"Spent 3 weeks thinking of 10 brand names, either already registered or awkward to pronounce, finally had to settle for one hastily, always feeling it's not quite right." This is a common pain point for many entrepreneurs and brand managers when launching new projects. Nielsen's 2025 Brand Awareness Report shows that 72% of consumers will prioritize trying products due to 'memorable and favorable' brand names, while a failed brand name may cause 40% loss of early marketing investment. Brand naming is never a simple combination of words, but a core strategy that determines brand communication efficiency and user cognitive costs.
A good brand name must both fit brand positioning and balance communicability and compliance. These 4 principles are the basic threshold:
Humans have higher memory efficiency for short, smooth-sounding text. Research shows that brand names with 2-4 characters have 68% higher memory retention than those with 5 or more characters (source: Harvard Business Review). Avoid rare characters and complex homophones, prioritize words with harmonious initial and final consonant combinations. For example, 'Xiaomi', 'JD.com', 'Heytea' are smooth to read with no cognitive barriers; in contrast, some niche brands use rare characters like '䂙' and '龑', which may seem special but make users unwilling to spread or even unable to pronounce, directly blocking the communication chain.
Brand names need to indirectly or directly echo brand track and core advantages, allowing users to roughly judge brand attributes when seeing the name. Technology brands can focus on 'futuristic sense', such as 'ByteDance' (echoing digital and technology attributes) and 'iFlytek' (highlighting technical genes); maternal and infant brands focus on 'gentle and safe', such as 'Pigeon' and 'Purcotton'; catering brands focus on 'appetite appeal', such as 'Haidilao' and 'Xibei'. Never pursue personality at the expense of names completely disconnected from brand positioning, such as calling a high-end skincare product 'Iron Egg Skincare', which will cause user cognitive confusion.
One of the core values of brand names is 'recognition'. If too similar to competitors, it not only easily triggers trademark infringement disputes but also causes user confusion. For example, early brands imitated 'Starbucks' by naming 'Starbuck', ultimately sued for infringement while never establishing independent brand recognition. It's recommended to avoid industry common terms (such as 'XX Technology', 'XX Premium') when naming, create differentiated memory points, and conduct trademark searches in advance to avoid wasted effort.
Current brands need to deploy multiple online and offline channels. Names need to adapt to domain registration, social media accounts, offline store signs, and other scenarios. Avoid names that are too long causing domain registration failure or duplicate names with popular accounts; if there are internationalization plans, also consider the adaptability of foreign transliteration/translation - for example, 'Huawei' has simple pronunciation with no negative foreign meanings; while a certain domestic home appliance brand initially named 'Haier', because the pronunciation was close to foreign derogatory words, was forced to adjust spelling.
After mastering the principles, follow these steps to significantly improve naming efficiency and success rate:
First sort out brand core information - track (such as beauty/technology), target audience (such as Gen Z/mothers), core selling points (such as natural/cost-effective), brand tone (such as niche/high-end), list 'associable vocabulary list' to avoid brainstorming deviating from direction.
Expand from 3 dimensions around the list: ① Direct association type (such as calling coffee 'Bean Warehouse'); ② Emotional association type (such as calling aromatherapy 'Wood Language'); ③ Innovative combination type (such as 'NIO' and 'Li Auto', breaking traditional vocabulary boundaries). It's recommended to form a small team of 3-5 people (including marketing, product, copywriting), each outputting more than 20 words, then removing duplicates and inappropriate items after summary.
First exclude rare characters, negative homophones, and words highly similar to competitors, retaining 10-15 candidate names. Then conduct small-scale testing: let target users (20-30 people) quickly memorize and repeat, filtering those with high memory retention; simultaneously research 'first impression of the name', whether it's consistent with brand tone.
Prioritize checking trademark registration status (through National Intellectual Property Administration website, trademark search tools), confirm candidate names have no registered or pending identical/similar trademarks in corresponding categories (such as Class 35 advertising, Class 3 beauty); then check if domain names, WeChat public accounts, Douyin and other core platform accounts are available, try to ensure unified names across all platforms.
Comprehensively consider communicability, compliance, and adaptability, determine 1 main brand name, while reserving 2-3 backup names (to avoid no alternatives when subsequent trademark objections or account occupation occur).
'Byte' echoes the digital technology track, 'Dance' conveys vitality and innovative brand tone. The name is short and memorable, adaptable to international communication, with unified accounts and domain names across all platforms, laying the foundation for rapid brand expansion.
'Genki' precisely hits Gen Z's demand for 'health and vitality', 'Forest' conveys natural and additive-free product concepts. The name has inherent emotional value, quickly breaking through with product positioning.
The Chinese name is acceptable, but the foreign transliteration is complex, not conducive to international promotion; meanwhile 'Tianyu' duplicates with small brands in multiple industries, reducing brand recognition.
'薡' is a rare character (pronounced dǐng), most users don't recognize or can't read it. Offline store signs need pinyin annotation, and users are unwilling to actively share during online communication, greatly limiting brand diffusion.
Not necessarily. Single product brands can be consistent (such as 'Nongfu Spring'); multi-product brands recommend 'main brand + sub-product' model (such as Huawei Mate series, Xiaomi SU7), main brand maintains unity, sub-product names adapt to specific category characteristics, balancing recognition and scalability.
Suitable for high-end and professional tracks (such as 'Jack Ma Foundation' and 'Li-Ning'), can convey personal endorsement and trust; but mass consumption and youth-oriented tracks need caution, avoid names being too personalized, limiting brand tone and audience scope.
No. After successful trademark registration, it may still be revoked due to 'conflict with prior rights' or 'similar trademark objections'; also need to pay attention to cross-category protection. For example, brands in catering are recommended to simultaneously register Class 35 (advertising) and Class 43 (catering services) to avoid others' squatting.
Personality must be based on 'easy to spread and consistent with tone'. Niche brands can take a differentiated route, but avoid sacrificing readability for personality, such as using obscure allusions or self-created vocabulary, which may make it difficult for users to understand and instead increase communication costs.
Brand naming is work of 'strategy first, details implementation'. The core is balancing three dimensions of 'communication efficiency, brand tone, compliance and safety' - good brand names can become communication symbols that generate traffic, while bad brand names will become invisible obstacles to brand development. If you're struggling with brand naming, you might follow this article's '4 principles + 5-step practical method', first sort out brand core boundaries, then gradually screen and test. Remember, naming is not achieved overnight. Spending more time on compliance verification and user testing is far more worthwhile than hasty naming. Now pick up pen and paper and start your brand naming journey!
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