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Naming System and Nomenclature Creation

For companies who offer products or services in different categories, they face the critical challenge of creating a naming system. When there’s no systematic approach in naming system, it may create confusion as to which brand the products or services belong to. The investment in building consistent brand portfolio and assets may lose its efficiency.

What Is Naming System?   

A Naming System answers 4 key questions for my brands

  1. What is the relationship between my master brand name and products’ names? 
  2. With or without the master brand endorsement, what is the typical usage for product naming? 
  3. How should I create my future products’ names systematically? 
  4. Are the names in my naming system ownable in all trademark registries that matter? 

What Is a Good Example of Naming System?

Google’s naming system is a great example

  • Google is the master brand of Google LLC. Among a wide variety of products and services of the tech giant, many of them are in line with the master brand name while some do not.  
  • For web-based services, Google consistently uses master brand endorsement to create a unified naming system, e.g. Google Calendar, Google Maps, Gmail, etc. Under this approach, brand can use full master brand name or a prominent element of it. For software and hardware, most are standalone brands, e.g. Android, Nexus One, Chromebook, etc. Without master brand endorsement, these products have their own stories to tell and able to build a distinctive brand image. 
  • Under this naming system, when it comes to future business expansion, the new product or service can either adopt master brand endorsement or standalone brand name based on its functionality, strategic significance, priority level, etc.  
  • Last, in terms of trademark registration, it’s critical to make sure the core assets are being protected. For example, Google’s web browser Chrome has been successfully registered in different key classes and countries worldwide.  While Chrome is still a short simple word, it’s hard to register in all trademark registries that matter, hence the master brand Google has been added to make sure Google Chrome can be fully protected. 
 
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How is Naming System different from Brand Architecture?  

A naming system differs from a Brand Architecture that answers the question of

  • What is the relationship between different brands of my company: Which is the master brand? Which are the sub-brands? 
  • How many sub-brands are needed for my company?  
  • How will sub-brands utilize master brand’s brand equity? 

A brand architecture reflects the business strategy, while a naming system expresses the brand architecture clearly using verbal expressions.  

How can it help with your enterprise transformation and why is it important to your company?  

A good naming system provides clarity of brand architecture to both customers and employees.  

When your brand portfolio keeps growing with more products and services, a good naming system will provide a clear guideline for the new names to follow. It is necessary to review and update naming system from time to time as your business grows or the business environment changes.  

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