How to Name Your Brand with Anthony Shore

Naming your brand should be an easy task, but if you’ve ever tried it, you know how there’s so much to consider to land on the right thing. Today, we’re chatting with Anthony Shore about naming products and brands, along with an eye-opening discussion on Twitter’s new “debrand” into X.

This week, episode 01 of the Fired Up! Podcast is about the brand naming process and how to know when you’ve found the right one!

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In this episode of the Fired Up! Podcast, Anthony Shore shares the importance of naming your product and startup. We also discuss some actionable steps to get started with a quality name for your startup or product.

Anthony Shore is the Chief Operative of Operative Words. Over the course of 30 years, he has introduced more than 250 product and company names to the world. Trained as a linguist at UC Santa Cruz, his BA thesis received the Chancellor’s Award and Linguistics degree Honors. As Global Director of Naming and Writing for Landor Associates, he led naming, nomenclature, and brand strategy projects for Global 500 companies for 13 years. A year at Lexicon Branding and prior jobs as a photomechanical typesetter, software marketer, product manager, copywriter, and door-to-door fundraiser have shaped his real-world and holistic perspective on brand naming. In 2009, he started his agency, Operative Words, to focus exclusively on what he is good at: creating memorable and effective brand names in six words or fewer.

Anthony, Morgan and Chris discuss:

- How Twitter’s new brand to X is actually a debrand.
- Why a good brand name is important for a startup.
- Who should have a say in your brand naming process.
- Why group brainstorming sessions don’t work for brand naming.
- The step-by-step process to a powerful brand name.
- Selling a brand name up the ladder and to the broader public.
- Why there isn’t a different strategy for B2B brand naming.
- Hot takes on good and bad brand naming practices.
- Examples of rebrands that make sense.

Thank you for listening! Tune in to all the episodes for practical tips on crushing your startup marketing goals. Don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast, and tell us your key takeaways!