Decision criteria
Criteria should be named before options are scored. Weights should reflect the actual trade, not the slide that needs to look balanced.
decision
A name has to survive more than a poll
Branding decisions collapse when they are run as popularity contests. Argumont compares options on distinctiveness, legal risk, and whether the name can travel.
What this decision type is
A branding decision may choose a company name, a product name, a domain, or a positioning line. Taste is real, but it is an opinion. Trademark collision is not.
Argumont will not file a trademark for you. It will keep legal risk visible beside memorability.
Common mistakes
Picking a name because the domain is available, then discovering it is generic in the category or blocked in a target market.
Another mistake is scoring internal jokes. If the team loves it and buyers cannot pronounce it, the score should show that.
What evidence matters
Search collisions, trademark screening notes from counsel, pronunciation tests with outsiders, and domain/email usability. Social handle availability is a weak criterion unless distribution actually depends on it.
Example criteria
Distinctiveness
Whether the option stands apart in the category.
Memorability
Recall after one exposure by a stranger, not a founder.
Trademark risk
Collision and enforceability, with counsel as the authority.
International usability
Meaning and pronunciation in markets you actually sell to.
Positioning
Fit with the intended place in the market.
Common risks
Legal surprise
A late trademark search overturns a name the site already used.
Generic slide
The name cannot be owned and becomes a keyword you rent.
Example decision
Compare three shortlist names on distinctiveness and legal risk, including the option to keep a working title for six months.
Related pages
Marketing teams
Marketing dashboards are full of numbers that are not causal. Argumont is for the moment two teams can tell opposite stories from the same chart.
Compare options
Comparison work fails when each option is described in a different language. Argumont holds options to the same criteria, then lets you open every score.
Decisions
These pages are not a directory of keywords. Each one describes a kind of choice, the evidence it needs, how Argumont scores it, and where to go next.
Compare naming options
Argumont challenges assumptions, researches evidence, compares competing approaches, and identifies the strongest decision.
Compare naming options