Years ago when I was researching naming agencies and what they charge, I went to that awesome fountain of knowledge, Wikipedia and looked up Naming Firms (as they call them). Immediately I saw it was dominated by the big guys and there was a whole paragraph or more on why naming projects started at $20,000 and went up from there.
When I tried to add a rebuttal to support smaller agencies and consultants, you won’t believe how quickly the Wikipedia “police” shot down my entries. So much for the democratic editing systems they embrace. Of course I should have realized the big guys can afford full time media monitors to keep their own message front and center. Today I see some others must have complained too because now there is no pricing mentioned at all. That whole section has been deleted. And, of course, the sample agencies listed are only the big, famous, expensive ones.
Yes, there are occasions inside big corporations when management needs lots of hand holding and reviews and data points because they only do analytical marketing by the numbers. So most of the naming work is actually executive meeting facilitation – often for a bunch of execs who haven’t a clue about modern naming – nor the courage to embrace a new name that is legally clear worldwide. And the agencies serving them probably only do four or five naming projects a year – unlike smaller dedicated firms where we do a couple or more a month.
So who is responsible for naming in a small or medium sized business or division? The president or founder in startups, else the VP marketing or at least the product manager – since he juggles all functions no one else does. Or all of the above. And what is their time worth?
We believe a naming project shouldn’t cost anymore than a product manager’s one month salary – and they sure shouldn’t be spending more than one man month focusing on it. So what do product manager’s earn?
Glassdoor has recently released this data summary for USA:
Salaries for Related Job Titles
| Director Product Management | $149K |
| Product Management | $109K |
| Associate Product Manager | $96K |
| Program Manager | $59K |
| Project Manager | $66K |
So even your Associate Product Manager is making $8K per month in salary alone. Which is why we believe few focused management teams need spend no more than that on a naming firm. And you will also save that in legal fees by having clean, available, trademarkable names for your new products and services.
The complete price list for an experienced naming agency.
Here is Brighter Naming’s price list for 2023:
| Size of Business/Project | Fixed Price, Guaranteed Results |
| Large International Corp Naming Project With worldwide provisional name clearance | $7,200 |
| Large Company – Domestic Clearance only | $6,000 |
| Medium size business – 100 to 900 employees | $3,600 |
| Small business | $2,400 |
| Startup partnership | $1,800 |
| Sole proprietorship startup | $1,500 |
See also a related article on our website: Saving money with a naming agency
(C) 2020-2023 and Brighter Naming
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