A joke my friends love is calling me “Easygoing Katie.” I hate it.
I dislike being called Katie, but I love to be considered easygoing. But being called Easygoing Katie makes me feel the opposite of easygoing. They know this. (You can see the trap that they’ve created for me.)
Over my adult life, I’ve embraced my love of process, structure, frameworks, and linear progress. Some (me, mostly) would argue that it’s actually made me more easygoing: When I’m following the steps that I know tend to lead to successful outcomes, I can enjoy the fun parts more, and I have the capacity to deal with the unexpected stuff that comes up in every project.
Side note: May’s class focus is the “Science” of Naming—overcome your fear of talking to your clients about trademarks, linguistics, and other potential issues that could prevent them from using a name successfully. Join me in class (today is the last day to register)!
Why do I love this stuff? It’s because…
Strategy + process protect
They protect YOU:
Your creativity
Your ability to prove you’ve done the work you said you’d do
They protect your clients:
Your client’s ability to choose a name that does the job everyone agreed it should do
Your client’s ability to test the name against the criteria it was developed to express
They protect the audience(s) of the name
Their desire for clarity/understanding and a general respect of their needs, wants, culture, and language
Clients will only feel frustrated and exhausted by a “process” that:
Repeatedly shows them names that they don’t even know how to evaluate, so they default to waiting for something to “jump off the page at them” (it never does).
Or
Shows them names they LOVE but quickly learn they can’t own due to trademark/linguistic/other issues that weren’t filtered out ahead of presenting the names as viable candidates.
Naming is a creative project that requires rigor + consensus to be successful
It starts with limitless possibility: Tons of potential creative and strategic directions based on the brand’s value proposition/strategy/etc.
Those possibilities are narrowed down to the directions that best suit the brand’s audiences, strengths, budget, implementation abilities, and future ambitions (via a workshop)
Those directions are defined in a naming strategy brief that everyone agrees with
That brief is explored fully through hundreds or thousands of names
Those names narrowed down based on the criteria in the brief, and then further narrowed through agreed-to conflict filtering (trademark, etc.)
And then those are presented in a way that shows everyone each name’s potential
Ultimately taking us from limitless possibilities to a few names with real potential for further trademark investigation and/or audience validation
Landing on one final name
Without a lot of structure, the path from “we need to name it” to “here is the final name” gets less linear and more…squiggly? Squishy? Pick a shape that isn’t super structural and you’re probably right.
So don’t worry about being easygoing. Follow a process, have a strategy, and your easygoing side will feel a lot more comfortable showing itself over time.
Learn more about this, and other ways to set your next naming project up for success, at an upcoming Naming for Everyone class—summer/fall schedule will be posted soon!
Happy naming!
Caitlin
Want more naming resources?
Take an upcoming Naming for Everyone class
Download free booklets from the Truth in Branding series on naming and trademarks
There is no naming strategy on earth powerful enough to overcome the Strong Opinions of a spouse 😩
Of course, we've all met the client who agrees to a carefully developed naming brief, then ignores it because "none of these names speak to me" or "I asked my wife and she did not like it" or any of a number of silly reasons. At that point the name developer is faced with the dilemma of calling out the client and holding him to the brief (which never goes well) or gently trying to enforce the brief through passive aggressive efforts (which also never goes well). And who among us hasn't used his/her inside voice to say "you are paying for my expertise so why are you ignoring it?" But in the end, having a brief is way better than not having a brief, even though it won't solve all issues.