Naming Your New Product? Let the Battle Begin!

Every product manager knows the drill: business case approved, use cases completed, product requirements documented, then comes the dreaded "what are we going to call it".

As soon as this moment is reached in a product life cycle, suddenly everybody has an opinion.   Personally I think that it is easier to pick a name for your unborn baby - at least generally there are only two people that have to agree (with a little advice thrown in from others of course, but you are under no serious obligation to comply with their wishes).

Advice / instructions will be issued by exec's in the management hierarchy, sales, marketing etc.  And for the most part this will be driven by personal bias, opinion and nothing much else.  I have yet to see a substantive or  rational reason put forward for any product name - generally the biggest ego rules.  But there is light at the end of the tunnel!

At last, there is now some credible research that provides a view on what should be considered.  Harvard Business School marketing professors John T Gourville and Elie Ofek teamed up with Marco Bertini from LBS to identify best practice for naming next generation products. 

Their findings are laid out in an article by Carmen Nobel titled "How to Brand a Next-Generation Product":

• Companies typically take one of two routes when naming their products - either sequential naming OR a totally new name.
• Each approach has an effect on customer expectations.  If it is a name change - customers expect something fundamentally different and new.  With a sequential name increment, they expect improvements on existing features.
• Companies have to consider the risk profile of the naming approach vs the potential reward.  Excitement generated by the new name against scaring customers away because they are concerned about "untested" product and a potential steep learning curve.

Aligned to the third point, I would propose that there is an additional dimension that should be considered.

Product managers need to weigh up the potential additional costs in terms of not only hard cash, but more importantly, the amount of time that will be spent training a sales force on a "new" product, as opposed to a "top-up" training required for a simple sequential upgrade.  This becomes critically important where there is a two-tier channel distribution strategy in play.

What has your experience been when implementing a naming strategy for your product? Any specific outcomes that spring to mind: both intended and unintended?

Source:  Nobel, Carmen, 2012, How to Brand a Next-Generation Product

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