The Challenges of Brand Naming

It's been a bit since my last post and it all stems from a naming challenge!

This blog has been the Marketing Nazi. I named it that because it was a term of endearment (seriously!) used by my students. It also had the breadth to enable me to write on anything related to marketing without overstepping the bounds of the name.

I gave thought to whether the phrase would be offensive and decided 'nazi' had been sufficiently pop culturized to make the name a non-issue. I was wrong.

And so off I went on the long, arduous process of finding a new brand name for the blog!

Several friends and public relations experts helped - James Brown, Scott Sherman, David Jones, and Liz Shields and Christian Munson of CRT-Tanaka and Dennis Sercombe, PR at Longwood. You listened to me whine over names, propose all kinds of silly variations, and threw back several for me to consider. Dear Readers, we must have evaluated over 100 brand names! One of my personal favorites that didn't make the cut was ROCK BrAND. :)

Brand naming is a challenge. One has to come across that special name that captures the passion of what the brand seeks to do in its space. The name needs to have meaning. It needs to be distinctively identifiable (there are so many blogs on branding and marketing; this was a major challenge!). It needs to memorable and easy to spell. For me, it was tempting to develop a name related to the title of my book - but I don't only write about social media. I needed a name that would reflect my opinions throughout the realm of branding.

Well, you see - we landed on Brandacity. Why? I'm tenacity - if one brands with tenacity = brandacity.

There were two very close runner-ups: 1) MediaShrugged and 2) Brandwitched.

MediaShrugged is a nod to my favorite book, Atlas Shrugged. As an objectivist, my philosophy provides a foundation to my analysis of everything I experience. Ultimately, MediaShrugged was eliminated because it emphasized MEDIA, as opposed to branding and media's role in branding.

Brandwitched sought to capture the notion of being bewitched with brands. I still love this one too. But my team of brand name analysts had mixed feelings - bewitched with brands is good; sandwiched brands is bad. It also has the potential for misspellings, given the sandwiched interpretation. Lastly, some thought it was too cutesy to be serious.

Imagine going through 100 names trying to find the one that captures who I am, what I do, what I have to say, isn't similar to another blog name out there, is easy to spell, is memorable, and credible. Eeek!

Does this sound like all gut reaction and faith? It is. Branding decisions are often times about what feels right for a brand and the road ahead for the brand.

Welcome to Brandacity!