The Name Guru
By Christa Gala

He dubbed the coffee chain Starbucks and the bakery Cinnabon. He's guided Qdoba and Panera Bread through the murky waters of changing their names.How does Terry Heckler do it?

Terry Heckler, 59, doesn't advertise. He believes in its effectiveness, to be sure, owning as he does his own graphic design and advertising agency, Heckler & Associates, in Seattle. But he doesn't advertise himself because he doesn't need to. Most, if not all, of Heckler's clients over the past 30-plus years come from referrals.

In fact, Heckler has a legendary reputation in the quick-serve industry, particularly when it comes to the name game. Simply put, Heckler is considered one of the best at coming up with the type of unique monikers that define a brand. Consider Starbucks, one of his earliest clients, acquired in 1971 just two years after Heckler started his business. He created the original name, logo, and marketing materials and worked with the company until 1988.

Lately, however, his claim to fame is in helping chains change their names and, more importantly, survive the challenges and obstacles that arise during the transition.

Heckler helped the St. Louis Bread Company change its name to Panera Bread and renamed the Z-Teca Mexican Grill to Qdoba. He has been described as "intuitive" and "methodical" and, dare we say it, as a "genius"—when it comes to the name game.

What's in a Name?

"We've really found that there are six important criteria for an effective name," says Heckler, who lives in Seattle with his wife Nancy. "The first one is uniqueness. You really need to be unique or else you're just jumping into the soup with everyone else. You want your name to do work for you in those terms to create distinction for your brand. That name works for you every nanosecond of its existence. In other words, it's a hardworking tool so you want to make sure it's good."

The second tenet of a winning name, says Heckler, is credibility—that the name portrays credibility for what the chain is trying to do. Heckler acknowledges that his top two qualifications of a good name might appear conflicting. After all, uniqueness is based on something rare, the unfamiliar, while credibility is often based on a familiar set of standards. But he has an answer for that: "What you have to do going into projects is figure out in which direction you're going to err, and our bias is definitely moving toward uniqueness as much as possible," Heckler says. "But you know in some situations like hospitals and institutions that are very concerned with credibility, you have to take more of a fifty-fifty position."

Heckler's third and fourth requirements of a good name are legibility and reproducibility. In other words, the name should be easily spoken, read, and reproduced in various media forms, including print, radio, and television.

"You want your name to do work for you in those terms to create distinction for your brand. That name works for you every nanosecond of its existence. In other words, it's a hardworking tool so you want to make sure it's good."

Durability is fifth. "It has to be flexible enough to handle your growth," Heckler says. "A lot of people go in thinking the name has to be descriptive of what you do, but a lot of name changes we do because the old name didn't have any durability or flexibility. So we stay away from names that are going to trap you in certain ways or are too close to any fads. You want this name to work long-term for you."

But that doesn't mean companies shouldn't give a current name or logo a makeover. That's common practice, Heckler says, and most companies do it every few years, but a name rarely changes if it's sufficient from the start.

The final criterion is compatibility. How compatible is the brand name with other words—the words that might be placed either before or after it in promotions, advertisements, and commercials?

"When we get alternatives that meet those six requirements," Heckler says, "we feel good about them. We feel that they're going to work. The problem is that people emotionally have to relate to them and like them. So there's where the work gets dicey."

Not that coming up with between 2,500 and 3,000 names, or alternatives as Heckler calls them, is any easier. But Heckler's got an ace in his pocket with a small group of creatives that first brainstorms and then tracks down the requisite trademark and "URL" clearances. If all goes well, the company ends up with 15 names that meet all of the requirements, narrows down that list to six names, and then presents to the client.

"We've developed processes in our firm over the years that best suit us to generate these numbers of alternatives. We have five or six what we call "namesmiths" that really churn on this stuff, that really have a propensity for developing alternatives. Writers don't necessarily work out very well. They want everything to mean something."

And, as Heckler points out, some of the best names don't mean anything—look at Qdoba and Starbucks. If a name means something, a chain is more likely to sacrifice flexibility and be hemmed in by the conventional meaning of the word. With an unknown word, the chain creates its own destiny and is able to change more easily over time.

The Name Change

Regardless of how many wonderful names are available, a name change is nearly always painful and nerve-wracking for the company that must go through it.

"There is always a reason for a name change," Heckler says. "Most often, it is a case of legal infringement where people get into legal hassles; Z-Teca [Qdoba] was an instance of that."

Another reason a chain might take the big step is because its current name is too specific, which can mislead or limits its growth. Long names are also good candidates for change. They are cumbersome, and people inadvertently shortcut the long name into unpredictable multiple names for the same concept.

"St. Louis Bread Company, for instance, had several different names," Heckler says. "People called it the Bread Company, Bread Co., SLB—they had a long name that was producing multiple names."

Other reasons to change a name include pronunciation and spelling problems, mergers, new owners, major strategic changes, or imminent business failure.

But despite the plethora of reasons to change a name, few chains actually do it. And it's certainly not easy for those who do. There is a lot of hand-holding that goes along with the process.

"There's probably no name on earth that's totally free of any kind of infringement risk. You can have stuff that you think is free and clear and someone will come out of the woodwork on you. And they'll wait until you're big enough so your pockets are deep enough to really cause problems."

"Name change naming is different from start-up naming," Heckler says. "It's two different ballgames because you have to have clear, convincing reasons for a name change for it to go smoothly. And believe me, when you have a legal infringement issue, particularly with names people love, you have to be clearly convinced that you're going to go into a situation where you cannot win or you're going into deep pockets before you'll go for a name change. Those are very emotional situations where there is a lot of equity built into a name. It's very, very disconcerting to lose your brand equity through a name change."

This was the situation with Qdoba. In legal infringement cases, Heckler's main goal is to sell management on the idea. Often, once management sees that a strategy is mapped out with initiatives and designated people in charge, it feels more comfortable about moving forward. Qdoba president and CEO Gary Beisler says, "It is a lot easier to solve a problem when you have solved it before. Terry carefully helped us craft a plan that created name, logo, brand imagery, and roll out."

Heckler says once Qdoba made the decision to change its name, it wanted to make sure it would never have to go through the process again. "They really liked Z-Teca, and there was a tremendous investment in that name development early on," says Heckler. "Gary had a fairly tight review process built into any alternatives that were seriously considered. The difficulty of that is there's probably no name on earth that's totally free of any kind of infringement risk. You can have stuff that you think is free and clear and someone will come out of the woodwork on you. And they'll wait until you're big enough so your pockets are deep enough to really cause problems. Gary really put an effort into it to make sure that his legal [department] really did a comprehensive search on any of the alternatives that we put out there."

The reasons behind the name change from "St. Louis Bread Company" to "Panera" were varied, says Heckler. It was a tough sell to management, however, because of the company's St. Louis roots. "Terry advised us to be straightforward with our customers in explaining why we changed the name to Panera Bread," says Panera's vice president of marketing Larry Rusinko. "Panera is a more evocative expression of our passion for fresh-baked bread. New name, but same tradition of service, quality, and time-honored baking techniques. We were equally as straight-forward in explaining the meaning of Panera, which simply translates into 'time of bread.'"

Heckler maintains that the name "Panera" appeals to a broader base of customers than did "St. Louis Bread Company." "Taking a city into another city is not necessarily a warm thing to do. Taking the St. Louis references to Chicago or to New York or to Pittsburgh—you want the associations to be more uniquely related to what you're doing specifically instead of the city that isn't necessarily particularly in-tune with your product."

The Inevitable Price Tag

A name change for a restaurant chain is inevitably going to be expensive, another obstacle that throws up barriers for management and makes the idea difficult to embrace initially. A chain will often lose inventory (products that bear the old name), experience customer drop-off, and incur costs for retooling internal and external communications. It all adds up, and that's not considering the agency fees, which start at $30,000 and increase rapidly. It's enough to make even the most self-assured CEO develop sweaty palms. Let's face it, there's a lot riding on a name.

Does your name have what it takes? Uniqueness—Is it different from everyone else's name? Credibility—Is it a name that signifies you're good at what you do? Legibility and Reproducibility—Is it easy to read, spell, pronounce, and reproduce? Durability—Is it broad enough to last for many years? Compatibility—Does it sound right with other words?

"The greatest risk in any name transition is confusion—confusion about the basic question of who one is dealing with," Heckler says. "And as soon as you have that level of confusion, it can translate into questions involving other performance aspects. So a questioning mode can deepen dissatisfactions and loyalties, and there's where you can really lose customers. So planning and executing the quickest, most seamless transition is the best way to reduce confusion. That runs counter to a lot of people who want to drag it out over a long period of time."

Heckler says clients going through a name change are often afraid people won't remember or understand the change if it happens too quickly. And while it's not smart to implement the change as a 24-hour surprise, neither is it wise to keep people wondering.

In the food and beverage industry, Heckler suggests launching a preliminary awareness campaign where loyal customers are made aware of the change on an average of three times, followed by the change. "You make the change and you make the change pretty quickly—the major changeover within two weeks or ten days. We suggest doing that." Heckler recommends starting new name implementation on the inside first—with menuboards, décor, and seating—and then changing the outside signage within a few weeks.

Obviously his strategy works. After 33 years in the business, Heckler still has industry CEOs singing his praises. "He has a very global view of our industry and understands the legal, business, and consumer related issues, and that garners the respect of a business person like me," Beisler says. "I would highly recommend Terry to anyone in need of a new name or new brand identity. His pedigree of clients speaks for itself." Management at Panera is impressed by Heckler's work as well. "Terry's long experience in brand marketing and his ability for original thought make him particularly effective at naming and branding," says Rusinko. "But it is his ability to capture the essence of the brand and, more importantly, express that essence, that elevates him to one of the best brand marketers we know."

Heckler is teaching the backbone of the business to his son Tye, 31, who has been working with him for the past 10 years. In addition to passing on what he knows, Heckler also works constantly at improving his strategies and his knowledge. These are the things that will push the company toward a successful future, he says.

"We've compiled notes on our mistakes so we've learned a lot from those mistakes. From that, we've developed a point of view on branding and are trying to get that in shape to offer people services on a broader basis."

It seems Terry Heckler is doing a pretty good job of making a name for himself as well.