But, when my co-worker and friend, Eunice Park, emailed me a link to an article announcing Urus, Lamborghini’s new SUV concept, I was intrigued.  Not for the obvious “OMG, Lamborghini is making an SUV” reason, but because I was fixated on the name. I kept on trying to convince Eunice that it is pronounced “oooooh-rus” and not “you-rus.”  I argued that Uma Thurman’s first name is pronounced “Oooooma”, so this had to be the Lamborghini “oooooh-rus.”  She countered with words such as “Uranus” and “urologist” that started with the “you” sound.  Dammit, I hate playing word games with Eunice – she always wins!

In the end, I accepted defeat and admitted that the name is probably prounounced “you-rus” even though that doesn’t stop me from randomly saying “oooooh-rus” to her every so often.  I looked around online and did not see any instructions on the correct pronunciation of Urus, so if it is still up for debate, I encourage the executives at Lamborghini to go with “oooooh-rus.” I mean, they were obviously trying to be unique by creating a Lamborghini SUV, and then naming it Urus.  So, why not go all the way and pronounce it all crazy.  I think that jingle writers could come up with something really catchy:

“OoooOOOOOOooooo-rus, so much better than the city bus,

Oh yeah, ooooOOOOOOOoooo-rus, Nothing left to discuss.”

Now, I’m going to drop the pronunciation topic; the “o” key on my laptop just told me it was tired.  So, let’s look at the name “Urus” from some other angles. Almost everyone said that it looked like a truncated form of Uranus – and we are so not going there! Aside from that, the word has a nice look to it.  A lot of rounded letters, no hanging letters (y, j, p, etc.), a great word for visual designers to work with.  And, in fact, the logo they came up with is quite cool.

The name is short, unique, and has a high-end sound. The only definition I could find for Urus is: “an extinct large long-horned wild ox of Europe that is the ancestor of domestic cattle. ”

But, I think both the animal and it’s name are extinct at this point.  So, overall, Urus is what we in the naming industry would call an empty vessel name.  It probably doesn’t carry any preconceptions for the average person; therefore, Lamborghini has the opportunity to own the brand name and create their own associations with the brand name.

Fisker Automotive, launched its first car, the Fisker Karma earlier this year.  The Fisker Karma is a plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan whereas the Lamborghini Urus is a performance SUV. The cars are different, and so is their approach to creating names.

“Karma” is a Sanskrit-derived word defined as “the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person’s existence, regarded as determining the person’s destiny.”

I basically think of Karma as “what goes around, comes around” – both good and bad.  Karma is a word that has positive associations for most people in the western world.  The environmental benefits of the vehicle also make Karma a pretty good name for Fisker’s debut car.

Both approaches to name development have their merits, depending on what the goal is for your brand.  My personal goal is to get into the jingle business.  I’m really good, right?

Overall Grade: B-

Being a Make Mine Marvel type, I am of course very excited to see the Avengers movie, which will feature all of the Marvel heroes together! In one place! With Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) there to help them save the world.

I was disturbed, however, to find out that one of the myriad tie-ins to the movie (fine examples of co-branding) is something called the “Limited Edition Avengers Magtitan Neo Legend“: it looks like a fancy bracelet and is in fact based on something that Tony Stark (Iron Man) wears in the movie. They’re made by Colantotte, who have set up a whole mini-website for the Avengers movie that lets you download an interactive comic, take quizzes, view profiles of each Avenger, and (most important) buy the Limited Edition Avengers Magtitan Neo Legend things, which are made from titanium, stainless steel, and carbon fiber. They’re pretty, but manly enough that guys could wear them and feel Tony Stark-ish (although, to be fair, Robert Downey Jr. makes any jewelry look pretty good).

The name is, of course, designed to make you buy it immediately – “Limited Edition” means they’ll only be selling it for 5 years instead of 6 – and I don’t know what “Magtitan Neo Legend” is supposed to convey. It sounds like manly words thrown into a blender. Marvel is lucky they were able to squeeze the word Avengers into the middle.

So why is this worse than the Harry Potter wands and Sauron’s One Rings that you see advertised in the back of Sky Mall? Well, the Limited Edition Avengers Magtitan Neo Legend bracelet actually promises to *do* something for you – just like superheroes, it helps you “maintain [your] edge while fighting off arch rivals!” Digging a little deeper in the press release, we find that what this actually means is:

The natural power of the Colantotte’s magnets restores the negative impact today’s lifestyle imposes. The human body absorbs positive ions from electronic equipment, cell phones, electrical wiring, and machinery. Colantotte, with its negative ionic technology combats these destructive positive ions for regeneration.

Oh. They have magnets in them. But not just any magnets, these are sciency magnets:

All Colantotte products are created with axially magnetized magnets in a unique Alternating North-South Polarity Orientation (ANSPO™) to maximize the magnetic field flow.

(FYI, alternating poles are what make refrigerator magnets stick so well to the surface of your fridge but lose their effectiveness when they get about a half inch away.)

This is not a science blog, so I won’t take the time to go through all of the reasons why bracelets with magnets don’t do anything for you, but it’s safe to say that the preponderance of evidence has shown that magnet therapy has no basis in reality and is likely a result of the placebo effect; that human bodies are not absorbing positive ions that are destroying us; and further, that even if the theory were true, the bracelets could not emit negative ions without a power source, which they clearly do not have.

Of course there are dozens of magic bracelet bracelets, magnetic or otherwise, on the market, including Q-Ray (sued by the FTC for false advertising), Power Balance (shut down in Australian by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission), and Balance Bracelet (ordered by the FTC to pay a $400k settlement into a global settlement fund for consumers).

I guess what bothers me most is that Marvel and Joss Whedon are implicitly endorsing pseudoscience by allowing this kind of product as a tie-in. I realize I am talking about a movie that features an Asgardian God of Thunder as well as a gamma-ray created green Hulk, but that’s a movie. This is real life, and magnetic bracelets won’t turn you into a superhero, or cure your arthritis, or help you “maintain your edge”, whatever that means. And what if Colantotte gets shut down or sued? Won’t that tarnish the Marvel/Avengers/Whedon brand by association?

But hey, if you want to look like a superhero, you can buy one and pretend it makes you super. Only $200.

Like Kraft, Abbott Laboratories will be separating into two different publicly traded companies, by the end of the year. While Abbott Laboratories will continue to be the name for the diversified medical products company (think stent devices and baby formula, along with generic drugs), AbbVie (pronounced Abb-vee) will be the name of the research-based, branded pharma company, and its line-up will include top-selling arthritis drug, Humira.

Dispensing with the naming basics, the name AbbVie is a pretty intuitive combination of “Abbott” (Abb-) and “vie,” the French word for “life,” or “vit-/viv-“ the Latin roots of life-related words like “vital” and “vivacious.” According to the official press release: “The beginning of the name connects the new company to Abbott and its heritage of pioneering science. The ‘vie’ calls attention to the vital work the company will continue to advance to improve the lives of people around the world.”

I get that pretty quickly, and the name’s inherent messaging is about as basic, inoffensive and non-limiting as could be. While I wish the name packed significantly more punch—AbbVie is just so bland—it has to be said that the legal, linguistic, and domain-name hurdles are mind-boggling for a global, multi-billion dollar company like Abbott. So one has to acknowledge that AbbVie does manage to draw on existing Abbott equity and largely sidestep an excruciating global trademark-clearance process.

But couldn’t the new name have made the connection back to Abbott with a little (or a lot) more fluidly and finesse? Blandness aside, AbbVie is just a clumsy concoction—a pill that gets lodged in your throat. Even Abbovie would have been a slight improvement in flow, or better yet, simply Abbott Life or Abbott Pharma.

While we’re on the topic of Abbott descriptors, is it just me, or is it non-intuitive that the medical products business retains the original name? “Laboratories” would seem to more accurately convey research-based pharma than medical products and generics—but of course there’s revenues and internal politics to consider. It’s a good bet that the spin-off company will be the generator of lesser revenues.

So there you have it. AbbVie is bland though innocuous, inelegant, and slightly non-intuitive in relation to its sister company’s moniker. A missed opportunity.

Overall Grade:  C-

What’s in a Name?

Thursday, May 03, 2012
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM
University Club of Palo Alto
3277 Miranda Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94304

Organized in conjunction with the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Silicon Valley.

Event details:

6:00 to 7:00 pm: Sign-in and networking; light appetizers
7:00 to 8:30 pm: Presentation and discussion

DESCRIPTION:
Are you starting a new company? Or launching a new product? Choosing a memorable name is a critical, yet frustrating, step. A good name can greatly impact how buyers perceive your company or product. And will your name invite legal trouble? Our experts will discuss linguistic, marketing and branding, and legal considerations in choosing a winning name. Learn how to avoid common mistakes and find the right name.

Lynn Nichols, University of California at Berkeley

Lynn Nichols is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley and the founder of Odwit & Dub, a naming consultancy. Nichols was previously an Associate Professor of Linguistics at Harvard. She is an expert on word coining, word formation, the lexicon, syntactic theory, Native American Languages. Ms. Nichols holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Harvard University.

Rick Herrick, Salt Branding

Rick Herrick is the Founding Partner of Salt Branding. Salt provides integrated branding services that bring together strategy, naming, design, communications, interactive, and culture. Prior to founding Salt, Rick had extensive in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco working for Chiat/Day, Saatchi & Saatchi and Goldberg, Moser O’Neill, and Interbrand. At Salt, his clients have included Avaya, Coca-Cola, Jawbone, Microsoft, Polycom, Ventev and many others. Showing his left and right brain tendencies, Rick holds a BA in Music and Economics from Dartmouth College.

Laurel Sutton, Catchword Branding

Laurel Sutton is Principal Lead and co-founder of Catchword Branding, a nationally respected naming consultancy. Catchword works with innovative brands like Cisco, Adobe and Roche. Laurel testifies in court as an expert witness on naming and branding. She also has an inexplicable passion for MythBusters on the Discovery Channel. Laurel was the first person ever to earn a B.A. in Linguistics from Rutgers University, where she also majored in English. She is working towards her Ph.D. in Linguistics from University of California at Berkeley.

Soyeun Choi, Attorney at Law

Soyeun Choi advises companies on business and intellectual property law matters. Soyeun advises clients at the inception of their brand identities and guides them through the trademark prosecution process. In addition to her busy practice, Soyeun is President of the Palo Alto Area Bar Association, Co-Chair of the Newsletter Committee of the Asian American Bar Association, Chair of the Intellectual Property Committee of the San Mateo County Bar Association, and past Vice Chair of the Diversity Committee of the San Mateo County Bar Association.

Young Alums (Classes ’07-’12): $15 (please register as a guest and we will refund you at the door)

Price: $40
Price for members: $25

Sign Up Here

This time the honor goes to Philadelphia Cream Cheese, whose latest tagline creation is (get ready for it) Pheel the Moment. The commercial features a young, implausibly attractive and happy couple sharing a sumptuous breakfast in bed. It’s a predictable pastiche of warm, fuzzy moments to the tune of what I gather is Philly’s theme song, “Spread a little love today.” (Which would have made a much better tagline, come to think of it.)

Now before you write me off as a whiner, let me say that I could have handled the tagline “Feel the Moment.” Sure, it would have been stupid, schmaltzy and grandiose. (Like cream cheese is really gonna help me feel the moment.)  A typical commercial, in other words. But “Pheel the Moment”? Really? That’s beyond cheesy.

Yes, there’s phish and phat and all of that, but those “f”-turned-”ph” words have new meanings that go with their new spellings, and serve some linguistic purpose. The only purpose Philly’s ploy serves is to demonstrate the lengths they’ll go to try to promote their brand name.

It gets worse. According to one cooking blog I found, a recent Philly print ad is headlined “Pheel triumphant.” (Could this possibly be true?) And lest you think this is a recent aberration, a little brain burp on the part of Philly’s fevered marketers, I discovered a 2009 Philly commercial that ends with the line “Spread warm pheelings.” Compared to that, “Pheel the moment” is practically poetry.

Sorry, Philly, we’re taking away some of your consonants until you learn how to use them.

While we’re on the subject of “f” words, did you catch the recent kerfuffle over Unilever’s German advertising campaign for their low-calorie food line Du Darfst?  Unilever’s promoting Du Darfst foods (which you can allegedly eat without feeling like you’re on a diet) using the tagline “Fuck the Diet.” (The tagline was toned down on Facebook to “F*** the Diet.”)

Frankly, compared to Philly’s bastardization of the word “feel,” I don’t find Unilever’s use of the mother of all “f” words very shocking. (Although certain German consumers disagree.)

Of course in America, censors aside, creating a tagline like “Fuck the Diet” wouldn’t have been a smart play. The f-word is still too charged here to be used in marketing, either in print or graphically (and I mean that in the design sense) without calling more attention to itself than the overall message it’s being used to convey.

But I understand that in Germany the term is used more widely in the mainstream media and doesn’t have quite the baggage that it does here. If so, this edgy yet conversational tagline targeted to a teens-to-twenties crowd fed up with the rules and restrictions of dieting makes sense. F**ck the Diet. Hell, yeah.

At least it rings true, which is more than you can say of Philly’s tagline “Pheel the moment.” That’s just phu*ked up.

Grade for Philly: P-H-A-I-L

Grade for Unilever: A-

Into the mix comes Qnexa, being developed by the California pharmaceutical company Vivus. Vivus has been seeking approval of Qnexa since 2009, and just this week (mid-April, 2012) the FDA has pushed back its decision on whether to approve the low-dose combination of phentermine and topiramate until July 17.

The combination of drugs is interesting and no doubt effective; Topamax (topiramate), an anti-seizure drug, is powerful stuff, having been reported to cause not only weight loss (perhaps because it makes food taste bad) but memory loss and hair loss too. Phentermine, the “phen” in Fen-phen, is a stimulant not unlike amphetamines. Imagine – a drug that amps you up but makes you forget all the crazy stuff you just did! And you lose weight too!

But all that fear-mongering aside, let’s get to the real question: What is UP with the name? I’ve been thinking about it all afternoon and I can’t make heads or tails of it. What does the Q stand for? Is it meant to be some kind of play on “connect” or “next” or “nexus”? Why doesn’t it relate to the ingredient names? And how the heck does Qnexa mean anything about weight loss?

The trend in pharmaceuticals over the past 10 years has been for more consumer-friendly names, names that relate to the benefit of the product: Lunesta for sleep aids, Zostavax for herpes zoster vaccine, Boniva for osteoporosis. But finding good, relevant, and available names is hard, and sometimes you just have to go for the “available” and forget about good and relevant. Perhaps that what happened with Qnexa. Q is an unusual letter, especially when squished up against another consonant (violating the usual rule of “q followed by u” in English). It is pronounceable and fairly distinctive looking. But there’s going to be a lot of marketing involved to get people to associate it with its intended use.

And maybe the name was created as a really, really geeky Star Trek joke about the Q Continuum.

Overall grade: C

I’m guessing that 99% of the blogosphere has never been a part of an actual company name development initiative. And yet everyone’s a freakin’ expert. It drives me crazy. I’m not in love with this name. It has its problems, which I’ll get to in a moment. But I don’t think it’s a terrible choice, and I can appreciate the challenge that Kraft faced in having to come up with it.

Derived from Monde, the French word for “World”, and Delez, according to Kraft, an expression for delicious, the name is at least defensible as a moniker for an international snack company. I mean c’mon folks. Who hasn’t found a more tenuous link between a company name and its business focus than this? The examples abound. This one is simply not that big a leap. Sure, I wish Delez was spelled Deliz, which would’ve taken me more quickly to Delizioso, the Italian for “Delicious”, but that’s okay. I get it. And it only took a single explanation to forever embed it in my brain. Delez evokes Deliz evokes delicious. Thank you, Kraft’s spokesperson. Got it.

Let’s talk about pronunciation. I’m not a formally trained linguist, but I’ve been in the business of naming products and companies long enough to know that an alternating consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel construction (CVCV) simplifies pronunciation for many international speakers. Mondelez isn’t a perfect CVCV construction but it’s close, and for most speakers rolls off the tongue easily enough.

On the other hand, there’s likely going to be some confusion about whether the name is pronounced Mon-dah-lay or Mon-dah-lezz or Mon-dah-leez. Of course, this is what’s got all the so-called naming pundits in an Oreo induced uproar. And I have to agree; it’s a strike against the name.

The ideal name will have a singular, perfectly intuitive pronunciation, and there are a few different ways to pronounce this one. The trouble is primarily with that final syllable. LAY, LEZZ, LEEZ, it’s anyone’s guess. Thankfully, we have that same company spokesperson to clear it up for us. What’s that? It’s pronounced Mon-dah-LEEZ? Oh. Okay. Thanks. Got it. Friends, do we really have to revisit the va-RIZE-on / VERA-zon example?? Mondelez’s pronunciation isn’t perfectly intuitive, but Kraft shouldn’t have too hard a time educating people.

By now you’ve probably read that the name recalls the Russian word “manda”, which refers to oral sex, and that people in many countries of the former Soviet Union (not just Russia) will find the name vulgar. However, while I’d like to do some research into this, my understanding is that this is a very old term, not used much anymore, and unlikely to offend most Russian speakers. In just about every global name development project I’ve been a part of linguistic and cultural analysis has returned some negative interpretation or meaning of a proposed name candidate. It’s inevitable, and in most cases the references are little understood and the concerns exaggerated. Rarely an obstacle to success in those markets. Let’s not forget that Volvo is one of the best selling cars in the United States, despite the word’s similarity to a part of the female genitalia.

And, truth is, this name is unlikely to be very consumer facing. I’d be surprised if Mondelez were used in any other location than on the back of a product package, as a corporate endorsement in small type, or at the bottom of a snack brand website, alongside the copyright. It’s a house of brands, not a branded house. Not that that matters. Companies should strive for perfection in their naming, regardless of how consumer facing the brand will be. But this name isn’t gonna be nearly as prominent as it is right now. Even though I think Kraft would’ve benefited from working with a professional on this initiative rather than soliciting name ideas from its employees around the world (yeah, it was one of those shameful internal naming contests), I don’t think they did half bad. Mondelez will likely be approved and soon after recede into the corporate landscape, allowing its product brands to again take the pubic spotlight. My prediction: people quickly learn that it’s pronounced MondeLEEZ (or don’t care one way or the other), the Russian associations with sex acts become a non-issue, and Kraft sells the whole business unit for a hefty sum.

Overall Grade: B-

The Lorax, the cranky voice of environmentalism, is now telling us we should buy an even bigger car to “help” nature–that’s co-branding gone startlingly awry.

McDonald’s gives away toys based on movie figures. Characters in TV shows use products with the brands prominently displayed. Athletes wear clothing emblazoned with corporate logos. We’re so used to this cozy marketing arrangement that we barely notice it anymore.

The technical term for it is co-branding: two brands that exist in the same space, supporting and reflecting on each other. Sometimes it’s a more specific kind of co-branding, called an endorsement, as when one brand assures you that another brand is really, really good (think celebrities shilling for diet foods or law firms). Sometimes two companies do business together and want you to know about it–they’re engaging in partner branding, as when a credit card gives you points towards airline miles. One great example of another kind of co-branding, ingredient branding, is Intel Inside, used by computer manufacturers everywhere.

But sometimes co-branding goes startlingly awry, and that’s when it jars you. Product placement in movies has gotten more an more egregious, to the point where audiences often groan when an actor has to very artificially turn an item towards the camera to show the logo, or a camera shot lingers just a little too long on a brand name. Sure, the sponsoring company (perhaps advertiser is more accurate) wants to get their money’s worth, but at the expense of the movie? I remember laughing along with the rest of the audience when young insufferable Jimmy Kirk, in the last Star Trek movie, used a Nokia phone in the future. (Does anyone think actual Nokia flip phones will be around 200 years from now?)

And then there’s the Lorax commercial–I mean, the Mazda CX-5 commercial disguised as a commercial for the movie Dr Seuss’ The Lorax. Dr. Seuss is shilling for cars. Seriously. Go watch it:

The Truffula Tree seal of approval? Really?

This campaign has gotten a lot of negative publicity from brand bloggers, environmentalists,Fast Company‘s Co.Exist, and even auto journalists. An organization called Rethinking The Automobile is circulating a petition to “Protect The Lorax” by pulling the “offensive” ads. And Theodor Seuss Geisel, despite having gotten his start in advertising, was ever reluctant to have his characters exploited for commercial use. I suspect he wouldn’t have thought it was a great idea to have a character, famous for protesting the abuse of natural resources, shilling for a car.

There are lots of other Lorax tie-ins going on right now (including the Gallery of Regrettable Food-worthy kids’ meals at IHOP)–about 70 of them in total–so should we be more outraged (or disgusted, take your pick) over the Mazda endorsement? I certainly was. It was a combination of such blatant advertising that ran counter to the entire message, the purpose of The Lorax as written by Dr. Seuss. The Lorax, the cranky voice of environmentalism, is now telling us we should buy an even bigger car to “help” nature. There’s something amiss here, despite the fact that the movie continues to be a top grosser at the box office.

I’ll let Stephen Colbert tell you, in Seussian verse, how he feels about it. And then you should go out and read the book and start riding your bike more.

Although PayPal’s VP President of Mobile David Marcus never directly mentions Jack Dorsey’s Square in his formal announcement, the new gadget is positioned to compete squarely against the scrappy (and successful) start-up.  (PayPal was no doubt lured by the estimated $4 billion flowing through Square’s transactions every year).

Marcus calls PayPal Here “the world’s first global mobile payment solution that allows small businesses to accept almost any form of payment” – credit, debit cards, PayPal, and checks. Unlike Square, its app targets both consumers and merchants with a “local” button, letting customers pay participating partners like Home Depot directly (a service launching in some 2,000 stores this year).

PayPal teamed up with fuseproject to create the product’s “arrow-like form that references the physical world where payments happen one-on-one, and also the virtual cloud world that enables these forms of payments.” The triangular form factor is a clever, design-minded wink against the prime competition, but other challengers aren’t far behind, including Eventbrite’s At The Door Card Reader/Mobile Box Office, Intuit’s GoPayment, and Verifone’s PAYware Mobile.

For PayPal, this product represents a major departure, its first foray into the world of physical person-to-person payment. It’s a natural extension of the PayPal service portfolio and brand, and the name suits the overall brand personality. Simple, short, and succinct, the name ties nicely with the masterbrand “PayPal,” now a common verb, (i.e. “Hey, let me PayPal you that money, yo.”)

As one of the most essential real English words, “Here” as a name is clear, yet contains rich layers of meaning. (It verges on the existential; after all, it’s one of the first concepts that we learn as humans…”Oh, I’m here.”) “Here” focuses on the target audience and freshly, yet familiarly conveys its benefit: the ability to do business here and now, here and again, here there and everywhere.

Name Grade: A-

1) A company name is an umbrella. A product name, a hat. 

A company name generally needs to cover a range of products or services, and sometimes even a range of subsidiaries. So its inherent meaning can’t be too narrowly descriptive, or it could become outdated fast if the company expands or changes direction.

That’s why metaphors like Apple or Amazon, or abstract coinings like OXO or Intel are popular company naming approaches. They provide a broad umbrella that covers a multitude of offerings.

On the other hand, product names only need to cover one thing—a product, or perhaps a product line. So product names can be more specific. Apple, for instance, uses a highly descriptive product naming approach with its iPod, iPhone and iPad products. And OXO’s product line names—like GoodGrips, Touchables, SteeL and Tot—while less descriptive than Apple’s product names, still strongly suggest what distinguishes the different lines.

2) Company naming speaks to values and vision. Product naming, features and benefits. 

Because company names have a longer shelf life, they often speak to the enduring principles or broader mission upon which a company is founded, while product names are more likely to be grounded in the here and now.

For example, Research In Motion (RIM) and Method (the company that makes non-toxic home cleaning products) are company names that speak to long-term vision. On the other hand, Zippity (Leapfrog‘s lively educational game for kids) and vSafe (Wells Fargo‘s online “safe” for sensitive documents) are product names that evoke something particular about their respective products.

There are exceptions to this rule. If your company’s niche is narrow and extremely unlikely to change, taking a more descriptive or suggestive approach to company naming can be just the thing. ProteinSimple works as a name for a company whose mission is to simplify protein research, pure and simple. Microsoft is a fairly suggestive name, but even though the company is now gargantuan, the name still fits (although it lacks the depth and evocativeness of a more abstract name like Apple).

3) Company naming has many drivers. Product naming, not so much.

Product naming is aimed at customers, and the Marketing VP or Director usually drives the process. Company naming has a variety of internal audiences, in addition to its external ones. Founders, CEOs, board members, key executives, and stockholders will all have different concerns and opinions. Ignore them at your peril. That’s why naming companies may ask briefing questions to get at things like the hobbies and backgrounds of founders, their values and vision for the company, and their stylistic naming preferences. It’s their baby, after all.

Given all of the different stakeholders involved, it’s not surprising that company naming can skew towards inoffensive names that speak to universal themes, like Bridgespan, Ingenio and Altegrity.

On the other hand, product naming, in part because there are fewer constituencies to please, often provides more creative latitude. Puns and other forms of wordplay, slang, well-known phrases, numbers: all are fair game in product naming, as long as the tonality and messaging are on target. The product names Razr and Red Bull, for instance, both take chances and rightly so, considering their core audiences.

4) Companies may require the exact domain name. Products usually don’t.

With company naming, you’re more likely to want or need the exact domain name. If so, beware. You’re entering the Bermuda Triangle of naming.  Many a company naming project has foundered in the quest for an  available exact domain name that does the job. Your naming process will need to be exhaustive in the extreme, and you’ll want a long list of concepts you like before you even start screening, as most of your favorites are likely to be taken.

This is one instance where if you have the funds, you’ll almost always do better with the help of an experienced naming specialist. (And if they’re good, they can also save you money negotiating for the purchase of a domain that’s taken, if that’s what you want.)

A naming company can mine a wealth of possibilities you might not ever think of, from clever coinings (like Travelocity) and metaphorical territory (like Virgin) to foreign words (like Asana) and transparent concepts (like Deem). So at the end of the day, you should have a variety of strong options to choose from.

5) Launching a product name is a piece of cake. Launching a company name, a piece of work.

Think you’re done after you’ve named or renamed your company? If only. Even after a company name has been vetted by attorneys, there are a lot of steps to ensure a company name’s smooth adoption. Besides registering the name as a trademark, registering the domain (if applicable), and filing the name with appropriate government authorities, you’ll want to update bank accounts and phone listings, create a visual brand identity and stationery, communicate the new name to employees and customers, announce it in the media—and much more.

So if you’re naming your company, don’t rush it. Give the process several months, and you’ll stand a much better chance of choosing a worthy name, and milking it for all it’s worth.

A final word, whether you’re company naming or product naming. Don’t settle. Your new company name should last as long as your company and do you proud. And your new product name should fit that new product of yours like a glove. Um, hat. Um, whatever.