A fresh new name for proptech startup

By Tom,

March 2017

Design
A while ago Koherent CEO, Brooke knocked on our door (literally) to see if we could help position his proptech startup.

Brooke and his team are building software and apps to help estate agents manage maintenance reports, inspections and appointments between tenants and contractors.

One of the first discussions we had was about the name. In a market full of tired and mundane software, ‘Koherent’ sounded like the sort of name that fitted in, rather than standing out. The more Brooke told us about his plans, the more we saw the opportunity to disrupt an industry.

A slide from our research, highlighting the sort of names being used by competitors
Here’s a slide from our research, highlighting the sort of names being used.

Alongside potential issues with spelling, we felt that Koherent didn’t appeal to all audiences (specifically tenants), it lacked personality and it would limit the marketing opportunity.

It was agreed that we should come up with something new.

We created a framework to help us come up with the right name. It needed to...

  1. Sound fresh, vibrant and modern

  2. Stand out amongst the competition

  3. Be memorable and ownable

  4. Create a visual and emotional connection

  5. Provide marketing opportunities

Let the brainstorming commence!

After a lot of talking, post-it notes and coffee we came up with the new name… Sorbet!

We felt it was a name that perfectly suited a disruptive startup, wanting to challenge established brands. Fortunately Brooke and his team agreed.

Since the renaming project we’ve developed the brand identity, helped Sorbet define their product offering and designed the marketing site.

Oh, and these sweet promotional tubs of real sorbet to launch the new brand.

Mockup of promotional tubs of sorbet to launch the new brand

Update: Check out our case study for the rest of our work for Sorbet