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Clarity

Nancy Friedman

San Francisco Bay Area

I'm a verbal-branding pro in the San Francisco Bay Area with 25+ years' experience in name and tagline development, brand strategy, and naming architecture. I love working with companies that understand the value of a good name and a powerful brand story. I do *not* develop names or taglines over the phone, but I *can* help you clarify your objectives, develop an effective naming brief, and analyze the names you're considering. More about my work at wordworking.com. Follow me on Bluesky or Mastodon: @Fritinancy. My Substack is https://fritinancy.substack.com/

$4.17/min

209

209 Calls

70

70 Reviews

30 minutes
Avg. call

Brand Architecture Corporate Branding Product Naming Name Development Taglines Company Naming Name Change Brand Consulting

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A comprehensive written naming brief is the platform from which all name development starts--and the benchmark against which names are evaluated. Learn how to write a brief that clarifies your naming objectives and criteria (and even helps you with the trademark-filing process!).

Taglines and Slogans

Think of all the places your tagline might appear: website, Twitter bio, app store, trade show booth, advertising. This short string of words has to pull its weight, supporting and amplifying your brand statement and reflecting your distinctive advantage.

Whether you're naming a new company or rebranding an existing one, your name is the title of your story. Discover how to create a compelling name that goes beyond description to evoke a benefit.

Naming a new product? Creating a naming architecture for a suite of products? Let's talk about the best ways to extend your brand objectives into your product names.

I've developed book titles for authors, editors, and publishers. I can help you create a title and subtitle that invite readers in.

Answers 7
Reviews 70

Answers

Nancy Friedman answered

What domain name should I get?

You have a couple of good options:

1. Choose an extension other than .com. Dot-co and dot-biz are obvious choices. You might also get more creative: how about Melissa.is, which uses the Iceland country code and gives you an instant sentence? ("Melissa is ... efficient." "Melissa is ... convenient.")

2. Add a word (preferably a verb) to "Melissa" to create an available domain-- for example, GetMelissa.com.

Happy to talk if you want more information -- I have 20+ years of experience in name development.

Nancy

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Domain Names

Product Naming

Naming

Nancy Friedman answered

I want to create an app (w/ website) that connects subject matter experts to users who need answers over live video. What should I name it?

Reading between the lines, I'm deducing that your question is about domains: should you go with the tried and true .com (which would require hyphenating the business name) or take a bit of a risk on the newer .expert?

Those are reasonable questions. But as Humberto points out, they're not the questions you should be asking. The real question is: Why are you opting for a generic name -- which could be used by any expert site, not just yours -- instead of crafting a name that highlights what's distinctive about your offering (live video)?

I recommend that you go back to the beginning and write a detailed naming brief. (See this post for tips: http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2011/11/how-to-write-a-naming-brief.html) Then put yourself in your hypothetical user's shoes: what makes your app special, memorable, recommendable? See what vocabulary comes up as a result of these exercises.

If you still need help, schedule a Clarity call to talk about the naming brief and creative directions.

One more thing: "Askan" does not look like "ask an." It looks like the name of a distant planet or a made-up language.

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Product Naming

Company Naming

Name Development

Nancy Friedman answered

Will adding "app" or "try" to our domain name (.com given that we target non-tech consumers) mean losing meaningful traffic to our website?

I'd argue that adding "app" to your domain name *strengthens* your brand by making it more transparent and honest. It's accepted practice; see, for example, bufferapp.com and umergencyapp.com.

"Try__.com," on the other hand, is less advisable: it sounds tentative and uncertain.

For other URL options--slogans, extensions, puns--see my blog post: http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2014/02/a-pure-dot-com-domain-you-dont-need-it.html

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Domain Names

Company Naming

Product Naming

Nancy Friedman answered

How would you name the brand architecture for a health/wellness brand with five verticals?

This is indeed a tricky challenge, and you've articulated it well. However, without knowing the missing element ("brand name" / "mother name"), it's hard for me to give you specific guidance.

Does the brand name itself suggest health and wellness (as, for example, "Hygieia Wellness" might), or is it arbitrary (as with Oscar Health, the insurance company) or even fanciful/coined (e.g., AbbVie)? Each of these directions might dictate a different naming architecture.

I'd also want to know how the sub-brands will be identified and promoted. How much interplay will there be among the five verticals?

Finally, how were the five verticals identified under the old company name? Is there an advantage to maintaining the prior sub-brand naming system?

Without that knowledge, I can only comment that "Wellness" has general, umbrella-brand connotations and does not sound "too much like just another one of the five verticals," which are quite narrowly defined.

One last thing: I would caution you and your client about #5 ("health"), which does have a semantic overlap with "wellness." Perhaps this vertical deserves a more clearly commerce-related name -- XYZ Wellness Store, for example.

Happy to chat on a call if you'd like to go into this further!

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Brand development

Brand Architecture

Corporate Branding

Nancy Friedman answered

What are the best resources to find the perfect pitch and tagline for a startup in the music industry?

Focus on your audience, not on yourself.

Focus on the one thing -- not three things, and certainly not fifteen -- that makes your company distinctive from your competition.

Think about your brand personality: cute and perky? bold and strong? serious and thoughtful? Now look for vocabulary and constructions that fit your personality.

Use Twitter to practice distilling your message. Nothing like a 140-character limit to force you to be succinct.

Use the thesaurus tool at Visual Thesaurus to explore constellations of synonyms: www.visualthesaurus.com In your case, I'd focus on words from the lexicon of music.

See my posts on building a better tagline: http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2012/03/building-a-better-tagline-part-2.html

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Elevator Pitch

Taglines

pitching

Nancy Friedman answered

Thinking about changing the name of our business, is there a quick, affordable way to test our existing brand name?

I agree with Joseph: an objective assessment from a professional will provide the balanced insight you're looking for. You can accomplish that very inexpensively with a Clarity call ... or a couple of calls to different experts.

Here are some of the things we'd want to know (and which you can ask yourselves):

- What does your current name say about your products, your services, your brand? If you think of it as the title of a story, what story does it promise?

- What are the advantages of keeping the name?

- How is the name holding you back?

- Does the name have built-in limitations? For example, is it hard to pronounce? Does it suggest a service offering you no longer wish to be associated with? Have you been faced with a trademark challenge?

I do not advise polling your customers or suppliers. They are apt to prefer the familiar over the new, and if you are contemplating a significant rebrand -- branching into new areas, dropping some key offerings -- you risk tipping your hand.

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Brand development

B2B Marketing

Company Naming

Nancy Friedman answered

Is it standard practice for a product and company name to be the same? Should our product and company name remain the same?

It's certainly not standard practice for large companies. General Motors manufactures cars with the Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, and Buick marques. Procter & Gamble's brand family includes Tide detergent, Oral-B dental-hygiene products, and Luvs diapers. Google uses its company name as a modifier for its products: Google Maps, Google Plus, Google Books, and so on.
The Joie de Vivre hotel group gives each property a distinctive name linked to its location and personality -- Rex, Epiphany, Waterfront, et al.

Tech examples? When it was founded in 1982, AutoDesk made a single product, which it could have named AutoDesk--but didn't. Instead, it named it AutoCAD (for computer-aided design). Freed from the corporate name, the growing family of products was able to assume distinct brand identities: Revit for the construction industry, Moldflow for manufacturing, Maya and Mudbox for media and entertainment.

On the other hand, as Steven Mason points out, the combined corporate-product name Facebook seems to be working just fine.

Short answer: there is no "standard practice" but rather multiple naming strategies. To determine which one is best for your company, you'll need to consider your long-range goals and your commitment to branding and marketing.

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Branding & Identity

Corporate Branding

Product Naming

Reviews

Fantastic call with Nancy. She was incredibly helpful and insightful and seems to have a wealth of experience in print and branding strategy. Very much appreciate the in depth conversation and attention to detail she gave. Highly Reccomend!

Christien Johnson Source: Clarity

Excellent advice & direction! Would highly recommend

Sean Kong Source: Clarity

Great call with Nancy. Will call again if needed. Thanks so much!

libby mills Source: Clarity

Good advise, clear and direct.

DIEGO BALMACEDA Source: Clarity

On call stated that she doesn't provide business names over the phone. What??

Kathryn England Source: Clarity

Excellent advice and very knowledgeable about books and publishing in general. Will work with again

ilan cohen Source: Clarity

Nancy offered some excellent direction and tools to assist with a small branding project. It really helped to have her perspective!

SUSAN BLAKEY Source: Clarity

Had a really good call with Nancy and she suggested some good ideas which I’ll be working on. Very likely I will contact Nancy again.

Anmol Sandhu Source: Clarity

My talk with Nancy was very constructive. She pointed me to a few possible directions I could take when naming my business and gave me practical advice and helpful insights. Thank you!

Aleksandra J. Chlon Source: Clarity

Great talking with Nancy. She helped us gain clarity on several aspects of our branding. Definitely recommended.

Nicolaos Moubayed Source: Clarity

Great value! Nancy is easy to talk to and guided me to think about my project in new ways.

Danelle Morton Source: Clarity

Member since October 2013