Strategic Name Development Product Naming Blog
A blog focusing on the subjects of Naming, Branding and Linguistics, from the team at Strategic Name Development, a Brand Naming Company.
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- Can a Brand Name Get Any Worse Than Antipoleez?
A new breath mint called Antipoleez (get it?) says it eliminates odors on your breath. Perfect for when you've had a few too many, right?
The CEO of this outfit claims its not meant to fool police, but as Marni Soupcoff observes, "Funny thing about the product’s name, then, don’t you think?"
There's some idle chatting on the blogosphere about whether the product naming is "sending out a dangerous message." Seems to me that any product that even suggests you can get out of a DWI with the right breath mint is really pushing the boundaries.
These folks even offer a "night out pack" and a "frat pack" and some really dopey claims on their site.
Antipoleez deserves the same fate as the Cocaine energy drink, pulled from the shelves.
Technorati Tags: Antipoleez, Cocaine, Breath Mint, DWI, Antipoleez, Frat Pack, Night Out Pack
Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:25:50 -0600 - Apple Bullies GreenNYC Naming and Branding
Legal Satyricon has a point regarding the hoopla between Apple and New York over their GreenNYC campaign’s apple logo is probably not going to be a win for Apple.
There is hardly a chance that the two logos could be confused and let's face it, we are not likely to see brand name dilution here.
New York was “The Big Apple” long before Apple, Inc. was the innovative leader in the technology space. I think that Apple is well aware that they may not have a strong case here, but by challenging all apple logo treatments consistently, it will strengthen their long-term protection of the Apple logo. Likewise, Logo Design Works supports this argument when pointing out that although “the GREENYC logo is not competing in the consumer electronics category,” Apple may only be sending a warning to others who want to use a similar logo.
Logical Complex Infinitive considers this a case of Apple “bullying” New York, can anyone really bully New York?
It will be interesting to see how the courts courts view this situation if it ever gets that far. It won't, I predict.
Technorati Tags: The Big Apple, Green Apple NYC, Apple, Environment, New York, GreenNYC, Mac
Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:03:34 -0600 - Death Valley Chipotle Chip is Hot Product Naming
The new Death Valley Chipotle Kettle potato chip is interesting not least because it is a chip chosen by consumers as part of Kettle’s annual “People’s Choice Campaign.”
Even though it seems that some bloggers were more interested in the Orange Ginger Wasabi chip, the real winner here is the Death Valley History Association, which gets Kettle’s support for its Death Valley ROCKS program via an imaginative online competition.
I think this is an excellent way to get around the word “death” in a name. It also leverages the legendary heat of Death Valley to sell chips.
I had no idea the temperature got up to 120 degrees in Death Valley! As Paris Hilton would say, “That’s hot!”
Technorati Tags: Death Valley Chipotle Chip, Kettle, Orange Ginger Wasabi, Chips, People's Choice Campaign, Paris Hilton, Death Valley
Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:10:30 -0600 - Dodge Journey Won't Stop Believing In Digital Brand Naming Promotion
The Dodge Journey is going to get a major online push today, with the introduction of the tagline, "If you can dream it, do it.”
A whopping 29% of Dodge's promotional media mix will be interactive, their “biggest digital outlay ever in terms of total dollars and percentage of the media buy” according to Ad Age.
The word Journey will play a pivotal role in the “Dodge Journey of a Lifetime” promotion and a series of videos for the NHL Playoffs entitled “Journey to the Cup.”
It’s a strong, evocative name, but it’s also hard for some us not to think of the cheesy 80s rock band “Journey,” which just announced its presence on Second Life. Their hit single “”Dream After Dream” comes to mind when you hear “If you can dream it, do it.”
And anyone who watched the end of the Sopranos remembers their song “Don’t Stop Believing,” which put the old time rockers back in the public consciousness.
Don’t laugh, the car is aimed at young singles and couples with small children. Plenty of the latter were subjected to those songs at at least one school dance.
Technorati Tags: Dodge, Journey, Rock Band, Don't Stop Belieiving, If you can dream it, do it, Journey the Band, Journey to the Cup, NHL
Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:54:41 -0600 - New Labeling Laws Could Cause Havoc with Wine Brand Names
Proposed new labeling laws that do away with regional considerations are creating quite a problem for wine brand names.
For instance, one Swiss village is fighting for the right to use the name “Champagne” on its wines, despite the little known fact that the only real “Champagne” is made in the corresponding region in France, everything else is technically "sparkling wine."
Should the new laws go into effect, the significant equity behind regional names known even by the non-connoisseur, like “Champagne” or “Napa Valley” would be lost, as every brand of wine would have the right to label their "sparkling wine" as "Champagne." This would be catastrophic to the high end, traditional wines that we pay premium prices for.
Imagine trying to reposition a brand name like Moet or Dom Perignon versus a newer label by Lil Jon.”
Technorati Tags: Wine, Champagne, Dom Perignon, Alcohol, Wine Region, Lil John
Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:32:23 -0600 - Steinway Lyngdorf Sweet Sounding Brand Naming
Here is an example of a completely new brand name that can immediately grab huge market share from established competitors. The Steinway Lyngdorf brand for high end audio products is just irresistible.
Many of us who do not even play the piano know and revere the Steinway name. Extending it to an audio system means that non-pianists can grab some of that Steinway allure.
The secret here is that both brand names are leaders in their fields and they both have tremendous recognition in the marketplace.
The combination has acted as a “catapult,” sending the brand name to the top 5 of luxury
audio brand names according to the Luxury Institute Survey.I’d add that the name Lyngdorf sounds German, just like Steinway does, and a German brand name connotes precision and high fidelity to most consumers in the audio field.
Nordic European naming seems to attract the audiophile with really deep pockets. Just ask Bang & Olufsen, Bose, Harman Kardon, or Klipsch.
Technorati Tags: Steinway Lyngdorf, Audio, Stereo, Luxury, German, Bose, Bang & Olufson, Harmon Kardon, Klipsch, Piano
Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:05:49 -0600 - Al Ries is Wrong About the Isuzu Brand Name
Al Ries wrote an interesting article about the demise of Isuzu. He says that one of the chief reasons that the brand died was because “it had a terrible name.”
Those of us who speak English prefer words or brand names that are perfectly balanced by vowel-consonant-vowel or consonant-vowel-consonant. We find these words and brand names easy to pronounce. Think Coca-Cola, Kodak, and Toyota.
Also think Isuzu. A great example of a brand name balanced by vowel-consonant-vowel.
Other Japanese auto brands are successful in the United States and are similar to Isuzu Brand.
- Subaru is pronounced similarly to Isuzu and the former has carved out a nice niche business in the U.S.
- And the Suzuki brand name is no easier or more difficult to pronounce than Isuzu and, as we know, Suzuki is successful in the U.S. with both motorcycles and autos.
Although I have the utmost respect for Mr. Ries, I have to respectfully disagree with him on this one.
If Isuzu failed in the U.S. it had as much to do with "terrible" marketing, or product mix, or timing.
How is the auto brand name Hyundai, which can be pronounced as either "Hun-day" or "Hun-die," (the former being the correct pronunciation) establishing itself as a brand to contend with in the U.S.?It's not because of a "terrible" car brand name; it's because, I think, when Hyundai was introduced in the U.S. with its tagline, "Hyundai rhymes with Sunday," it educated U.S. consumers on how to pronounce the name.
Hyundai made a positive out of its brand name being pronounceable multiple ways, not unlike, Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) made a positive out of the unusual shape of the Volkswagen.Sorry Al, Isuzu didn't fail in the U.S. because of its name, it failed for other reasons. Many other reasons.
Technorati Tags: Isuzu, Hyundai, Toyota, Suzuki, Doyle Dane Bernbach, Linguistics, Coca-Cola, Kodak, Volkswagen,
Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:00:45 -0600 - Does Social Media Need A New Name?
Thought Leader in South Africa has a great post up suggesting that social
media, including blogs, email, and social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, needs a new name that will encompass the true marketing nature of all of these social forums. Gino Cosme of Think Leader believes that its a given that public relation agencies should be the ones to bring social media to a new level. His suggestion, therefore, is "social-media relations."
Hmmm. Well, he does lead us to an interesting post about social media marketing strategies but at least one very convincing blogger says that social media leadership will not come from the world of Public Relations.
I think that the name will stay for the time being, but I do agree that advertisers are not likely to take over the medium any time soon.
Technorati Tags: Social Media, Public Relations, Advertisers, Advertisers, Advertisers, MySpace, Facebook
Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:30:20 -0600 - Batter Blaster Blasts Organic Product Naming Backward
There are some examples off product naming that immediately cause a reaction, and The Batter Blaster is one of them. No, sorry, the ORGANIC Batter Blaster. This is essentially pancake batter in a pressurized can.
Don’t laugh.
The name itself fits in pretty well, with the kind of product name we are used to seeing with ready to eat foods, such as Reddi-wip and Easy Cheese. Highly descriptive.
But Fake Plastic Fish has a pretty good blog about why Organic Batter Blaster is “wrong on so many levels.”
First of all, making whipped cream takes time (hence Reddi-wip), making melted cheese is messy and also time consuming (hence Easy Cheese), but making pancakes is quick and easy already and buying the stuff in a can to save yourself five minutes of mixing is just plain crazy. More than that, trotting out the overused word organic to tack on the product name is really not in the spirit of organic living. Organic Picks argues that The Organic Batter Blaster and its resource wasting can has provided us with the moment where the “organic label has truly lost its meaning.”
On top of that, according to Dead On, “the sexual innuendo is off the charts here.” Ookee.com admonishes us “it’s not some kind of sex toy. Stop it.”
Technorati Tags: Pancakes, Batter Blaster, Organic, Reddi-wip, Easy Cheese, Brand Naming
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:33:57 -0600 - Pingg and the Evolution of Language
Once upon a time, a programmer needed to do some network troubleshooting.
He wrote a little program to tell him whether a given network host was accessible and how long it took to get a signal there and back. He named this program after the sonar pulses used to determine how far away an object was in space.
And thus “ping” was born.
Five years ago, most of us only encountered the term if we had to call our ISP’s tech support because we couldn’t get online. Then the tech support technician would ask us to open a command line and ping Google or some other site they absolutely knew was working.
But now the word “ping” has entered our everyday language, particularly among the BlackBerry-toting business types who use “offline” when they mean “in private” or “after this discussion is over.” (Real geeks know that what they want to say is “use the back-channel.”)
“Ping me” does not mean “try to reach my network host to see if it’s working.” It means “contact me” or “remind me.” Keith Ferrazzi uses “pinging” to mean keeping in frequent touch with your contacts, to remind them who you are and how helpful you can be to them.
Now there’s pingg, an online invitation service discovered this week by Springwise.
Despite the obligatory Web 2.0 spelling of the name, pingg shows us just how far this once-obscure term has penetrated into popular consciousness. It doesn’t take a geek to want to send out invitations online, and pingg provides every conceivable way to get your friends’ attention: e-mail, SMS text message, social networks, and even good old-fashioned snail mail.
Technorati Tags: Pingg, Blackberry, ISP, Sonar Pulses, Ping
Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:02:01 -0600 - Will Wal-Mart Ruling Start Parody Naming Trend?
In copyright law, parody counts as “fair use.” So too in trademark law, it would seem. Wal-Mart accused Georgia resident Charles Smith of infringing on its trademark by selling products emblazoned “Wal-ocaust” and “Wal-Qaeda.”
It’s no surprise that Wal-Mart doesn’t find these particular parodies amusing, but even if Smith’s sites didn’t feature prominent disclaimers, it’s unlikely anyone would find the names—or the logos, for that matter—“confusingly similar.” The average person is plenty smart enough to realize that none of the T-shirts, posters, or bumper stickers comes from Wal-Mart.
And that’s exactly what Judge Timothy Batten concluded, as WebProNews reported. Smith is free to go on using the names “Wal-ocaust” and “Wal-Qaeda” to sell products.
Of course, Smith’s aim is to make a political point, not establish a business. Any company that chooses its name as a parody of another company risks obsolescence once the subject of the parody is no longer a household name. Some brands might continue to flourish even if no one gets the joke anymore, but if Wal-Mart went out of business, there would be no market for Wal-ocaust T-shirts.
Which is probably just what Charles Smith would love to see happen.
Technorati Tags: Wal-Mart, Wal-ocaust, Wal-Qaeda, Trademark, Charles Smith, Judge Batten, Logos, T-Shirts, Bumper Stickers
Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:42:16 -0600 - Motorola Brand Chief Asset of Recent Breakup
The Daily Herald has a good story up about the value of the Motorola name. The right move, they say, would be for one entity of the recently divided company to continue using the name, probably the Mobile Devices business.
That’s interesting, because as the Herald correctly points out, usually in similar cases the company name is scrapped altogether. That still could happen, not least because some people feel that offering investors the ailing handset business (the one most customers associate the Motorola name with) is, as Extra Tech so eloquently puts it, like “putting lipstick on a pig.”
The rot started in earnest, says GigaOm, when the RAZR (another well loved brand name in the Motorola stable) “stopped being the next new thing.” Ironically, the new MOTORZR truncates that name even further, while offering what looks like the same old thing.
Extra Tech says that “right now, Motorola is simply a brand,” but one that could be very attractive to Chinese manufacturers who have little, to no brand name recognition in the United States.
It's interesting to see the fortunes of a company (or senior executive for that matter) change so quickly. A year or two ago Ed Zander, Chairman of the Board for Motorola, was poking fun at Samsung's naming, calling them "Same Sung."
I agree. The Motorola name has simply too much equity to be tossed.
Technorati Tags: Motorola, Brand Name, RAZR, MOTORZR, Mobile Devices, Phones
Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:59:37 -0600 - The History Channel Brand Name is History
The History Channel has shortened its name to simply History and has literally thought outside the box with its logo by taking it out of its box altogether. This follows the industry’s tendency to refer to a channel in a shortened version of its original name. In this case History.
TV Jab finds this move “slightly disturbing,” not because they have a problem with the name, but because of the perception that History (formerly the History Channel) is trying to become more “hip.”
At the same time, TV Squad notes that the channel is known in some quarters as “The Hitler Channel” because of the number of World War II documentaries you can see there and worries that the name will alienate its core audience. I don't think so. The channel's programming and its audience is much broader than its original focus on World War II.
At least one civil war historian feels the same way, bemoaning the channel’s move towards “immersive” adventure documentaries about truckers and loggers.
The fact is, dropping the word channel from the name allows History to get into other forms of media. It’s a logical move on the part of the channel that many did not believe could be profitable in the first place.
The same thing was said about the Learning Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Weather Channel and the original Financial News Channel. Oh, people thought Ted Turner "was crazy" when he established CNN, who would want to watch news 24/7? Apparently many people around the world, including world leaders.
Technorati Tags: History, World War II, History Channel, History, Brand Naming
Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:14:38 -0600 - Kentucky Grilled Chicken - KFC's New Coke Naming Moment?
In the coming weeks you can expect to see "Now Grilling" signs at select KFC stores. And storefront signs
will be changed to feature "Kentucky Grilled Chicken." The London Free
Press says that "Even the brand's ubiquitous chicken buckets will get a
makeover."
Doug Hasselo, KFC's chief food innovation officer, says: "This is transformational for our brand."
All kinds of things have to happen to make this naming work.
First of all, customers have to accept that KFC can grill chicken and that the product is indeed healthier than its fried alternative. Will they really believe that a piece of grilled chicken from KFC is better for them than a piece of extra crispy chicken?
More than that, many loyal customers are not going to like this kind of
brand name dilution. Circle of Food wonders if the sides will also get a makeover. Some executives have pointed out that if you want to eat healthy, you can't "just chow down on biscuits."
I think this is either going to be major coup for KFC or an unmitigated New Coke-like disaster. The name itself, Kentucky Grilled Chicken, will refocus consumers on what KFC actually stands for, a case of one step
forward and one step back.
The other thing that must worry some executives at Yum foods, KFC's parent company, is that Kentucky is not really the grilling center of the United States. When I think about grilled chicken, I think possibly of Subway.
I wonder what Colonel Sanders would think? I'd hate to be the one to tell him!
Maybe they should run an add showing that the Colonel left behind a top secret grilled chicken recipe.
Technorati Tags: KFC, Grilled Chicken, New Coke, Colonel Sanders, Product Naming, Fried Chicken
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:39:04 -0600 - Soccer Naming Gets Tough in Seattle
There seems to be some unhappiness in Seattle about the possible name of that city's major league soccer team.
The names that the soccer fans of Seattle have to choose from are: Seattle Alliance, Seattle Republic and Seattle FC, leading Seattle PI to report that sports fans were asking "Is it a phrase from a "Star Trek" convention? The name of an Eastern bloc country? Did focus groups consisting of a bunch of youth soccer coaches come up with some new moniker?"
Apparently, there had been a chance the name would be Emerald City says the WV Hooligan, who favors Seattle FC.
It seems like the folks in the Pacific Northwest have a pension for unusual names.
- Seattle's tourist slogan is "metronatural." Need I say more. Of course it reminds one of metrosexual, perhaps not the most positive association.
- Wisely, the state of Washington had the wisdom to drop its most recent state slogan "SayWA!"
Don't worry, Seattle, you may not be crazy about your soccer team's new name, but at least your team will not be called the PA Stoners, the name that came about in Pennsylvania for its NPSL (National Premier Soccer League) team from "Pennsylvania’s nickname: the Keystone State." Ouch!
Technorati Tags: Soccer, Seattle, Naming, NPSL, PA Stoners, Metronatural, Pennsylvania, Keystone State
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:48:04 -0600
