# How to create a great brand name | Jonathan Bell Channel: TED Archive Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzbXht7MJVM Duration: 6 min Language: English Words: 992 Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/rzbXht7MJVM --- [0:07] There are an estimated 300 million companies in the world today. That's 300 million brands. Some brands as big as Apple and Coca-Cola. Others as small as a oneperson business. With so many brands in the world, it's getting harder to create and find a unique name. So, how do you create a great brand name? [0:23] How can you play and win the name game? You start with three steps. First, select what type of name you want. There are seven different categories of names, and pretty much every brand in the world falls within one of these seven categories. Aonomous names like Disney and Burberry work by embodying the vision and beliefs of their founders. These names are okay if you're feeling lazy or just have a big ego. Adidas is more unique. It's derived from Adidas, the company's founder. And Tesla wasn't created by Nicola Tesla. He died in 1943, but the name is an homage to Tesla's electrical engineering achievements. Descriptive names like American Airlines and the Home Depot [1:02] work by telling you exactly what the company does, but these names can be a mouthful and are much harder to own and protect. Acronyms like GE and BP are just shorthand versions of descriptive names. Some acronyms are more strategic. Kentucky Fried Chicken switched to KFC because fried chicken didn't sound too healthy. and the Hong Kong and Shanghai bank changed to H changed to H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H HSBC to help the bank expand globally. Real words like Uber and Slack are ripped right out of a dictionary and suggest attributes or benefits. Uber literally means an [1:36] outstanding example. So it works well for a company with big broad bold ambitions beyond ride hailing. Now real words might seem like good ideas, but in a world of 300 million companies, it's getting harder to find a name. hard hard it's hard to find any real words left in a dictionary. Composite names like Facebook and Rayban are created by gluing two words together. These names have a kind of one two punch and can be really memorable. Because it's so hard to find real words, companies like Kleenex and Pinterest have invented names by changing, adding, or removing letters for impact. Now, invented names can be highly unique, but if you're not [2:13] careful, they can start to sound like pharmaceutical drugs or worse, the name of a sofa from IKEA. Associative names work by reflecting imagery and meaning back to their back to the brand. The Amazon in South America is the world's largest river, therefore the Earth's biggest selection of books, clothes, content, and so on. Sirius is the brightest star, therefore the radio channels where you can hear the brightest stars of music and entertainment. And Red Bull associates to a drink with bull-like qualities such as power and confidence. Some brands are derived from non-English languages like Samsung, which means three stars in Korean. Lego means play well in Danish. Zapos comes [2:55] from the Spanish word sapato for shoes. And Hulu comes I bet you didn't know that Hulu actually comes from a Chinese proverb. A hulu is a bowl used to store precious things. Finally, the seventh type is abstract names. names like Rolex and and Kodak. These names have no intrinsic meaning, but instead rely on the power of phonetics to create really powerful brand names. Okay. So, once you've decided what type of name you you you you want, you need to decide what you want the name to say. And look, of course, it's tempting to create names that talk about who created them or what you do or where [3:30] you operate. But the best brand names don't don't describe. They stand for a big idea, ones that translates into emotional appeal. Nike is about winning. GoPro is about heroism. Apple is about simplicity and usability. And Google comes from the math term. That's a one with a 100 zeros after it. So that really big number helps support the company's really big original vision to organize the world's information. So as you think about your new brand, think carefully and ask yourself, what's your big idea? The third step is to check the name isn't already taken. You might have to create hundreds of names, perhaps thousands before you find one that's [4:08] even available. And of course, don't forget to check the name uh means doesn't mean anything negative in other languages or countries. The last thing you want is an embarrassing naming fail like this brand of toilet paper from Sweden. Finally, a few words about Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and now one of the world's most valuable companies. Much has been said and written about the the the business strategy, but I'll say a few words about the name. Is Alphabet a great name? You [4:37] bet. First of all, the name is an idea. As we all know, an alphabet is a set of letters that forms the basis of all language and communication. Second, the name provides a playful link back to the companies underneath. G for Google, C for Calico, N for Nest, X, and so on. Third, the name encourages Wall Street investors. Buy this stock and you're making an alpha bet, one that will [4:59] outperform others. And and last of all, the name is a real dictionary word, which is a rare find these days. Now, there was only one issue with Alphabet. Car company BMW owned the URL alphabet.com. But, you know, here's the thing. Owning the.com doesn't matter as much these days now that we find stuff through Google search and we connect with brands through social media and smartphone apps. So, Alphabet, the company, forgot about Alphabet.com and instead found a shorter [5:27] and more unique web address. abc.xyz. Thank you. [5:38] Thank you, Jonathan. --- About this transcript Read from YouTube's own caption track and laid out by ViewRank AI (https://viewrankai.com). ViewRank AI finds the videos already beating a creator's own average on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, transcribes them from the audio itself in more than 60 languages, and turns what worked into new ideas and scripts. Free transcript tools, no account needed: https://viewrankai.com/tools How to read any video this way: https://viewrankai.com/llms.txt