How would I create my own brand name?

How can I create a catchy brand name?

• Answer:

  The creative process is beautiful, mysterious, and at times, frustrating. There are times that great ideas pop to the top of one's mind almost as the question is asked. Other times, well, it can take weeks to 'crack' it. I do have a couple of rules for brand names, though, the first of which is that you need to be able to find yourself on Twitter or Google. Yes, Apple got away with it, but any word that is in daily, generic use is probably not a good idea because any search will simply deliver a large number of irrelevant results. And, given the character limit on Twitter, you probably don't want to go much beyond 8 or 10 characters. Other hygiene issues involve not being offensive, and all that kind of stuff. I should also mention that if you have a great product that you produce and market with a maximum of passion the brand name could end up being irrelevant. Other standards are simplicity, memorability and relevance. So, how would I seed the creative process? I'd play with all/some of the following: what customer frustrations are you aiming to remove? is there anything that is relevant to the product or you personally? does your location have an interesting name? Then, I would do a lot of thinking, sketching, playing - with gaps in between, because it is in the moments of non-directed activity that the mind may reveal the winning ideas. Sleep on it, do some exercise, have a shower, cook dinner, drink a glass of wine - whatever works for you, but start the process by doing some intensive thinking (even if it seems to be going nowhere). Good luck!