The Making of a Name: The Inside Story of the Brands We Buy

by Steve Rivkin and Fraser Sutherland

Jack Trout (Foreword)

How do brand names differ from other names, and what goes into making a good name great and a bad name ghastly? Knowing this can spell the difference between bankruptcy and marketplace triumph.
In this indispensable guide, the authors share the secrets of successful brand names--how they've indelibly stamped cultures around the world; who makes them; why they're made; and how they're compiled, bought, sold, and protected. The book outlines what kind of names exist--the initialized, descriptive, allusive, and coined. How namers surf on brainwaves. The do's, don'ts, and nevers of naming, how the structure of names is built from the ground up and how their sounds are engineered. Why names symbolize benefits. Where in the world brands may be found, and what will become of them.
Fast-paced, illustration-packed, gazing at the past and probing into the future, this is the definitive book on naming. The Making of A Name is the one book anyone interested in "owned words" must have.

"Right now, all over America, millions of freelancers are starting companies, inventing products and marketing their services. Whether they're laid-off dot-com kids or unfulfilled Boomers, they have one thing in common--they all need names. Sadly for them, there's no book on the market that lays out the process. Rivkin and Sutherland's book will fill that gap. It's packed with useful 'how to' as well as tales both inspiring and cautionary: back-stories on the brand names we know--and why we love or hate them."
--Laurie Pollock,
formerly Senior Partner, Planning Director
at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising in New York

• ISBN10: 0195168720
• ISBN13: 9780195168723
• Publish Date: 11 November 2004
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

Everything you've ever and never wanted to know about choosing a business or product name and what the effect of the name will have on possible clients or buyers. Interesting but very focused on a specific readership, which wasn't really me.