Chapter 2: Adding Some Flavor
IN THIS LESSON
The Word Association Game
Leveraging AI tools for ideation
Get into the field of the brand
Putting everything together to get a brand name
The Word Association Game.
When you’re in the early stages of naming a brand, leveraging an exercise like the word association game can be helpful. What you’re going to do is grab pen and paper, and begin writing out any words that pop into your mind when considering the brand in question.
Let’s revisit the coffee shop example from Lesson 1. We might start with:
Charleston (let’s pretend it’s a coffee shop local to me)
Coffee
Community
Simplicity
Freshness
Then for each of those words, we’ll do a separate list of words related to each. For example:
Coffee
Coffee bean
Espresso
Mocha
Bitter
Acidic
Stimulating
Productive
Roasted
Brewed
Caffeine
Cafetière
As you continue to review and expand upon your list, circle any words that stand out.
Tool #2: ChatGPT
Take any of the words you circled from the Word Association Game and plug them into ChatGPT’s Open AI and ask for additional ideas. For example: “Give me the name of a small coffee shop in Charleston SC that places heavy emphasis on community”.
You’re probably going to hate every idea ChatGPT spits out.
Write them down anyways. Ask ChatGPT to “try again”. Write down any bits and pieces that stick out to you.
Tool #3: Get Into the Field
Once, I had to name a construction brand. I took my dog and went to Home Depot and collected every free flier I could in the construction section. When an employee approached me, we engaged in casual conversation and I walked away with even more words and ideas to play with.
For your brand naming project, where can you go? If it’s for a coffee shop, perhaps you don’t approach competitors and ask directly. But maybe you go work from several coffee shops to feel out the vibe, read the posters on their wall, read the unique names and descriptors on their menus.
Write down any ideas with potential for you to work with once you’re back home at your desk.
Start coming up with names.
It’s time to start coming up with names. You’ll want index cards, scotch tape, and a wall.
Close your computer and grab the supplies. Write down different name combos on your index cards and stick them onto the wall.
Sharing Joe
The Pot (play on “The Spot”)
Courtyard Blend
Blended Charm
Blending Charm
Roasted Blend
Antebellum Blends
Magnolia Blend
Roasted Charm
Final Steps.
Sleep on it. All of your ideas. Go to bed and restart the sticky note process the next day. Repeat as many times as needed.
Bring your ideas to your client for quick hit feedback or small focus groups for final tweaks before presenting brand names in their final form.