Why we workshop a naming strategy
It's the best way to figure out what everyone REALLY wants and needs—together.
Unfortunately, you’re not psychic. Unless you are, but, for the sake of this newsletter feeling true, you’re not.
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!
Defining a naming strategy at the start of your project is the best way to get everyone on the same page
But how do you get everyone on the same page about a naming strategy?
You workshop it.
You can call it a workshop—or something else
Not every client team loves the idea of a workshop. This can be a culture thing—a workshop might sound like a waste of time when you should be making progress. We can solve that perception through our favorite tool: Naming.
Try calling it something else if “workshop” isn’t landing:
A naming opportunity preview
A naming strategy test-drive
A naming concept session
Whatever you call it, you’re ultimately driving toward one thing: Getting critical decision makers in a room together to look at potential avenues for naming and to decide now—and not at the final naming presentation—what’s in and what’s out when it comes to what a successful name looks like.
What goes into a naming workshop?
You know those big ideas that pop up in your head after a kickoff meeting? And all the questions you couldn’t think of on the spot, but are nagging at you now?
Write all that down. They’ll all have a place in your naming workshop.
I will give you the simplest formula for structuring your workshop content:
We heard this at the kickoff —> We think that might mean X, Y, or Z for naming (and here’s what that looks like in a sample name)—> What do you think?
“We heard that emphasizing your Midwestern heritage is important to the brand” —> “We think that could mean A) Directly referencing the geographic region (Badger State Oats), B) Embracing uniquely Midwestern sayings (Betcha), or C) Embodying stereotypes of Midwestern politeness and wholesomeness (Do Gooder’s)” —> What do you think?
You repeat that formula for every question you have, showing sample names for each question. Then, summarize all of the names you showed, and talk more deeply about where you’re seeing the most positive discussion: What is it about those names that’s working best? What do we want to see more of, and why? What do we want to see less of, and why?
The summary of your workshop discussion is your naming strategy
Which names worked best? What job are they best suited to helping the brand achieve? What did they say, and how did they say it? The answers to these questions, and everything else that goes into your naming strategy, should be at the heart of your discussion during the workshop.
Getting approval of the “official” naming strategy is much much easier from there—just send over a recap of what everyone agreed to as soon as possible after the workshop while it’s fresh in everyone’s mind.
Even if you can’t workshop it, you should still “workshop” it
At my naming studio, Wild Geese Studio, we offer a more budget-friendly, lighter-weight naming sprint process. But we STILL do a round of naming we call the “briefing sprint” round: We still do a kickoff, come up with a bunch of naming territories and sample names, and share them for initial feedback with our client group—but instead of a live session, we collect feedback asynchronously in a shared doc. It’s not as rich as the feedback you get from a live workshop, but it will help everyone feel a little more certain that we’re all heading in the right direction.
Learn more about this, and other ways to set your next naming project up for success, at an upcoming Naming for Everyone class!
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