Product Naming

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2010 AT 9:16AM

Coming up with a great name for a product is getting harder and harder in the information age. The colloquial wisdom about domain names is, "all the good ones are taken." It is even hard to create a new name that isn't a word -- there is competition for what is known as a six-letter pronounceable name.

I had some great product names trademarked in the early 1990's but didn't keep them. Now I wish I had. I was using the name LaunchPad for a product in 1991, which is one of the ones I wish I'd kept.

Naming can be the most important part of a product's success. If it's memorable, invokes an image of the product, it will help sell the product. We all know stories of iconic names that eventually became part of the language, like zipper and escalator and kleenex and baggie.

My favorite product name this week is Webster. Combined with the packaging, which puts an anthropomorphic face to go with the name, and the double meaning for a cobweb cleaning tool, this name meets all the criteria for greatness.