Effective Automotive Brand Naming

Effectively naming your automotive brand should be a critical part of your brand strategy.  Your brand name defines, communicates, protects and legalises your brand, and should be considered a highly valuable marketing asset and investment. Get it wrong and you could be faced with an expensive rebrand and marketing re-build exercise which could seriously hit your sales. Below we have shared some tips and pointers to help you develop an effective brand name, based on WDA’s branding experience gained over the last 25 years.

Why Create A New Brand Name?

There are several reasons you may be considering a new brand name. The most obvious is that you are looking to create a new brand, and therefore need a new name.

You might also end up considering brand names if your strategy is to move into different markets and/or launch different products. Sometimes a brand extension approach will allow you to use your existing brand name. However, there are a lot of examples where big brands have failed to achieve this and as a result, have either temporarily or permanently damaged their core brand.

Other reasons you may need to change your brand name include:

Changing existing associations with your brand – Distancing yourself from a negative event or changing negative connotations, for example.

Bringing clarity to your brand – If your brand name is not well understood or is confusing amongst its audience, it might be necessary to change it.

Regaining brand relevance – Sometimes your offering and your market (or both) outgrow your brand and it’s necessary to change your brand name to reconnect with your audiences.

7 Types of Brand Names

With around 10 million global trademark applications filed per year and over 80% of common words already registered marks; it’s no wonder that branding agencies have more than a few naming methods to rely upon.

Here are 7 of the most popular types of brand names that you might consider:

1. Descriptive Brand Names

Descriptive names like We Buy Any Car, or General Motors can immediately position a brand within its marketplace, great if the brand is new and you are looking to clearly and instantly communicate your offering. On the downside they tend to be devoid of much emotion, often relying on an accompanying positioning slogan to communicate some personality. Descriptive names also tend to be difficult to trademark and can hamper future growth if diversification is part of your longer-term strategy.

2. Invented Brand Names

Completely made-up brand names like Exxon are increasingly common not least because they are registrable and can have good domain name availability. They also potentially travel better, an important consideration for brand names which need to work across multiple different languages.

Invented brand names have no inherent meaning, so it can take a little more marketing effort to communicate what they represent, however sometimes the way an invented brand name sounds can be used to position it. As can deliberately misspelt brand names, which are often chosen to convey the meaning of the words they are based on. Whilst no longer strictly made up, these names do convey meaning and are easier to trademark.

3. Acronym Brand Names

Whilst our brand name is an acronym, we probably wouldn’t use the same approach today. The reason is that they can be difficult for the audience to understand and extract meaning from. Remember, they are also more difficult to trademark, and more than anything they lack emotion. The obvious example within our automotive market is Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH – BMW.

4. Metaphor Brand Names

These brand names describe a brand in a way that isn’t true but helps convey an idea or make a comparison. These brand names can be pretty powerful as they often carry a lot of emotion and meaning – Jaguar for example, which evokes feelings of speed, power and agility. Metaphor brand names work harder than most other kinds because they almost ‘start the story’ and invite the audience to find out more.

5. Origin Brand Names

These names are rooted in something related to the origins of a brand – the name of a founder or its original geographical location for example. This is quite an old-school approach which is not so popular today as it can be strategically limiting, particularly in the case of geographical names which become problematic when the city or area is outgrown. Ford is a good example of an origin brand name.

6. Lexical Brand Names

These names are based on wordplay where puns, phrases, onomatopoeia and alliteration words are often used as inspiration. They can work for some brands and markets (think Dunkin’ Donuts or Krispy Kreme) but can be a little cheesy and are not found very often within the automotive sector.

7. Compound Brand Names

These names can be a good jumping-off point when thinking about a new name. Sometimes compound names are born in the boardroom as a result of company mergers, where two former names are brought together. In other cases, longer brand names are shortened for marketing purposes (ie FedEx, formerly Federal Express). In our market, Aston Martin decided to combine a founder name, with a geographical one – taking co-founder Lionel Martin’s surname and a racing venue in Hertfordshire known as Aston Hillclimb.

 

How Do We Do It?

Hopefully, the above list has given you some creative inspiration, and a strategic framework, above and beyond just sitting and thinking of a name! But which kind of name is right for your brand and what does the naming process look like?

Establish A Clear Brief

There is no one fixed answer because it depends entirely on the brief. The first thing to determine is ‘what problem or opportunity do you face?’ and ‘ultimately what are you trying to achieve?’

As an example, WDA once renamed a very successful, high-profile WRC team, they were experiencing pressure from a large manufacturer that was using a very similar name to market one of its core sub-brands. Here, the focus was more on aspects relating to trademarking, speed (readying the new name and associated visual identity for Monte Carlo round 1), and how the name and branding fit on the side of a rally car!

In another example, WDA created the Nitro helmet brand, which was a much more emotive, customer-focused brand that was designed as a platform to embody brand personality and the brand story.

Leverage the Brand Positioning

Regardless of the brief, the one thing we would always strive to do is devise a name which is aligned with (and ideally positively communicates) your core brand positioning.

Positioning is a post in its own right, but it’s the most critical part of your brand, as it represents your proposition – what it is that you offer, and to whom. Ideally, your positioning should occupy a space within your customer’s mind, and be both highly differentiated and desirable to your audience – something (perceived or real) that only you can deliver.

Consider the Competitive Landscape

As WDA works solely within the automotive market, we understand it very well, however, it’s a huge space and things move fast. Brushing up on the current state of play – market, customers, competitors, categories, products and services – will help you reach an effective automotive brand naming solution faster and help you avoid going down any blind alleys on the way.

Time To Get Creative!

At this point, you would typically begin brainstorming some initial naming ideas. Better done in a small group, initially, you should seek to generate ideas which satisfy the main objective of aligning with your brand positioning, brand personality and brand benefits.

The frustrating reality is that you will ultimately realise that the world is quickly running out of available trademarks and domain names. However, if all parameters, limitations and logic are applied too early in the creative process, you are not likely to arrive at a great solution. Better to adopt a lateral thinking approach that leaves everything initially on the table.

Evaluate and Shortlist

Ideally, you should end up with a decent list of potentially great name ideas, which you can begin to evaluate. In addition to fulfilling the main objective of leveraging your core brand positioning, you should also be looking for names which are:

  • Original
  • Distinct
  • Memorable
  • Pronounceable
  • Likeable
  • Short

Again, working in the same group (who understands the brief and the brand positioning strategy – don’t ask your best friend, partner or dog!), it’s time to narrow down the ideas and strike out any which collectively aren’t felt to cut it.

Begin Registration Checks

After narrowing down the list you can begin broad investigations into trademarking and domain name availability. At this stage you probably shouldn’t involve lawyers, instead relying on good old Google to look for any similar names used within your space.

Market Research

If budget allows, you may consider conducting qualitative and quantitative research amongst the target market. When WDA relaunched the MER car care brand we had several rounds of focus group research and opinion. Whilst the MER research helped deliver a successful solution, focus groups can be expensive and time-consuming; and in our experience, the results are often distorted to the point of not being that reliable, due to the way they are organised and conducted. They have also become quite outdated.

Registration and Protection

The final stage of the naming process is to protect your new name and register all the available relevant domains. Specialist trademark lawyers can help here – often your agency will have partners who they can recommend.

 

Effective Automotive Brand Naming – Final Thoughts

In summary, it is important to remember that there’s only so much you can do with your brand name. It’s increasingly difficult to find something that’s available and ticks all the other boxes.

Whilst your name is important, being the most visible part of your brand, there are lots of other factors that you need to get right which in combination will all help bring your overall brand experience to life.

For more inspiration, read here to discover the stories behind the names of some of the biggest car manufacturers on the planet. 

Need help with your brand name?

Here at WDA Automotive, we help businesses across the automotive industry connect with their audience through a variety of different digital marketing strategies. Our understanding of the automotive industry and its consumers allows us to constantly deliver engaging and eye-catching content. WDA has successfully taken on a variety of branding projects for massive clients in the automotive industry such as Auto Fasteners, Koroyd, Scorpion, Black Mountain Bikes, Status Metrology, and many more. Take a look at our Case Studies here for more.

Whilst successful marketing should indeed revolve around a great idea, you still need to get your message out there. Remember that everything your audience sees online has the power to attract, engage them and move them through your sales funnel towards becoming one of your most loyal clients. From videography and photography to the written word and audio content, WDA’s in-house team of expert automotive content creators is here to make things happen for you. Get in touch with us today or give us a call at 01332 372 728 to learn more!

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