Mike Carr emphasizes the importance of having a strong reason for changing a company's name and involving the CEO throughout the process, citing examples like United Airlines' failed attempt and Amfac Parks and Resorts' successful rebranding to Xanterra under new leadership.

Mike Carr discusses the challenges of naming products or brands in China due to the vast linguistic differences between English and Mandarin, with Mandarin having over 50,000 characters compared to English's 26 letters. Translating English names into Mandarin requires careful consideration to avoid negative or confusing meanings, exemplified by Coca-Cola's initial Mandarin translation. Carr advises on the importance of checking for trademark infringement and considering social media handles, suggesting assistance from law firms like Hogan Lovells or thorough research. While current AI capabilities may not fully support Chinese naming, Carr sees potential for future advancements.

Naming can become a "house of cards" when there is no clear structure or strategy in place. Just like a house with multiple remodels and different styles, a company's naming can become disorganized and confusing through organic growth, mergers, and acquisitions. To avoid this, a naming architecture is needed, similar to a blueprint for a house. One popular type of naming architecture is the branded house, where there is one master brand and all other names are intuitive and descriptive. An example is FedEx, with FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and FedEx Office. This allows for easy addition of new services. However, if a competitor with a more innovative name emerges, a company may need to change its naming architecture to a house of brands, like Procter and Gamble, with distinct names for each product. Professional naming consulting firms can help create a naming architecture that makes sense for the company and provides flexibility. Other types of naming architectures include the endorser brand, where the brand name is placed after the product name, and decision trees can guide the naming process. It is important to avoid a mishmash of names and create a clear naming structure.