Medical Device Link.

Choosing a name is one of the most important decisions a company can make when launching a new brand. The name is usually the one element of the brand identity that remains constant. Other elements, such as packaging and tag lines, can change on a fairly regular basis.

TippingSprung fielded one of the first-ever surveys of brand names to acknowledge some of the great and not-so-great names that have launched recently. The survey also identified some key considerations and trends in brand naming.

This article, the first in a two-part series, will focus on the results within medical and pharmaceutical naming. The follow-up article, to appear next issue, will go into some of the broader naming trends.

Consulting with a panel of industry experts, we determined nine key categories. For each category, the panel then nominated and voted on a list of finalists that were included in the final survey. To make the cut, a nominee had to be timely, relevant, and pioneering. (In the drug category, by the time drugs appear on the market, they reflect naming trends that might have been popular three to five years earlier.) None of the names included in the survey were developed by TippingSprung.

The survey was sent to 6864 branding and marketing professionals at major firms. Of these, 393 of them responded within the time limit.

Here are the results for the question focusing on pharmaceuticals:

The Latinate “A” ending continues to be very consumer friendly and popular, as reflected in the top three names in this category: Aldara, Inspra, and Lunesta. For the sleep aid Lunesta, a soothing, calming name that suggests the moon makes a great deal of sense. But for Aldara, and Inspra, which are prescribed for more-serious indications (genital warts and heart failure, respectively), the drug companies could have chosen a name that sounds more efficacious or hard-hitting.

The popularity of names like Aldara, Inspra, and Lunesta reflects the rise in direct-to-consumer advertising. These names are nonthreatening, which makes it easier to talk about serious conditions and to request a prescription.

Factive, on the other hand, is a very strong name. Factive is an antibiotic, often prescribed for pneumonia or bronchitis, so it’s important to telegraph effectiveness. Factive does just that.

We were surprised to see Abilify score so low, as this goes against the trend that real words (or names that are close to real words) are preferred. Perhaps the association with ability is a little too obvious, and patients expect names to be more coined and scientific looking.

In addition to trademark issues, pharmaceutical names must meet a stringent set of regulatory criteria that determine what claims the name can make, and the likely risk of confusion with another name. The only way to clear all these hurdles is to develop a coined name, which is why 2004 saw the introduction of such names as Erbitux, Vidaza, Xifaxan, and Campral.

Our survey results show that it is possible to create consumer-friendly coined names like Lunesta and Aldara in the pharmaceutical category. But as new guidelines for direct-to-consumer advertising come into effect, we may see a return to names that communicate strength and efficacy, and are targeted more to physicians.

Figure 1: Nearly 400 branding professionals weighed in on drug brand names.

Copyright ©2005 Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News