Branding is an integral part of your company’s success. There are so many brands on the market, and with newer brands appearing all the time, most people find it difficult to keep up.

So, if your brand name does not instantly draw the attention of your target audience, you will be added to the long list of unrecognizable brands. Another implication of not having a remarkable brand name is spending a lot of money on marketing because you have to constantly show people what you do.

Here’s how to pick an unforgettable brand name that represents your brand’s mission and appeals to your customers.

What is Brand Name Testing?

Brand name testing is the process of presenting potential brand names to your target audience and soliciting their feedback via a survey. The brand name testing survey is very effective because the target audience selects a name that appeals to them and fits their perception of your brand.

Your brand name should not only be unique and appealing, but it should also tell the story of your company and its values. When your target audience sees a good brand name, it creates a positive image of what your brand represents and how they can benefit from your products and services.

Why Is Brand Name Testing Important?

Having a brilliant product or service but an ill-suited brand name can put a damper on your marketing efforts.  Yes, your products and services may be top-tier, but if your brand name does not pique people’s interest, the chances of them actively seeking you out are slim.

The most important factor in choosing a name for your brand is that it connects with your target audience. If they think your brand name is ridiculous, not in a quirky or goofy way, but simply, “I’m confused” or “I don’t like this standpoint,” your brand promotion efforts and, eventually, revenue will suffer.

Another important factor in choosing a brand name is its uniqueness. If your name sounds similar to another brand name that already has a large audience, your brand will constantly be in the bigger brand’s shadow.

So, ensure your brand name portrays a positive image to your audience and avoid brand names that sound like a copycat. 

Negative brand images have long-term implications for a company’s profitability, reputation, and recognition. Also, rebranding is an expensive and time-consuming process; avoid it unless necessary.

To rebrand, you must first develop new marketing campaigns to notify existing customers of your new brand name and reassure new customers that you are the same company. Also, most users continue to refer to the new brand by its previous name, indicating that rebranding is not always effective.

What to Consider When Testing A Brand Name

Fit and Attractiveness

A name is a great fit for your brand if it reflects the voice and values of your company. It is detrimental to your brand’s image and bottom line to have a brand name that confuses people or causes them to keep scrolling because your target audience does not find it appealing.

When your target audience sees your brand name, it should immediately communicate your brand’s personality. It should also be appealing to your target audience; it could be edgy, simple, or both. 

Overall, the name you choose should spike your target audience’s curiosity about your brand.

Pronunciation & Sound

You should also assess how easy it is for your target audience to pronounce your brand’s name. For example, if your target audience is Canadians and Americans, your brand name does not have to be in English, but it should be simple enough for your target audience to pronounce.

A simple, easy-to-pronounce brand name is simpler to share through word of mouth. Happy customers can easily tell others to use your products without sending a link or sharing the brand name.

An excellent rule of thumb is to make sure your brand name is spelled exactly as it is pronounced. When your brand name is spelled exactly as it sounds, people are less likely to misspell it and end up with inaccurate search results.

Context

Your brand name should also be compatible with your products, services, brand identity, and target audience. Formplus, for example, is a brand that allows you to create and customize various types of forms, surveys, and documents to collect and send information.

Formplus’s name reflects its products and services. So, people immediately recognize what the company stands for and does at a glance.

Name Registration

Registering your brand name prevents others from registering their product or brand name as the same as yours, reducing the possibility of people mistaking your brand for another.

So, after deciding on a name that is both appropriate for your brand and appealing to your target audience, the next step is to see if the name is available.

Most countries have regulatory policies against soundalike and lookalike brands and products. Even if there is no exact match, your name may sound too similar to an already registered brand or product, which will prevent you from registering it.

The soundalike and lookalike policy also prevents you from generating unrewarded PR for a brand name that is similar to yours.

For example, if your product’s name is Talish and another brand’s name is Terlish, people can search for Terlish and the other brand will appear. But if Terlish didn’t exist, Google will refer them back to you by asking “did you mean Talish?”

Benefits Of Brand Name Testing

Data-driven Decisions

You can make an informed decision about your brand name based on the feedback you received from your respondents during the name-testing survey. So you choose a name based on what the people who will use the product and services prefer, not on how you feel.

A name may sound nice and fit your brand voice, but it may be a little cliche to your target audience, which you would not know unless you asked them.

Understanding the Target Audience

A name-testing survey not only tells you what your target audience thinks about the brand names you’re considering, but it also tells you their preferences and how they perceive your brand.

Use this: Free Name Testing Survey Template

Typically, name-testing surveys not only ask respondents the names they prefer but also why they prefer those names. You can also split your survey participants into different demographics to fully understand each demographic preferences. 

By reviewing their responses, you can discover what your target audience values in your brand. It also enables you to tailor your products and services to increase the user satisfaction of each demographic.

Fast Iteration

It’s standard practice to test and retest your brand name with your target audience but with different participants to ensure your results are reliable.

Using a simple and fast method of data collection, like name-testing surveys, enables you to run multiple brand-testing surveys in a short period.

Great Use of Resources

One undeniable upside of name-testing surveys is their cost-effectiveness. Using a responsive survey platform allows you to quickly collect responses from various respondents and begin reviewing your responses to make a result-driven decision.

Also, a strong brand name makes it easier for your marketing team to acquire customers and generate revenue for your company. Also, choosing a perfect brand name means you won’t have to spend money on rebranding.

Steps to take to Conduct Brand Name Testing

Pick the Brand Names You Want to Test

Sure, you want your respondents to select from the list of brand names you’ve curated, but asking them to choose from too many names may lead to survey fatigue. A good range of names to test with a specific respondent is 2-3 names.

So, the first step is to generate a list of appealing potential brand names that align with your brand’s mission and products. Next, shortlist the names that best match your target audience and company’s voice the most.

You can also ask respondents for names they believe fit the brand better if they genuinely believe the suggested names do not convey the brand’s personality or simply do not appeal to them.

Select the Parameters by Which You Will Assess the Brand Names

The questions in your brand testing survey should align with the survey’s goal. The survey should ask questions about how the participants feel about the names and also allow them to select their preferences.

You can also include demographic questions in the survey to help you group your responses and understand what each demographic likes.

Here are some questions to include in your name-testing survey: 

• What word comes to mind when you see or hear this name?
• On a scale of 1-10, how easy is it to pronounce this brand name?
• Does this name sound or look like any brand name you know? (Yes/No/ Not Sure)
• Will you sign up for a service with this brand name?
• How likely are you to recommend this brand to family and friends?

Send Out Your Survey

After developing the survey questions, the next step is to distribute the survey to your target audience and collect their responses. Your sample size should be large enough to draw a valid conclusion; the typical limit is 100 responses.

You can also send out the name testing surveys several times to ensure reliability. If your respondents are honest and you are not targeting different people, your responses should be consistent irrespective of how many times you administer the survey.

Use Data Insights to Pick a Name

Finally, after the survey is completed, the next step is to review the analytics from participant responses and select the most preferred name.

Also, review the open-ended questions to help you understand why respondents like or dislike a particular name.

How Formplus Can Help Brand Managers

Formplus is an easy-to-use survey platform that allows you to test brand names with a large audience and review results instantly.

Here are a couple of ways formplus helps brand managers with their branding journey:

Brand Name Templates

With Formplus user-friendly builder, you can create a brand name testing survey in minutes. It also has several customizable branding templates to help you select the best name for your brand and understand why a large percentage of your audience prefers it.

Honest Responses

Typically when you’re offering incentives to survey participants, some of them may try to take the survey multiple times to get multiple rewards. Formplus prevents this by allowing one response per email.

You can also choose not to allow survey participants to change their answers after they have been submitted. Participants tend to provide unbiased responses when responding to surveys for the first time.

Form Analytics

Formplus also has a simple analytics dashboard that enables you to track the number of submissions, the number of people that opened the survey, the percentage of people who dropped out of the survey, and those who completed it. You can also see the geographical location of respondents and the kind of device and browser they used.

Knowing the type of browser and device being used by your target audience allows you to identify the platform to focus on. For example, if the majority of your users access the survey via mobile and use Safari, you know your page must be mobile-friendly, and you should consider developing an iOS app in the future.

Conclusion

When done correctly, brand name testing helps you choose a brand name that aligns with your brand mission while also capturing the attention of your target audience.

Asking the right questions isn’t enough; you also need the right tool to make the name-testing process go smoothly. With the right tool, you can collect timely responses, analyze them, and choose the best option without breaking the bank.