How to Name a Budget Airline

Hello and welcome aboard this brainstorming session. My name is Ashe, I’ll be your copywriter / hostess on this naming journey. Of course, as the marketing person for this yet-to-be-named airline, you are very much the pilot. My job is simply to drop idea peanuts into your mouth while you take us where we need to go.

Are you ready to see the menu? It’s just a word, not a destination. A launchpad, if you will. Just open your chakras and trust the process. Are you ready?

Here it is: Crumpet.

Crumpet is where we begin our adventure. It’s our squishy, porous home base. A place to build from. A soft place to land when we drift too far from home. The trick with naming is to stay squishy, stay porous. Be open to anything. Nothing is off the table.

Except nonsensical sounds i.e. Splork, Kapki, Fring and Meep. Never forget the golden rule of naming: made up words are viable only with a Hollywood star attached. Gwyneth begets Goop. We don’t have to debase ourselves to be original. Let’s create from a place of universal understanding. Let’s find the jewel that’s been hiding in plain sight.

My colleague has just informed me that Meep is trademarked in Australia. It’s also an urban mobility app based in Madrid. Meeep on the other hand is available, which is very good to know.

I think we just found our first territory: Auditory in Motion.

Do you hear that? That’s the sound of two doorways opening in different sections of the thesaurus. That’s what we want. Dissimilarity leads to something new and recognisable. Blue and yellow make…. Make…. Green. Thank you. That’s why you’re the pilot.

Okay. Synonyms for motion include: Course. Rove. Roam. Ooh. Can you feel the air in those words? The breeze in your hair? The seatbelt light is on. We’re moving now. We’re going somewhere, together.

Let’s ride this wave of creativity and explore Auditory now. I want everyone to make a sound you might hear when you’re travelling, off on an adventure. The first thing that comes to mind. Go.

Okay I’ll go..… Toot.

It’s a hard T at both ends, right? And it’s written the same back-to-front. Now, I’m no designer, but I’d say from that perspective alone it’s worth considering. It says: ‘Get out of my way. I need to be somewhere.’ So what if it means ‘fart’ in English? This is a global company. And one that doesn’t assume the first language of its customers. It’s progressive. It’s inclusive. It’s Toot-ing into the future.

I don’t want to scare you, but the success or failure of your company lies in this name. A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but no one would know to smell it. On page 187 of Google’s search results it would wilt into oblivion.

Your budget airline is a rose. And the world deserves to smell it.

The other thing about naming, depending on how many months have passed since we started this journey, is that it really doesn’t matter all that much. The scent of your product is enticing in its own right; its sheer quality, its value for money. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Your company is like a hot buttery…. Crumpet…. cooling on the windowsill.

Let your customers follow their nose.