The concept of "brand name development" is easily understood: You create a great new company or product, give it a name you love, then immediately, it is embraced by your target audience. 

In reality, however, creating, evaluating, selecting and registering an effective brand name is far more complex and difficult.

Self-naming almost never produces a successful result because those doing the naming lack the skills, tools, experience and time required.  Moreover, the names yielded are often so common they fail to pass difficult trademark challenges and cannot be registered or protected.

Meet the Expert

About Rick

  • 18 years of naming products - clients include: Kraft, General Mills, Tropicana, Nestlé, Quaker Oats, Fujitsu, GE, HP, Intel, AT&T, Electronic Arts, Louis Vuitton, Moet Hennessy, Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer
  • President, Addison Design Consultants
  • Advertising Manager - Pepsi-Cola Company - for Pepsi Challenge; marketing Manager for Pepsi Free and Slice

Experience

Chief Executive Officer • Idiom Brand Identity, Inc.
1995 — Present
  • Idiom has created hundreds of well-known names for global food and technology companies including:  Kraft, General Mills, HP, Tropicana, Intel, Nestlé, Quaker Oats, Fujitsu, Louis Vuitton, Intel, AT&T, General Electric, Electronic Arts, Moet Hennessy
  • Idiom's work also features the creation of names for innovative medical products.  Clients include Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Bayer, Covidien, Quest Diagnostics, FoxHollow, Ferndale Labs
  • Idiom has developed proprietary software - Lingtwistics™ - to access vocabulary related to name objectives with pinpoint accuracy - in any language!
  • Lingtwistics™ deconstructs name ingredients, then reassembles them to incorporate natural human speech patterns and rhythms
  • Idiom's "game techniques" turn name objectives into games and exercises to explore beyond the normal limits of creativity
President • Addison Design Consultants
1984 — 1994
  • Addison is an independent branding, sustainability and digital communications design firm with a heritage in annual reporting and information simplification.
  • Started the firm's naming business, adding to the firm's corporate, retail and product identity practice. The result was NameBreak, one of the first naming specialists in the United States.
Advertising Manager • Pepsi-Cola Company
1980 — 1984
  • Advertising manager for the highly successful Pepsi Challenge
  • Marketing Manager for Pepsi Free, the company's non-caffeinated cola
  • New product launch for Slice, the first soft drink with 10% real juice

Education

University of California, Los Angeles, The Anderson School of Management
MBA, Finance, Marketing, 1980
Stanford University
BA, English Literature, 1974

Academic Honors

with Distinction

What People Are Saying About Rick

Rick Bragdon's level of expertise in brand and product name development is solid and superior. In our short session, he was able to communicate not just best practices for naming, but reliable processes by which I can guide my clients. A day after my call with Rick, I was able to confidently launch the naming process with two clients. I simply don't know how I would have found just the right expert without TrustedPeer.
Elea Carey
Co-Founder
Women's Startup Lab
Rick Bragdon put us on the right path for renaming our digital advertising agency. First, Rick showed us the method and the recipe for name brainstorming. He took the time to help us understand the process, and get in the right frame of mind. Then he showed us specific tools we can use to find synonyms and to create new word combinations. Lastly, he brainstormed with us, during the session and after the session, and came up with some interesting names to riff off of. Based on our phone session and the post-session write-up, I’d highly recommend Rick.
Terry Whalen
Managing Director
CPC Search
I have built a very successful business distributing my products into the speciality channel and I needed to expand distribution to mass market retailers. I thought my session with Rick Bragdon would help me create a new mass market name/brand. I left my session with a mass market strategy!
Nancy Baird
Owner/President
Creature Comforts
Packages with Rick starting from $490

Your Expert Package Includes:

Best Practices

Access to ALL Best Practices authored by TrustedPeer Expert Rick Bragdon on this topic.

Pre-Meeting Discovery Process

Review and analysis of your issue with pre-meeting discovery questions by Rick, followed by a 30- or 60-minute one-on-one call. Sample

One+-on-One Call

Your (+colleagues) meeting is directed and focused from the first minute.

Meeting Summary Report

After your call, Rick completes a Meeting Summary Report to provide you with the session’s discussion topics, analysis, assessment and recommendations for next steps. Sample

Post-Meeting Engagement

After your meeting, continue your relationship with Rick on your own, or with TrustedPeer’s support.
Loading...