Margot Jegerings: 'The name and words that are given to a brand define its place in the world.'

The world is full of names and brands: what makes a good one?

One that makes your ideas become graspable and recognizable. And at the same time, one that rises above the noise. But mostly, a name that makes sense with your strategy and positioning. A name that creates maximum room for the idea to come to life is the right one.

You need to be able to show who you are now, and who you want to be in the future. It should really be a full circle. The tricky part is that you have to be flexible enough to expand, yet distinctive enough to rise above the noise.

When you deliver a final presentation to the client, you deliver many verbal elements that link together, like a brand promise, brand personality and brand story. However, these sometimes stay behind the scenes for the eventual audience. How do you make sure the right message comes across anyway?

It’s actually not necessary for the audience to know all the ins and outs. As long as the strategy is well-defined internally, the right message will be spread externally. It doesn’t need to raise the full story, but it needs a core idea – making it possible for the company to grow in the direction they want to.

What projects come to mind when speaking of brands that verbally stole the show?

Definitely YouSendIt vs. WeTransfer. Two exact same products. YouSendIt came around first and did great, because this allowed people to have control over sending large files themselves. Yet, the name is all about what their target audience has to do, not about what they can help them with. 

What WeTransfer emphasizes is how they take that burdn off your hands. That way, the name creates an emotional connection between the user and the brand. It’s no surprise WeTransfer stole the show, whereas YouSendIt disappeared behind the curtains. 

Another one of my favorites is The North Face. Their brand uses the toughest side of the Mount Everest as their name, something not everybody knows. It serves as a symbol for their brand indicating they’re up for a challenge and it suits the outdoors. The brand makes insiders, as well as those just starting, feel seen and immediately think: this is a brand for me. With the right words, you can create connections on multiple levels.  

Some think that once you have a positioning, you just give it a name. But it doesn’t work like that. We strategically explore more name ideas than just one, so that eventually you find the one that clicks in place, with the desired positioning in mind. It’s the power of words. The words we use define how we communicate and how we feel about things. Using the right ones can make people feel connected to your company.

How do you know if it clicks?

We always ask our clients what they try to achieve with their brand. Often, they respond with something like “we want to be the new Apple”. But once you start showing them the options in that direction, they realize it doesn’t fit with who they are. It may be too far-fetched, too far away from their own situation and view on the world. From there on, it all depends on the choices a client is daring to make. 

An example of when naming clicks in place is Critizr: a customer engagement platform that - by its name - associated itself with critics. We turned it around to talk about something positive: Goodays. A logical switch, engaging on an emotional level by literally starting the conversation with ‘good day’ and positive times ahead.

Speaking of emotions, there’s this robot-like creature, ChatGPT. We all said it isn’t as human-like in its creations, but now we can’t seem to distinguish real from fake. How does that affect the world of naming?

Fifty-fifty. It’s quite terrifying if you think (too much) of its future capabilities. But we’re also quite happy with how ChatGPT can help you sharpen your thinking. 

One reason to not have AI create your next best Nike, is because a personal, human sparring partner can take emotion and legal considerations into account and is able to think along with you and your company’s future goals. We base our knowledge on experience, we ask questions, and keep asking them until we get to the core. Us humans have the great creative capabilities that AI does not have yet. AI looks at what your competitors are doing. Although it sometimes tries to do things differently, it really doesn't know how to do that in a meaningful way. Humans do.

Globrands has rebranded itself. What direction have you taken?

The new direction is one we’ve actually been on for quite a while. Now, we’re finally walking the talk of what we tell our clients to do: seek their boundaries. As a strategic partner, we reword your goals in a way that makes your market five times bigger than it was before, by now addressing new target audiences or languages. By going international, we have expanded that field for ourselves too. 

As our rebranding starts to resonate within the team, we are more ambitious than ever. Whereas we used to be ambitious only for our clients, we’ve now added ourselves to that ambition list. We’re geeks working in a niche. We get excited about this specific piece of branding that results in the finest solutions. 

We’re aiming to become Europe’s Thought Leader in the world of verbal identity and naming. And to be honest with you, after 40 years, we’re quite close – if we aren’t there already. There’s so much knowledge and skill in our team. This time around, we’re turning ourselves inside out. Sharing our knowledge and craft for the world to see.

You’re changing, but the world is changing even faster. How do you keep up?

We’re in a pretty luxurious position here, because we work together with lots of experts in different disciplines. The beautiful thing is that while you’re working together, you’re amplifying each other, and each other’s work. 

It’s the cool thing about our work, we’re always at the foundation of new ideas and developments. We see how the world is changing, what type of people are working where, what questions companies have. By listening to the community and asking questions, we stay up to date.

We’re forty years in; where are Globrands at in 2028?

Leading in Europe as verbal strategy and naming consultants. Growing companies and organizations looking to turn their market upside down and expand come to us. We help them put words to their strategy, so they can make connections with their audience.

Seriousness aside, what makes it all fun?

Definitely the puns, haha. The core of what we do is of course based on strategy, but it’s also very playful. During sessions, we take clients out of their bubble and suddenly we’re taking a trip down memory lane, making music or movie references or coming up with great puns. And the best part; the fun is necessary to achieve the results.