Name Wire: The Product Naming Blog

Blackberry Embraces Some Bold New Brand Naming

May 13, 2008

The news that the new Blackeberry, which up until this weekend was called The Blackberry 9000, is now officially to be named Blackberry Bold, is sure to send CrackBerry.com addicts scurrying to get their new fix. The web mantra for this phone is “Be Bold."

Engadget Mobile is already buzzing, asking if the new gadget has a “Bold new design, bold new flavor?” and jokingly calling it the “Blackberry Clunk”, much to the irritation of some of the people posting on their blog.

The name bold is actually in reference to the display, but Newsblog can’t help mentioning “The bold and the beautiful,” which I suppose is a good thing.

A quick flip through the Blackberry website indicates that this is the Blackberry Bold 9000 (its full name, it seems) is pretty cool, and PC World reminds us that this is designed to take on the iPhone, based on the 3G platform and a higher-res, but smaller screen, though it "holds the same number of pixels as the current iPhone's."

Sub-branding isn't new to Blackberry. The company previously introduced the Blackberry Pearl 8100 Series (marked by its small size, smartphone brains and elegant beauty), followed by the Blackberry Curve 8300 Series (designed with a slightly curved keyboard "For the Well-Rounded Life").

The Bold is a deviation from previous Blackberry naming by using an adjective rather than a a noun.

However, brand names that are adjectives or verbs are not something new to the category. Three notable examples are:

LG enV - of course, envy can be both a noun or a verb (pictured below left)

HTC Touch (pictured below middle)

Samsung Juke (pictured below right)

It also occurs to me that the word bold, unlike curve and pearl, is distinctly masculine. With a tagline like “Be Bold” on a black web splash site, one has to wonder if Blackberry is trying to appeal to men more than women with this one.

The language is also distinctly macho: RIM feels the Blackberry will “Power the passions you pursue.”

Could it be that RIM has decided to take huge inroads into iPhone’s potential male market and let Apple have its fair share of female buyers?

One thing is for sure, it is hard to see some guy buying the Blackberry Bold for his girlfriend, while holding on to his Pearl.

Finally, expect to see more brand names in the cell phone and smartphone categories, as well as more broadly, that are verbs or adjectives. As a society we've pretty much run out of nouns that are available to trademark in many categories.

Technorati Tags: Blackberry, Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Curve, Blackberry Pearl, LG enV, HTC Touch, Samsung Juke, Cell Phone, Smartphone

The Clinton Brand Name Keeps Getting Stronger

May 13, 2008

There’s been some talk in the press about the Clinton brand name and how her recent struggles might negatively affect its equity.

I always find this type of discussion interesting, if not amusing.

One strategic marketing site has created a very interesting brand architecture outline that essentially has users comparing presidential candidates across a variety of consumer categories, including “Cereal, Beer, Coffee, Apparel, Technology,” a subject very similar to something we blogged about last year.

Whether your liking for Rice Krispies will negatively affect the Clinton brand name, I cannot say. What I will risk saying is that win or loose the nomination, election, or even today's West Virginia primary, the Clinton brand name is not going to be tarnished for two reasons.

The first reason comes right out of Brand Naming 101: you cannot tarnish a brand name for doing what it is supposed to do.

What tarnishes a politician’s brand name is when they betray their basic brand values by doing something scandalous, dishonest or otherwise misinformed. Something that tarnishes the basic integrity of the brand name and all it stands for.

Love her or hate her, Hillary has yet to do that. She has fought hard and bitterly against Obama, but this is how she operates, and her supporters admire her for it.

The second reason is something we have blogged about in the past: Hillary has separated her personal brand from the Clinton Masterbrand and she has done so quite successfully. The Hillary brand name has never been more visible, strong, or vivid in my mind. I think that it is spurious to lump her simply as a Clinton.

After this is all over, count on the name Hillary to become just as big as the name Clinton.

Technorati Tags: Clinton, Hillary, Bill Clinton, Obama, Brand Name, Politics, Primary, Election, Masterbrand, Politician

Posted by William Lozito at 9:38 AM
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Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Media and Entertainment | Naming

High-Fididelity Naming for eBay Competitor

May 9, 2008

A lot of people are unhappy with eBay right now, and throngs of alternative auction sites are stepping forward.

The most recent entrant isn’t precisely an auction site, it’s a place to haggle. (Cue excerpt from “The Life of Brian.”)

Fididel’s founder insists that the name doesn’t mean anything, or at least, fididel, pronounced fih-diddle, didn’t mean anything before the launch of this service.

Now it means “to haggle online,” and the site promises a whole family of related words. Fididelers, for instance, are people who do your haggling for you, for a cut.

Unlike competitor Wigix, whose name stands for “Want It-Got It Exchange,” Fididel’s was named for a Mexican restaurant called Fidel’s.

The name Fidel contains several layers of significance. It’s root meaning is faithful, implying honesty and reliability—not a bad thing for a marketplace to have. On the other hand, the most famous Fidel of the modern era is the communist dictator Fidel Castro—not quite the icon you want for a flourishing free market.

Technorati Tags: Fididel, eBay, Haggle, Fididelers, Wigix, Auction Sites, Fidel

V8 Soup: More of a Good Thing

May 8, 2008

It seems like V8 vegetable juice has been around forever, but it’s actually only been since 1933.

The origin of the name is the 8 different vegetables used to make the drink. Obvious, and yet brilliant.

It’s descriptive: it tells consumers what this drink has that ordinary tomato juice doesn’t.
It’s suggestive: the V8 engine powers sportscars and aircraft, making V8 an energy drink long before the likes of Red Bull came along.
It’s short, simple, and easy to pronounce.

Now V8's parent company Campbell Soup is introducing 5 varieties of V8 soup. This seems like a logical step to me.

As a child, watching the “I coulda had a V8” commercials, I was always skeptical about the idea of drinking vegetable juice instead of fruit juice. Okay, I was skeptical about vegetables in general at that age. Vegetables in soup make sense, even to someone who tried to feed her peas and carrots to the dog under the table.

Admittedly, corn, peppers, squash, and broccoli are not among the ingredients of the original V8, which means “V9” might be a more accurate designation, but this is a solid branding choice for Campbell’s.

Technorati Tags: V8, V8 Juice, Campbell Soup, Vegetables, V8, V8 Soup, V9

Baskin-Robbins Loses Founder, But Great Product Naming Lives On

May 8, 2008

The passing of Irvine Robbins of Baskin-Robbins fame has me paying tribute to a man who really knew the value of eye catching product naming.

The name Baskin-Robbins was an amalgamation of the names of its founders, Irvine Robbins and Burton Baskin. The two men flipped a coin to see whose name came first, leading later generations to wonder if an ice cream chain called Robbins-Baskin would have done nearly as well.

Robbins discovered as a teenager that he could sell three times the ice cream if he changed the offering from “three scoops of ice cream, a slice of banana, two kinds of toppings” to “Super Banana Treat.” This was the start of a cornucopia of ice cream naming.

There have been over a thousand great flavors over the years like Valley Forge Crunch, for the 1976 Bicentennial, Lunar Cheesecake, to mark the moon landings, and Beatle Nut for Beatlemania.

After his retirement, Robbins named his boat “The 32nd Flavor.” Nice.

The Baskin-Robbins brand name itself is very powerful. The famous 31 flavors (one for every day of the month) grew from the original 21 flavors . The company, owned by Dunkin Brands is gearing up for a major US expansion with a new logo, graphics, web site, store design and of course some new product naming.

Baskin-Robbins was there with some really funky naming before the founders of Ben and Jerry’s were born and before Häagen-Dazs hit the big time (that name means nothing, really, and it invented Nordic consonance)

Basskin-Robbins’s great names for their flavors have always intrigued us and made a trip to the brightly colored stores special. This company, one of the first true franchises in the US and one of the pioneers of the high end ice cream market, probably owes its existence not only to its great ice cream, but also to the foresight of its founders, who understood that great flavors need great names.

RIP, Mr. Robbins.

Technorati Tags: Baskin Robbins, Ice Cream, 31 Flavors, Irvine Robbins, Burton Baskin, New Logo, Ben and Jerry's, Häagen-Dazs

Cold Spring Name Change Not a Hot Idea

May 7, 2008

On the State of the Brand 2008 blog this week, Jason Voiovich is lamenting the loss of the Gluek’s Brewery brand name, which was replaced by the more pedestrian Cold Spring earlier this year.

The copyright notice on the company’s website still says Gluek Brewing Company, but it appears not to have been changed since 2005.

Not that Cold Spring is meaningless. It’s the name of the city where the brewery is located. And the idea of brewing your beer from cold local spring water is attractive enough. But here in Minnesota, we’ve got Cold Spring This and Cold Spring That all over the place.

There’s nothing really wrong with it, but there’s nothing really right with it, either. Nothing distinctive. And if you brew craft beers, you need distinctive. Likewise if you’re trying to break into a new and already-competitive market. (Cold Spring now produces energy drinks.)

Admittedly, those not from Minnesota might be unsure how to pronounce Gluek (which is Old German for luck), and it’s usually a good idea for new product names to be easy for English-speakers to pronounce. But Gluek is not a new name.

The 1902 Gluek House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and Gluek’s Restaurant is the oldest in downtown Minneapolis.

Around here, at least, the Gluek’s name has equity. Abandoning the name, and potentially confusing existing loyal customers, seems like a far greater risk than keeping it.

Viel Gluck!

Technorati Tags: Gluek, Brewery, Gluek's Restaurant, Gluek House, Energy Drink, Gluek Brewing Company, Cold Spring Brewing Company, Name Change, Brand Name, Minnesota, Pale Ale

Why Did the FDA Object to Merck's Cordaptive Brand Name?

May 1, 2008

The news that Merck's new Cordaptive drug was unexpectedly torpedoed by the FDA has raised eyebrows across the industry, not least because the FDA rejected the name as well, leading Derek at In the Pipeline to wonder what Merck will do with "all their promotional freebies."

This seems to be the least of Merck's problems this week.

There are a number of scientific and political reasons that probably doomed Cordaptive, but the FDA has yet to give a specific reason.

I have some thoughts on why Cordaptive may have been given a not-approvable letter.

Cordaptive is a cholesterol reducing drug from Merck that combines niacin, which can cause the unfavorable side affects of flushing and hot flashes, with laropiprant, which mitigates niacin’s side affects.

But Merck also markets Zocor, which also is designed to reduce cholesterol.

Additionally, there is Vytorin, a combination of Zocor and Zetia, which has proven to be no more effective than Zocor alone at reducing heart attaches or strokes.

Perhaps the FDA felt the "cor" prefix in Cordaptive suggested that the new product was an adaptation of Zocor. Or perhaps there were other reasons.

Merck changed the Cordaptive name to Tredaptive, which was approved by EMEA or the European Medicines Agency.

It will be interesting to see what the FDA decides regarding the Tredaptive name and the drug itself.

Technorati Tags: Merck, Cordaptive, Zocor, Tredaptive, Cholesterol, Drug Names, Vytorin, Facial Flushing, FDA

What Do You Think of Starbucks' Product Naming?

April 30, 2008

One blogger has picked up on my curiosity about the brand naming planned for two new smoothie-like drinks coming from Starbucks. Donder and Blitzen have declared to the world that according to the Wall Street Journal there is a " Top Secret Baptism for New Starbucks' Drinks." in the offing.

This is big news not least because Starbucks is taking a beating lately. Starbucks' tepid performance has led to some gloating across the Internet, and some of it is pretty interesting.

ScLoHo's recent blog post says that the problem here is that Starbucks went too far down market, pinning the beginning of the end at Starbucks' decision to put carts in airports and malls, and to offer the frappuccino in supermarkets.

Could it be that Starbucks product naming has become too pedestrian in a world were we all know our ventis from our skinnys?

Even the employee blogs talk about customers becoming too familiar with the product naming and suggest what should be done about it (remeber that the customer is always right).

I was interested to see that some Starbucks' employees refer to their company as "Sbux," a neat piece of insider naming.

There is no doubt that these two new names for the smoothie-like drinks have to be something different than smoothie, which is not a Sbux name. Starbucks has a grand tradition of interesting naming. Only they can offer us chocolate espresso truffles with a straight face.

I hope that these new products get the kind of naming they deserve.

Technorati Tags: Starbucks, Donder, Blitzen, New Smoothie, Coffee, Sbux, Ventis, Skinnys, Espresso

Hannah Montana Learns About Entertainment Naming and Branding the Hard Way

April 29, 2008

The world of entertainment naming is a difficult one to navigate and protect, as is evidenced by the uproar today over Miley Cyrus’s seemingly provocative photo shoot for Vanity Fair.

There are several big names here that are under fire: Miley Cryus (who just changed her name from Destiny Hope), Hannah Montana, Disney, and famed celeb photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Confused?

Cyrus is the fifteen year old star behind Disney’s clean-cut Hannah Montana brand name. This photo shoot, which was carried out apparently under parental supervision, is really an example of Annie Leibovitz just doing what she does best: creating edgy photos of people in the public eye. In this case, however, the person was a minor and some feel Leibovitz pushed the envelope a bit to far.

Miley Cyrus is topless in these pictures (if you’re the type who believes that being wrapped in a sheet is topless), which is a problem since Miley is, after all, a minor and Disney’s Hannah Montana target audience is 6-14 years old. Even Annie Leibovitz is on the defensive, despite the fact that Miley picked out the photos for publication herself.

Disney has weighed in, accusing Vanity Fair of "manipulating” Cyrus to get the sordid shots, which come after the embarrassing (but still essentially g-rated) pictures appeared on the Internet of the clean cut star.

People magazine readers overwhelmingly think the pictures are inappropriate, although many think they are “artistic." They could be both, but for a minor, the former trumps the latter.

I just have to ask how many youngsters are really reading Vanity Fair? I also have to ask what kind of contracts is Disney giving out to these kids?

I would imagine that if Disney was really thoughtful about protecting its brand naming, it might make partially nude photo shoots for stars of its pre-teen entertainment lines off limits.

Technorati Tags: Disney, Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana, Vanity Fair, People, Photo Shoot, Leibovitz

Chi Chi’s Launches Linguistic Marketing Campaign

April 28, 2008

Hormel wants you to think of Chi Chi’s whenever you hear any word starting with “C,” so it’s only fitting that Chicago and Cincinnati are two of the first cities to benefit from this new C campaign.

According to BrandWeek “Consumers will see Chi Chi’s name associated with words like 'chicken,' 'cravings,' 'cooking' and 'celebration' in signage across grocery stores.” In total, they’ll have more than 2,000 words to choose from, but by no means will all of them be words Hormel wants associated with its product.

There are plenty of possibilites for wordplay on Chi Chi’s. More Words finds 430 English words starting with chi, including not just chicken but chips and chile.

And there are 1490 words containing chi, including achieve, achiote, and zucchini.

A mere 13 words end with chi, but one of them is mariachi.

Or you could look for rhymes, though perhaps peachy, screechy, and Nietzsche aren’t the best associations for fiesta food. (And the philosopher would never have recognized his name if you pronounced it to rhyme with Chi Chi’s, anyway.)

The real problem with the name Chi Chi’s, however, is the slang meaning of chichis. Though some people might associate them with fiestas, most of us don’t want to put salsa on them.

Technorati Tags: Hormel, Chi Chi, Salsa, Fiesta, Chips, Chicago , Cincinnati

Does the World Need Another Ketchup Brand?

April 28, 2008

When you think Ketchup, what's the first brand that comes to mind? Heinz, of course.

However, I read with some amusement about the invention of Sir Kensington's Gourmet Scooping Ketchup by some bright college students who appear to have found a gap in the market for high-end tomato sauce as part of what looks like a pretty ambitious marketing project.

Not so fast, guys. You have a great idea here but Heinz has already caught on. Seems that ketchup lovers in the UK are getting a gourmet version of the ketchup we all grew up with.

Some people may think "gourmet ketchup" is a contradiction of terms, and although mustard may have a certain nobility about it, Ketchup is pretty darn egalitarian. The UK Daily Mail agrees.

The problem that Sir Kensington's would face if it was indeed being launched across the US is that Heinz has created a very, very flexible brand name for itself.

Although Laura Ries would be aghast, a quick flip through their web site shows that the company is already offering a low sugar ketchup, a light version, a low carb version, and an organic version, not to mention quite a few packaging options, including "Fridge Door Fit Ketchup."

I wish Sir Kensington's all the best, but Heinz has figured out pretty much all of the niche variations out there, one of the chief problems of trying to take market share from a brand that is now fast on its feet.

Technorati Tags: Ketchup, Sir Kensington's Gourmet Scooping Ketchup, Heinz, Organic, Reduced Sugar, Condiments, Gourmet

Motorola Naming and Branding Set to Bounce Back

April 24, 2008

Here’s a riddle for you: what American company invented a nifty cutting edge consumer tech product that we all loved and then fell behind as faceless rivals offered cheaper, blander versions of its own invention, leading to a forced corporate shake up and the practical demise of the company before a cool new product made it a market leader and a super brand name a generation after it had been written off in the press?

I am talking about Apple, but I might be talking about Motorola.

It’s now almost official that the Motorola handset division will spin off from the business and keep its name in a quest to become a “cellphone icon” according to USA Today, which quotes one exec as saying “The Motorola brand is really important to devices [...] My feeling is that it really means a lot to the (handset) division."

As I indicated back in March, it is unusual for a company that has been raided to keep its brand naming but in this case its a great move. There is massive equity behind the Motorola name despite some recent missteps: Nerdyblog, for instance, claims that the z6M ROKR phone “doesn't deserve the Motorola name.”

The key is for Motorola to introduce cutting edge cellphones that use the newest technology they can get their hands on. Motorola made a simple mistake three years ago: it bet the house on the very popular RAZR line and then didn't embrace 3G technology, a move that hurt the company enough to let Icahn and his cronies in the back door.

It seems Motorola has some really interesting devices planned to roll out, but the key is to find a way to morph hi-tech with the kind of look and feel consumers want. The rise of the so-called “smart phone” offers Motorola a chance to repeat its success with the RAZR by giving us a phone with the features we like in a cool package and a cool brand name.

They did it once, why not do it again?

Motorola, lest we forget, were the people who brought us the original 28 ounce cell phone over twenty years ago.

It’s now facing the same kind of problems Apple faced in the early 1990s, but if they can come back with their own cellphone version of the iPod, watch this beleaguered brand name clean up.

My advice? Keep the Motorola name, drop the RAZR, ROKR, SCPL, MOTORIZR naming and branding and push into fresh brand naming territory, Motorola. You have nothing to lose.

Posted by William Lozito at 7:40 AM
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Posted to Brand Naming

Is Barbie Contributing to her Own Brand Naming Dilution?

April 23, 2008

The news that Barbie has seen her sales decline by 12% this year is worrying for Mattel, but surely surprising to any parent who has had to keep track of his daughter’s ever expanding collection of ubiquitous toys.

Barbie is still the number one brand name when it comes to girls toys, but girls seem to be pulled in many directions nowadays thanks to video games, iPods and Bratz dolls, to name a few.

Despite the slump, Barbie has experienced a rebirth in the last few years thanks to a whole slew of new movies that see her as empowered, strong and independent. But what does occur to me, as well as to the dads I know who are in the marketing biz and feverishly buy these DVDs for their daughters, is how the Barbie name has become something of a sub-brand when it comes to their naming and branding.

There’s Barbie: The Princess and the Pauper; Barbie: The Twelve Dancing Princesses; Barbie: The Island Princess as well as Barbie: Mermaidia and Barbie: Fairytopia. Not to mention Barbie: Mariposa (think butterflies).

Here’s where it gets tricky. In very few of these movies does Barbie actually get called, Barbie. In Island Princess she’s Rosella, and in Princess and the Pauper the two twin princesses are Annaliese and Erika. In 12 Dancing Princesses she is Gennevieve, and so on.

The idea here is for the viewer to assume that Barbie is playing different parts in the movies, but it’s a stretch. Especially for a five year old, who might feel she has a few Barbies as well as a Mariposa doll.

It looks to me like these are movies given the Barbie seal of approval, rather than movies that feature a character named Barbie (who does in fact speak to the kids when the DVD menu comes up with a cheery “Hi, it’s me, Barbie” but, like some kind of higher power bestowing blessings upon the tale, does not show her face).

Phew. A guy needs a cheat sheet just to keep abreast of all the different brand naming going on here.

With all of these new products being poured on the market, could Barbie be facing brand naming dilution?

Add the thousands of Barbie clones that are out there, and it seems to be that Mattel is contributing to its own problems by creating what look to me like Barbie knock-offs rather than real Barbies.

How about a few movies that star a young woman named Barbie?

Technorati Tags: Barbie, Mattel, Toys, Dolls, Bratz, Brand Name Dilution, Sub-brand, Movies, DVDs

Brandz Ranks the Value of Brand Names Globally

April 22, 2008

Millward Brown's Top 100 Most Powerful Brandz report is a major undertaking, congratulations to MB.

However, you may call me a cynic, but I always question huge percentage changes in data over a one year period.

For instance, are we to believe that during 2007

Apple's brand value increased by 123%?

Blackberry's brand value increased by 390%?

I don't think so.

What it tells me more than anything is that the Millward Brown Brandz methodology, at least in some instances, is overly sensitive to input.

Having said that, the broad findings of the most powerful brands are most likely valid, but I wouldn't put a lot of stock in the yearly percent change in brand value.

The study ranks Google #1 in brand value worldwide. Maybe that's true. Maybe it's not.

Could Google's ranking, be in part, because the name is ubiquitous as both a noun and a verb or is it vice-versa?

It would be interesting to see what a buyer would pay to acquire Google, which consists primarily of intellectual property or intangible assets versus the #2 brand, GE, which consists primarily of physical assets.

David Goldstein quoted a Millward Brown exec that stated that “strong brands continue to outperform weak ones in terms of market share and share price during recessions.”

Again, I don't think so.

I'm not aware of a recession in the U.S. or worldwide during 2007, the study period. My understanding of economics is that a recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of declining GDP.

Again, am I being overly picky? You decide.

Finally, Millward Brown is to be congratulated on this major brand study, even with its perceived shortcomings by a sample of one.

Technorati Tags: Google, Blackberry, Apple, Brand Value, Global Brand, Market Share, Share Price

A Product Code Name Worth Watching

April 18, 2008

Remember when tubular was a term of approbation? Okay, maybe not.

Nokia’s code name for its proposed “iPhone killer” is Tube.

The mobile giant isn’t big on giving its products real names; Symbian Freak speculates that the Tube is part of the S60 line. For the general public, however, Tube is easier to remember.

Engadget describes the Tube as “grossly codenamed," and I have to agree that tube is not an especially sexy word, and in one meaning, conveys entirely the wrong shape for a mobile phone.

But there is logic to the name. The dominant feature of the Nokia Tube, like the Apple iPhone, is its screen. It’s a phone for watching video on. Back in the day, everyone referred to the television as the tube.

These days, not even televisions have vacuum tubes in them any more, but language can be slow to catch up with technology. We still talk about rewinding digital audio and video files. Although it may be that a more typical alphanumeric Nokia designation will actually sound more modern.

Besides, the example of pace Microsoft, the real name is supposed to be cooler than the code name.

Technorati Tags: Nokia Tube, Apple iPhone, Apple, Inc, Nokia, Cell Phone, iPhone Killer, Microsoft