Branding is a skill set that has many layers to it. These layers all play off of each other, so a good combination between each different part is critical. Great branding doesn’t often come down to any one aspect, but some parts can still feel more vital than others. The name of the brand is one of those vital aspects, and here’s why it matters when building an identity.
Shorthand For Your Product
While this may not apply as much to older companies with an established brand, new companies in particular need to aim for customer-friendliness. Sometimes this is with simple, clear explanations or helpful imagery, but having a brand name that says what the product does up front is very valuable. It’s particularly useful in a crowded market such as casino games, even for well-established sites with big brands already.
For example, take the case of a game like Sugar Rush. The name instantly communicates both the theme of the game as well as a feeling of speed or excitement, all in just two words. When someone goes to play Sugar Rush at Paddy Power Bingo or anywhere else, they know what they are getting immediately, reducing the chance of them bouncing off the page.
Separation From The Crowd
Any new brand made now joins a field of thousands, if not, hundreds of thousands, of other new and existing companies. Each one is trying to establish itself as a notable name in their market, meaning that a new one is competing with all of them in some way, even those brands not in the same industry.
This is the other key element of a brand name. Apart from selling your company or product, it also has to be inherently memorable. There are a few ways to achieve this. The first rule is to keep it simple and short to make it catchy enough to stick in the memory. If possible, some kind of wordplay is also helpful. Both Reddit and Twitter are great examples of this.
Word Association
This is a factor that is much harder to plan for as it relies on your brand already being somewhat successful. It’s also a factor that brands with the luxury of long histories have an advantage in. The idea is that once a brand becomes established, it has the chance to become synonymous with the product in the same way as Jet Ski or Crock-Pot. This makes them the ‘standard’ to which competitors are compared.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that any new brand can achieve this level, although there are a few ways to help it in that direction. For example, both Twitter and Snapchat created names for their core features that work as verbs in the form of tweets and snaps, meaning that they can be more easily integrated into conversations.
Nothing about branding is an exact science and there’s never a guarantee anything will work as planned. With that said, a carefully chosen name can sometimes be all the difference.
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