The wrong name for your product or service can be the difference between success and failure. So, how do you choose the right name? That’s what I discuss in this episode with Alexandra Watkins.

Alexandra is a leading and outspoken authority on brand names with buzz. If you have ever eaten a Wendy’s Baconator, you have literally eaten the words. For nearly 20 years, she and her naming firm, Eat My Words, have created love-at-first sight brand names for countless companies including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Disney, Twitter, and Google.

Alexandra has always been good with words. When she was younger, she had a role as an advertising copywriter and loved her job. Occasionally, her boss would throw her a bone and she would get to name a product or service. While she enjoyed the work Alexandra had no idea that “naming” was a profession that paid well. When she discovered that it is a lucrative profession around 20 years ago, she decided to take a leap of faith and go all in to the profession.

Alexandra has a few acronyms in the book, my favorite two are the SMILE test and the SCRATCH test. Her philosophy is that a name should make you smile instead of scratch your head. People like to “get it” and feel clued in, not clueless.

SMILE outlines the qualities of a super sticky name. It’s the five qualities that make a name great.

The SMILE Test

Suggestive: If it’s suggestive you want your name to suggest a positive brand experience and clue people into what you do.

Memorable: Meaning that it’s based on something familiar that people already know as opposed to something unfamiliar and foreign.

Imagery: This aids in memory, just like something based on the familiar.

Legs: Meaning it lends itself to a theme, it has legs to walk on and carry itself throughout your branding and marketing messaging.

Emotional: It’s important that your name makes an emotional connection with your target audience or else it will just go right over their head.

What is imagery?

Alexandra uses the example of a bike lock company named “Kryptonite”. When you hear the name Kryptonite you can picture something in your head because you’re familiar with kryptonite from Superman. Compare that to a similar U-shaped bike lock named “ABUS”. Your brain has no imagery when it hears that name, so there’s nothing to latch onto.

Think about it, you hear that name and then you’re in the bike shop a month later and you’re trying to remember the name, maybe by picturing it. You’re going through your brain’s dusty filing cabinet to retrieve that piece of information. If it’s based on something that’s already in your knowledge base, like Kryptonite, it will be easier to remember if there’s a picture associated with it.

Here are two more examples of imagery:

The Church of Cupcakes. There are all kinds of things you can imagine for the Church of Cupcakes. It creates a picture in your head.

A frozen yogurt franchise that she named “Spoon Me”. It’s funny and memorable and hints at the spoon you get with frozen yogurt.

If the name of your product or service fails the SCRATCH test it’s time to scratch it off your list because it makes people scratch their head with confusion. Here’s what the acronym means:

The SCRATCH Test

Spelling Challenged: If your name looks like a typo scratch it off the list, it will forever frustrate people.

Copycat: You don’t want to copy somebody else. Nobody likes copycats; we learned that early on in school. Why be somebody else when you can be yourself? In the bigger picture of things, you don’t want to open yourself up to trademark infringement.

Restrictive: This is where you have a name that limits your future growth. You don’t want to get trapped with a name that pigeonholes you into one business if you’re eventually going to be doing something else. Examples include 24-hour fitness. What if eventually they don’t want to be open 24 hours? Another example is 1-800-FLOWERS which sells more than flowers...