Brand name creation process

There is now a wealth of information online on how to find a brand name. There are also many suggestions for name categories, but they often offer little help in the actual search. What matters is whether the letter construct conveys the desired flow and the right message, fits emotionally, and whether it is available as a domain name or has only a few search results on Google.

The following is a conventional approach. AI-based developments are good for descriptive or compound names. But they are useless when it comes to internationality, languages or abstract names, when sound or appearance are important (from 2024).

The following steps are sensibly included in a professional naming process:

01.

Proposal preparation

02.

Personal briefing meeting (to jointly define the technical and conceptual requirements for the name, e.g. language base, country scope, desired message, desired association, length, competitive environment, style, typology of the name)

03.

Creative brief (for the client with defined briefing requirements)

04.

Strategic preliminary considerations, review of materials, competitive analysis if necessary, creative preparation;

Development of conceptual routes

05.

Creation phase 1 (brainstorming, individual creation, name chat, international if necessary)

06.

Intermediate presentation for conceptual discussion (concrete name suggestions presented are the best way to discuss and narrow down which direction of names is favoured, which approaches work and which do not).

07.

Creation phase 2 (focussed, based on the results of the interim presentation).

08. 

Initial checks on the Internet (Google hits, domain availability).

09.

Trade mark searches and company name searches in the relevant trade mark registers (EU Register, IR Register and relevant national registers) and classes of goods and services, assessment and evaluation of the database extracts found by patent attorneys, summary of the results in a search report). Not only purely identical names are searched in the databases, but also variants of the names, as a very similar name infringes the trade mark rights of third parties and it is highly likely that an opposition will then be filed against the trade mark application.

10.

International linguistic and cultural verification of the names by two native speakers (the most important languages worldwide should be checked, not just the languages of the countries in which the company operates, as a name for an internationally active company also appears and is communicated across countries and a negative meaning of the name, e.g. in an Asian language, is not only embarrassing, but is also often picked up by the press, for example).

11.

Personal final presentation of approx. 12 reviewed names (duration of the naming process up to this step approx. 6 -7 weeks).

12.

Similarity searches (conducting similarity searches with the shortlist of names, approx. 6, to determine the risk potential for each name and which of the favoured name candidates to proceed with, particularly important for company names, duration approx. 10 working days).

Submission of the 2 favoured name candidates to the trademark and patent office (general examination of registrability, duration approx. 4 weeks).

14.

Publication of the trade mark in the trade mark journal, opposition period (until expiry of 3 months)

15.

Registration of the trade mark, certificate.