Creating a Brand Identity: A Guide for Designers: (Graphic Design Books, Logo Design, Marketing)

by Catharine Slade-Brooking

There are a number of key approaches that can be taken to help ensure a successful brand-naming strategy: 1. Descriptive. This is the simplest naming strategy, using words that define or highlight key aspects of a product or service, such as Royal Mail or American Airlines. 2. Acronyms. Using the first letter of each word of a name, such as KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken). A similar approach is to use syllabic abbreviations, an abbreviation formed from (usually) initial syllables of several words, such as ‘FedEx’, which is an abbreviation of the name of the company’s original air division, Federal Express, used from 1973 until 2000. 3. Fanciful. This approach uses words that either look or sound good but do not necessarily have any relationship to the product or service that the brand represents, such as the telecommunications brands Orange and O2. 4. Neologisms, or Make it up! Creating a word that reflects the values or unique nature of a brand but has no actual traditional meaning. The brand Gü was created by James Averdieck, given its unique brand identity by design agency Big Fish. Pronounced ‘goo’, it was created to evoke the gooey, oozing nature of their puddings. 5. Onomatopoeia. Using a word to imitate or suggest the sound associated with a product can be a very effective way to develop a unique name. Many highly successful brands have employed this deliberately. In the case of Schweppes it was a happy accident. Johann Jacob Schweppe, an amateur scientist and entrepre...