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Testing a name

Lesson 8 of 10 in Naming.

How to name a product, from the man behind Swiffer and BlackBerry · Quartz

Lesson

Testing a name by asking which people prefer produces the blandest option every time, because preference in a vacuum rewards familiarity and punishes anything new. A distinctive name is unfamiliar by definition, and unfamiliar reads as wrong in a survey.

Hundreds of names narrowing through screening to the two that survive.

On the left a group all point at a plain grey cube among three, and on the right a driver hears a curly sound ribbon from the radio and later redraws it correctly. — On the left, a crowd picks the dullest box when asked what they like. On the right, a driver still recalls a name heard on the radio. Test recall and spelling, not preference.

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Question 1, locked
A panel is shown eight names on a card and asked which they prefer. What will that method reliably hand back?
- The name that is easiest to spell, because spelling drives what people say they like.
- The most distinctive name, once enough people have seen it written down.
- The least surprising name, because preference in a vacuum rewards familiarity.
- A reliable read on what people assume the company sells.
Question 2, locked
Which of these words means this? “Asking people which name they like. Almost always the wrong question.”
- Decision-maker
- Association test
- Preference test
- Modifier
Question 3, locked
Which of these words means this? “Whether people remember it later. A far better predictor.”
- Screening
- Specification
- Recall test
- Genericide

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