Faced with a corporate or product naming assignment, you may conjure visions of silly corporate naming competitions over cold pizza or the endless search for the elusive, available url, which often results in a substandard name by default. While happy accidents can happen, most naming exercises fail because they are purely subjective, not based on any brand strategy.

Because a name is the most visible manifestation of your brand, whether it is a corporate, product or service brand, it needs to be built on a solid foundation. Having lead quite a few naming processes, I've found success by breaking down the process into six steps.