How do I pick a brand name people will remember?

A good name is not super obvious, but it's kind of obvious. People should know what it is when they see it, and they should actually want to say it.

For the specific formula I use on local newsletters (place plus a simple word like Insider or Scoop), see how to name a local newsletter. This page is about making any brand name stick.

What makes a name clear?

Put the place and the topic in it. For an Austin wellness newsletter, my rule was that Austin has to be in it, and wellness ideally, unless there's a perfect word I'm not thinking of. We want it to be clear what it is when people see it.

Why not just use what ChatGPT suggests?

Because most of what AI tools give you is generic. I've done this a hundred times. You get names that kind of make sense but aren't brandable.

"can you imagine somebody wearing a shirt that says ATX Clean Living? It just sounds boring, right?"

Two tests I use:

• The T-shirt test. Would somebody wear it?
• The say-it-out-loud test. Would people say the name when they talk about you? About 90% of AI brands fail this. AI Unchained, AI Forge, all the names AI gives you, aren't good. People will happily say a name with personality. They won't say "the AI advantage."

On YouTube, the thumbnail and the title of each episode do most of the work at first. The brand name matters once you have an audience and people start talking about you.

What about the domain?

Check the .com before you fall in love. I tell anyone brainstorming with me: don't send me a good name if the .com isn't available, because I'll like it and then we can't have it. The .com is better, though some domains have gotten expensive. Some .ai domains have been raised to about $160.

Should I use my own name?

Use a real brand name with your voice inside it. That's even better than a personal brand, because it's both. Your name can be part of it, and someone else can step in later if you ever want to sell. My local newsletter has a regular brand name, but when you read it, you hear my voice: I'm doing this, I'm hosting this AI training.

For a niche media company, I'd put Twitter and LinkedIn under your own name, and the newsletter and YouTube channel under the brand. The trade-offs for local brands are in whether you have to be the face of your newsletter.

How do I keep a consistent look across several brands?

Pick one repeatable logo concept and swap the words. I've been playing with a license-plate style logo for my local brands. I love that it has five words at the bottom, so it sells what it is in the logo. With ChatGPT images, I hand it an approved design and say: redo the last one, same design, same concept, same everything, just different words.

When I want options, I ask it to act like a top brand expert who designs logos for $100 million companies, give me six unique designs on one image, and make sure the wordmark looks good on its own outside the template.

What if I need to rebrand?

Do it slowly, one thing at a time. When I asked an AI tool about rebranding, that was its key point, and I agree. I dropped "newsletter" from my business brand, because what we build is much more than newsletters. But "local newsletter" is what people search for, so I keep it in the tagline and copy so those people know we still cover it. The slogan became: build modern, creator-led local media brands.

Match the words to the channel, too. On the website, people are there to buy, so use action words like "launch." On the podcast or YouTube, people aren't there to buy, so "learn" fits better. If you're naming what you sell to advertisers, see why I frame a newsletter as a digital publication in explaining ad pricing.