“A brand is an empty vessel into which we pour meaning,” someone smart once said.  But products and services often exist before the name is created. So the vessel isn’t quite empty, is it?

Have you ever named a child? Empty vessel. Or is it?  The parent’s backgrounds are contributors: family names, ex-boy friends, favorite bands, etc. (A couple of hippies I knew in college named their kids Dylan and Hendrix.) Were those kids empty vessels? You decide. 

Totally empty or partially full, the name of a vessel is an important brand component. In all three of my discovery questions sets, though, never has there been a question about the name. There will be moving forward. A brand name, done well, will say volumes about the product. But it may can say a lot about the founders.  A startup founder I worked for picked the product name Zude because “It rhymes with dude.”

Brand strategy organizes all activities associated with building a brand. It is the life blood. But that strategy, has to come from organic material, and understanding how to apply that to a name is rich start.

Peace.