Brand Names that Move
Anyone who deals with the topic of branding and brand names will not be able to avoid the topic of emotion. For the success of brands, emotions are an important, if not the most important factor. Positive emotions, of course, if possible – or at least pointing in the right direction. The word emotion means that something moves out of you towards others (Latin: ex = out of; movere = to move). An emotion is thus to be evoked and transmitted. It is not for nothing that we find many examples of emotional formulations in brand communication: "We love food" (supermarket), "Burger Love" (fastfood), "We love to entertain you" (television) or "Freude am Fahren" ("Driving Pleasure", BMW). Before the brand is known and loaded with images, campaigns and own experiences, the brand name has to manage one thing first: Create a feeling and move people.
It is quite a challenge to create such an emotional movement with just a few letters. First of all, one should define which feeling exactly is to be evoked. Trust, solidarity, sympathy, security, relaxation, peace or the highest of feelings, love? Then you can approach the emotional worlds with certain word components and even letters. For example, an O sounds round and big, while an A can stand for openness and more feminine elements. Rare letters like X or Z have a striking effect. Letters like K, P, or T produce a "harder" or "spikier" sound, etc. You can make use of these linguistic findings to give your own brand name a certain emotional touch.
Emotive Names are Better Names
But does every brand really need emotion? That may be true for food or cars, but isn't a factual, unemotional name better for more factual topics such as insurance or tax consultants? If you take a look at the ways in which communication is conveyed, you can answer this question quite clearly: 80% of communication is conveyed on an emotional level and only 20% on a factual level, regardless of the topic and the channel. So yes, emotions with brands are always a good thing.
In the insurance segment in particular, brand names such as "Friday" and "Lemonade" have recently caused quite a stir. The names have nothing whatsoever to do with insurance, but simply suggest with beautiful terms a joyful moment just before the weekend or a fresh, sweet taste. Whether the brands will be able to keep these positive statements remains to be seen. But they will remain in people's minds for the time being.
Laughter is Easy to Remember
Humor is also a good way to get into the heads of potential customers. When you laugh about something, you release endorphins, or happy hormones. And that's what you want as an entrepreneur or brand developer: to make your customers happy. Here you have to be a little careful about how funny the name can be. A cleaning company with the name "The Meaner Cleaner" is perhaps a bit silly, but the name remains in the memory. And out of curiosity, people at least take a look at the website. This is a step toward emotional customer loyalty. The ride-sharing platform "BlablaCar" has also chosen a humorous name to evoke the idea of conversations with fellow passengers in the car – and doesn't take itself too seriously. It comes across as funny and likeable and stays in the mind.
Conveying Positive Values through the Name
Conveying positive feelings naturally runs not only through the name, but also through the entire "trappings" that the brand builds up. The aim here is to convey a message that is then automatically associated with the name. In the case of long-established, successful brands such as BMW or IBM, for example, this has been achieved through decades of brand building, continuous quality and high marketing budgets. When a brand remains successful over such a long period of time, the name itself is actually no longer that important.
A rather meaningless three-letter abbreviation or a surname like Bosch is then directly associated with positive experiences and images. But simply using another letter abbreviation (e.g. DTZ) or your own last name is not recommended. Unless you have a similarly high budget as BMW for the introduction of your brand. Otherwise, it is better to choose a name that speaks for itself and delivers the emotion at the same time.
It is true that products have the task of satisfying people's needs: the laundry has to get clean and the breath should smell good after brushing the teeth. But simply satisfying needs is no longer enough. Today, a customer expects from the outset that a product fulfills what it promises. Instead, consumers are increasingly concerned with what values a company stands for. Lifestyle and brand are interwoven. Consumers buy products if they can also identify with a company's values. "The coffee I always buy tastes good to me, but it's not organic and fair, so I'd rather look for another" – thoughts like these are increasingly influencing purchasing decisions today.
Brand Names tell Stories
This should also be taken into account when developing a brand name. A corporate brand that represents sustainable or social values, for example, and also lives these values in practice, is perceived by customers as authentic and positive. This starts with the name – and should then really be lived. But be careful not to get too lost in the "buzzword"-jungle. You don't have to write organic on it if it contains real organic. The more organic names pop up, the more opaque – and also untrustworthy – they become for the consumer. There are great opportunities for unique names, for example, with a creative name generator or with a good "name story", rather than using the same familiar terms over and over again.
Questions like "How should the customer feel when he enjoys, experiences, uses the product?" or "What mood should he be in and what should come to his mind?" help here. For example, should he feel calm and relaxed and think, "I've never been this comfortable before!" Or: "What a culinary delight and even healthy". From such emotional statements, many great and positive names can be derived, which deliver positive feelings right away, similar to Friday and Lemonade. Then all that is needed is a good story and a positive brand image that delivers on the promises made. An emotional brand name, however, is a good start.
A brand name that arouses emotions and tells a story is a first step in the right direction. Which brand names arouse your positive feelings? Or perhaps just the opposite?
