I MAKE NAMES MAKE SENSE.

Elliott Verbal provides naming and architecture strategy, language consultancy, and rigorous creative for brands attempting to define the terms of the future.

FOR COMPANIES WHO NEED WORDS

FOR NAMING AGENCIES

Resource-Functional
Naming™

Giving a name to a brand, product, or feature is a strategic decision like any other you make for your business. That decision should be based on what a name can DO out in the world for you.

Linking your brand to specific meaning networks.

Asserting a distinct market position.

Explaining through intuition and implication.

A Resource-Functional Naming™ approach means assessing how to achieve specific brand and business goals (functions) through naming, based on a systematic assessment of available language, concepts, and cultural patterns (resources).

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INSIGHTS DEEP AND WIDE

The best return on your naming investment will always come from great research and analysis. I do the deep dives and help you see verbal branding patterns and opportunities you won't get otherwise.

My free naming guides and category analyses have been used by namers and brand strategists to guide client decision making, find new techniques for sticky memorability, and assess the distinctiveness of critical brand assets. Check them out here, and see what other brand experts have to say:

"I love that you not only analyzed what's out there, but also put forth whitespace suggestions. This report is wildly relevant to a current project for me - kismet."

"Thank you! I'm in the middle of a naming project and I was just considering this point. Now my direction is clear!"

"THIS is what I’m talking about. The key — one of them anyway — to develop great names en masse is to identify effective linguistic patterns that support a naming objective and discover candidates that fit the pattern. Very nice scholarship, John! 🙌🏼 🙌🏼 🙌🏼"

LET'S CHAT

Great naming is about directing language change.

Picking a name for a brand means creating a new set of connections by combining existing ones.

Yes, you likely want names that are "bold", "exciting", "innovative", or whatever other positive adjective you want to use.

But how do you actually do that?

You have to chart the existing language -- in your market, and in the wider culture -- so you know which creative development is actually going to click.

A good naming strategy isn't about getting stoked in workshops, it's about designing brand language that charts the likely next steps in consumer culture, and takes the reigns to your brand's advantage.

LET'S TALK NAMING DETAILS