You are here: Navigating a naming ecosystem
It’s been a while since most of us have been to a theme park, a music festival, a zoo, or even a museum. If my memory serves me, these environments come with maps and directories, so you can plan your experience accordingly and tell your friends to meet you at the churro stand at noon. Not having your bearings can feel disorienting, no matter how much you’ve missed being in a hot sweaty crowd.
These types of settings are branded experiences. Through language and visual design, they’ve curated an environment that feels specific to that brand, where all of the activities and spaces feel connected and thematic.
In a lot of ways, this is how it feels when you come across any brand that has a suite of sub-brands, products, features, and services. By default, they’re using a broad spectrum of naming styles. If they’ve done it well, the audience won’t get lost.
When there’s so much on offer, it can help to categorize the naming styles, because each one provides different context clues for the audience. Along with my colleague Ben Weis, who’s written about naming architectures and systems, we’ve narrowed it down to four categories: wayfinding, dictionary descriptive, branded descriptive, and evocative.
To use a real-life branded experience as an example (and because it’s almost summer), let’s look at a place I recently passed on a road trip: Magic Springs Theme and Water Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Wayfinding
E.g.: Main Entrance, ATM, Restrooms, Lockers, Stroller Rental
Wayfinding names barely come across as names at all. This is simple language that exists to help the audience navigate a space (or a website or mobile app). The examples listed above are things that most theme parks have, and as a result, there’s no need for a creative name — in fact, a creative name would probably do more harm than good. A word like “Mainspring” instead of “Main Entrance” would just confuse people.
You can think of good wayfinding language like good wayfinding design, which uses intuitive, universal symbols to help guide the audience. Or, you can think of it like a good typeface: most are designed for reading, so they’re most effective when you hardly even notice them.
Dictionary descriptive
E.g.: Beer Garden, Old Time Photo, Carousel, Picnic Pavilions
Dictionary descriptive names do exactly what they promise: they describe an offering with about as much creative flair as Webster’s Dictionary. While wayfinding names help customers find the most basic, expected features, dictionary descriptive names are for offerings that may be expected, but are also core to the experience. These are table stakes: they’re not huge differentiators, and they’re not meant to draw people in, but they do enhance the experience overall.
For some brands, it can be hard to accept that a new offering is table stakes, because so much work has gone into developing it. But if you give everything a fanciful, evocative name, you end up diluting what’s actually unique (and probably lose your audience long the way). That said, dictionary descriptive names aren’t always a snoozefest — think of smartphone features like a dual-camera system or photo geotagging.
Branded descriptive
E.g.: Crystal Cove Wave Pool, Pinecone Theater, Rapid Falls Raceway
This is where you begin to hear some of the brand voice coming through. The examples above all have to do with the park theme and/or setting, making them feel more specific to this experience. Branded descriptive names are best used for offerings that are not table stakes and play a role (even if it’s a minor role) in differentiating the brand from its competitors.
On the spectrum of descriptive names, there’s plenty of grey area between dictionary and branded. One difference is the level of investment required: i.e. the less descriptive a name is, the more marketing dollars are required to educate the audience on what the offering is.
Evocative
E.g.: Arkansas Twister, The Gauntlet, Big Bad John, SkyShark
These are the pièces de résistance — the main attractions with the most marketing power and investment behind them. These are the names you see on billboards 50 miles outside the park, and that’s because there’s only one place to find them.
Evocative names are meant to elicit a response from the audience. Most consumer brands have evocative names that come from metaphor, spark the audience’s curiosity, or begin to tell a story. These types of names are the most engaging and differentiating (it’s hard to imagine someone getting in line for the “Big Twisty Roller Coaster”). They also require the most investment and audience context, which is why they’re used sparingly.
When these naming styles are used strategically, perhaps according to an existing brand architecture, the audience can easily understand the relationships and hierarchies between offerings. In that sense, knowing “You Are Here” is just as important for the people doing the naming as it is for the audience.
Thanks to Ben Weis.
