It's in the name. Goods manufacturers and service providers stand out from the competition by creating a distinctive image, and the existing image of a company goes into developing new brand names that must match the existing framework.

Developing new brand names has long since become the job of a professional – the risk of thinking up embarrassing or misleading names is too great: Pajero might mean nothing to an English, French, or German speaker – maybe a little exotic but that’s it – but has a disreputable meaning in Spanish, so Mitsubishi had to change the name of their SUV to Montero for the Spanish-speaking market. Sadly, they didn’t become aware of the faux-pas until it was too late. Famous Irish whiskey brand Irish Mist didn’t have much success on the German market, as Irish Mist in German would come out of the rear end of an Irish bull rather than a barrel; likewise, Persil didn’t have much luck in France, where persil means nothing more than parsley. How many French housewives would want to wash their whites in veggies?

Our team in charge of developing brand names at ConText® pays close attention to the potential pitfalls involved. We perform due diligence on potentially pre-existing naming rights, territorial jurisdictions as well as the type of product or service to carry your new name and success out to the market. Creativity has its limits where third-party rights are at risk, and similar-sounding syllables or similarities in the name won’t only dilute your brand identity, but also tend to upset third parties that may fear confusion, third parties that may even litigate over the issue. This is where you’ll see how investing in a good brand name pays off, and the money you’ve spent will pale in comparison to the costs of potential litigation you’ll be avoiding.

It’s often a long road to take from a new product or innovative service to an attractive-sounding, memorable and distinctive name, and most importantly, a name that won’t land you in front of a judge; this is an area of specialisation for our naming experts at ConText®. Well-known companies from the automotive, engineering, IT and consumer goods industries have already benefited from our services in developing new brand names.