In today’s business world, differentiation is a matter of life and death. If you fail to separate yourself from your competitors, you fail period.
One of the most effective ways to differentiate your business is through effective storytelling. Through story you can create real or perceived value that bonds your customers to you and transforms your company into a bona fide brand.
But while Fortune 500 companies have the luxury and budget to create and showcase campaigns across any media channel they choose, most smaller business and startups simply can’t afford to produce and mass blast complex storytelling campaigns to reach customers and prospects.
However, similar to how marketers today have found ways to marry traditional marketing practices with data analysis and experimentation to find inexpensive growth hacks, effective naming can serve as an efficient and evocative form of micro-storytelling that pays dividends many times over.
Here are a few ways that names can tell a brand story each time they are seen or spoken.
Metaphorical Names
A metaphor is a figure of speech that functions as symbolic shorthand—it “expresses an idea through the image of another object.” A good metaphor describes one thing by relating it to something else--example: a flight of stairs, a cloudy mind. The movement of the stairs evokes the image of birds in flight and clouds suggest a lack of clarity. A great metaphor can elicit powerful feelings and emotions.
Some of today’s most popular brands use metaphorical names, including Under Armor, Kayak, and Apple. Each of these names says something about their company’s mission and/or attributes—Under Armor evokes strength and inner conviction, Kayak suggests adventure and streamlined travel, and Apple—one of the best storytelling brands of our generation —points to knowledge via the Tree of Knowledge metaphor.
Metaphorical names can also allude to physical aspects of your brand as the bicycle brand Dimond (spelled without the ‘a’) demonstrates. Beyond the many symbolic meanings associated with the gemstone itself, the name calls attention to the double-diamond geometry used in traditional bike frames. A unique and important feature of Dimond bikes is their use of single-diamond geometry.
Tips: Check out some metaphorical anthologies like Metaphorically Speaking by N.E. Rentor; Metaphors Dictionary by Elyse Sommer and Dorrie Weiss; and I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like by Mardy Grothe. They will help grease your own metaphorically wheels. Also Google "metaphors in everyday language" to find sites that list metaphors present in common speech. This will get you thinking in a different way.
Backstory Names
Names with meaningful backstories can also hack into the power of brand storytelling. For example, the founders of Innocent, a UK smoothie company, were uncertain about whether or not to keep their day jobs or start a smoothie business. To decide, they placed a big sign in front of their smoothie stall at a music festival. The sign instructed people to toss their empties into a bin marked ‘yes’ if they thought the pair should quit their day jobs and start a smoothie business or ‘no’ if they should not.
By the end of the weekend, the ‘yes’ bin was overflowing. While this is a fairly naïve or “innocent” way to make an important decision, it worked out well for the two founders.
Another interesting backstory name is Finis, a swimwear company. Finish is Latin, meaning “the end” or “grand finale” of something. But the story doesn’t stop there. The first product founders John Mix and Pablo Morales produced were swim fins.
Here are some more 5 star story names.
Tips: Think back to the high points or meaningful events in your life. Write them down, describing it as fully as you can. Then share your story with someone and have them ask questions about areas they'd like to learn more about. We use this technique with solo entrepreneurial clients at River + Wolf as a way of unearthing potential images for naming.
Storybook Names
If you are looking for names with storytelling power, you can also go straight to the source—stories themselves. In the past, brands often drew on Greek myths for inspiration. To mention a few: Ajax, Nike, Hermes, Janus and Apollo.
But the world is a vast library of stories—ancient and modern—and many brands today have pulled their names from this seemingly infinite catalogue.
The ever-popular eyewear company, Warby Parker, created its mark through fusing the names of two characters in a Jack Kerouac journal—Warby Pepper and Zagg Parker. Literature, in fact, informs much of Warby Parker’s culture, from its book-recommending blog to the titles displayed in its library-like flagship store in Soho.
IBM’s question answering computer system relates to the name of Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick—Watson—while Starbucks themes to the first-mate in Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick.
Debbie Sterling, the creator of Goldiebox—a construction toy designed to develop engineering interest in girls—found naming gold in the folktale Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The Goldiebox company name plays to and incorporates the interest girls have in stories and reading. For this reason, it goes way beyond just painting its elements pink.
Tips: If you aren't ready to crack a classic visit a children's bookstore. Look at compilations of world legends, myths, and fairytales, noting interesting images as you read. Also have a look at book titles. They distill language in intriguing ways. Another shortcut? Cliff's or Spark Notes. Review the character summaries and plots. And look at great speeches. Dr. Martin Luther King's speeches are treasure troves of metaphor. Best of all? Spend time reading the master writers of your language. Not only will this add more colors to your naming palette, but it will enrich your mind and life. Some of the most famous entrepreneurs--Mark Zuckerman, Caterina Fake, and Steve Jobs--have steeped themselves in great literature, citing Shakespeare, along with Herman Melville (Jobs), Virgil (Zuckerman), and Emily Dickinson (Caterina Fake) as inspirational touchstones.
If you are developing a new name for your company or product, think hard about the micro-storytelling power of your name—a power you can claim through a metaphorical name, a name with an interesting backstory or a name drawn straight from the pages of ancient and modern literature.
“Once upon a time” is a time-tested way of grabbing an audience’s attention -- a story-rich moniker can do the same for your brand.
