In the early stages of starting a business, one of the most important things to do is to name your product. A good name can open up the market faster and at a lower cost, make people remember it, and eventually become a strong brand. brand. How to scientifically come up with a good name for your product, this article will give you the answer.

In the early stages of starting a business, one of the most important things to do is to name your product. A good name can open up the market faster and at a lower cost, make people remember it, and eventually become a strong brand. brand.

I believe every entrepreneur has this experience. At first, he always thinks that he can come up with a perfect name for his product, so he racks his brains and uses up all his life’s learning in the whole process. .

But the reality is often like this: the deadline is coming, and the hundreds of names I thought of are not as perfect as I expected. I always feel that something may be missing, but I don’t know what is wrong. The problem is, in the end, there is no other choice but to choose a high-ranking one.

Not all teams can be like "Zhihu" and have the moment when they feel extremely determined that "this is it".

We have been tormented by the name for a long time. From the beginning, everyone wanted to find a perfect name, and the process of achieving this goal was painful.

At first we all focused on question and answer. Around these two words, we came up with about 100 decent names, such as: ask things, ask questions, The idea behind Ask Out Loud is to encourage behavior, and if you have a question, just ask. However, these names are a bit boring and lack excitement. Of course, we also engaged in some formalism, trying to set a deadline and then forcibly score and sort all the names, but failed.

Then one day.

On September 13, after 6 pm, I was looking for dinner in Sanlitun when a text message from Zhang Liang, the cheerleader of the Zhihu team, jumped into my mobile phone: "What if it revolves around the word "knowledge"? ?” A few minutes later, his second text message popped in: “Zhihuzhe.com?” After this name swirled in my brain for a few hours, I sent a text message to everyone, which only said Two words "Zhihu".

That’s how Zhihu came about.

When our team was choosing a name, we also went through all the above processes. It was very painful to hold on to a name for a long time. We consulted a lot of relevant information, but it was all scattered and not very systematic.

The biggest insight after choosing a name is: from a business perspective, there is no such thing as a perfect name. A good name must be the one that best suits your direction.

I am writing this article just to systematically sort out my thoughts on the entire naming process, so that it can become a reference for naming methods and provide more information on naming. Dimensional ideas and evaluation criteria.

Now I will analyze the essence of the name from the top to the bottom to talk about how to choose the name. The article is a bit long and the content may have logical loopholes. I will slowly add and improve it later.

1. The meaning of the name

“In some people’s vocabulary, design is equivalent to decoration, interior decoration, and the materials used for sofas and curtains. But To me, design means something else entirely. Design is the soul of all "man-made objects", which expresses the meaning of the object's existence through layer after layer of external appearance." - Steve Jobs< /p>

Throughout the whole process, I have been thinking: what is the meaning of names, why everyone has a name, why everything has a name, and what a name is. Thinking from these perspectives, you can discover more possibilities:

Inform others through different media (language, text, images), so that others can relate to their cognitions

The existence of a name must be told to others through a medium. After telling others, others will automatically associate the name with what they know behind the name.

For example: Introduce yourself in public (through language): My name is Carrot Superman, I am an entrepreneur, I am happy to meet you all. So the listener instinctively makes the connection in their cognition: Carrot Superman = his cognition (Image cognition: He is good-looking. Language cognition: He speaks very competently.

You tell him his perception: Entrepreneur, potential and drive, ask him for WeChat later)

So, in the next period of time, he will put the name and the things in his perception We have made connections and made some subjective judgments. The more we know about the object represented by the name, the more things will be connected. The name is the sum of all related cognitions in his mind. It can also be said that the name is a signal that arouses the cognition in the brain.

Recalled at certain moments

After the first cognitive association with a name, the name will not necessarily remain in his mind until his After certain demands are stimulated, he will look for ways to solve the demands. If the name is associated with a place that is related to solving the demand, then the name will be evoked again.

An example: if one of your friends is a designer, when you need to design something, you will naturally think of this friend, then recall his name, and then search to contact him. he. His name is recalled just when you need design support, because his name includes the attribute of design in your cognition.

2. What is a good name?

It is much easier to work backwards based on the previous meaning and business rules. I have summarized the following two points:

< p>Easy to remember and can be remembered for a long time

Most people have the experience of memorizing English words. You will definitely find that it is painful to memorize English words by rote, but there are two types of words that are very easy to memorize. Easy to remember

1. It is very simple in itself, with a small number of letters, such as: you, fine, ash. You can basically remember these words after reading them once. Therefore, many brands are named in this way, using as few words as possible, such as "Momo", "Zhuanzhuan", "QQ" and "YY", all using only one word.

2. It can create associations with other cognitions. There are many ways for everyone to create associations. For example, pregnant, you associate it with "a man comes to you", just remember it at once. . Or if you know the word bug, the prefix de- means to reduce, so you don’t need to memorize the word debug to remember it.

So many brands create a lot of associations with their names to facilitate memory, especially using concrete images. For example: "QQ" is afraid that you can't even remember a Q, so I used penguins as associations. Now when you see a penguin, your first reaction may not be an animal, but "QQ". "Qunar" uses camels as a link, and "Ctrip" uses dolphins. Many times you can think of its name through its concrete image. This is why the images of many brands are either animal-based or plant-based.

In addition to a basic image, slogans, advertisements and other promotional materials often serve the purpose of creating more memorable associations with the name.

The value behind the object of the name is clear

Just remembering the name does not mean much to a product. As mentioned in the meaning of the existence of names, names must be recalled at some point in order to be valuable.

For example: when you want to buy clothes or some small things, but are not so sensitive about buying fakes or after-sales service, you may go to "Taobao". And when you want to buy something immediately and are very concerned about its quality, you may go to "JD.com", which is also an e-commerce platform, but the appeals they evoke are different.

Of course, it is not enough to rely on the name alone to create the value behind the name. All marketing activities conducted by the company are actually to strengthen the value and positioning behind the name. However, if the name cannot convey or cover the value it conveys, big problems will arise.

If "JD.com" were originally called "Magic Department Store", this means that it would need to spend more marketing costs to change other people's perception of "Magic" and make "Magic" become reliable. , synonymous with professionalism. Obviously this is basically impossible. Don’t try to change other people’s understanding of existing things.

Why I said before that there is no perfect name, because a perfect name must have both the differentiation value (recognition) and the functional value it provides, but the fact is that all names are Make a balance between differentiated value and functional value.

Too much emphasis on differentiated value will inevitably weaken functional value, and vice versa. Please remember this sentence and I will expand on it later.

Human cognition is limited, and the number of words in a name is also limited. Simple things are often the most complex. As for how to strike a balance, you need to think from scratch to design a name and find this balance.

3. Design a name

Design a name like designing a product, rather than just thinking about it wildly. The entire design process can be divided into 4 steps:

1. In-depth analysis of users and industries to determine brand positioning

2. The battle between functional value and differentiated value

3. From quantitative change to qualitative change

4. Re-examine

In-depth analysis of users and the industry to determine brand positioning

Zhihu Big V "Bo Xun" "The product is broken down into 4 levels. I think it is very accurate:

Core product, what is the essence of your product?

Physical product, what is unique about the product itself? Selling Points

Extend products, what are the services of product extensions

Psychological products, what is your product in the user's psychological cognition

Psychological products are brands , products satisfy needs, and brands satisfy desires, and the name is the literal expression of the brand. That means you must have a clear understanding of what the brand positioning is before thinking of a name.

Determine brand positioning

Brand positioning is a three-strand rope. The three-strand rope is twisted together to position it. So which three-strand rope is it?

The first rope : What consumer desires in the industry have yet to be satisfied

The second strand: whether competitors have satisfied them

The third strand: how do we satisfy them

< p>What you need to know is that desires in the industry may be unsatisfied pain points in actual products, or they may be unsatisfied psychological pain points. It depends on the industry and product.

Desire is a scene: it is the consumer’s expectations and fantasies about your product, and fantasies about what will happen after he owns your product.

For example

The first strand: sending flowers is a social behavior. We need to find pain points in the physical product of flowers and solve problems such as style and type. Then Wrong. Sending flowers is to shorten the psychological distance between two people, and flowers carry emotions.

What "Fauvism" sees is the tedium and formality in the process of sending flowers, so they create a story for each bouquet of flowers, so that you can better express yourself with this bouquet of flowers. Good taste and high social value (showing off).

"Roseonly" saw the pursuit and commitment of dedicated love between couples during the love period, so when buying flowers, you must register the ID numbers of both parties and tell the flower buyer that you have thought about it. If you do this If you want to give "Roseonly" in your life, you can only give it to this person.

For "Pixel Apartment", what I saw was the indifference between roommates in a shared apartment. When I got home, I would lock myself in my own room, like strangers under the same roof. But in fact, everyone doesn't want to do this. Many times it's just because of embarrassment.

Second strand: Be sure to understand what your competitors are doing, especially if the giants are also in your industry.

The third strand: "Fauvism" is a creation story, and "Roseonly" is a creation ritual. Both stories and rituals have become a part of their products and can be achieved.

The "Pixel Apartment" is made in 4 steps, so I won't go into details. Simply put:

1. Classify tenants to make it more suitable for those with the same attributes. People live together.

2. Create an environment. We have put a lot of thought into creating the public *** area to make tenants more willing to stay in the public *** area.

3. The tenants break the ice, and we act as the intermediary to introduce them to each other and break the awkwardness.

4. Tenant APP allows tenants to interact online

5. Offline activities allow tenants to truly play and become friends.

The brand we hope to create is that the scene that tenants associate with "Pixel Apartment" is a social life scene where people in the house are happily playing games, watching movies, cooking, etc., all of which Everything is done around increasing the possibility of achieving this scenario, and it is something we can do. As soon as the three-strand rope is twisted, the brand positioning is revealed, the direction of the product is also established, and the name is one step closer.

The war between functional value and differentiated value

I would like to explain recognition first: recognition = differentiated value expression, differentiated value expression and function What is the difference in sexual value expression?

For example: "Enjoy" does high-end group buying, while "Meituan" does ordinary group buying. It is obvious from the name that "Meituan" is a group buying company (a manifestation of functional value), and it is clear what it does. As for "Enjoy", you don't know it just by looking at the name, but what kind of feeling does it convey to you? A slightly more sophisticated feeling. I think this feeling can be called a manifestation of differentiated value. Compared with other Group buying becomes recognizable and reflects more differentiated value.

As for how to balance, it actually requires detailed analysis of specific industries, but we can basically summarize three rules

1. When market knowledge is in the early stages (there are few competitors and unclear audience awareness) When the market develops to a stage of full competition, what makes you different from others (differentiated value expression) is more important than functional value expression.

The previous examples have shown that in the early stage, everyone’s awareness of group buying was scarce, but in the later stage, the quality and style of group buying became scarce. When something is scarce in this industry, it should be reflected in the name. This scarcity is where the three-strand rope mentioned earlier is knotted.

2. The higher the frequency of use or purchase of a product, the more important it is to reflect differentiated value. The lower the frequency of use or purchase of a product, the more important it is to reflect functional value

For high-frequency products, the higher the differentiation value, the more users will choose you because of your differences, instead of feeling that everything is the same and becoming less loyal. For low-frequency products, it is even more important to let users know what you do and what your advantages are.

3. It is more important to reflect the differentiated value of products that rely on communication, and it is more important to reflect the functional value of products that do not rely on communication and rely on sales

No one is willing to spread a product that is not good enough. It is something to show a sense of superiority, so differentiated value expression is more important for products that rely on communication, but is less important for traditional sales products that do not rely on communication.

Quantitative change to qualitative change

Thinking through the previous questions clearly is not enough to get a name. In previous projects, many methods have been tried, including crowdsourcing and mobilizing the power of everyone who can be affected to come up with ideas for the name. Facts have proved that leaving the matter of naming to people who do not understand brand positioning and non-professionals is basically useless. In the process, I invented a method that is very efficient but may drive my friends to death. It is very efficient and easy to develop ideas. It is much more effective than simple brainstorming.

Step one: After determining the brand positioning, convene a meeting with all partners involved in the naming action and ensure that they have a deep understanding of the brand positioning. This step is very important and is the basis for the following work.

Step 2: Everyone first thinks of 50 names, and the time is limited to 1 day. The next day, you will discuss the hundreds of names you have come up with, and then carry out thought diffusion, evaluation and screening.

Step 3: Repeat step 2 until you feel like "this is it" when making the decision, then a suitable name will come out.

In this process, everyone's potential can be stimulated. Whether they are eating or going to the toilet, all the friends will be thinking non-stop.

Of course, this is actually extremely painful, and you may be scolded by your friends. As a boss, the only thing you can do is to buy more things to supplement everyone's brain. Believe me, in the end we can really achieve quantitative change to qualitative change.

Re-examination

There are really too many dimensions to evaluate for a name. When the preliminary work is not fully prepared and the thinking is not thorough, the evaluation is often impossible to start. Yes, it is very likely that it will be overturned due to some flaws. Here are a few aspects that I think must be examined

Register

If you do not consider the brand initially In the future, this article will have no value to you.

But after all, when working within the system, legality and compliance are the most important. A name that cannot be registered has no commercial value. No one can protect you, and it does not have exclusivity. If you become bigger, there will be no brand premium. It's very possible that I made a wedding dress for someone else.

To confirm whether it can be registered, you usually need to check it first. You can check it by entering the Trademark Office’s query system. However, there are also various terms and conditions for trademark review, such as many common nouns that cannot be used. , will also be divided into dozens of categories according to various industries, and the situation of each category is different. Generally, considering efficiency and success rate, a professional company will be found to handle this matter.

Of course, generally such companies will help you with inquiries and give you a lot of suggestions. You can make good use of them. It’s free anyway. In the end, when you go through the registration procedures, you'd better pay some money and hand it over to them. You can get away with it yourself.

Search (SEO/ASO)

Nowadays, people’s basic habit is to search first for the first step of understanding. Luo Pang expressed regret that he was called "Luo Ji Thinking" instead of "Logical Thinking". I think that although it increases the user's cognitive cost, "Luo Ji Thinking" does allow him to be searched better. Which one is better? Which one is worse is actually hard to say.

After you have thought about the name, search it in the search channels where users may appear and see what will appear. Really, don’t ever see the “double-stem head” of “Xiaomi” again. What a joke.

Users will also input when searching, try to avoid words that require many pages of input method to find.

Time period (Lifeperiod)

Some words and usage may be popular at the time, but they can easily become outdated. If you don’t want your name to become outdated so quickly, try to avoid popular words. When reviewing, see if the name becomes obsolete.

Spread

There must be no ambiguity and speaking without being tongue-tied must be the basic principle. Of course, dissemination is more about whether the differentiated value you provide is worthy of being disseminated. The premise of dissemination is nothing more than me telling you what I know and you don’t know. You know I am awesome. I am here to show off my superiority. That's all.

Ductility

You must know that the name will appear in all your subsequent VI designs, promotional materials, and websites. You must fully evaluate the possible visual presentation of each name. How about it.

When we called it "Pixel Apartment", we fully considered this to a certain extent, because for an industry that relies on product design itself and is limited by cost, differentiation in design is of great significance to It's very important to us. Therefore, the design element of "pixel style" is used. The pixel style can be implemented into the design of the entire house and the design of the APP, including the avatars of all our company's partners. They are also pixel avatars, and they are in line with our overall market positioning and advocacy. The lifestyle is also suitable.

Scene (Scene)

I don’t agree with letting many people think about names together, but I think this place can indeed find a large number of users for research.

In short, it is very important to know what emotions he feels and what he associates with your name to a person who knows nothing about you and your product.

Of course, the closer it is to what you want to convey, the better. If the final research is far from what you want to convey, you can also try to visualize it and then conduct research, and maybe what you convey will be better. It will be completely different.

We started to debate whether to call it "pxroom" or "pixelroom" in English. Finally, after research, we found that "PX" is reminiscent of the "PX" chemical project, so we finally gave up on "pxroom".

Having said so much, I actually thought about giving up the name "Pixel Apartment" for 2 months. I always felt that something was not perfect, and I was a bit deliberately pursuing perfection. In fact, this This is a big taboo in starting a business. The way of doing things and the mentality of being wavering, not making decisions, and not making firm decisions will bring great hidden dangers and problems to the subsequent entrepreneurial process.

For a product, the name is very important, but in fact it is not that important.

A good name can indeed create an overall synergistic effect and reduce marketing costs. But this is actually just one link in the entire system, and the name is just the first battle against the user's mind.

Next, there are many tough battles to be fought, including constantly assigning meaning behind the name, creating more associations that are conducive to users' understanding of us, etc. The name is just the first step in a long journey of thousands of miles.

Of course, the whole name birth process is more conducive to the overall planning of the company and products in the early stage and clear direction. It is of great significance to the long-term development of startup companies. I think any startup company and team should have a deep understanding of it. to experience all this. A glimpse of the leopard is that the name is an extremely small link in business activities. The constant balance and trade-offs in this process are actually the charm of business. Every entrepreneur is both painful and happy.

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