# Brand naming strategies Human Guide

## What This Is For
Quick reference for strategic brand naming using expert methodologies from Lexicon, Eat My Words, Catchword, and Igor. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for brand and messaging: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Brand naming strategies agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for brand naming strategies.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Brand naming strategies guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **2.5x increase** in company value after Emode renamed to Tickle (4 months)
- **30% traffic increase** from name change alone
- **2 syllables** = optimal for memorability
- **1,000-3,000 candidates** needed before finding gems (Lexicon)
- **Distinctive** — Stands apart from competitors
- **Brief** — Short enough to remember and type
- **Appropriate** — Fits the brand personality
- **Easy to spell** — No guessing required
- **Easy to pronounce** — Flows naturally when spoken
- **Likeable** — Creates positive first impression
- **Extendible** — Works across products and markets
- **Protectable** — Can be trademarked

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Key Statistics, The SMILE & SCRATCH Framework (Alexandra Watkins), SMILE — 5 Qualities of a Great Name, SCRATCH — 7 Deal Breakers, Sound Symbolism Quick Guide (Lexicon/Placek), The Naming Matrix, The Clarity vs. Creativity Spectrum, Marty Neumeier's 8 Criteria, Catchword's 10 Touchstones, Name Generation Techniques (Quick Reference).

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- | **H** | Hard to Pronounce | If people avoid saying it, they avoid you |
- **Easy to spell** — No guessing required
- **Novel Spelling** — Phonetically equivalent spellings (careful: don't fail SCRATCH)

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Brand naming strategies human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the mike-coulbourn/claude-vibes skill entry for `brand-naming-strategies`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Brand Naming Strategies

Quick reference for strategic brand naming using expert methodologies from Lexicon, Eat My Words, Catchword, and Igor.

> "A name should make you smile instead of scratch your head. If it makes you scratch your head, scratch it off the list." — Alexandra Watkins

---

## Key Statistics

- **2.5x increase** in company value after Emode renamed to Tickle (4 months)
- **30% traffic increase** from name change alone
- **2 syllables** = optimal for memorability
- **1,000-3,000 candidates** needed before finding gems (Lexicon)

---

## The SMILE & SCRATCH Framework (Alexandra Watkins)

### SMILE — 5 Qualities of a Great Name

| Letter | Quality | Description | Example |
|--------|---------|-------------|---------|
| **S** | Suggestive | Evokes something about your brand | Amazon suggests vastness |
| **M** | Memorable | Makes an association with the familiar | Apple connects to something everyone knows |
| **I** | Imagery | Aids memory through evocative visuals | Jaguar creates immediate mental picture |
| **L** | Legs | Lends itself to extended wordplay and branding | Nike allows "Just Do It" mythology |
| **E** | Emotional | Moves people | Patagonia evokes adventure |

**"Legs" Explained**: A name should provide "a theme with mileage you can build a brand around."

### SCRATCH — 7 Deal Breakers

| Letter | Deal Breaker | Red Flag |
|--------|--------------|----------|
| **S** | Spelling Challenged | Looks like a typo |
| **C** | Copycat | Sounds like existing brand |
| **R** | Restrictive | Limits future growth (Boston Market) |
| **A** | Annoying | Forced, excessive wordplay |
| **T** | Tame | Flat, descriptive, uninspired |
| **C** | Curse of Knowledge | Speaks only to insiders |
| **H** | Hard to Pronounce | If people avoid saying it, they avoid you |

---

## Sound Symbolism Quick Guide (Lexicon/Placek)

| Sound | Psychological Impact | Example Names |
|-------|---------------------|---------------|
| **V** | Vibrant, alive | Corvette, Vercel, Viagra |
| **B** | Reliable, solid | BlackBerry |
| **Z** | Attention-getting | Azure, Zara |
| **X** | Innovative | Xerox, SpaceX |
| **Plosives (b, c, k, p)** | Memorable | Coca-Cola, Kodak |
| **Soft sounds (l, m, n)** | Approachable | Lululemon, Amazon |

---

## The Naming Matrix

Position names on two axes — **Approach** (descriptive to abstract) and **Construct** (real-word to coined):

```
                    CONSTRUCT

         Real-Word    Compound      Coined
              ↓           ↓            ↓
         ┌─────────┬─────────────┬──────────┐
Abstract │  Roku   │   YouTube   │  Xerox   │
         │  Apple  │   Snapchat  │  Kodak   │
    ↑    ├─────────┼─────────────┼──────────┤
    │    │ Amazon  │   Airbnb    │ Spotify  │
Suggestive│ Slack  │  Pinterest  │ Verizon  │
    │    ├─────────┼─────────────┼──────────┤
    ↓    │ PayPal  │  Salesforce │Accenture │
Descriptive│General │ TripAdvisor │  (rare)  │
         │Motors   │             │          │
         └─────────┴─────────────┴──────────┘

APPROACH