Name testing

Name testing is market research that shows candidate brand or product names to a sample of the target audience before one is chosen. It measures how well each name fits the product, how easy it is to say, spell and remember, what it evokes, whether it carries an unwanted meaning, and how much people like it. It is also called brand name testing, product name testing or naming research.

A name is the one element of a launch that is hardest to change later. Name testing is where a team finds out that its favourite sounds like a competitor, means something awkward in another market, or is simply forgotten a minute after it is read.

The essentials

• A name test compares candidates. Its best output is a shortlist with reasons, not a single score.
• It measures perception. Whether the name is legally available is a separate question, for a trademark attorney.
• Synthetic respondents help most at the start: cutting fifty names to five, and flagging bad associations in every market and language.
• The final choice is confirmed with real people.

What does a name test measure?

• Fit. Does the name suit the product, the category and the brand?
• Ease. Can people say it, spell it and find it again?
• Memorability. Is it remembered after a short delay?
• Associations. What comes to mind spontaneously, including meanings nobody intended.
• Distinctiveness. Is it confused with a competitor?
• Appeal. Do people like it, and does it make them want to know more?

For an international launch, the same questions are asked in every market, in its own language: a name that works in one country can be unpronounceable or embarrassing in the next.

What are the main name testing methods?

• Screening a long list. Many names are rated quickly, often sorted into groups such as like, neutral and dislike, to keep a few.
• Monadic or sequential monadic tests. A shortlist is evaluated in depth, ideally with the product description, since a name is never judged alone.
• Association and recall tasks. What people think of on first reading, and what they remember after a short delay.
• Qualitative interviews.Why a name works or fails, in the audience’s own words.

Name testing or trademark search: what is the difference?

A name test measures how people perceive a name. A trademark search checks whether it is legally available, in which classes and in which countries. The order matters: there is no point testing a name that cannot be registered, and no point registering one the market reads badly. Both are needed; only the first is research.

Can name testing be done with synthetic respondents?

Yes, and it suits the first half of the job well. Naming produces long lists, and screening fifty candidates with real respondents in several markets is slow and costly. A calibrated synthetic panel can rate the whole list in each market, in its language, and surface the names that are confused with a competitor or carry an unwanted meaning, before anything goes to fieldwork.

What reads: the ranking of candidates, their associations, the red flags. What does not read: recall after real exposure over weeks, or how a name will wear once it is on shelf. And as with any ranking, the gaps between names depend on spread: if simulated respondents agree with each other far more than real people do, close names look tied or swap places between runs. We measured this under-dispersion in eight markets: 0.20 to 0.76 of the human spread before correction, 0.96 to 1.07 on the attitudinal layer and 0.85 to 1.00 on the personality layer after it.

A name is rarely judged alone. In practice it is tested with the product it will carry, which makes name testing a close relative of the concept test, and the winning name often goes on to product concept optimisation.

What should you check before trusting a synthetic name test?

• That each market was tested in its own language, with an audience built for that market.
• That the shortlist is stable on a second, independent run.
• That the associations include negative ones. A name nobody dislikes has not really been tested.
• That the final choice was confirmed with real respondents.