March 1, 2011
When clients come to us needing a new product or company name for an exciting project, there’s a common situation we encounter. And it isn’t what you might expect. More often that not we have to battle the love a client has developed for their awesome codename. Clients often pick semantically relevant codenames, (e.g., Dimension, […]
October 21, 2010
A brand advice column by Brandy Monakir – Strategist & Good Listener. Hi Everyone! My name’s Brandy Monakir, and I’m a seasoned brand strategist. Catchword’s been nice enough to allow me to contribute to their blog by answering some of the questions they receive from all those troubled marketing souls out there. This first week […]
October 14, 2010
It’s not easy to judge potential brand name candidates when all you have is a list of names on a piece of paper. When Catchword presents ideas to clients, we’ll typically contextualize names visually to help bring them to life. And now you can, too. if you haven’t played around with our new Name Visualizer […]
August 25, 2010
Sometimes, properly conducted focus group research can provide a useful data point when evaluating brand name candidates. On the other hand, ill-conceived research may torpedo your best ideas and lead you to a name that’s bland at best. So how do you know when a focus group is a good idea? And how do you […]
August 17, 2010
As naming specialists know all too well, creating a brand name that passes creative and strategic muster is only part of the naming process. The ultimate test is whether that name can pass legal muster, and is trademarkable. Catchword principal Mark Skoultchi walks you through the basic principles—and common pitfalls—of preliminary trademark screening. You’ll learn […]
August 10, 2010
When do you need an exact .com—and when can you get away without one? How do you go about finding a domain name? Or negotiating a purchase from another party? In this 6-minute video, Catchword principal and linguistics director Laurel Sutton answers these questions and others you probably haven’t thought of yet. She also shares […]
August 3, 2010
Not every company needs (or can afford) a naming company, and not all naming companies are created equal. In this 5-minute video, Catchword principal Mark Skoultchi discusses who should hire a naming company, and what to look for when evaluating one. He also talks about the steps in a typical naming process, the kinds of […]
July 27, 2010
From the completely fanciful to the highly descriptive, from numbers and acronyms to foreign languages and coined words: there are all kinds of brand names out there in the marketplace. And there’s a time and place for every one. In this 5-minute video, Catchword co-founder and executive creative director Maria Cypher explains the different types […]
July 20, 2010
Think you can vet a brand name destined for a foreign country simply by running it by someone you know who speaks the language fluently? Think again. It takes a lot more than that to assess whether a name will fly with non-English speaking audiences, and to spot potentially disastrous associations. In this 5-minute video […]
July 13, 2010
We’ve seen it time and again: evaluating name candidates for a new brand can be an emotional minefield. Idiosyncratic associations (“It reminds me of my Aunt Joan”), the comfort of the familiar over the distinctive, the opinions of colleagues or even family members—all can sabotage objective evaluation and blind companies to their best brand name […]