Excerpted from The Art and Science of Naming Brands in The Brand Naming Toolkit (a 32-page guide with 59 Tips, Techniques, and Tactics Designed to Help You Create Memorable Names) by Martin Jelsema dba Signature Strategies.

Anyone who has had to name a business, product, service (and services should be named to make them tangible!), or event knows it can be resource-sapping, time-consuming, and just plain frustrating.

Often marketers have had to settle for a second-best choice because first choices weren’t available, or time ran out before “just the right name” came to mind. They are sometimes left to compromise—even abandon—brand name criteria in order to get-to-market on schedule. Either that or put the brand on hold until the right name is developed.

For many, the entire process of naming a brand is intimidating. Where do you start? What resources are required? How do you generate ideas? How do you know if your favorite choices are available? What do you do when it appears there are no more choices?

To alleviate the frustration and inspire greatness, the brand naming process should include three stages:

1. Preparation: There are those who espouse the theory that when generating a volume of name candidates, the less preparation and focus the better. Without any restraints, they say, the creative juices flow unfettered. But those who have studied the creative process and have developed problem-solving systems suggest that, at the very least, you should establish goals based on the desired outcome and eliminate those lines of exploration that will definitely not be useful. In this stage, you will want to compile all of your prep work into a Naming Brief and gather reference materials (dictionaries, thesauruses, and other word-oriented reference books) to help inspire concept ideas and provide word roots, combinations, substitutions, and extensions.

2. Generation: After you and your team (if you have a team) have digested the naming brief and any other materials and discussions of corporate and market relevance, begin the generation of ideas. At this stage, don’t reject any ideas or candidates. Even bad ideas can trigger good ones. Remember, the longer the list of candidates, the more likely unusual and memorable candidates will emerge.

3. Evaluation: There are two aspects of evaluation to be addressed here: candidates that meet your criteria, and candidates that are available for you to use. The first you control, the latter you don’t. This process can be very frustrating. You’ll find some PERFECT names, but they won’t be available. A word to the wise: there are still perfect names available, and will probably be on one of your lists. Just keep looking and keep an open mind.

Download The Brand Naming Toolkit (which includes a 32-page guide with 59 Tips, Techniques, and Tactics Designed to Help You Create Memorable Names) and get started!