Brewing up the Perfect Partner Product Name

[Lee_Chapman]

When creating a new product or add-on tool, there are many challenges to consider, like determining features, distribution channels, and pricing. But often the biggest challenge is coming up with the perfect name -- and that challenge can be even greater if you’re naming a partner product.

Let’s break down the naming process a bit and apply NI’s naming strategy to give you an example of putting a naming theory into practice. So what goes into selecting a good product name? The first thing to settle on is a naming convention. Ideally this is done before you name your first product, but it’s never too late to put best practices in place.

Your primary consideration here is determining how much time and money you have, and want to spend on creating awareness for your name.

• If you have an ample marketing budget, you can go with a fanciful name -- a made-up name like Xerox or Motiva.
• If you have a more modest budget, a descriptive name like Data Acquisition Express will get you easier awareness.
• If you select a fanciful name, you may want to consider registering it as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• If you go with a descriptive name, you likely will not be granted trademark rights, as descriptive names are deemed generic and are open to anyone to use.
• At NI, we have National Instruments and NI trademarked as well as our software and hardware platform names. To see the complete list of NI trademarks, visit ni.com/trademarks.

Other product naming considerations include, whether or not to include your corporate brand as part of the naming convention or to include model numbers for hardware products and version numbers for software products. Locking in a naming convention and then consistently sticking to it is a product naming best practice.

At National Instruments, in most cases, we lead with NI because it’s our corporate brand, and has broad awareness and a positive reputation for delivering high-quality, innovative software and hardware products. Then we follow it with the software or hardware platform name, and then a descriptor/descriptive phrase of what the product does. We include a year distinction for software versions and a shortened NI hardware platform acronym or industry-standard bus name with a hyphen and four-digit model number for hardware products.

Software Naming Convention Examples:

NI LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit

NI LabVIEW 2011

Hardware Naming Convention Examples:

NI CompactRIO Real-Time Controllers

NI cRIO-9012

NI USB-8452

After you have completed the steps above, you may face an additional challenge of incorporating a third-party corporate and/or product name into your product name -- i.e. partner product naming. This is where we think you’ll appreciate some guidance from NI on how to properly include an NI product name or trademark as part of your product name.

The two main guidelines are:

1. Do not incorporate or include National Instruments trademarks into your company name, product name, domain name, or in the name of your service.
2. Ensure your product name is not confusingly similar to any of National Instruments trademarks.

Clear as mud, right? OK, now let’s break this down with a hypothetical naming scenario. Let’s say I have a company named FDB that is an NI Alliance Partner; and here at FDB, I’ve created an add-on tool that is Compatible with LabVIEW and that brews the ultimate beer. Clearly the perfect name for my add-on tool is LabBREW. It describes the product in someway (BREW) and also creates easy alignment with NI LabVIEW. Genius! Right?

So wait, what was the number two guideline again?

Although LabBREW may be a cool, fun name, trademark laws and industry-standard best practices say it’s not so genius. And here’s why. Combining parts or the whole of a trademarked name can create customer confusion on which company owns, supports, and/or is responsible for the product. Is LabBREW an NI product? If so why is a company named FDB selling it? If it breaks, or if the beer I brew with it tastes bad, do I call FDB or NI? You now can see how a customer may potentially be confused, and the possible impact to either FDB or NI that could result from this confusion.

So if I was at FDB, what could I name my product that would fit these two guidelines? One possibility might be: FDB Brew Right Add-on for NI LabVIEW. I know what you’re thinking. It’s long, it doesn’t roll off the tongue like LabBREW. But, it does provide clarity on who the product is from (FDB); what the product is (Add-on for NI LabVIEW); and what it does (Brew Right).  When given the choice between short and confusing vs. long and descriptive, NI chooses long and descriptive, and believes the trade-off to ensuring a strong brand, protecting our trademark rights to LabVIEW, and ensuring customer clarity are well worth it in the long run.

NI has a large network of developers like you, creating products that work with, or are compatible with, NI trademarked products like LabVIEW. The synergy between products creates a win/win between partner products and NI products. Help us help you market and make your product successful while ensuring that your product’s name complies with these guidelines.

Happy product naming, and this brew’s for you!

by Lee Chapman, NI Brand Policy Manager