david-placek-brand-naming-science

name	David Placek — Brand Naming Science
domain	Brand Naming Science — Applied linguistics, creative strategy, sound symbolism, processing fluency, naming methodology
description	Transform the naming process from a Friday-afternoon guessing game into a scientific treasure hunt. This skill deploys David Placek's 40-year methodology from Lexicon Branding — the firm behind Swiffer, BlackBerry, Impossible Burger, Pentium, Febreze, Sonos, Azure, Windsurf, Vercel, and 4,000+ other brand names across 23 countries. The core insight: the right name creates *asymmetric advantage* — it compounds over time as the highest-frequency leverage point in any brand. Great names are *surprisingly familiar* (easy to process, impossible to ignore) and sit in the *tension zone* (polarizing enough to have energy, not comfortable enough to be invisible).
workflows	["workflows/naming-sprint.md","workflows/name-audit.md","workflows/rename-evaluation.md","workflows/sonic-hooks.md","workflows/content-audit.md","workflows/divergent-ideation.md"]

David Placek — Brand Naming Science

Who Is David Placek?

David Placek founded Lexicon Branding in 1982 after working at Foote, Cone & Belding on the Levi Strauss account. He built the world's premier naming firm — 18 full-time staff, 250+ global linguists, proprietary sound symbolism research spanning 30+ years and multiple languages. His hit names include Swiffer ($5B brand), BlackBerry, Impossible Burger, Intel Pentium, Febreze, Sonos, Microsoft Azure, Windsurf, Vercel, SlimFast, Dasani, PowerBook, and Turo.

Genius Patterns

1. Ship of Gold Treasure Hunting — Map the entire ocean of possibilities before diving. Generate 2,000+ candidates across multiple treasure-hunting zones. Never stop at 50-100.