WHAT IS A GOOD NAME?

Before even judging a name, it must be exploitable, otherwise, unfortunately, it will have little interest even if it is absolutely great for your project, whether it is a business or an artist, whatever. If you haven’t researched if a business similar to yours or an artist already operates it, well you shouldn’t be surprised if you can’t operate it.

In the case of an artist, it is obvious that you will not be able to sell your music online if the name you want to use already exists or even create a website or simply an account on a social network. In the context of a company such as a label or a sound studio, for example, the risk is even greater, because you could also find yourself rightly sued, by another company that operated it before you, and it would even be unfair for you to do so.

In short, before you start anything and judge whether or not a name is right for your project, you should not look for a simple name, but a brand name. A good name is first and foremost a brand that you can use in every sense of the word. A good brand name is easy to understand, it is short and dynamic, it is resistant to time, it is easily remembered, and above all, it is what best represents you.

Whether for an artist, for a label, or for any company, the problem is the same, choosing a name is not easy, because it requires defining in a name a multitude of characteristics specific to the person or structure that will carry it.

Before you can even claim to have a good “name”, you are forced to start making a list of several possibilities, several name ideas, because even if you think you have found the one that suits you best, you will be able to be very. quickly disappointed if you realize that this one is already being used by another, or that in the end, it does not answer questions that you would not have asked yourself yet.

Obviously, it is much easier to say what it should be than to find it. But don’t panic with a little method, thought and patience, it turns out.

HOW TO FIND A BRAND NAME?

Before choosing the brand name that will best match your project and what’s more, available to your operation, you need to establish a list of ten brand name ideas. After having made this list, you will be able, through a series of questions, to check the names that best correspond to your project and then to check their availability in your sector of activity and your geographic ambition. To find these brand name ideas, I offer a multi-point method that marketers use.

Whether for a simple artist’s name, for a label, and therefore a company, this technique has proven itself and largely deserves to be trusted.

DEFINE THE UNIVERSE OF YOUR PROJECT

To start your name search, you must first define the universe of your brand is all that concerns the project it will have to carry. In marketing, we start by doing a “brainstorming” in French which means “brainstorming”, we bring the team together if we have one and we collect all the ideas that come to mind on a specific subject. Here, we will start by defining the universe of the brand and therefore of the project, the products, the services that it will have to define.

Take a sheet of paper and write everything down, don’t limit yourself to anything, except that your notes should relate to your project.

The type or types of product, their characteristics, styles, services.
General and historical references of the sector of your activity, stereotypes, archetypes, clichés.
The concept (s) of your project.
Images, music, films that come together or represent your project.
The culture (s) associated with your project.
The message (s) you want to convey.
The expressions and puns are attached to your project.
The personality or personalities who come together or represent your project.
Your goals for your project.
The values that define your project, the adjectives.
Your ideas for slogans.
The brand or brands that you like and that are similar to your project.

The definition of your universe does not have to be laborious, you have to do it easily and almost instinctively, if you have trouble at this stage, it is very likely that your project is not yet mature enough in your head, and in this case, it is a good time to refocus.

To help you define your universe, do not hesitate to ask your loved ones the question: This is my project … what does it make you think of, what images, what words, what sounds etc …

To expand your search, use the synonym dictionaries for your language and also for the roots of your language, and why not in another language if this is in accordance with your project.

REFOCUS ON YOUR TARGET AND YOUR POSITIONING

Once you have well-defined your universe, you must refocus it around two criteria: your target and your positioning.

Your target is the type of client, the person you are targeting, for example:
Young people, adults, grandparents, young rock lovers, French people in general, all rock fans in the world, etc …

Your positioning is how your project stands out from other similar projects, for example:
High-end, low-end, accessible to all, reserved for scholars.

This refocusing allows you to define the most suitable vocabulary and in which language.
Also, once you have defined your target and your positioning, you can on the sheet that you wrote to define your universe, highlight in red the ideas that do not correspond with your target and your positioning, and in yellow or green, the ideas. ideas which on the contrary correspond perfectly with.

Then, to refocus, more you must surround the ideas compatible with your target and your positioning which differentiates you from the competition.
We call it a competitive advantage. On this specific point, it is possible that you only have one, that said if you have none, this shows that it will be difficult to distinguish yourself from the others, in this case, the originality will be very important for the future.