At Reed Words, we name all sorts of brands and products. And experience has taught us an invaluable lesson: the perfect brand name doesn’t exist, and you should stop searching for it.

Xerox. Ikea. Sony. They’re all great brands – and their names are all totally made up.

A great name can make a huge difference to a brand. But it’s a great name, rather than a perfect name, you should be searching for.

I wrote all about this in Monday’s City AM:

Forget the silver bullet – it doesn’t exist. But if you follow a strategic process, and bring all the important people along with you, you’re far more likely to reach a shortlist of ideas that work – and which everyone can sign up to. Then you can get on with building a brand.