Product Naming Principles & How to be a Naming Bender
*This story was firstly published here.
Throughout my 2 years at Traveloka, I have named at least 4 products/features. It’s a crazy ride but I found it very fun to do. As I mostly see the product as my child, given the opportunity to name them feels like I name my own children. Funny that I myself have long list of the names I will give my child in the future; but when it comes to product naming it’s all different and way way more challenging. I’m not saying that naming a child would be easier, but at least the choices are practically on your own hands to give them the chosen meaning to their name. But when it comes to product naming, there are lots of aspects and challenges that make it a bit trickier.
My experience in naming products revolves around workshops and fun brainstorming. I always believe that naming a product should revolves around the creative energy, so every brainstorm and workshop should be built around the creative mentality as well. I remember creating my very first naming workshop using activities that designed to wake up the creative side of the participants; and that was a hell lot of fun. The methods might be different for each designer, but I do believe that when we able to wake up our creative side during the process, we could craft a wider-range of names coming from even the wildest side of ourselves.
In naming a product, there are several principles that I have been hold on to. The principles might be different for every product, but at least you can refer to this when you’re about to give your product a name. So, what should be the principles in naming product? I’m surely not the expert on this, but I’m gonna share this here now.
#1 Representativeness
When you’re about to name a product or a feature, the first consideration should be the identity that you want this product to have. If you want it to be funny and friendly, so the name should be able to represent that. If you want the product to be reassuring, the name should be able to create a particular thought which lead to reassurance and guarantee. It’s surely impossible to define someone only by their name, but it should be representing enough. It’s just like naming a children; you try to project your hope and aspiration toward this kid.
#2 Coherency
Especially when you have several products/feature in one App, coherency is a must when it comes to product naming. You could sell something different compared to other products on your store, but everything should be under one umbrella theme that user can understand. Imagine having a butcher shop then suddenly you sell a candy; your customer will surely confused, right? Thus, it’s important to level up the name to be coherent with other products.
#3 Positive
No one wants to sell a bad product, so your product name should beam a positive energy as well. No matter how sucks the product actually is, you want to sell the thought that this product is a good one. And that’s actually what the marketing does; manipulating people into thinking that you have the best product in the market. And to say so, your product name should reflect positiveness as well.
#4 Comprehension
A name could be ear catching and all, but what use of it if people can’t comprehend it? Many of designers urge to give their product a funny name with Mumbo Jumbo pronunciation just because it sounds cool and all. But again, what use of it if it only confuses user and do nothing good to them?
It’s surely a long process to wrap a name that can catch all these four principles, but I believe that a fun process is the key. Try to create a fun workshop/brainstorm session to make sure that everyone can let out their wild side to create the name alternatives. After all, in naming a product, the more you come up with alternatives, the better. But remember, a few contextual names are better than thousands of Mumbo Jumbo names.
So, do you have any inputs on my experience above? Let’s discuss some on the comment box below.
