Chocobeam Sound Lab. The beginning.
So I founded my company and called it Chocobeam (Sound Lab). I find that it’s interesting to come out with a word to imagine a name because at some point, it’s pure sound.
When you hear the name of something, the brain converts audio to words to meaning. So the audio layer comes on first, even if it’s for a micromillisecond so you are not even noticing it (because the meaning is really what the brain is searching for).
Anyway this sound is what people are sharing and spreading by word of mouth about you, first. It also can be repeated in the case of a success, billion times everywhere. You’d better sound good when there’s competition, it can make a difference.
So my references are for most of them japanese: Nintendo, Capcom, Konami, Softbank etc or from the web and computer world: Twitter, Vimeo, Amazon, Google.. What I found is that:
- They are easy to say for a lot of people around the world. Of course based on english.
- Contraction of two words (Capsule Computer seriously, it’s genius) works good. I personally find that it’s better to have a cool name that having a perfect description of the service/product.
- Three syllables is always a win because it’s like a story: there’s a start, a middle and and end. People love stories. UPS sounds finished, Fedex not much. Two syllables is dangerous, too fast for people to remember it and after three, the more you have the more it’s boring to say. The more you have, the more you can describe and give meaning though. It still often sounds boring or pompous.
- People need to be able to read it and pronounce it well at first try. Super not easy. I remember the first time I heard about Nintendo I thought it was hard to say. And weird to read.
With that in mind, considering my values and what my business is about, I came to Chocobeam. Sounds cute (Chocobo anyone?) and kind of edgy even pronounced ala française (without the Ch dynamic). Some people just want to read Chocobean but I can’t do nothing for them. Get back to school? Kidding.
The meaning is quite simple: contraction of chocolate and beam, chocolate being me and the beam being my audio. Be kind, to get this brainstorm done I almost had a phlebitis.
Beam has two others meaning though: in french beam is “bim” and it kind of reminds me of the slang in the suburbs of Paris. “BIM! dans ta sale face lààà!” meaning “BAM! motherfucker”, adding a comics-related and active sound while reminding me where I come from.
BEAM is also an acronym and means Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics and Mechanics (BEAM robotics). I think it fits well my work in the interactive design and computer games field.
Looking at that sometime I really believe that how the name of your service/brand/product sounds has a big impact. I wrote about it two years ago when there was so much web 2.0 services with stupid names. Who made it through time? None with weird silly sounding names and difficult pronunciation. Facebook fits my points above. Three-four syllables, good dynamic between consonant and sibilant, easy to say around the world, easy to write and have some meaning (and humor). Instant interest, instant good feeling. Perfect.
Counter example: Aka-Aki. The service is interesting and promising. The name is awful. Freaking not appealing at all. It sounds complicated. It sounds boring (“can you spell it to me?”), you can’t hardly get it the first time you hear it (and I had to search the web to be sure of how it’s written even if I already was aware of his existence!). It’s like people creating this service found that it was a fun and cool name. It’s already killing them outside Germany where they are quite successful.
If you want some consulting on this issue, if you need advices to help you find the timeless name of your product, brand, application, feel free to send an email at info@chocobeam.com.