with Rospatent.
Essential specialists (4 employees): project manager, naming copywriter, brand strategist, patent attorney.
Registering a name with Rospatent.
At this stage, before submitting an application for registration, we will conduct an even deeper check of the selected name in the closed FIPS database of submitted trademark applications. If we don’t see any resemblance with other applications, we will immediately file an application for registration with Rospatent on your behalf.
The purpose of the stage: to apply for registration with Rospatent and obtain a trademark registration certificate with FIPS.
Essential specialists (3 employees): project manager, patent attorney, brand strategist.
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Our naming cases