Developing a product name

To generate ideas of names that are not only the best match to our brand spirit, but also solve business problems, we have formulated our approach to naming. General principles and stages of naming development are described in the following guide.

General principles of naming

We create new product names when we add new items to the menu, make collaborations or launch special projects. Regardless of the context of the task, we stick to this concept. So, a good product name:

1. Consistent with the brand positioning. For example, the name “Chorizo Fresh” emphasises Dodo’s adherence to the use of fresh ingredients. But “Exquisite Chorizo” is not about us, we avoid pathos and "gourmetism" in our communications and always talk about products with realistic terminology.
2. Does not contain adjectives that describe emotional extremes or cause negative associations. For example, we will never have “Crazy Pizza” or “Crazy Dodster” on our menu.
3. Empowers product value, if that is what we need. For foods at an affordable price category we choose simple and descriptive names (e.g. “Meat”); for products in the higher price category we go for vivid names with a personal touch (e.g. “Chef’s pizza”). This approach allows the customers to clearly distinguish the categories.
4. Instantly informs customers about the product flavour. Functional and clear names are better than creative ones as they help pizzeria guests to quickly navigate through the menu and make a choice that will perfectly align with their expectations. We are now enabling such clear names increasingly, and are aiming at moving away from “creative” naming.

Stages of name development

The product owner is in charge of the process: they prepare a brief, get the creative team immersed into the task, and partake in all stages of development. We have divided the process of working on the name into 6 stages: preparation of the brief, kick-off of the creative team, concept development, audience survey, plagiarism check, and test in pizzerias.

We don't always have to get through all the stages. For example, to create simple names within existing categories, we don't need to bring in the creative team. We already have a “Cheese Starter” and a “Mushroom Starter”, and if a starter with a different main ingredient comes along, we'll come up with a name similar to the products in the category.

We conduct audience surveys and test layouts in pizzerias only in exceptional cases: when we cannot reach a compromise within the team or when we launch a unique product, special project, and collaboration.

1. Brief preparation

   At this stage, the owner formulates the task and their wishes: the idea of the product, its positioning, target audience and the key direction for the name developing, if it has already been formed. All this is specified by the owner in the brief for the creative concept. Here at Dodo we fill in the brief in Wrike.

2. Kick-off, or meeting with the creative team

   Before starting a project, the owner holds an introductory meeting to immerse the creative team into the task. This is what is called a kick-off.

   At this meeting, the owner talks about the composition and history of the recipe, demonstrates references and examples from competitors' menus, shares their ideas for the name and visuals.

   The owner also organises a tasting, if possible: our R&D team prepares and presents the product to the creative team.

3. Developing a creative concept

   After the presentation, the creative process begins. The team works out the idea in several directions and creates several name options for each of them.

   Let's imagine that we are coming up with a name for a new spicy pizza with a unique ingredient, pecorino cheese. When developing the concept, we can draw on different features and characteristics of the product.

   Such as these:

   • Ingredients. If the pizza has a lot of cheese and peppers, we can get inspired by the toppings and suggest the name “Spicy Cheese Pizza”.
   • Target audience. If the pizza is targeted for the fans of spicy dishes, let's emphasise its special flavour in the name “Fiery Pecorino”.
   • Recipe origin. If we want to evoke associations with the homeland of the ingredients, emphasise the background of the recipe, and what we can offer is “Italian Cheese Pizza”.

   The team presents all the options to the owner. If it is possible to pick just one name, we go straight to the layouts development process. If there is no compromise on the name, we conduct an audience survey.

4. Audience survey

   If there are several winning names, we test them with the audience. Ideally, it has to be a sample of at least 65 people. We demonstrate them a photo of the product (catalogue photo, sketches from designers or a photo taken with a phone) and ask them to choose the most suitable name from the list.

   We use one of the tools to conduct our surveys:

   • Anketologist - a service for creating and conducting online surveys.
   • R&Digital is Dodo's internal platform. To start using it, you need to send a request to Ramila Starodubtseva at starodubtsevax@dodobrands.io.
   • Focus group in LOOP - an internal channel in messenger for quick testing of ideas with colleagues.

5. Plagiarism check

   Make sure to check ideas and names for plagiarism, and register a trademark. To do so, we request assistance from our legal team. The verification request is sent by the project owner.

6. Taste test in pizzerias

   Every now and then the team likes several concepts equally, or 2-3 variants of names are still leading according to the results of the audience survey. In cases like these, we taste test the names in pizzerias for 2 weeks.

   This was the case with the Chef’s Pizza: initially we were choosing between two names, “Chef’s Pizza” and “Pastrami Gourmet”. The first name highlighted the expertise of the recipe creator; the second one focused on the expensive ingredient that could become the key feature for the promotion.

   To make a decision, we made a test run of the same product, but with different names in two pizzerias. As a result, the guests of the establishments ordered Chef’s Pizza more often than Pastrami Gourmet. This was the main argument in favour of the "expert" variant. Pastrami Gourmet was also rejected because the name turned out to be too "gourmet", which is not in line with Dodo's positioning.

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