Choosing a Brand Name Here is a list of what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to brand names according to Frank Delano, author of The Omnipowerful Brand. What Works Beginning and ending the brand name with the same letter—Delano says that makes the name easy to remember. Examples include Nissan’s Altima car, Ortho chemicals, and Elle women’s magazine. Adding a vowel to the end of a word, transforming a common word into a proprietary trademark—An example is Lyrica, the name of a drug used to treat psychotropic conditions.
Ending a brand name with the letter “a”—Delano says the letter “a” makes the name sound friendly, like Humana.
Ending a brand name with the syllable “va,” particularly if the brand needs to have an international feel—Delano says “va” means “to go forward” in Latin-based languages. Some examples include IBM’s Aptiva PC and Polaroid’s Captiva instant camera. Delano cautions that you should be careful about the prefix or stem syllable that is linked with the “va” suffix.…