The Scarcliff Branding Dictionary

Any stylized graphic treatment of a brand name.

The visual aspects of a brand identity. Compare verbal identity.

Any brand name created by pairing two verbs. The virtue of this type of name is that it immediately lets the consumer how to use certain types of products, but it usually does not make for a very engaging brand. The Playskool Rock ’n Ride rocking horse and the McCormick Bag ’n Seasonroasting bag and seasoning blend are examples of this naming technique.

The verbal aspects of a brand identity. Compare visual identity.

The typestyles characterizing a brand identity.

Any verb which more precisely indicates the manner of doing something. For example, in English, ‘to stroll’ is ‘to walk’, but in a more leisurely manner.

Any brand name or descriptor derived from a place name or other geographic feature. For example, Kyocera, short for Kyoto Ceramics, is named after Kyoto, Japan, and champagne is named after the historic Champagne province of France. The advantage of a carefully chosen topnym is its richness and depth. Many truck and car brands take advantage of the power of a place name: the GMC Denali, the Kia Sedona, the Subaru Outback, the Suzuki Verona, the Toyota Tacoma, etc.

Any brand name derived from the name of an animal. This naming technique is arguably the oldest in existence, taking advantage of the natural human desire to emulate the admirable qualities of the natural world around us. The Ford Mustang sports car and Chicago BearsAmerican football team are two classic examples.

The likelihood that a given brand name will stand out in a length of text, such as a Wall Street Journal article. Many factors can contribute to a word’s textual visibility, including its length, initial letter, and spelling.Xerox is an example of a brand name with high textual visibility. See Discourse Audibility.

Any company name derived from the name of one of that company’s successful products or services. The term technonym was originally applied to the practice in some cultures of renaming a parent after one of his or her children.