Is a good brand name more important than a good logo?
- 4 hours ago
- 9 min read
There’s no definitive answer but there are compelling reasons why more businesses shouldn’t overlook the importance of a choosing a brand name.
There’s not a whole lot of research out there about brand name effectiveness because there are so many ways to splice and dice a brand name given there are so many different types of naming conventions. But if we look at research done by IPSOS on distinctive brand assets (DBAs), we can see how much more effective other (DBAs) are compared to the most commonly used asset, a logo. Now you’re not going to see ‘brand name’ listed as a category among the rest of them because each of these DBAs are things that should elicit the brand name when an audience sees or hears them. However, many of the same qualities or criteria that apply to creating a DBA, also apply to developing a brand name. And my hunch is that a brand name is more important than a good logo because after all, we create the name before we create the logo.
What makes a good brand name?
I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve cited this criteria, but it’s definitely less than what my good friend, Rob Meyerson has, given he wrote the book on ‘Brand Naming’. In it he gives a fantastic breakdown on page 11 of his book.
Rob separates them into 3 categories:
Strategic Qualities
Creative Qualities
Technical Qualities
Within each category, a good brand name is:
Meaningful
Adaptable
Distinctive
Memorable
Sounds good
Looks good
Legally available
Linguistically viable
Easy to spell/pronounce
Before I press on, please do yourself a favour and go buy Rob’s book, ‘Brand Naming’ that is available on Amazon. It’s a really helpful guide when it comes to developing a brand name as he breaks down each of these criteria and the steps to develop a good brand name.
Two words or less
I don’t think Rob explicitly states this his book, but this would be my additional criteria to add into the mix of what makes a good brand name, and that is a good brand name needs to be two words or less, with the ideal being one word, and initialism names like IBM or acronyms like QANTAS counts as one word too.
So why one or two and definitely not three or more words?
One of Rob’s criteria for a good brand name is ‘Memorability’. To make something memorable it needs to be repeatedly said and heard, but what makes that easier is when it’s simpler. So the less words there are and potentially the less letters there are, it stands to reason that the brand name will be more memorable as a result. This is no different to the same criteria we measure a logo’s effectiveness by, or why most of us only have or are known by only two words; our first and last name.
Another of Rob’s criteria is if it ‘Looks good’. When designing a logo that integrates the name of the brand into what we call a ‘wordmark’, as opposed to a ‘logomark’ that is an icon/symbol, the more words (and even letters) there are, the more cluttered the logo will appear, leaving the door open for it to be less memorable. This can also reduce the viability of the logo when used at a small scale because the words will potentially be illegible.
When people talk about your brand
We recognise and remember logos, but have you ever described a logo to someone when telling them about the brand you want to tell them about? I’d bet ‘no’ was the answer, and instead we’d be telling someone the brand’s name instead, right? This right here is what I submit to the jury as Exhibit A. This in my mind is the single biggest reason why a brand name is more important than a logo.
It’s easier for us to tell someone about Nike as opposed to Blue Ribbon Sports (Nike’s original brand name), am I right? And this comes back to Rob Meyerson’s criteria, where ‘Linguistically Viable’ and ‘Easy to Spell and Pronounce’ becomes important.
In other words, is the name appropriate in the target market’s language and does it work just as well in other languages? While the easy to spell and pronounce bit is something I know all too well, as my own legal first name is often mispronounced and misspelled and it’s why I called my branding business G’day Frank, rather than G’day Reagan.
Industry suffixes
There’s something that many brands suffer from, and that is adding an industry descriptor onto the end of their brand name. I’d compare it to a logo having an all too common and obvious industry symbol, like a plumber having a dripping tap for a logo. As many businesses that start out often have these industry suffixes tacked onto the end of their brand names.
For example, my fictional real estate agency brand I use in my articles is Chapter Realty, now no matter if it were Chapter Real Estate or Chapter Realty, both are potentially unneeded suffixes. They're undeeded because none of the leading real estate agency franchises in Australia have 'Realty', 'Realtors', 'Property' or 'Real Estate' at the ends of their names.
Why these types of industry suffixes are added is so that when a new business enters the market as a new brand, people will instantly understand what type of business it is. It’s also done to make searching by categories easier, be it for SEO when Googling local businesses, or going as far back as searching in business directories like the Yellow Pages in the age before the internet.
But what happens over time is these brand name suffixes often drop off when they become more ‘famous’ in their industry. Just the same as logos often get simpler over time to be refined into the most minimal form for versatility and ease of use, as well making it easier to be remembered and recognised. Your brand name should be no different if you have a suffix in your name, even if it’s just the name that appears in your logo for the sake of registering your business name. Because you may not be able to register your real estate business as ‘Chapter’ alone, but you sure can market your business as just ‘Chapter’ and that be your logo. That said, it is better to use a trademarkable name that is unique if you can.
So this is what most businesses don’t do when developing their brand. They don’t take a shot at creating both a distinct name AND logo that isn’t obvious what their business does or sells. Instead, put in the effort to create that meaning that helps people join the dots between what the brand does, what the logo looks like and what the brand name is.
This is the whole point of branding, to create meaning, so when people see your logo and think of your name, they understand what it represents.
As people, we don’t walk around with big signs on our heads all day that say what it is we do. We let people know and we become known for it so that when someone might need our help, they’ll turn to us, right?
Every other thing we do other than the name (and even the logo) will suggest the type of brand you are, be it from the product itself and it's spot in a certain category on the supermarket shelf, or by the messaging that compliments any bit of communication you put out into the market. It will be obvious what your business does without the need of an industry suffix to be part of your brand name.
And if you’re not convinced, look at the leading brands you know and buy from, especially those with an international presence. They don’t have obvious logos that remotely suggest what they offer, let alone their brand names.
Think about it:
Apple, Virgin, Mazda, Century 21, Sony, Google, Uber, Tesla, Doritos, Citi, Visa, Nike and even brands named after people like McDonald’s, John Deere, Ford, Colgate, Burberry.
Develop that meaning over time and as I always say in these articles and my content in general, give your brand a shot by developing better branding.
My favourite naming qualities
Apart from having a one word brand name or using the least amount of letters in one or two words, are the following two things:
1. It can be pronounced and spelled unmistakably
With my own legal first name, Reagan, it’s meant to be pronounced ‘Ray-gan’ but I often get ‘Ree-gan’. So when we’re developing a brand name, consider how the word(s) will be phonetically pronounced and if there is a potential for it to be mispronounced because of how it is spelled. And when you do, test it out on people to get them to spell out the name to see if it is easy to spell, just as it is to pronounce.
It’s a similar test to one that has been done for logos, when studies have asked people to draw the logo from memory, often known as the ‘sketch test’. As you can see below the simpler the logo, typically the better representation of it is drawn by people recalling it.
2. Make sure it has creative legs
A unique brand name alone is great, especially if it tonally aligns with the brand, like Liquid Death. But I think the best quality of a brand name is one that ties into the concept of what the brand delivers, so that it links with the brand’s messaging and can be embodied in the logo.
Examples like:
Nike
Swoosh tick that aligns with “just do it”, and the name meaning victory in reference to the Greek goddess of victory.
Amazon
An arrow underneath the name pointing from the a to the z in the logo, that then aligns with “everything from a to z”, and the name referring to the Amazon rainforest being the biggest rainforest on earth while Amazon being the biggest store on earth.
A ‘P’ logo in the shape of a pin, and the naming meaning ‘pin what you’re interested in’ on an inspiration board.
Or here's a couple of my own client work examples:
Figurs
My most recent example of brand naming has been for best friend’s accounting business I’m helping him brand and market, that we named, ‘Figurs’. The name alone is in reference to financial figures, and it’s allowed us to develop messaging like “When it figures you need accounting help for your business, count on Figurs”.
It has also been creatively integrated into the wordmark where the ‘g’ is also the shape of an 8 (a figure 8). And to push this name even further we developed and named the brand mascot, ‘Figgy’ the phoenix - made to represent them helping businesses rise out of financial stress and have a rebirth of sorts to help their business growth with more than just typical accounting services. Which also became the brand’s logomark symbol alongside the ‘figurs’ wordmark.
Saweetway
Another example is the brand Saweetway that I helped name and develop the branding, packaging and marketing material for. As a new brand to market in the natural sweetener category of the supermarket shelf, it was also introducing a brand new type of natural sweetener to the Australian market, called Allulose.
So when it came to naming the brand, this new type of sweetener has 87% less calories than white sugar that could be used to aid in people’s diets when managing their metabolic health. Effectively it’s a new and arguably ‘better’ form of ‘sweet’, it’s ‘saweet’! Putting the A from Allulose in the word sweet, you get Saweet.
However, to meet legal requirements of IP registration (one of Rob Meyerson’s Brand Naming criteria by the way), we needed to add the word ‘way’ into the brand name. But this meant we could creatively use that as part of the brand’s messaging, “keep it sweet the saweet way”.
Simpler everything
One of my own brand’s brand values is clarity (though you might not think so with such long articles most of the time - but hey, I’m working on it!). Clarity is essential in developing a brand as it ensures you and your customers can easily understand what the brand is, how it communicates, what the expectations are and what kind of experience is delivered, all with consistency. As we all know how frustrating a complex or unclear brand experience can be.
Now to achieve clarity, simplicity is a key factor in achieving this. Which means simple targeting, simple positioning, simple objectives, a simple offer, simple brand values, a simple logo, and a simple brand name.
Simplicity doesn’t mean boring or predictable either. As it’s the role of branding and marketing people to develop a stand out brand that captivates and connects with a customer. Nor does an employee want to work for an uninspiring, boring brand.
Simplicity in the context of a brand means developing the clearest form of strategy, communication and experience you possibly can with the least amount of friction as possible. So that there is ease of use and other benefits like memorability.
If you can make your brand name simple in its amount of words, spelling and pronunciation, that will help you immensely. And coming from a branding designer, it also makes developing a good logo far better when you have a good brand name to work with. Which is why it’s recommended to integrate brand naming into the process of developing your brand, so that there is more of a holistic approach to developing your brand so that all facets from strategy to identity and marketing can all align well and in a meaningful way.
Because to me, when brand naming is integrated into a branding process, you get a better branding result for better business success. So give your brand a shot with a better brand name!
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