Choosing the Best Name for Your New Product

No matter how successful your product or brand name is, don’t reuse it for new products you are developing.

You may think that the name recognition will help your new product succeed but it won’t. Because “one name can’t stand for two distinctly different products.”

Example: Aquifina’s attempt to release Aquifina lip balm. Needless to say the product is no longer available. It was too confusing because the Aqufina name stands for water not lip balm.

Consider instead how P&G has positioned each of its laundry detergent brands. Notice that each is uniquely positioned and none are called P&G Detergent.

Tide is the #1 trusted detergent
Cheer has a color guard formula
Gain gives you an aroma boost

One name can’t stand for two distinctly different products.

— Al Ries & Jack Trout

Read more from Ries & Trout about choosing the right product name in their book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.

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Ries, Al, and Jack Trout. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986. Print.