Sally A CurtisContent Monetization and Legacy Content Strategist

The Power of Names: Understanding the Smile and Scratch Test

15 Jan 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:42

In this presentation, Sally Curtis introduces two practical frameworks for evaluating and creating brand names: SMILE, a 5‑point test that defines the qualities of a great name (Suggestive, Memorable, etc.), and SCRATCH, a 7‑point checklist of deal‑breaker traits to avoid (such as vowel‑poor, engineer‑only names). She explains the origin of the acronyms, why many poorly chosen names arise from engineering‑centric naming, and previews the accompanying book and course that provide detailed examples of both frameworks.

Chapters

Right? 'Cause we've all seen those head-scratcher kind of names, right? Where you're like, oh my gosh, what were they smoking? Like, where are the vowels? You know, those kind of names. Yep. Often companies named by engineers. So SMILE is an acronym for the— so it's a 12-point name evaluation test. SMILE is an acronym for the 5 qualities that make a name awesome. SCRATCH is an acronym for the 7 deadly deal breakers. So SMILE, and when you read the book or take the course, you're gonna see lots of examples of these. So SMILE stands for, the S stands for suggestive. So you want your name to suggest a positive brand experience. The M is for memorable.