Alchemy

Situation

O’Donnell Learn was an education services company that had brought educators practical tools, curated resources, and expert support for decades. They sought to fundamentally transform their business, as their expertise in digitally-enabled remote learning became far more appealing during and after the COVID pandemic. To reset expectations, they had to tell a story far larger than any one person’s name could tell.

I worked directly with the founder, president, and CPO to find a new name, from territory ideation through creative development, availability screening, and implementation.

Creative Approach

Over two rounds, I developed 300 name concepts blending two strategic territories, rooted in my original naming message framework.

Benefit: Realize educators’ and learners’ potential.
Names like Harmonic conveyed that my clients equipped educators to transform their courses, which in turn helped them unlock possibilities for those they taught.

Attribute: Empathetic and human.
Names like Candid conveyed that where other companies seek to automate the humanity out of education, my clients saw that humanity as an essential component of effective learning.

My most compelling concepts bridged both territories:

Zest could be a literal reference to the enthusiasm of educators and learners, or a culinary ingredient (a fundamentally human metaphor) that can transform a main course from good to excellent. This name also implied a bright, rich visual system.

Adverb builds on a linguistic metaphor to shape and empower the actions educators are already taking—without trying to take those actions itself. This name also implied a clear brand voice tactic.

Igor gave a human persona to these relationships, drawing on Dr. Frankenstein’s cinematic sidekick as a metaphor for doing the seemingly impossible. This name also carried an inherent sardonic humor. Polarizing!

After several spirited rounds of discussion, validation, and prioritization, the team landed on a name they were all excited to move forward with.

Outcome

The team chose Alchemy.

Alchemy perfectly blended the stories my clients wanted to tell, conveying the ability to transform good into great, balancing technology with intuition. This metaphor evokes a blend of magic and science that was taken very seriously by thinkers like Isaac Newton and Tycho Brahe, and whose seeds grew into the transformative sciences of chemistry and physics.

As a bonus, the metaphor complemented the team’s planned name for their new corporate umbrella, Nectar: both evoked life-giving, magical sustenance, and you could imagine nectar being a key ingredient in performing alchemy.

 
 

Because this was a new company name entirely, it was also tremendously important that they have a viable top-level domain. Dot coms are pretty much impossible to get these days, so I also explored a wide range of alternative TLDs. Ultimately, the team chose .works for their TLD: paired with Alchemy, it created a compelling story, reinforcing that this was unbelievable power, and it was something you really could use yourself.

Alchemy launched in spring of 2023, heading into the ‘23-’24 academic school year.


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