Naming Scheme Canvas | Verbal Design System Series Part 3

This is Part 3 of the Verbal Design System Series. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven't done so.

A map of foreign territory

In Part 1 and 2, we introduced the Verbal Landscape framework, which gave us a way to map the linguistic territory of our competitors and users and immerse ourselves in their ways of speaking, in way similar to staying in a foreign country.

Defining our own territory

Today, we'll head back home and start defining who we are.

What major themes govern our brand or product and how do they affect the different facets of the organization and products?

Do we want to enforce a unified theme or guiding metaphor for the brand or let each product or unit create its own according to its target market and functions?

How do we represent these metaphors and themes in a single document that gives us a big picture of our own language use?

These are the questions that the Naming Scheme Canvas aims to answer. By answering these questions, we take one step closer to crafting a strong verbal identity that, together with a well-defined visual identity, creates a memorable brand for employees, contractors, and customers.

Note: This is called Metaphor Universe in Version 1 of the Verbal Design System workbook.

The Template

The template is a canvas layout with the first row for brand or organization name and themes. The succeeding rows are spaces for various facets of the organization or brand that can be named.

Brand/Organization Name

This is where you place your organization or brand name. If you're a large organization, this could be one of your subsidiaries, unit, or major brand.

Themes/Metaphors

List down the major or central themes and metaphors that govern your brand in this section of the canvas. Some brands choose a central theme that determines the names of everything else, while others have a looser set of themes and metaphors.

Your brand metaphor can be something abstract like the Zaltman's deep metaphors:

• Balance
• Transformation
• Journey
• Container
• Connection
• Resource
• Control

Or it could be something more concrete like plants, water, space, crystals, or flowers. From your chosen theme, you can develop a wide variety of associated names and words in your Facets. 

Facets

Facets are different aspects of your brand or organization that can have names, internal and external. Some examples are:

• Conference room names
• Workforce branding (what you call your employees or new hires)
• Names of training programs or certifications
• Membership or pricing tiers (e.g. Silver, Bronze, Platinum)
• Product feature names
• Sub-product names
• What you call your services
• Job titles
• Names of activities (e.g. Wellness Wednesdays, Taco Tuesdays)
• Nickname for user base (e.g. Googlers, Xeroids, Monzonauts, Microsofties, Shopifolks)
• Names of in-app currency or actions (e.g. Heart, Favorite, Star, Honey)

Do all the facets need to match the major or central theme?

The facets don't necessarily need to match the major or central theme, especially if the products or features are targeting different markets or audience segments.

Read up on brand architecture for details.

The important thing here is that we document and articulate our naming scheme for different parts of our brand, organization, or product in a single place so that we clearly define our brand identity.

Current or future state?

The Naming Scheme canvas can be a documentation of how you name the different aspects of your organization, brand, or product as a way to see where you are in terms of verbal identity.

But you can also create an aspirational canvas that defines your new or future verbal identity especially if you're a startup or in the middle of a rebranding effort.

Example: Swarm

Swarm is an invite-only freelancer network where members ideate, strategize, and form freelance teams around startup founder projects.

Their main theme or metaphor is that of a beehive, emphasizing the power of cooperation. From this main theme they derived the names of features such as honey, the in-app "currency" you gain when you're praised by members of the community or do other actions that increase your reputation.

Example: Make Lemonade

Make Lemonade is a self-described "quartet of makers, creators, movers and shakers". Their flagship product is called lemon squeezy, an all-in-one finance platform for SaaS businesses, which handles payments, subscriptions, global tax compliance, fraud prevention, multi-currency support, failed payment recovery, PayPal integration.

Despite the seriousness of the solution, the brand has a refreshing brand voice that's reflected in its name and other facets of its brand.

For example, the case studies section of their website is called "Juice Drops" while their blog is called "Lemon Drops". Some of the naming scheme products don't necessarily follow the main theme. This may not be a problem if it's intentional and the naming strategy.

Conclusion

Putting together the different names we use across the organization in a single place helps us:

• Define a strong verbal identity that makes our brand memorable
• Guides how we create new names for aspects of the organization or product

Did you find this useful? Do you have other good examples of naming schemes for different aspects of companies, brands, or products? Leave a comment below and follow me for more content exploring the impact of language on digital products and brands.