No Name, No Brand: Everything You Wanted to Know About Naming with Scott Milano
Read time: 3.5 min
Get episode summaries delivered directly to your inbox HERE
Names are typically the first thing founders and entrepreneurs think about when starting a business and launching a brand but it’s not as easy as it seems…
In this episode of the Healthy Brand Podcast, I sat down with Scott Milano, founder of Tanj, a brand naming and language studio specializing in helping brands change the world one word at a time. We talk about the considerations you need to have when naming, why naming is not as easy as it seems, and how he came to name the Nintendo Wii.
APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY | STITCHER
Don’t see your podcast player? Click HERE
In this episode, we cover off on a variety of topics:
Your brand name is the tip of your storytelling spear
Naming can seem easy, but DIY at your own risk
Context and creativity is the secret sauce to a great name
How Scott came to name the Nintendo Wii and a really interesting name that was put on the table
The link between the brand name and its visual and verbal identity
The threat of AI on the business of naming
KEY LESSONS
Your brand name is the tip of your storytelling spear
“If you don't have a name, you're not in business. How can people talk about you? So it's like an essential ingredient, it's an identifier.”
Names are important in branding. It is the first thing people hear and it can help your brand spread or it can confuse the heck out of your audiences. Scott points out some basic criteria:
Good name: memorable, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and lets an interesting brand story unfold
Bad name: complicated, hard to spell, hard to pronounce, and misleads the audience about the brand
“The right name encodes some sort of DNA about the broader brand, becoming an entry point to the story and experience that comes afterwards”
There are many different types of names and there is no “right” answer for any given situation, so part of the process is to leave no stone unturned.
Scott didn’t go through all the types of names in this podcast, but shares a construct below:
Naming can seem easy, but DIY at your own risk
“I can name my kids or my dogs, why can't I name my own brand? They think it should be easy and it should come quickly, and sometimes that is the case. But more often than not, it's not. I think anyone who's named a brand as an entrepreneur, as a brand manager, as a CEO realizes that it's a pretty significant decision.”
When speaking with Scott, he talked about their process and how data driven it is. It is certainly a robust undertaking making sure that no stone is left unturned.
We have catalogs of thousands of names that we amass for any given project. For each of those names, there's probably 40 or 50 data points that we have to work through.”
Scott also talked about some areas of naming that clients often forget. It’s not just a creative undertaking. It’s about risk.
“There are other essential parts about naming - in terms of trademark, it's a way to protect all the intellectual property that's a part of your brand”
When you're talking about global brand names, how do they travel across the world? Does it mean something offensive in a key language and market? Or is there some sort of cultural sensitivity that you should be aware of? So it's just a lot of due diligence”
Context and creativity is the secret sauce to a great name
The naming process is unchanged, but the journey to every name is distinct. Scott was very quick to emphasize that the context of any brand dictates where the project goes.
Some examples of context:
Audience
Competition
Business and category
Brand strategy and persona
So before starting a naming project, have a brand strategy and understand the context and how you want your brand to show up. Psst…you know someone who can help you with that 😉
If not, just make sure you have answers to these questions:
What is your brand doing?
How is the brand doing it?
Why does it matter to the world?
Geographies at launch vs. in the future?
This information helps to ground the team tackle the project like a snowflake - one of its kind.
"We don't come to the table for a client with any preconceived notion - like this needs to be much more straightforward or let's get really creative and create something that is totally untethered from the context of the brand"
Who is suited to be a superstar namer? Scott shares that there is no one type of person but creativity is certainly a core element
“I don't think there's any one kind of plain and simple or best fit background…I think you can come at it from a variety of different angles, and that's actually what we look for when we're bringing new folks onto the team.
Different perspectives throughout life: language and culture. We all share kind of a love of writing to some degree. Some are more creative writers, others are linguists. People who just have a strategic kind of view with a creative bend to it. People who can think laterally, they're comfortable being uncomfortable”
Conclusion
Naming is really important, but as a brand strategist, my advice is that the work is not done once you have a name. It’s what you make it, it’s the experiences you create that makes the name, the brand memorable and remarkable.
Learn more about Scott:
- Tanj
Resources
- Chat Namer an AI tool for naming powered by OpenAI by Tanj
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand