Describe a new product and give a brand name for this product. Explain the factors that influenced your choice of brand name.

Introduction

It can be argued that one of the most influential aspects in relation to the success of a product is its brand name. The brand name must not only appeal to the consumer group which it is targeted to succeed with, but be memorable and self-explanatory, yet enigmative enough to spark consumer interest. Furthermore, it is important that if it is recommended by these consumers to another group, it can be easily remembered and progressively gain popularity. Not only must the name be catchy, but consistent with what the product is and what it is conveying, and thus who the target consumer is. The aforementioned was taken into account when planning and naming the product “Aqua Eyes”, the underwater snorkelling and diving mask with a built in camera to record and livestream underwater excursions. 

Review of the Literature

When naming a new product there are certain factors which have to be taken into consideration in order for the product to have the best chance of success. Bao, Shao and Rivers (2008, p.2) seem to maintain the ideology that “keeping it simple, making it easy to pronounce, making it memorable, gaining legal clearance [and] making sure there are no negative connotations” are the basic and most important features that should influence a brand name, all of which were factors that hugely influenced the naming process of my brand. These are arguably the fundamental features that mean a brand name logically makes sense, rather than the connotations of the brand name, and accurately reflects my own creative process, with checking legal clearance being particularly important as it was discovered my two favourite brand names were already in use after checking them. Others suggest taking more conceptual approaches as well as the aforesaid; (Davis and Dunn, 2002; Va ́zquez et al., 2002) “consider not only the physical attributes of the products but also the functional, emotional and self-expressive benefits” as cited by Ranchhod, Gur u and Marandi (2011, p.354). Interestingly, this is perhaps what sparks consumer interest, and it can be suggested that not only should a products name be to some extent both explicit and coherent, it should also be implicit to a point where the consumer can deconstruct the brand name and decode it, as “the connotations of a word or phrase are the secondary or associated significances that it commonly suggests or implies” (2012, p1). Product names therefore need to give the consumer some sort of meaning, as well as perhaps establish its relevance as a brand, and Hestad appears to support this, stating “the brand name becomes the mediator that makes people think about the brand story” (2013, p.11). 

Main

“Aqua Eyes” is a snorkelling and low depth diving mask with a built in camera which has the purpose of recording and even live streaming videos of underwater excursions. The camera would be situated above where the visual lenses of the mask finish- above the brow-bone in the centre of the forehead. The placement of the camera here, central to both eyes on the forehead would give the consumer the most similar frame to what the wearer themselves are seeing, therefore capturing all sea life which the wearer faces towards. The convergence of the product being able to livestream videos onto different media platforms such as a smart-phone whilst in use was added to compete with any similar products, as cited in (Jeong, Kim, Choi, 2015 p.842) “technology convergence offers…opportunities to break into the value chain by opening up new niche markets that enable them to challenge established industry leaders” (Lei 2000; Yoffie 1996). Therefore, the unique selling point of this product provides the opportunity to potentially surpass other similar products in the underwater equipment market.

Many factors aided the selection of the brand name “Aqua Eyes”, but undoubtedly the ‘creative brief’ was the most influential. Watkins (2014, p.50) recognizes the importance of a creative brief, and states the most important factors to take into account are the “company/product history, information on your target audience, consumer insights, desired brand positioning, [and] competitors names”. Thus, the background research into the industry that my product belonged to influenced the brand name. Upon researching, it became evident that there were very few similar products which had a camera physically built into the mask, however there were two competitors; the “Winmax Full Face Snorkel Package” and “Liquid Image’s Video Mask Series”. Both products differed in price and product design, however Liquid Image’s mask appeared most similar to the new product and thus was used for consumer research. Upon investigation it was discovered Liquid Imagehad many varying models of camera mask suited to what condition the mask was to be used in such as in snow or off-road. Halloran (2014, p.55) states “brands should try concentrate on those consumers with whom they want to have a relationship”, therefore suggesting this brand, although connoting through the product name that it is waterproof, does not just restrict its sales to underwater purposes. Consequently, it can be proposed that this is why the brand name is broad and non-specific- due to its large and varying target audience. Conversely, it was decided that the new product was to provide purpose for specifically an underwater environment, and so needed to be unambiguous, including a word associative or with connotations of water within the brand name. 

Deciding the demographic group that the product should target was another factor which influenced the choice in brand name, as Martins and Gordon (2009, p.83) simply states “demography should be an integral part of marketing subjects”. It was chosen for the product to remain at an affordable price of around £80-90, however also portray some sort of exclusivity and thus desirability by being set apart from standard snorkelling and diving masks. Therefore, it was concluded the product would target frequent holiday goers visiting countries with oceans rich in marine life, keen but likely not professional divers/snorkelers, or travellers-perhaps on gap years thus who are interested in exploring. With this young and curious consumer group in mind, the planning process of potential product names began. Throughout the planning process, it remained important to question what the denotations and connotations of the naming options were, as Boa, Shao and Rivers state “an important aspect of a brand name is the extent to which the brand name connotes or conveys relevant attribute or benefit information in a particular product context” (2008, p.5). Two options, Scuba Sight and Scuba See, denoted the goggles were strictly intended for scuba-diving, and so were disregarded as too restrictive. ISea was another product name option, with the play of the word ‘sea’ orthographically denoting that the product is intended use in the ocean, but phonologically sounding identical to ‘see’, connoting the product has relations to sight without giving away too much information. However, this product name had connotations with the company Applethrough using what can be suggested is the companies established ‘I’ prefix found on the majority of their products. A favourite two were decided upon, however when checking legally if the brand names were available, it was apparent that Ocean Optics already existed as a website selling spectrometers, as did Optical Oceans which sold ‘underwater photography products. Thus, Aqua Eyes was selected from the naming options. It was legally available, had clear connotations with being able to see underwater, and was phonologically pleasing to pronounce, as the schwa phoneme in the final position of ‘aqua’ blends with diphthong of the schwa in the initial position of ‘eyes’.

Conclusion

To finalise, upon the developmental and investigatory processes of creating a brand name for a product, there were certainly key factors that influenced the outcome of the name. The creative brief was a factor which influenced the name as it made it necessary to take into account who the target consumer was, their interests and their age- all of which would influence what connotations they would deconstruct from the product name, and thus resulted in the name being suited for young adults rather than perhaps something that would be mistaken for children, but still preserves an element of fun through its imagery. Collecting data from competitors or similar products already on the market also influenced the brand name, however the final product name does not appear similar to these products. This was purposely done, as the demographics from the already existing products and the new one were widely different, instead researching the competitors illustrated any gaps in the market which the new product could fill. Lastly, it is evident that in this case, the legal checking of potential names influenced and decided the brand name. Undeniably this was an incredibly important and crucial step in naming the product, as legally it needs to be available. This step was the ‘make-or-break’ factor, and as a result disregarded two potential names, and left Aqua Eyes as the selected name.

References:

Bao, Y., Shao, A.T. and Rivers, D. (2008) Creating New Brand Names: Effects of Relevance, Connotation, and Pronunciation.Journal of Advertising Research. 48 (1), pp.148-162. 

Furniss, T. (2012) Connotation and Denotation. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. pp. 298-299. 

Halloran, T. (2014) Romancing the Brand: How Brands Create Strong, Intimate Relationships with Consumers. First ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Hestad, M. (2013) Branding and Product Design: An Integrated Perspective. 

Farnham: Gower. 

Jeong, S., Kim, J. and Choi, J.Y. (2015) Technology convergence: What developmental stage are we in? Scientometrics. 104 (3), pp.841-871.

Martins, J.M. and Brooks, G. (2010) Teaching Consumer Demographics to Marketing Students. Population Research and Policy Review. 29 (1), pp.81-92.

Ranchhod, A., Gur u, C.l. and Marandi, E. (2011) Brand names and global positioning. Marketing Intelligence & Planning. 29 (4), pp.353-365. 

Watkins, A. (2014) Hello, My Name is Awesome: How to Create Brand Names that Stick. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.