Have you ever tried to create a brand name from scratch?

I hadn't really tried it until last week.

Kellogg's Design Club put together an event called "How to Name a Brand from Scratch: Jam Session + Mini Competition" that gave us the chance to learn and play.

First session was about the process, start thinking how it can be done. First fact: you need something to name, obviously! The proposal was to create a name for a product/service related to a necklace with a key that you can give to a woman with the twist that the key would actually open something. It could work for a present to be revealed during a honeymoon, for example.

So, you have the solution, where to start? Let me share with you some of the ideas Emily Baum, Conor McFerran and Dave Pabellon shared with us in the jam session:

• You can start playing with your team using concept mapping or mood boards. It's useful. (I'd say additionally that it is a lot of fun!)
• Some naming tools you can use when thinking/searching for words: Thesaurus (search for synonymous concepts), concept library (derived from concept mapping), morphemes (smallest units of language that has meaning).
• Great names are: distinct, brief, likeable, appropriate, easy to say/spell, extendable, protectable
• Not-so-great names are: common, complex, off-brand, hard to say/spell, limited
• When naming: understand what you're naming, who you're naming it for, identify + build on cultural anchors that resonate with that audience
• "A brand is your customer's impression of your product or service"

After the introduction and playing with concepts, we formed groups to work on two or three ideas to present the following week. With my awesome team -Melissa and Suvendu- met once to exchange ideas and then build something each.

We used different sources looking for inspiration... looked for images in Instagram, Pinterest and Etsy; checked other languages words; looked for female names of epic romantic stories...

At the end, we presented 3 very nice naming ideas: "Kamaki", "Wanderlust" and "Gioia". We've got 2nd and 4th place of the competition! Terrific! And great feedback. It couldn't have felt more awesome to be recognized in this context and with this type of work (personal matter to me!).

Regarding the ideas, I can speak for "Gioia" as it is the one I worked on in particular. A proudly forth place, must say -I still smile when think about it-. It's an Italian word that expresses happiness, joy, satisfaction... The point was to express the excitement of a surprise. That 'wow' inside. The words in different languages on the presented slide below are intended to say: the surprise can be (in) the world, it's in this cheerful, colorful life... 

One weakness of the idea was that it may not be easy to pronounce. There may be many people who wouldn't know how to say it. Fair enough.

To sum up, it was a rewarding experience. Another reason in the list of "Thank you"s to Kellogg. Also, I didn't realize until we were about to present, why the word was so familiar and special to me. 

First I thought it was from listening the ad of Armani's perfume (Acqua di gioia) so much. But then this happy memory suddenly came to my mind... and I remembered my grandma, my nonna, hugging me and saying "gioia della nonna". Everything made sense.

4 weeks of ideas bouncing all around

And so it bounces this post...

From lunch & learn with Gannon Jones, Pepsico's CMO.

• Great brands have the ability to stimulate something in your emotion.
• Be a student of marketing (always)
• Have a vision and remember 'good is the enemy of great'
• Work with smart people
• FISO: Fit In, (but) Stand Out.

From lunch & learn with Kraft's Peter Borowski, Senior Director of Design, and Becky McAninch, Director of Liquid Concentrates of Kraft.

• Design is a communication tool. It's not aesthetic, you need to transmit something
• All great brands tell a story
• With creativity go as far as you can... because it is easy to come back in
• There are 3 things customers see when they get to the supermarket: colors, shape and numbers

From classes:

 

Framework to assess ads -for the Super Bowl Ad Review- by Prof. Calkins and Prof. Rucker: the AD-PLAN. When evaluating an ad think of these dimensions: Attention, Distinction, Positioning, Linkage, Amplification, Net equity.

The story was something like this: "A big dog missed a small rabbit he was chasing so he was asked: 'You're a big dog, how couldn't you catch that rabbit?'. The big dog responded: 'There's a difference between the rabbit and me that it is not size... I was running for my lunch. He was running for his life'". Idea: run for your life and stay focus. Prof. Sawhney.

What does it take to get people to change? Talking about personal and social motivation, sources of influence, Prof. Razeghi shared with us this great case by Vital Smarts:

Now, walking through the fifth week, I can definitely say I'm having one of the times of my life... I'm enjoying it here a lot. 

Then, as I'm not good at daring taking risks, I want to close with this advice from Pepsico's CMO who I quoted in the beginning. Hopefully I'll remember it more often:

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.