11. Product Naming

Product naming is one of the most intellectually challenging activities in marketing and should be considered as an integral consideration of the product definition. At this stage of the product and market development process the product's development identity and the requirements for the development of the eventual branding of the product should be drafted.

Product Designation for Development Purposes

A name for a product for use during its development stages is important as it becomes the key way of referencing the product and a focal point for developing the project teams identity. It is better to prepare a designation at the definition stage than have one adopted by popular usage. Names adopted by popular usage can sometimes be of a derisory nature thereby running counter to the development of an appropriate image for the product.

The product name is important as it becomes, in time, the embodiment of the quality, reliability and value for money attributes of the product. Even if the product name is only a temporary designation, this is still important as all development projects need to retain a good internal image in order to maintain management support throughout the life cycle.

Product Branding

For some products it is important for legal or regulatory reasons that the brand name for use in its launch be available right at the beginning of the project. For other products it is more appropriate to retain product branding confidentiality right up to the last moment to protect the owner from competition or brand counterfeiting.

Many marketing organisations run a single corporate brand name to embody a set of values, then associate with the brand name individual product identifiers. Some operate a different brand name per product. Others operate corporate branding and product branding side by side. Whatever the product branding strategy adopted by a business, product naming is a key issue for the product definition.

Trade Marks

A product name may be a registered trade mark or may just be an unregistered product identifier. It is often desirable to protect a product name as a trade mark so that others may not utilise the name in order to sell their products or to diminish the brand owners sales. This requires that the name needs to be registerable as a trade mark within the markets the product is to be promoted.

There are certain requirements that a trade mark needs to meet in order to be registerable and in order to be protected once registered. The key requirement is that it must not be registered by others for use within the same trade mark category in the particular market place.