Naming a product means picking a name that describes the transformation your customer gets, not the item you hand them. A lot of small business owners do the opposite. They name the thing, they aim for clear and descriptive, and then they wonder why nobody remembers it a week later.
I’ve named radio shows, contests, businesses, and hundreds of Idea Slams worth of other people’s stuff, and naming is one of the most common questions I get. So here’s the playbook I use, in the order I use it.
Why should you name the transformation instead of the product?
Zero people on planet Earth woke up this morning and thought, “Boy, what would really go down smooth right now is a Deep Dive Mastermind.” That’s not how people think. They woke up uncomfortable about where the business is. They wished they had somebody to bounce ideas off of. They wished they weren’t building the whole thing by themselves.
Those are the questions running through their head, and none of them contain the words “deep dive.” If you name the product, you’re naming the item, and the item is the least interesting part of the deal. Name the change instead, whether that’s less stress, getting your life back, or making a million dollars. You get to decide what the benefit is, and that’s where the name should come from. Resist the urge to be too literal.
What is Cookie Monster language and why does it work?
Remember Cookie Monster? Best character on Sesame Street, and easily the biggest business brain in the cast. When Cookie Monster sees a cookie, he doesn’t say “Me like bespoke gluten-free dessert item.” He says “Me like cookie,” because that’s what normal people say.
When you name something, use normal person words. No jargon. Don’t be smarter than the room. Somebody should hear your name one time and think, “Cool, I get it.”
The word I go to war with is concierge. Everybody wants to be a concierge. Ask somebody who uses it when they last hired a concierge and you get silence. Ask what their friend would say if they announced they were now a concierge, and the honest answer is “What the heck is a concierge?” If you’re using that word, I’m talking to you. Nobody says it except hotel employees and people avoiding the word coach.
Does alliteration help a business or product name?
Yes, and I wish I could remember which book taught me this so I could credit it properly. Alliteration works, so use it.
If it’s the Whiz Bang Mastermind, fine, that’s a name. But if you can find a word that starts with M, now you’ve got the Million-Dollar Mastermind, and it stops sounding like a description and starts sounding like a name. I know that seems obvious. It isn’t, and a lot of people never try it.
Notice what happened there, too. Million-Dollar Mastermind still names the transformation. People aren’t gathering because they love masterminds. They’re gathering because they want to make a million dollars. Alliteration on top of transformation is the combination that sticks.
How do you borrow familiarity from a phrase people already know?
This is the finishing touch, and it’s the move I’m making whenever you catch me staring at the ceiling mid-conversation. I’m hunting for a shared cultural phrase I can twist.
Here’s a real one. I built an app to help owners make selling a habit, because the thing every entrepreneur needs to do more of is ask other people for money. It was Duolingo for sales, with streaks and a leaderboard. I started brainstorming around sales, sell, sales, and landed on seal team. Sale team. I called it the Sale Team.
Greatest name ever invented? No. But people hear it and go “Oh, I get it,” and that’s the whole point. You’re borrowing familiarity from something they already know so your name doesn’t have to earn recognition from scratch.
Questions owners ask
What if my name is already out there and it’s boring?
Change it. A name is not a tattoo. The cost of a rename is one afternoon and some updated graphics. The cost of a forgettable name is every conversation you have from now on.
How do I know if a name is working?
Say it out loud to somebody who doesn’t know your business. If they ask a follow-up question about what it means, it isn’t working yet. If they repeat it back to you, you’re in business.
Should I get feedback before I commit?
Yes, and not from your family. Get it from other owners who understand what you’re selling. That’s exactly what we do in the Idea Slam, and it’s a lot faster than staring at a legal pad alone.
Pull up the name of your last offer and run it through all four filters. Does it name the transformation? Would Cookie Monster understand it? Can you find alliteration? Is there a phrase you could twist? If your name isn’t cutting through, it’s probably too descriptive and a little bit boring, and you get to have more fun than that. To hear me work through it live, watch the full episode.