Pragmatic Marketing Rule #18

This is the eighteenth in a series of posts on the Practical Product Management rules from Pragmatic Marketing.

Pragmatic Marketing Rule #18: Name the product after positioning is finished.

Given that you want to make sure that your product name resonates in some way, this is a good rule of thumb to observe.

With your positioning complete, you will realize what attributes of your product are the most compelling, which will help you craft a product name that speaks to those attributes. Is your product all things to all men? Well, let’s call this baby “Omnia”. Are you most psyched about how environmentally friendly it is? How about “Green Thang”? (Okay, that’s terrible, but you get the point.)

Whatever your name your product, keep in mind, product naming isn’t nearly as important or essential for technology products as it is for consumer products. You brush with Crest toothpaste, not P&G. What data base do you use? Oracle? I have no idea what the product name is - it may well be Oracle - but even if the product had a name, you’d likely say “We use Oracle.”

Almost without exception, B2B technology products are referred to by the company name, not the product name. So you don’t have to spend a lot of money and effort coming up with perfect names, when what you really want to do is promote your company name as your brand. Sure, there are exceptions - Microsoft Office, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint come to mind - but what mostly matters is your company name.

Another thing to consider - and I’d recommend this for anybody who thinks they’re ever going to have more than one product to name: create a naming architecture and set of guidelines.

Maybe all products will start out with the Company Name, followed by a straightforward expression of what the product is or does:

• Acme Accounting Software
• Acme HR Software

Maybe it’s Company Name, followed by something that combines an element of what the product is, as well as an associated attribute.

• Acme Accounting Excellence
• Acme HR Excellence

Or vice versa:

• Acme Excellence for Accounting
• Acme Excellence for HR

While you’re at it, figure out how you’re going to handle versioning and “special editions.” And any other rules you want observed: no using too of the same vooweels together in the same word. Etc.

If you’ve got all this codified ahead of time, people will spend a lot less time agonizing over names that probably don’t matter that much to begin with.

---

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically each day to your feed reader. If you don't have a feed reader, you can always have these articles delivered to your email inbox every day. Click here to sign up.

The Opinionated Marketers | Powered by WordPress | ElegantBlue is a custom theme by Nathan Rice