[ux] Brand naming resources, inspired by Orfox, Pearl, Mini-tor discussion

[Ame Elliott]

Hello and thank you to everyone expressing interest in resources for naming during today’s IRC meeting.

To recap: N8fr8 shared that the “Mobile Onion” has many names (Orweb, Orfox, Onion Browser, Red Onion…). They are working on more consistent language, and asked feedback on three proposals: Orfox, Pearl, and Minitor.

What happened next:
I reached out to some designers interested in naming and branding for thoughts, and quickly got a bunch of hard questions about Tor and mobile Tor are and what they stand for. This group of outsiders did not know that Tor is an acronym, and had generally negative associations with onions (they make you cry, give bad breath, etc). Of course there are positive associations about Tor too, but that conversation motivated me to share some resources for naming and brands below.

Very Long List of Thought Starters:
Note: These are clipped from the web resources below, which are from marketing websites. Some of you may roll your eyes at the marketing language, but I think these frameworks can generate useful discussion, even if phrased in a marketing way.

A. Some ideas about types of brand names, that are very US-centric [1]:
Acronym (UPS, IBM)
Descriptive (Whole Foods, AIrbus)
Aliteration and Rhyme (Reese’s Pieces, Dunkin’ Donuts)
Evocative (Amazon, Crest)
Neologisms (Wii, Kodak)
Foreign words (Volvo, Samsung)
Founders’ names (Hewlett-Packard, Disney)
Geography (Cisco, Fuji Film) 
Personification (Nike, other myths)

Ame Comments: Right now Tor is an acronym, but newbie non-users don’t know. The “foreign” word thing versus a neologism is interesting. An English speaking American may transfer positive associations about Sweden to a Swedish word like “Volvo.” The geography versus placelessness is an interesting thing to consider for Tor.

B. Good Brand Names [2]:
Does it convey the right idea or attitude?
Does it align with the business objective(s)? 
Is it easy to say, remember, and spell? In multiple languages?
Is it available? App store, URL, legal, etc.

This quickly leads to follow up questions:
What are the objectives and what are attitudes?
This is a strategy question about how Tor on mobile should relate to main Tor.

C. A brand needs a position [3]
This can be expressed as.
For __target__, __brand__ is a __frame of reference__ that __key benefit__ because __reasons to believe__.

Here’s one possibility of many:
For smart phone users against advertising, [mobile Tor name] is an app that let’s use surf the web without revealing your identity to marketers.
That would look different if the target was phone-first internet users in Sub-Saharan Africa, or whatever. 

D. There are MANY different versions of brand frameworks and brand identity models.

D1. At IDEO we used a “brand star” to show how authentic brands have tension between different dimensions. A project I worked on in the beauty industry had these dimensions of the brand personality, that can be graphically drawn a points on a star, with opposite points showing tension.

Optimistic, Scientific, Realistic, Wise, Friendly
Optimistic and realistic could be in tension. As are scientific or wise and friendly.

Ame comments:
At this point you may think that’s a bunch of nonsense that describes every product ever. And if you aren’t interested in sports apparel, then yes Nike and Adidas may seem the same. Or Coke and Pepsi. But to many people who aren’t techies, all apps seem fundamentally the same and kind of interchangeable. And part of encouraging people to adopt Tor is to differentiate it from other choices. I feel so strongly I’ll type it again: some people think that all apps are basically the same, just like how some people don’t care what kind of shirt they wear or car they drive.

D2. There are many other ways to capture this knowledge, but [3] has a list of questions.

Capabilities:
What does the brand do?
How well does it perform?
What quality or performance standards?

Internal Culture:
What will the brand never compromise on?
What are the core beliefs?

Noble Purpose:
What larger goal or cause does this brand serve?
What does this brand want to change in people’s lives?

Personality:
How does the brand deliver it’s capabilities?
What’s the style/tone?
How would this be as a human? (sometimes what celebrity?)

Shared Values and Community:
What are the ideas that the customer and brand agree are important?
What are the passions and affinities?

Aspirational Self-Image:
What does using the brand tell others about the customer?
How do customers want to be seen?

Ame comments:
Tor stickers on a laptop are a big deal, and it absolutely makes sense to thin about what does that tell other people about the person who has one. Tor has a great story about noble purpose, and values, and more. And Mobile Tor can too.

D3. [4] has examples on page 64-77. That is the fuzziest presentation, so if you made it all the way to the end and want more, there is more.

Thank you all, and I welcome feedback and discussion.

~Ame
1. http://www.slideshare.net/andrepo/brand-name-proposal <http://www.slideshare.net/andrepo/brand-name-proposal>

2. http://www.slideshare.net/WolffOlins/a-naming-handbook-from-wolff-olins <http://www.slideshare.net/WolffOlins/a-naming-handbook-from-wolff-olins>

3. http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2012/12/the-trinity-of-brand-strategy.html <http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2012/12/the-trinity-of-brand-strategy.html>

4. This is the fuzziest presentation. Page 68 is good. http://www.slideshare.net/leadingdesigns/brand-frameworks <http://www.slideshare.net/leadingdesigns/brand-frameworks>




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