The naming workshop. Being frank, sometimes my heart has sunk on hearing ‘The client thought a brainstorm session might be helpful’. It’s not that these aren’t fun to plan and moderate nor that some excellent ideas don’t emerge. It’s just that the spirit of ‘every idea is a good idea’ that’s so important during these sessions to keep ideas flowing is not always the most efficient way to explore a naming brief to the full.
Here instead is the holy grail of naming workshop invites:
“The client thought a naming brainstorm might be helpful. After the session we’ll take the view of a naming dinosaur such as yourself as to whether the answer (or many possible answers, given the trade mark criteria that are to be clamped upon the poor name) may lie within the output, taking commercial and marketing criteria and brand positioning in to account. We might also take your view as to whether the Grand Vote at the end of the session excluded some belters. And then we’ll ask if you think a half day or day of your time to follow up and use this stimulus to craft additional coherent, viable brand names could be a goer (you’ve been moderating the group of course, so havn’t actually created many names yet). We put aside some budget at or convincingly close to your day rate to allow for the brainstorm not quite cracking it, by the way. We do realise how important the name is going to be within the overall mix…..tally-ho for the strategic and creative discipline of naming”.
Or something to that effect. I’ve seen some outstanding naming workshops, usually the ones attended by a real mix of client and agency talent – particularly brand voice peeps and designers. Consumers (gasp) can be downright helpful too, given they just aren’t quite as aware that there are only 7 types of brand strategy and probably no more than 25 naming routes in the whole wide world and are normal people with normal jobs. Hob-Nobs was created in a consumer brainstorm session, bang on cue as the creative route of ‘sociability’ was explored. Obviously it took a brand consultant to spew out ‘But they can’t do that, it’s got nob in it’. Tough.
Here’s my brainstorm with myself as to the things that make for a successful naming workshop:
- A naming workshop plan, pretty much down to the minute. The framework is there to stimulate thinking and direction and ensure every aspect of the brief gets creative time. Which isn’t to say a creative route that dries up can’t be hurried over. Be creatively flexible within the structure of the brief that needs to be worked through
- People who are happy to speak up and preferably see on the spot creativity as fun, as opposed to excruciating
- A moderator who can speak, write, respond, guide, keep things moving, read the room and doesn’t need lunch whilst everyone else eats – and who can simultaneously contribute
- Product or service samples (I’ve named condoms, alcohol and chocolates without and reckon none were my best work)
- An even split between concept and language exploration and actual naming. People can tire of the naming bit quite quickly, if not used to doing it day in day out
- A veritable truckload of exercises. Some individual working, some in pairs or threes, some as a group. Some written, some to be called out, some to be swapped between participants around the room. Keep the fresh stimulus coming
- Pre naming workshop input regarding any naming work to date, things that have gone liked and not liked and the views of the decision-maker(s) if not in attendance. The moderator and client will choose to sit tight on this input, but it’s more efficient to know it before the session
- A car park. For discussions that will creep in on the day that are nothing to do with naming. Park it on a flip chart and let the client and agency leave with the list and allocated task-people
- A mechanism for voting on names. This is where subjectivity will creep in, possibly pre-emptively, so all names created should be captured even if they’re a 0 score during the session. They have a right to be thought about later
- Refreshments, depending on time of day. Evening pharmaceutical naming in particular seems to benefit from one or two of the lighter European lagers
- A convincing wrap-up, with next steps and plan for taking the creative task forwards – just in case the winning name doesn’t emerge in the workshop (having been trade mark cleared and language checked globally, the domain bought and the CEO’s children in agreement, all during the workshop lunch break).
Mind you, I’ve never actually tried opening a naming workshop with a statement that ‘almost every idea is likely to be a really bad idea’. Creatively challenging and an unnecessary group mood-spoiler.
