Naming architecture
A stringent naming architecture helps the company, its employees, and its customers to better remember product names and brand names and to assign them to a company. This strengthens the overall presence and perception of the brand.
NAMING ARCHITECTURE.
Create clear structures.
Just as builders think about the styles of their buildings in advance, so, too, should the naming architecture of a company be thought out well. However, the reality is usually different, especially when it comes to naming products, services, plans, benefits, or rates. Over the years and decades, developers and product managers have left their mark, always present in the various product and brand names. With each new launch, something new is added.
Develop a coherent naming architecture
When a logical naming architecture for a company is to be set up, everything starts with well-founded analysis. Of course, market and brand environment analyses play a role here, as well. But when developing a naming architecture “during running operations,” even more important is deep knowledge of the existing brand portfolio, the individual products, product groups, product categories, and the additional offerings and services associated with them. This involves a variety of questions — weighted differently depending on the company and product. The naming architecture should reflect how well the market is known (awareness) in the relevant target groups, market share and the share of turnover within the company, product life cycles and organizational aspects, product labeling and packaging design, and international distribution.
First, take inventory
The assessment follows the analysis and evaluation of what has already been introduced and established. At the naming agency, we are always looking for the starting point that gives the existing spectrum of names a structure. Often, a common thread can be found. Or a few brand names or parts of names create a structure that can be worked with in the future. Only in the rarest of cases is it possible to completely change all existing brand names. Creativity and the ability to integrate are the keys to the naming architecture.
Further developing recognizable structures
After strategic options are formulated, we create the first recognizable naming structure. Then, at the agency, we focus creatively on evaluating name ideas within this naming strategy. The naming strategy is put to the test on the basis of the first product names or product group names. In this creative and research phase, it can best be determined whether one or more naming approaches are consistent and long-lasting, whether there are sufficient ideas and derivations for the approach(es), and whether the approach or approaches are set up such that later, within the company new names can be created by marketing staff or product managers.
Implementing the naming architecture
At the end of the naming process to create a consistent naming architecture, there is a strategy for the naming architecture, a concept for naming, naming guidelines for naming, and first concrete names.
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