The Bloody Mary Principle.

In the world of marketing, there’s no harder job than naming a brand or product. As a qualitative researcher, I’m always looking for and developing creative ways of evaluating names that will be reliable and insightful. A lot of factors make naming difficult. Here are just a few:

Names need to do a lot. Among other things, they need to be memorable, legally ownable, able to communicate brand benefits, emotionally resonant, and free of negative associations.

They’re hard to think about rationally. The first time we hear a truly new name it lacks meaning. It’s just a sound – an empty vessel. It’s very difficult to connect that sound with a specific concept or emotional response.

Good names often don’t ‘feel right’ at first. Rather, a product or brand grows into a name. Successful brands teach us how to interpret their names over time. Think about some brands and products that were successful despite starting with what was seen as a ‘bad’ name: iPod, Google and Pepsi come to mind.

And here’s one more major challenge; once a name is associated with something, it’s hard to change how we think about that thing. For instance, I love a Bloody Mary, but I’m allergic to horseradish. Unfortunately, when I order one without the offending ingredient, the response is usually “sorry, no-can-do, they’re pre-mixed.” But if I order vodka and tomato juice with seasonings, suddenly it’s not a problem. By not calling a beloved cocktail by its name – rather describing it in terms of its ingredients – things suddenly become more flexible. Once a name becomes established and fixed in our minds, it’s tough to perceive something independent of the name itself.

This challenge seems particularly important in our world today. I recently wrote about how words matter. We need to be careful to use language accurately and honestly. This need is especially acute when we’re using a name – a word that designates something specific. When a politician brands an opponent a ‘fascist,’ or a company that’s firing people labels it ‘right-sizing,’ they’re harnessing the power of a name in a way that’s probably intended to mislead.

A final point – it’s important to remember that a name isn’t the actual thing we associate with it.  Rather, a name is a proxy for something concrete – a symbol. Symbols are powerful. They profoundly influence how we perceive and think about reality. But, in the end, they’re just symbols, not the actual things. In order to have honest and productive conversations, we need to look beyond the name being used and focus on what’s actually being discussed.

Credit goes to my daughter Elizabeth, who selflessly field-tested the Bloody Mary hypothesis. Thanks also to my friend and colleague Maria Virobik for supplying the Bloody Mary above, and who drank it up shortly after I took the picture.