2. About Us
Brand Acumen is a global brand naming agency based in New York
that specializes in innovative brand name development.
Brand Acumen operates in its Chelsea Market location where we
infuse a culture of innovation and creative inquiry into our process.
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3. Overview At Brand Acumen, name creation
is our form of artistic expression.
We redefine the fundamentals of
using art and language as a guide
to developing profound brand
identities.
Bill Smith, CEO
Bill Smith was previously the founder and
CEO of Addison Whitney, which today is one
of the leading brand consulting firms in the
world.
2200+ Names
800 Clients
27 Countries
Beginning in 1991 under Bill’s guidance,
Addison Whitney worked with over 800 clients in
27 countries.
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4. Our Success: Name Creations
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Brand: Limon Brand: Wildcat
Brand Name Creation BrandNameCreation
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5. Our Success: Name Creations
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Brand: Turning-Leaf Brands: Woodford Reserve
BrandNameCreation Brand Name Creation
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6. Our Success: Name Creations
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Brand: Hi Dry Brand: Blue light
BrandNameCreation BrandNameCreation
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7. OR
Our Success: Case Study
Xbox – Microsoft
Creating a brand name for a revolutionary video game console
Microsoft asked us to develop a name that would resonate with gamers around the
world and compete against other major industry players such as Sony, Nintendo, and
Sega.
From our conversations with Microsoft, this new gaming console was expected to
communicate the following attributes to the target audience:
We conducted QualiQuantitative Interviews with 200 male respondents (ages 8 to 28) to test the 12 brand name
candidates.
Respondents quickly connected with Xbox, noting that it was ‘easy to say,’ ‘cool,’ and different from other console names.
------- Element
------- Cybes
----- Xpulse
-------- Xebo
-------- Avelos
-------- Synsato
----- Vertium--------
----- Exar -----------------------
Tast
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Brand name finalists Brand name recommendation
------- Veom -------- Cybersant ----- Xbox™ -----
Ground-breaking
Adventurous
Addictive Edgy
Immersive entertainment Redefine gaming
Intuitive
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8. Our Success: Case Study
Escalade – Cadillac/General Motors
Brand name creation for Cadillac’s new luxury entrant to the
otherwise rugged SUV market.
Cadillac desired a name that would revitalize the Cadillac brand and
develop a single identity that would redefine the SUV market.
The following eight names were developed and evaluated through QualiQuantitative
Interviews that specifically included 100 SUV dealers and 100 individuals who had
owned an SUV for a minimum of three years.
Brand name finalists
Patagonia, a legally viable name in the automobile sector, spoke to vehicle ‘ruggedness’ and was recommended for a partnership with
the outdoor clothing/gear company of the same name.
Though respondents were not so attracted to the name Evoq, Cadillac later used the neologism (made-up word) for a concept car that
later became the CTS.
Terrex referred to ‘terrain’ and ‘extreme,’ and respondents noted it had an ‘x-factor’ that signaled the ‘great unknown’.
Compass evoked a positive response for having an ‘outdoor feel’; the name was later used by Jeep for its compact crossover vehicle.
Brand name finalists
------- BackPacker ----- Compass
------- Fitz Roy -------- Journey -------- Patagonia ----- Terrex--------
Escalade™ ----- Evoq --------
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Brand name recommendation
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9. Xenical–Roche Pharmaceuticals
Creation of a global brand name for a prescription medication
that assists obese patients to lose weight and keep it off.
The primary focus in developing this brand name was ‘subliminal
messaging’.
After rigorous global linguistic analysis and trademark screening, we subjected our 12
brand name finalists to a ScoreCard analysis to evaluate the phonetic, aural, visual, and
syllabic elements of each name.
To further evaluate the resonance of each potential name candidate, we conducted
QualiQuantitative Interviews with 200 respondents including dieticians, physicians, and
obese patients.
Our research revealed the following:
• Respondents noted that Modese implied a ‘modification to obesity.’
• Asatia served as our secondary recommendation, resonating with feelings of ‘satisfaction’ and ‘satiation.’
• Respondents quickly connected with Xenical, noting it as efficacious, peaceful, effective, and powerful. Most notably, it is ‘zen-like.’
------- Asatia
------- Erastae -------- Lithera -------- Modese
----- Destive ------
----- Quotra ---------------------
----- Zalign -----
----- Arcesa Brevin
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Brand name finalists Brand name recommendation
------- Sylaphe -------- Venix -------- Xenical®
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Our Success: Case Study
10. Brand Name
Development Process
Our linguistic experts employ theoretical approaches to model brand
language in a way that clarifies intuitions about core meanings and
explains our creativity behind words without confusion.
As the most integral part of our process, we screen name candidates for
legal defensibility and cross-linguistic viability alongside creative generation
Brand Acumen uses a tri-fold approach to creating brand names
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Landscape Analysis & Review
PHASE 1 PHASE 2
Name Development Market Research Validation
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PHASE 3
11. Project Kickoff Competitive ReviewNaming Strategy
Phase 1
Landscape Analysis & Review
Identify and understand
existing name strategy,
positioning, market research,
potential for growth.
Analyze how competing
brands are presented, viewed,
named, and accepted in the
target market.
Uncover insights and
define objectives with key
project stakeholders.
Our team will ask a battery of questions in order to understand:
What types of messages should
the brand portray to existing and
future customers?
Who do you currently consider
to be your customer base? The
future customer base?
What type of name do you believe
would have the greatest impact
(i.e., descriptive, “made-up,” non-
English, and/or a real word)?
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12. Phase 2
Name Development
Naming Brief Final Candidate ListName Creation
Identify the framework for
developing the brand name
candidates, based on the insights
from the naming strategy.
Analyze the name candidates with regard
to structural analysis, trademark, domain, and
common law availability and harvest a short
list of ten to twelve final candidates.
Uncover naming candidates
through three separate
iterations of deep source
mining and ideation exercises.
A proper name and brand strategy hinges upon
discovering the authentic essence and purpose of
the brand across all of its receptions—its brand
ethos.
Creative Process
Name development will be performed through an iterative
process. The first iteration will contain thirty to thirty-five brand
name candidates. Our creative team will present each name and
identify patterns of words or styles upon which to expand.
We will continue to develop lists of potential brand names until
we generate a finalized candidate list of ten to twelve mutually
agreed-upon brand names to take into Phase 3.
OurApproach
Using a combination of deep inquiry pursuits and ideation exercises, we
seed and harvest a short list of name candidates that express the brand’s
ethos across a comprehensive range of associations, connotations and
evocations, in line with the conceptual target we have established.
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13. Recruitment QualiQuant Interviews ScoreCard Analysis
Identify a sample
15
of 200 key users and
construct a project specific
questionnaire.
Uncover user insight on
each name candidate by
probing participants during
one-on-one interviews.
Provide a quantitative
“score” for each of the
created brand names.
Phase 3
Market Research Validation
14. Trademark Checks & Clearance Strategy
EU
All names presented through our three iterations will be pre-screened and checked for trademark
availability. We are hyper-vigilant in our trademark pre-screening, and we will work directly with
your legal counsel until we find names that are available, appropriate, and free from confusion
and conflict.
Our comprehensive screening is designed to eradicate conflict with identical or similar marks in
relevant trademark classes, based on checks within but not limited to the following:
USPTO European Community WIPO
Our team also has expertise in Boolean, Truncation, and Wildcard search techniques to
supplement the trademark clearance checks performed through our online database inspection.
USPTO
Name™Name WIP
O
15. defensibility analysis
Legal Perspective
.
The Brand Acumen team will
review with client trademark team
specific criteria which we will
implement into the trademark
screening process.
risk aversion
search criteria
syntax requirements
16. From the perspectives of acoustic phonetics, phonology, and morphology in particular, our
lexical theorists pay extraordinary attention to all facets of linguistic nuance. Looking at
the phonemic structure, or the breakdown of distinct sounds in a given word, our team
assesses the acoustic and articulatory properties of all adjacent phones and consonant
clusters.
Once we affirm that no harsh sounds are found at phonemic joints or intra-syllabically, we
consider the semantic qualities and evocations of all morphemes, or units of meaning.
Broken down even further, we specifically examine how our created words fare with regard
to:
Scriptability
Aural Acuity
Pragmatic Scoring
Semantic Typology
Glue Semantics
Speech Synthesis
Speech Recognition
Parsing
Graphetics
Phonological Encoding in Language Production
@
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ARigorous LinguisticAnalysis
17. Linguistic ScoreCardAnalysis:
AnExaminationofSound,Structure,&Meaning
Scriptability
Aural Comprehensibility
Visual Aesthetics
Syllabic Balance
Durability & Longevity
Ease of Pronunciation
Gender Properties
Phonemic Simplicity
ScoreCard
Categories
Phonetic Viability
Evocative Semantics
@
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Each of the 10-12 nonproprietary names created will be subjected to our ScoreCard*
analysis, based on the following categories:
Our ScoreCard
Analysis will provide a
quantitative “score”
for each of the created
USAN/INN names.
An example of our
ScoreCard analysis can
be found in the case
study for Lantus (page
32 of this proposal).
23. @
Orthographic
Phonological
These pairs have
sufficient orthographic
differences.
These pairs have
sufficient phonological
differences.
These pairs have sufficient
orthographic and phonological
differences, as well as syllable
count and length differences.
Similarity
Xeljanz, Agenerase,
Renagel, Salagen,
Glucophage, GlucaGen,
Topiragen, Ziagen,
Panagen, Alternagel,
Donnagel, Clinagen
Prevention of
Failure
Similarity
Tanagel, Tareg,
Taregyl, Janumet, Jantoven
Prevention of
Failure
Both
Januvia,
Jonac, Jonac
Plus
Prevention of
Failure
Orthographic–
PhoneticConflict
Analysis
Janage
24. Scripted
May Written
As
Spoken May
be Interpreted
As
Name
J Y, I, G, H, L, C g, y, l, c
a u, e, o, c any vowel
n u, m, a, h, r m
g q, p, y, j, a, z k, c, x, q
a u, e, o, c any vowel
e o, u, a, c any vowel
Scriptability
Janage
25. AccuBrand™
Report
We analyze our data and present our final
recommendation in theAccuBrand™ Report, a
stacked ranking of the name candidates, from
most to least viable.
The AccuBrand™ Report serves as our final client deliverable.
This report includes our name recommendation supported by our
QualiQuant Market Research data and our ScoreCard Analysis.
The AccuBrand™ Report also includes a stack ranking of all
market validated names from most to least viable. All final
recommended names in the AccuBrand™ Report are available for
client to trademark.
Phonetic
Viability
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Intuitive to spell based on pronunciation
(with slight chance of interpreting “i” as
“e”) and poses little conflict as how to
pronounce based on orthography.
Durability
& Longevity
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Closed Syllable coda connotes strong
foundation with potential for
technological extensions. Surprisingly
unique in direct space.
Name Refers to BeverageDifficulty to Pronounce
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Responses 26 11 38 13 20 6 0 0 1 5
0
15
10
5
20
35
30
25
40
63%
37%
Interview
Breakdown
90
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20
TBD (by client’s
request)
90
Sample
Analysis
26. “Since 1995 Bill Smith has done a significant amount of our
brand marketing on an outsourced basis. Everything from
developing new products, to developinggo-to-marketstrategies,
to preparingour annual marketing plan. I would have no
hesitation in recommending Bill to any food and beverage
company that needs marketing support of any kind.”
Mary Minnick
Chief Marketing Officer
Coca-Cola
Mary is Listed on Forbes Top
100 Most Powerful Women
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Testimonial
27. Contact Us
Bill Smith - Chief Executive
Officer
Email: william.smith@brandacumenstudios.com
Phone: 212.299.8454
Address:
456 Washington Street
9D
New York, NY 10013
Website:
www.brandacumenstudios.com