Brand name testing is carried out at the stage of developing a new brand or rebranding an existing one. The testing procedure is an extremely important naming tool.
Naming research
Test of brand naming from the point
of consumer preferences
The purpose of testing is to predict the reaction of the consumers to the brand name in terms of its influence on the product image and the decision to purchase this product. It should be noted that the study allows evaluating existing options for the brand name, but does not imply the invention of a new name as a result.
The objective of the research is the evaluation of the actual and potential consumers of the product whose name is being tested.
The subject of the study is the consumers’ perception of the proposed naming options.
The result of the brand names testing is the choice of the name that closely matches the product category and brand communication strategy the most, as well as the detailed characteristics of each option. The main research tasks are:
- Consumers’ identification of brand key message;
- Getting associations, related images;
- Recognition of a double meaning generated by the name;
- Identifying the product image associated with the test name;
- Emotional reaction assessment;
- Conformity assessment of a brand name to consumer vocabulary;
- Assessment of pronunciation and reading ease, correctness, unambiguity;
- Correspondence of the brand name to the social, cultural, ethnic identity of consumers;
- Compliance of the brand name to the product category and brand positioning;
- Perception of the name in comparison with the names of competing brands.
Naming research is conducted using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Qualitative methods are usually implemented in the focus groups method, in more rare cases as part of individual interviews (more often in the B2B segment). Main tasks:
- Free associations, association chains;
- Directed associations;
- Readability test;
- Product shelf modeling;
- Situational modeling;
- Rating.
Quantitative methods are a formalized survey of the brand’s target audience using questionnaires (it can be conducted both in the course of a mass survey with a large representative sample, and in the form of a mini-survey during focus groups):
- Scores;
- Semantic differential;
- Pair comparison method;
- Ranking.
