What’s in a Name? Product Naming Research with Logica

Effective and strategic product naming is a key component within the broader framework of a brand, product or service’s go-to-market (GTM) strategy. How you approach the naming research process, the alignment of internal and external elements, and the right research design can make all the difference.

Approach to Naming Research in GTM Cycle

Naming research is generally undertaken toward the final steps of the product development cycle because having the other steps complete will help inform the naming process. Some of the GTM insights that feed into the naming process include a clear definition of the brand, product or service, as well as the target markets—and agreement among all stakeholders throughout the organization on what you are trying to achieve with the name. 

Stakeholder Alignment on Product Naming

Alignment on naming parameters is essential to ensure a successful naming process. Some questions to consider:

• How many names does your product or service need? (e.g., is it one product with one name or a product line with a name and individual products with their own names?)
  
• Is this name part of another overall brand, product or service name and/or where does it fit into the brand hierarchy? 
  
• Will this name be a descriptive name or an evocative name or have other naming parameters?

After you’ve answered these key questions with stakeholders, your next step on ensuring alignment will be on the names themselves. We recommend as part of the product naming process to provide a short list of names internally first before getting external input, as well as some other steps before starting your external research.

Steps Before External Naming Research Begins

In addition to getting internal stakeholder feedback, there are some other steps to achieve before taking your potential names out for external feedback. You need to implement a legal and compliance review to narrow the naming set before doing potential research. Logica also suggests considering the following, particularly if you have multiple products or services being named each year:

Let’s Take These Names to Field!

After all your internal alignments and processes are set up, it is time to get feedback from your target market(s) on names! During this stage of the product naming research process, respondents will help you narrow down your list of potential names. Feedback here will also give you directional input to determine which names align with your intended message and are relevant to your audiences. It will also help identify those names that might carry negative connotations, or help hone descriptive names so they remain concise and avoid being excessively long. 

Keep Naming Research as a Separate Study

When doing naming research, you need to go into with a clear objective: getting feedback on the names. While it may be tempting to combine other research needs, we recommend you avoid mixing in feedback on the product itself or its messaging since this can confuse the input on the names. Logica works with you to help plan the research in stages and customize it for the product launch or marketing plan, making sure naming is a key—and separate—step.

Custom Research Approach Design for Naming

In the product naming research design, there should be a very clear way to describe the product, communicate what it does and then ask for names. This means product development research and messaging research has ideally been done already.  The methods you may use in your naming research can vary. Qualitative or quantitative research approaches can work—this will depend on the names, number of names, target market and complexity. You can consider leaning more towards qualitative if it is a complex product and you want to understand the “why” more behind the naming preferences. Use quantitative if the product can be explained simply and you are looking for a vote or quantitative validation. Logica can help develop a scalable approach that is tailored to your organization. Click here to read a case study about naming research.

Choosing the right product name is crucial for a successful launch! This step-by-step approach—with a focus on the importance of internal alignment, a clear decision-making process, and the right research design—sets you up for finding the right name. Ready to get started? Reach out to us!