Home product naming

The world’s largest home-improvement retailer, and #17 on the Fortune 500, The Home Depot produces hundreds of new product styles every year from multiple in-house brands (Hampton Bay, TrafficMaster, Everbilt, StyleWell, and Home Decorators Collection to name a few).

As the people most familiar with every new item, each product group independently handles naming, but with significant product turnover every season, there’s little time for creative name development or coordination with the dozens of other groups. How could the company ensure that these new item names weren’t already in use by The Home Depot or competitors, yet were evocative of the product style and, of course, easy to pronounce and spell?

Catchword developed names for numerous groups, including Flooring & Tile, Lighting & Fans, Vanities, and Furniture. Working closely with the client teams, we identified two primary areas of exploration that worked for all: place and personal names. We created and vetted long lists of candidates with tonalities that matched each group’s styles, giving the teams ample names to choose from, confident that they would not create any marketplace conflicts.

The Home Depot has adopted more than a hundred of these names—Creston, Foggy Hollow, Paden, Adelina—and continues to use our naming lists for new products. Customers throughout North America use these products to furnish and beautify their homes.