What’s in a name? Plenty.

Editor’s note: Brett Miller is vice president, idea architects, and Oliver Pangborn is senior marketing manager, at Research International, Chicago.

A workbench. A desk. A sofa. On their merits alone, these three products have nothing inherently funny about them. Of course, when Ikea names them Fartfull, Jerker and Lessebo, respectively, you can expect your average third-grader (heck, maybe even your average CEO) to let out a few giggles. Needless to say, none of these products are sold under those names in the United States anymore.

Ikea is just one example in a long list of many companies that have neglected to use a formalized naming process. Marketing history is littered with thousands of similar naming blunders that have resulted from either running with one “creative” idea or not taking the consumer perspective into account. We might chuckle at a few of these stories from time to time, but of course, when it’s your product and reputation (as well as millions of dollars in R&D and marketing) at stake, it can quickly become a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.

Bad names don’t just hurt. They downright kill. Drawing from our earlier example, Ikea maintains founder Ingvar Kamprad’s simple tradition of using Scandinavian names and words for its products. Unfortunately, Scandinavian words don’t always translate well into a foreign culture or language. The aforementioned Fartfull1 (Swedish for “speedy”) workbench is just one example. Another more infamous Ikea blunder is the Gutvik. Named after a small Norwegian town, the Gutvik children’s bed was a little unsettling for German consumers and quickly pulled from the market, perhaps because in German, gutvik sounds awfully close to “good shag”2? (And that’s putting it politely, mind you.)

A good name doesn’t just talk the talk. It walks the walk. Look at the Motorola RAZR. Actually, better yet, don’t look at it. Listen to its name. Just from sounding out the word “razor,” the words “sleek,” “light” and “cutting-edge” probably popped into your head right away without even thinking about cell phones. After all, those three qualities are intrinsic to the word itself. Perhaps that was what Motorola marketers were counting on when they introduced the phone in 2004 before it became one of the bestselling cell phones of all time3.

A good name does a lot of heavy lifting for your product, communicating to consumers on both a functional and emotional level. It also communicates on a constant basis; after all it’s the one thing that remains the same from launch to advertising to merchandising to purchase to word-of-mouth buzz. RAZR is memorable, ownable and descriptive. It struck a chord with consumers on both an emotional (feeling hip and cool) and functional (thin and portable) level, which is paramount to new product success.

Do you think the “Motorola R720 v3” would’ve had produced the same buzz? We didn’t think so.

Formalized process

Names aren’t born. Names are made. Companies that are known as innovators often have a formalized stage-gate innovation process for developing new products. Unfortunately, name generation doesn’t always have its own stage within that process. Sometimes it’s mistakenly assumed to be part of one or more of the other stages (usually ideation or concept development), and the name is highlighted too late in the process when it needs to go to the legal department. This can lead to a number of potential pitfalls:

  1. No names with real potential are generated during the process with a “we’ll get to it later” mindset.
  2. Concepts are tested with “working titles” that aren’t necessarily reflective of their attributes.
  3. Legal deadlines start to approach and names are furiously generated internally or by an outside agency.

To avoid these pitfalls, give name generation its own stage in the process. This will eliminate any assumptions that are being made and will ensure that ample time, resources and energy are spent on developing the right name for the product or service.

Be at the heart

Consumer insights should be at the heart of all innovation, especially naming. Without them you run the risk of having creativity for creativity’s sake and not creativity that builds business. This mistake can often result in really “cool” names that don’t help drive consumer excitement and purchase, or worse, cool names that offend consumers.

Insights don’t just appear; they come as a result of careful observation collection. You need to watch, talk and listen to consumers, searching for even the most minute observations. There are many methodologies that can help you do this, including self-reported homework assignments, ethnographic approaches and traditional focus groups.

Your insights depend upon careful analysis of these inputs. Common themes are identified and are then used to create multiple insight statements. From this set of statements, the most promising ones are selected based on which discoveries are most likely to create growth. Their potential can be gauged based on expert opinion or can be qualitatively and/or quantitatively tested with consumers. Insights that emerge become the foundation for name generation.

Look back at the RAZR example. Without even knowing how they developed it, we can already get a sense for the consumer insights that were utilized to develop the name. Consumers need their phones to be as portable as possible because they are on the go. Consumers want their phones to look cool and be stylish because it makes them feel hip and up-to-date. Consumers like to talk about technology and like names that are catchy and can be used easily in conversation. Written language today contains a lot of abbreviated words because consumers need to communicate in a fast and efficient way. It becomes clear how insights like these can lead to that “aha” moment when you realize you have generated a great name.

Many perspectives

It is important when generating names to include many perspectives. You should develop a cross-functional team including as many facets of the business as possible, from brand management to marketing to R&D. It is tempting to think you can do it alone, but no matter how creative you are, what your title is or how many names you have developed in your career, you are risking a lot for simply being able to say, “I came up with that.” In fact, you may end up with a name that you would rather not have associated with you.

Maybe additional perspectives during the Ikea naming process would’ve spared the company plenty, if not all, of the embarrassment endured during some of their aforementioned fiascos. Despite having over a dozen designers on staff and 80 freelancers, Ikea has only one person - the sortimentssekretarare (“secretary of the product range”)4 - responsible for naming products. This person manages an entire database of all of the used and available names and product descriptions for Ikea’s 28,500 products and product lines, with an additional 7,500 more handy5. Granted, hindsight is 20/20, but perhaps a quick check with other colleagues could’ve prevented the Fartfull and Gutvik incidents.

Improve the chances

Consumer involvement throughout the naming process will improve the chances of developing a great name to drive brands in the marketplace.

On the front end, consider having a panel of consumers involved in the naming process. There are many ways to do this, such as setting up a naming blog or having consumers who are experienced in creative problem-solving and ideation help develop them in a facilitated session.

On the back end, test the names with consumers qualitatively and/or quantitatively. This will help narrow down the list of names to the ones that resonate best with consumers.

Global perspective

Wherever you are, don’t forget about the rest of the world. From insight to name creation to evaluation, it is important to get a global perspective on the name if it will be marketed in multiple countries. For example, Honda suffered an Ikea-like embarrassment when it introduced the Honda Fitta to the European market. Previously known as the Fit in Asia and North America, the automaker rechristened it Fitta for the European market, painfully unaware that fitta was crude Scandinavian slang for the female anatomy6.

Even more painful was its accompanying tagline: “Small on the outside, but large on the inside.”7

Honda immediately rebranded it the Jazz, sparing both itself from further marketing embarrassment and grateful Scandinavian car salesmen from awkward test-drive conversations (“So, um, how’d she handle?”).

There are many ways to efficiently get a global view. It can be as simple as tapping into your own distribution network via e-mail. It can be utilizing one of your marketing, advertising or research agencies’ global networks. You can also develop formalized global research initiatives to achieve a more objective global view.

Remember the Bard

Lastly, remember the Bard when creating a name. In his famous lines from Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare was probably trying to tell us that a name shouldn’t matter, but let’s face facts, Romeo and Juliet ended with both star-crossed lovers dead - a distinct possibility for any new product with a poorly-chosen name. So take Shakespeare’s real marketing message to heart: pay great attention to the naming process or you may suffer like a Montague and a Capulet - or worse, a Fartfull and a Jerker.

References

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikea#Product_names

2 www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_46/b3959001.htm?chan=search

3 www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/ detail.jsp?globalObjectId=8153_8082_23< /A> 

4 www.nordicreach.com/articles/people/22/

5 Ibid.

6 “Manual or Automatic?”, October 25, 2003. Toronto Star. P. L03

7 Ibid.