Are you selling a
project or a
product?
For the
projects themselves, I typically organize things in electronic and physical folders with common names and possibly a version number, e.g. 'Linear Power Supply v2.80'. There's usually enough in those records to find out when they were created; I write as much down as I put into the PC, it seems.
I like to go with "Brand Name", "Model Number/Name", "General Description" as a formulaic way of presenting
products. That's pretty much what we're used to anyway, isn't it? For instance, the
Fluke 87-V Digital Multimeter is a product name and description with which we're all familiar. It's not
The Super-Duper Volt-O-Matic 9,000,000.9546.716s.s5.8a1 by Electro-Fiends Inc., or something equally non-descriptive or unhelpful.
The model number or name should be short, simple, and elegant; you shouldn't mind having to hand-stamp or carve it into the name plate. lol But be sure to incorporate a one- to three-word description in there after it. You only use the model or part number by itself when you're talking with people familiar with the product already, i.e. colloquially, like with the Fluke mentioned previously, or maybe a Rigol DS1052E.
For people who have no idea what your product is or does, that short description is
CRITICAL to catching your target audience's interest. We're typically skimmers of information, myself included, so if I don't know what you're selling within a matter of a second or two, tough shit Charlie, I'm moving on.
Many in the industry have told me that attaching a brand name isn't important, but I think it is, especially if a random person (NOT the original purchaser) picks up your product years from now and wonders who made it. We're in the information age, and nothing truly goes away. It may be hard to find information on a particular product, like some of the old amplifiers I end up repairing, but it's still out there. Even if the company goes under, the brand name changes, you sell it to a larger company, etc., there's still a record of under whose banner the product falls. You can never know where, nor in whose hands, your product will end up, or when.
Ah, but back to the naming of our product. . . or project. . . whatever it is. I surely don't use any typical or regular means of coming up with a name. That's part of the
creative process: letting things come to you as they are, letting go, doing the exact opposite of 'hyper-focusing', etc. For me personally, if I'm feeling the need to be particularly creative, I'll lay off of the AD(H)D medications for a day or two, take a drive through the countryside, talk to random people, walk the beach, etc. It seems only then do I have the clarity I need for those creative thoughts to come to the surface again. One of my close friends said it's much like stepping back from a much larger picture, and finally seeing it all as one instead of a million things; "see the forest for the trees" I suppose.
Don't beat yourself over the head with the product name or anything. If you can't come up with one now, don't worry. You can always attach it later, then say "NEW AND IMPROVED!"
Slight side note:
The
packaging speaks volumes to me. Or rather, it shouldn't. Nothing cute or fancy belongs there, IMHO. I expect a rather plain but sturdy box, minimal wrapping and other crap I just have to throw away, and a small amount of documentation. Bonus points for using entirely-recyclable materials. There's little I hate more than product packaging or branding where their sellers try to be clever, and you can sit back and say, "a business major came up with that, right?"
Hell, look at Dyson. They
almost got it right with their vacuum cleaners, then the marketing people got their unholy, clueless paws on things. Low carbon emissions because their motors have no carbon brushes? Whoever put that on the box should
kill themselves get a quick education from someone who knows WTF they're talking about.
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