Engineering a “Neutral” Name for Engineers

The Client

A US hi-tech company with a global customer base of engineers.

The Task

Sometimes a name doesn’t need to wow—just be non-negative and “safe,” like a plain but sturdy bridge spanning across languages or markets. Prisma was asked to conduct a NameBridge study to determine a safe, “neutral” name for a suite of technology products to be marketed to engineering professionals in eight countries.

The Solution

After meeting with the client, Prisma’s project team tweaked our standard survey to provide insight into how engineers would perceive a product line with such a name. The client’s desire to be non-offending or non-negative to engineers was paramount. Prisma focused the survey on eliciting non-negative feedback in order to obtain a value-neutral name.

The Outcome

The outcome of the survey was an affirmation of the “neutrality” of the proposed name, suggesting that, overall, the name was not connected to any negative associations in the locales of the languages surveyed. As a result, the company was able to launch the new product line knowing that no engineering feathers would be ruffled, and the product line would be perceived as safe, solid, and Swiss-like in its neutrality.