When hearing about naming agency versus branding agency, for sure you assume that naming is a small part of branding and a branding agency can do what a naming agency does, but a naming agency can’t do what a branding agency does.

And this is true. In theory. Even if, theoretical, branding agencies are doing naming in their branding process, there is a difference between this two types of agencies.

Firstly, let’s see what each of them is doing:

Branding agency

As the name says, a branding agency does…branding. The brand can become the most valuable asset of a company if it is very well build and managed. Powerful brands are built in years and are grown up by the company itself. However, the branding agency is playing a major role in setting up the base of the future brand.

A professional branding agency is not limited to a logo. It starts with defining the brand strategy - market insight, positioning, product definition, brand hierarchy etc.- and continues with brand identity - name, logo, messaging, graphic themes, tagline etc.-

Naming agency

What can a naming agency do if not…naming?

As you may notice, naming is a small part of the brand strategy.

So maybe you are asking yourself: ‘Why should I work with a naming agency if a branding one gives me the name + all the other stuff’?

Here is the answer and the difference we are talking about:

As we said, naming agencies are doing naming and that’s it. They are building names, they are breathing names, they are dreaming about names. All they do is about naming. And this means they are doing it very well.

1. If a branding agency builds the brand strategy in order to design the whole brand identity, a naming agency builds the same brand strategy in order to design only the name.

Focusing on the name only, naming agencies put all its resources at stake to find the perfect name for the new brand. It does not happen in branding agencies, where the name falls under the responsibility of a copywriter in many cases. We are not saying that copywriters are not good at their job, but naming is not their primary job. There are searching for names through other tasks like headlines or advert content. Finding a good name should be in the hands of an entire team, not just a man.

2. Naming agencies has resources that branding agencies do not usually have or do not use

There is a whole process very well established when finding a name for a new brand. It can take up to 6 weeks to find the perfect name. After establishing the brand strategy and the countries where the brand will be present, a naming agency always:

• Does linguistic screening, working with native speaker linguists for all the established countries, in order to see if the proposed names have any meaning or positive/negative/vulgar connotation in those languages, the ease of pronunciation, possibility for mispronunciation, possible spelling problems etc. This step is essential in the naming process. Even big companies did big linguistic mistakes.
• Does a trademark prescreening, working with international attorneys, in order to find out if the proposed names are available for trademark or not.

By highlighting these differences we are not saying that branding agencies are not doing a good job in their field or they are not professionals. For sure they are. They are just not allocating so many resources for the name as a naming agency does, because this is just a small part of their job. And of course, naming agencies can’t do so well the job branding agencies are expert at.

I hope it is much clear now what a naming agency can do for you.

If you have a naming project, write us. We will be glad to be part of your team.

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