Naming and positioning
Two competitors in the same niche can choose completely different-sounding names — not because one of them has bad taste, but because behind each name lies its own positioning, and what suits one brand will destroy the logic of another.
How positioning affects the choice of a name
A premium brand rarely chooses a humorous, frivolous name — this would contradict its stated status and audience expectations from an expensive product. A mass, friendly brand, on the contrary, might suffer from an overly serious, weighty name that creates psychological distance from the buyer.
Naming as the first signal of positioning
A name is the first thing a person encounters, even before getting acquainted with the product, design, or price. That is why a name carries a significant positioning load — it either immediately sets the audience to the right tone, or creates dissonance that then has to be overcome by the rest of the communication.
Examples of mismatch between name and positioning
A tech startup claiming innovation, choosing an archaic, old-fashioned-sounding name, will be forced to constantly explain to the audience the gap between the name and the actual content of the product. A local coffee shop claiming coziness and homey atmosphere, naming itself with a complex foreign word, risks repelling exactly that audience for which the positioning was built.
How to check whether the name corresponds to positioning
A useful test is to imagine the name outside the brand context and ask what associations it itself evokes, without explanations. If these associations match the desired positioning, the name works correctly; if there is a mismatch, either the name needs to be changed or significantly more resources must be spent on communication to overcome the first impression.
When positioning changes but the name remains
Companies that change their positioning over time do not always change their name — instead, the remaining communication and the visual part of the brand are adjusted, and the name, if it is sufficiently neutral and does not contradict the new direction, continues to work without changes, preserving the accumulated recognizability.
Positioning as a filter when generating options
Experienced name specialists use a clear positioning statement as a filter right at the brainstorming stage, eliminating options that sound interesting but do not correspond to the stated essence of the brand, even before moving on to legal verification.
When positioning is not yet defined
If a client comes for naming without a ready strategy, an experienced agency will first propose a short session to define the basic positioning — this saves time and money compared to developing a name blindly and then having to redo it.
Sometimes during the search for a suitable name, the team discovers that the positioning itself requires clarification — a successful or unsuccessful reaction to test name variants often becomes an indirect check of the viability of the original strategy.
Two competitors in the same niche can choose completely different-sounding names — not because one of them has bad taste, but because behind each name lies its own positioning, and what suits one brand will destroy the logic of another.
How positioning affects the choice of a name
A premium brand rarely chooses a humorous, frivolous name — this would contradict its stated status and audience expectations from an expensive product. A mass, friendly brand, on the contrary, might suffer from an overly serious, weighty name that creates psychological distance from the buyer.
Naming as the first signal of positioning
A name is the first thing a person encounters, even before getting acquainted with the product, design, or price. That is why a name carries a significant positioning load — it either immediately sets the audience to the right tone, or creates dissonance that then has to be overcome by the rest of the communication.
Examples of mismatch between name and positioning
A tech startup claiming innovation, choosing an archaic, old-fashioned-sounding name, will be forced to constantly explain to the audience the gap between the name and the actual content of the product. A local coffee shop claiming coziness and homey atmosphere, naming itself with a complex foreign word, risks repelling exactly that audience for which the positioning was built.
How to check whether the name corresponds to positioning
A useful test is to imagine the name outside the brand context and ask what associations it itself evokes, without explanations. If these associations match the desired positioning, the name works correctly; if there is a mismatch, either the name needs to be changed or significantly more resources must be spent on communication to overcome the first impression.
When positioning changes but the name remains
Companies that change their positioning over time do not always change their name — instead, the remaining communication and the visual part of the brand are adjusted, and the name, if it is sufficiently neutral and does not contradict the new direction, continues to work without changes, preserving the accumulated recognizability.
Positioning as a filter when generating options
Experienced name specialists use a clear positioning statement as a filter right at the brainstorming stage, eliminating options that sound interesting but do not correspond to the stated essence of the brand, even before moving on to legal verification.
When positioning is not yet defined
If a client comes for naming without a ready strategy, an experienced agency will first propose a short session to define the basic positioning — this saves time and money compared to developing a name blindly and then having to redo it.
Sometimes during the search for a suitable name, the team discovers that the positioning itself requires clarification — a successful or unsuccessful reaction to test name variants often becomes an indirect check of the viability of the original strategy.
Recent articles
MegaFon, BMW, VTB and more 240+ companies. See how it looks in the showcase reel:
Our branding agency is approached to order:
Branding agency services
