A lot of famous brands have numbers in their names. Some of them even start with such:

  • 21st Century Fox
  • 7Up
  • 7 Eleven
  • 3M

The aforementioned are a great example of brands that are remembered even though they have numbers in their names. However, most of  the brand names that are based on numbers fail because consumers struggle to remember them. This is so because numbers usually stand for the company’s address, area code or phone code. This strategy has a short life, because the  depth and the brand message is missing and additionally, an address can be changed.

numbers naming

History

Going a little back in history we see that number-letter combinations have always held a certain significance in the fields of religion, math and myths. Which means that they could be used with deep and meaningful message, but as it is with brand naming at all – that must be considered very carefully.

Sub Naming

Numbers rarely work well as a brand name, but they are playing their big part in the sub naming of models that a certain brand produces. For example when we’re talking about specific models then maybe numbers are more proper than names. It’s all about the identity. If Apple named each model of their iPhones with sweet names and not with numbers, the people would be like: “I have the new Chocolate”, “I am waiting for the new Vanilla to be released” or “The new iPhones will be called Cinnamon”. With so many names people will eventually forget what’s the actual name of the brand they’re buying. And this is where the strategy with using numbers is more successful than the words. At the end of the day, numbers are still numbers and they don’t change the consumer’s perception of the brand’s name.

A bright example of a brand that strictly follows the numbers policy in models’ names is BMW.

bmw 528 naming

bmw q5 naming

But a difference must be made. Whether it’s a name with number or name with letters, it has its own purposes on the different levels in the brand architectures – the main name of the brand, the sub models of the product and the specific versions of a single model.

The decision

The brand managers should consider carefully their ideas of using numbers in the naming of product, service, model or version. If you want to tie your brand’s name with specific numbers, but you have no idea about how to make sense of it, then you must do a solid research in order to find the right context. Highnames is specialised in this and could make the naming with numbers for your brand a little bit safer than gambling.