July 2006 Archives: Name Wire: The Product Naming Blog

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July 31, 2006

Links Du Jour 07-31-06

Mastering New Marketing Practices - John Hagel writes about how Brands will become even more important and valuable in this new marketing world, and should make the transition to a new, customer-centric brand promise. This means that a new brand name that resonates with its target market should communicate this promise: “Buy from me because I know you as an individual customer better than anyone else and you can trust me to use that knowledge to configure the right bundle of products and services to meet your individual needs.”
Domain Names - Points To Consider When Choosing One - Simon L demonstrates in this post how careful one must be when choosing a domain name for your brand. He suggests a few ideas: incorporating the most searched for term in your market into your domain name, considering the memorable-brand route, and keeping your domain name short, for greater memorability. He also recommends you Stay Away From Hyphenated Domains!

Technorati Tags: New Marketing, Brand Promise, New Brand Name, Domain Names, Company Names

July 30, 2006

Want Another Chance to Name a Zoo Animal?

Baby Elephant.jpg I’ve blogged about other zoo animal naming contests including a recent baby gorilla naming contest in Rwanda.

This is the first zoo animal naming contest I am aware of that specifies criteria for baby elephant name candidates.

Here is what the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, MO. expects from the contest entries:

Name should have links to Asia or India.
Name should be one or two syllables so it’s easy to get the elephants attention.
Name submissions must also include it’s meaning or the reason for the name.

Entries can be submitted until August 26th at dickersonparkzoo.org.

A grand prize will be offered, but was not specified.

Good luck with your baby elephant name submissions.

Zoo, Animals, Elephants, Naming, Contests

July 27, 2006

Brand Naming: A New Airline Brand Only A Click Away

Catair It's interesting to see the evolution of airline brand names that are place-oriented, such as Northwest Airlines, American Airlines, and USAir, to short, catchy, evocative, and easy-to-remember names such as Song, Ted, and Virgin (yes, I realize that Song was folded into its parent, Delta, primarily for financial reasons.)

There's a new kid on the block. Or, should I say a new, low-cost airline from Iberia Airlines in Spain.

It's called Clickair.

You might ask, why Clickair? It's reported that "the Internet will be its primary sales tool..."

Although this is a more interesting name than Northwest or USAir, it's probably not in the same league as Song, Ted, and Virgin.

But, there's something about it I like. It's different, irreverant, and stands out from all other airline brand names.

The Cheap Flights blog reports that Clickair is going to be, possibly, the first airline that even before taking off will have its own unofficial fan site. It is www.catair.cat (Catair as the provisional brand name that finally was not chosen.)

Technorati Tags: Catair, Airline Naming, CAT, Iberia, Clickair

Posted by William Lozito at 5:21 PM

Posted to Brand Naming | Company Naming | Naming | Travel and Tourism
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July 26, 2006

Motorola's New Phone Brands: Too Mch of a Gd Thng?

Motorola has just introduced a slew of new cell phone brands.

KRZR, pronounced Crazer, perhaps based on the popular phrase "crazy cool"
RIZR, pronounced Riser, a slider phone
RAZR MAXX, a quad-band phone with music player
RAZR XX, a tri-band phone with a 1.3 megapixel camera
RAZR V3b, uses bluetooth for voice calls with a home network

I am beginning to wonder if Motorola is taking a good thing too far.

The RAZR brand name makes a lot of sense, but the KRZR and RAZR XX, for instance, seem to have taken Motorola from distinctive brand names, de facto back to an alpha or alpha-numeric nomenclature.

I think Motorola runs the risk of encountering what Lincoln just had to deal with. Their MKZ, MKX, and MKS nameplates were changed after only 6 months in the marketplace because the consumer wasn't getting it. More accurately, they're changing the pronounciation from [mark-zee] to [em-kay-zee].

Admittedly, the Lincoln target market is quite a bit older than Motorola's, but I think it's fair to consider the possibility of Motorola experiencing the same fate as they continue to introduce new phone brand names.

Motorola is a great company with some great phone products, and is on a roll (50 million RAZR phones sold worldwide.) I, for one, hope it continues on that trajectory.

To read more about Motorola's new RIZR and KRZR phones, check out these recent blog posts:

Phone Scoop - Eric Lin has some inside information straight from Motorola's global launch in Cape Town, South Africa
Talkin' Tech - Berniej says GDBY RAZR HLLO KRZR
Good Morning Silicon Valley - John Paczkowski reports that "Motorola CEO to change name to Ed Zndr"
Mobile World - Detailed specs on the KRZR, RIZR, maxx and V3xx

Technorati Tags: Cell Phone Brands, Phone Naming, Motorola Phones, KRZR, RIZR, RAZR MAXX, RAZR XX, RAZR V3b

July 25, 2006

Brand Naming: Fortunately for Microsoft, a Zune is not a Penis in Canada

Zune One of the fascinating things about languages, English, French, and almost all others, is how they evolve and change over time. Languages are very elastic and accommodating.

For instance, if you were to watch the 1940's movies on the American Movies Classics channel, you would hear James Cagney and others referring to women as "dames" and a good situation as "swell." Today, "sweet" has replaced "swell", and I'm not sure what's replaced "dame." Any thoughts here?

Earlier today, I blogged about the possibility of Microsoft's new Zune brand name being considered a profanity in French-Canadian slang.

Our linguist language professor partner in Montreal says otherwise. Some 40 years ago, when a mother referred to their son's penis, she was not comfortable calling it that and substituted a made-up word, zoune. For instance, she would say, "Va laver ta zoune", or "Lche de jouer avec ta zoune", which translates to "Go wash your whatchamacallit" and "Stop playing with your whatchamacallit," respectively.

Times have changed. Language usage has changed. Nowadays, French-Canadian moms are comfortable using the word penis with their sons, therefore zoune has lost its reason for being.

Furthermore, the Canadian French speaker would never pronounce ZUNE to sound like ZOUNE, since U and OU are two entirely different vowel sounds in French, but the American pronunciation of ZUNE to rhyme with TUNE would sound vaguely like ZOUNE to a French speaker.

Keep in mind that the next time you're travelling to Montreal and are talking about your new Microsoft Zune, there may be, there just may be, someone thinking you're talking about your penis.

Technorati Tags: Zune, Microsoft, iPod Killer, Slang, Zoune, Buick LaCrosse, Linguistic Analysis, Branding

Brand Naming: Watch Out For Paws and Pause

Homophones are words which have the same sound but different spellings, such as “paws” and “pause.” English has a phenomenal number of these, though none of them start with X or Z, at least according to Suber & Thorpe’s online English Homophone Dictionary.

Homophones are one of the primary sources of puns. If your company’s name has a homophone, it increases the ease with which people can make jokes about it. Some companies deliberately call on the humor of homophones in naming their businesses, like the eyeglass merchant Site for Sore Eyes or a local alterations shop called Sew What.

As I mentioned in my post last week; Brand Naming: Students Know Technology, Not Branding; the name of the fictitious company S.O.R.E. was an attempt to invoke the connotations of “soar.” Even if the students had named their project “Soar,” however, the fact that the name sounded like “sore” would have been a drawback. Nintendo’s “Wii” has come under fire as a homophone not only of “we” but of “wee.”

In addition to the potential for ridicule, homophones leave consumers open to confusion and could hamper brand recognition. A 2000 Brandweek article reported that only 20% of respondents surveyed by Doremus recognized Sysco as a food products distributor, whereas 60% appeared to mistake it for tech giant Cisco.

One suspects most American consumers would mis-identify the shipping company Cosco as the discount retailer Costco. Even though none of the four companies has a natural word for a name, they are still homophones.

Cosco Having your brand mistaken for someone else’s is never good. The point of filing a trademark is to protect your company from this kind of consumer confusion. The USPTO’s trademark search function is actually pretty good at uncovering homophones for search terms, but it’s perfectly legitimate for two companies in different industries to have names which sound alike.

It’s just not good for brand recognition. To avoid confusion when naming your own company or product, stay away from homophones unless you’re making a deliberate play on words.

Technorati Tags: Homophones, Trademark Analysis, Company Names, Brand Recognition, Trademark Filing, Linguistics

Brand Naming: Will Microsoft's Zune Go The Way Of Buick's LaCrosse In Canada?

Zune The Inquirer, a UK business publication that’s part of VNU Business Media, which also publishes Adweek in the U.S., is reporting that Microsoft’s “iPod killer”, Zune, may be French-Canadian slang to describe parts of the male anatomy. The French-Canadian slang might actually be spelled “Zoune”.

Is Microsoft running the risk of stubbing their toe in Canada much like Buick did when they introduced the LaCrosse in Canada? LaCrosse, as it turns out, is French-Canadian slang for “masturbation”. Buick quickly changed the name to Buick Allure.

Our linguists are currently analyzing the French-Canadian slang and I will report on their opinion later today.

Stay tuned...or should I say stay zuned?

Technorati Tags: Zune, Microsoft, iPod Killer, Slang, Zoune, Buick LaCrosse, Linguistic Analysis, Branding

July 24, 2006

Brand Naming: Lincoln's MKZ Is Not A Motorola RAZR

MKX Lincoln is changing the name of its new MKZ nameplate.

More accurately, they're chaning the pronunciation from [mark-zee] to [em-kay-zee]. There's a very well-written article by Bryce G. Hoffman, in The Detroit News detailing the change. Also changing are the 'MK' components of the MKX and MKS brand names.

I guess MKZ is no RAZR. The latter is easier to pronounce because only the vowel is missing. On the other hand, to pronounce MKZ as Mark Z is perhaps asking too much of the consumer with both a vowel and consonant removed from Mark.

As successful as Motorola has been with RAZR, ROKR, and PEBL, in all cases, removing the vowels, Motorola's planned SCPL (for scalpel cell phone) may encounter the same fate as the Lincoln MKZ. See my May 30th blog post, Brand Naming: Is Motorola's SCPL Cutting Too Much?

Apparently, in the brief 6 months of the Lincoln MKZ and Lincoln MKX brand nomenclature, dealers complained about the brand architecture approach.

For both the MKZ and MKX, keeping the nameplate but pronouncing them differently, which is more in keeping with European and luxury auto nomenclature, it is probably a good compromise. I could just imagine the cost of changing the nameplate to something entirely different and the additional confusion that would create.

Additionally, our proprietary research of all the consonants in the English language has indicated that both the letters X and Z are perceived as innovative. Fortunately, for Lincoln, both letters are used and should work to convey that Lincoln is offering innovative automobiles.

Could this brand naming "stubbing of the toe" have been avoided with some brand name research?

Autoblog and Leftlane News both picked up on this story earlier today. Check out their readers' insightful comments.

Technorati Tags: Auto Naming, Lincoln Nomenclature, MKZ, MKX, Automotive Brands, Brand Architecture, Brand Naming, Brand Name Research

Tourism Slogans: Manitoba Heart of the Prairies

Finally, a slogan for Manitoba that makes sense and you can also like.

In an earlier post, I noted that Tom Brodbeck of the Winnipeg Sun invited Manitobans to submit alternatives to the Spirited Energy slogan, that by most accounts, to put it mildly, has been very disappointing.

The staff of the Winnipeg Sun selected Heart of the Prairies as the best slogan to replace Spirited Energy. "This slogan was submitted by George Smith, 72 - born and raised in Manitoba - who owns a trucking company in Winnipeg."

If you apply Al Ries' principle of reverse strategy, that is, can you say that about any other Canadian province, for instance, "Ontario is not the heart of the prairies?"

Yes, you can. Therefore, the Manitoba Heart of the Prairies slogan in unique and ownable for Manitoba. Whether or not that motivates tourism or community spirit is another matter. However, in my view, it's much warmer and aspirational than Spirited Energy.

For the record, here are the top 5 Manitoba slogan alternatives to Spirited Energy, as judged by the Winnipeg Sun staff:

Heart Of The Prairies
Explore It All
Jewel Of The North
Where the Adventure Begins
Prairie Proud

I've been most bothered by the Spirited Energy tourism slogan versus many others that I've blogged about. The main reason for the point of view is the misguided effort of trying to serve multiple target markets with one slogan, and the sheer cost of developing the slogan.

Here is a complete list of all of my blog posts on the Spirited Energy slogan:

Technorati Tags: Manitoba Slogan, Spirited Energy, Manitoba Branding, Heart Of The Prairie, Tourism, Reverse Strategy Test, Al Ries, Tom Brodbeck

July 21, 2006

Tourism Slogans: "I Break For Shoofly Pie" Disappoints Pennsylvanians

Not surprisingly, Pennsylvania residents are disappointed and frustrated by Pennsylvania's new tourism slogan, "I Break for Shoofly Pie".

Some typical comments are:

"That's very stupid. I don't even know what that means."
"It's the dummest thing I ever heard of."

Another resident suggested that Pennsylvania would be better off with the slogan, "I break for beauty."

For more on how Pennsylvania residents are reacting to the new slogan, please see this Pittsburgh Tribune Review article.

Technorati Tags: Pennsylvania Slogan, Tourism Slogans, State Branding

The Fonz Invites You To Enter A Naming Contest

Name The Fonz of Happy Days is sponsoring a contest to name three new tiger cubs.

Just kidding. It is the FONZ, the Friends of the National Zoo, that is, along with The National Zoo, that is sponsoring a contest to name three new Sumatran tiger cubs from now through August 21st.

To enter the contest, go to http://www.fonz.org/tigercubs.htm.

Technorati Tags: FONZ, Naming Contest

Posted by William Lozito at 6:18 PM

Posted to Naming
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Links Du Jour 07-21-06

Knight Errant - In a case of couture in court, Susan Scafidi writes about luxury brand Burberry, and how its revived knight brand logo may be just as tempting to counterfeiters. In a recent case, however, Marco Leather lost its trademark application, a copyright, and $100,000 to Burberry.
Side by side comparison doesn’t decide likelihood of confusion - Ron Coleman points out the similarities between Louis Vuitton (LV brand logo) and Dooney & Bourke (DB brand logo) handbags and the resulting trademark infringement case. The lesson for brand name development? If the differences between two trademarks are “memorable enough to dispel confusion on serial viewing” there’s no likelihood of confusion - no trademark infringement.

Technorati Tags: Louis Vuitton, Dooney & Bourke, Trademark Law, Brand Logos, Burberry, Copyright

July 20, 2006

What do you think of FEMA’s new name?

FEMA logo I hadn’t given this question much thought until I was contacted by Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times and Southern California Public Radio.

During her live radio show on KPCC Radio, Monday, July 17th, here’s what I said about FEMA’s new name, Emergency Management Authority, or EMA:

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck
The acronym EMA sounds too close to FEMA

Olay logo However, the live interview broadened to re-branding in general and I thought I would share some interesting city and country name changes, some that may be familiar, some less familiar:

The Gold Coast is now Ghana
East Dutch Indies is now Indonesia
Bombay is now Mumbai, and of course has been in the news recently
Calcutta is now Kolkata
Bangalore is now Bengaluru, which by any name, is where many of the IT jobs are going

And do you recall the unsuccessful state name change effort from North Dakota to Dakota, to make the state seem a little less northern and cold?

Panera Bread Some successful brand name changes, in my opinion, are:

Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC, because they’re no longer just in Kentucky, sell only fried chicken, and sell only chicken
Boston Chicken to Boston Market, to reflect a broader menu
Oil of Olay to Olay, since most new Olay products have nothing to do with oil
St. Louis Bread to Panera Bread, from the Italian pane for bread

Finally, Atlanta Bread just changed their name to Zaria, which is Russian for sunrise. In my opinion, Zaria sounds more like a drug name than a restaurant name.

Technorati Tags: FEMA Branding, FEMA Name Change, EMA, City Name Change, Country Name Change, Brand Name Change

What Effect Do Fast Casual Restaurant Logos Have on Brand Perceptions?

Applebee's Logo As you may know, Fast Casual restaurants represent a growth area in the restaurant business. Some established Fast Casual restaurants are Applebee's and TGI Friday's.

There are also some up-and-coming Fast Casual restaurants such as Briazz, Corner Bakery, Cosi, and Potbelly.

We were interested in what consumers thought of the aformentioned Fast Casual chain logos and conducted some proprietary research among the target market to find out.

Name Recently, Fast Casual magazine picked up on our Fast Casual logo research study results and reported on them in an article entitled, Your Name is Part of Your Brand. If you'd like a free copy of the research study, just drop me an email.

Technorati Tags: Fast Casual Restaurants, Restaurant Logos, Brand Perception, Brand Research

July 19, 2006

Columbus: Another Tourism Slogan in the Making

I've written a lot about a number of recent tourism slogans, both nationally and internationally.

If you'd like to see some of the inner-workings of how one branding consultant, North Star Destination Strategies of Nashville Tennessee, goes about developing a tourism slogan go here to answer the survey questions for Columbus.

By the way, we're talking about Columbus, Indiana here. I think that's one of the biggest hurdles they'll have to overcome - being overshadowed by the more prevalent Columbus, Ohio.

Technorati Tags: Tourism Slogans, Geographic Branding, Tourism Branding, Branding Survey, Branding Survey

You Can Go Insane Trying To Find An Available Domain Name

Lee Gomes, of the Wall Street Journal, today published a fascinating article on domain names.

The source of his information is Dennis Forbes, an analyst with Vastardis Capital Services, a New York mutual-fund service company.

Although, being a naming company, anecdotally, we are aware of many of these findings. But not to the degree and thoroughness that are reported in the Journal article.

Hats off to Dennis for analyzing this information and Lee reporting on it:

There are roughly 47 million domain names that end with ".com".
For every possible 2-character and 3-character combination, including both letters and numbers, all possible domains are taken.
The most common word, four letters or longer, is "home" - 719,000 domains have some sort of home in them.
"Sex" appears in 257,000 domains; "Imagine" appears in 3,700.
The average length of a domain name is 13 characters long - half are between 9 and 15.
A domain can have, at most, 63 characters, and there are 550 such domains.
Each of the 26 letters of the alphabet have a domain in which the letter is repeated 63 times.
Most people now search for Web sites using a descriptive word or phrase...

We especially understand that last point. We recognized, years ago, that potential clients were searching by a descriptive word or phrase. That's why we chose www.namedevelopment.com for our domain name.

Technorati Tags: Domain Names, Name Availability, Available Domains, Descriptive Name

July 18, 2006

Brand Naming: Students Know Technology Not Branding

Every year the National Youth Leadership Forum on Technology collects some 1200 high school students in San Jose for an intensive series of site visits, seminars, workshops, labs, and presentations by representatives from major technology companies and universities.

And every year the students are divided into teams to work on Future Solutions projects to solve real-world dilemmas “through the creative use of existing or future technology.” Yesterday, judges from the likes of Microsoft, Google, and HP convened to award prizes in categories such as “Best Business Solution,” “Greatest Global Impact,” and “Best Expansion of Existing Technology,” with one overall winner out of the eleven category winners.

All of the projects were good, but some had better names than others. “Sewergy” and “LugEx” show a better grasp of the importance of branding in today's marketplace than “Implementation of Nanosensors in Regards to Insulin Control.”

The two top contenders for overall winner were both renewable energy solutions. Runner-up TerMight used termites and yard waste to create high-grade ethanol to fuel cars, while the winning project harvested wind power by putting turbines on floating frames tethered to oil derricks.

The name of this project? S.O.R.E.

That stands for Solutions of Renewable Energy, and with the gull-like logo the students drew, it was clear they wanted people to think of the homophone for their acronym: “soar.”

Unfortunately, if the judges are anything to go by, that wasn’t what came to mind. There were numerous “don’t get sore if we don’t vote for your project” remarks from the judges on other teams when it came time to choose the overall winner. If S.O.R.E. had been a real company, its name would have been a serious liability.

They would have done better just to call the project “Soar,” making up a new acronym if they felt they had to. (Acronyms are not the best choice for names, but are pretty common for non-profit and research institutions: think of SETI, or of NYLF for that matter.)

Fortunately for Team S.O.R.E., the project’s name was not one of the criteria the judges used to determine the best project.

These students understood the technology of what they submitted, but like many companies, they overlooked the importance of an appropriate brand name.

Technorati Tags: NYLF, Project Name, Technology Brand, Acronyms

July 17, 2006

Brand Naming: Virgin Galactic Launches From Spaceport America

As you may be aware by now, a sight in New Mexico that will be used for launching sub-orbital flights changed their name from Southwest Regional Spaceport to Spaceport America.

Sounds like a reasonable name change to me. This is not an airport, but it is a port that sends you into orbit.

However, when I learned that Sir Richard Branson of Virgin was involved, I immediately thought, "Why isn't Virgin in the name?", only to learn that Branson's company that will use Spaceport America is called Virgin Galactic. Now this makes sense, since to date, anything Virgin has turned to gold.

Part of the Virgin brand's core idea is "challenging the status quo" and "injecting an element of fun." Thrusting passengers in space for 2.5 hours to experience 5 minutes of weightlessness at $200,000 a ride is certainly "challenging the status quo" and "injecting an element of fun."

Whoever can afford $200,000 for 5 minutes of weightlessness should also be required to donate a like amount to some worthwhile charity. If I were Branson, that's what I would do.

Technorati Tags: Spaceport America, Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, Virgin Brand

July 14, 2006

Manitoba's Spirited Energy Slogan Doomed

Manitoba's Spirited Energy logo I've been carefully following Manitobans' reactions and sentiments toward Manitoba's new Spirited Energy slogan announced in June of this year.

I thought it was a misguided effort then, and I still think it is. Apparently, many Manitobans feel that way, too. Tom Brodbeck of the Winnipeg Sun has reconfirmed that the Spirited Energy slogan has been roundly criticized and ridiculed.

Tom took matters into his own hands yesterday, July 13th, inviting Manitobans to create a better slogan. Just today, Brodbeck reported on some promising slogan entries he has received from Manitobans:

Manitoba - Heart of the Continent
Manitoba - The Jewel of the North
Manitoba - Prairie Paradise
Manitoba - Explore your Dreams
Manitoba - The Centre of it All

Oh, these didn't cost $600,000, which was paid to a naming consultant to come up with Spirited Energy.

Technorati Tags: Manitoba Slogan, Spirited Energy, Manitoba Branding, Tourism, New Slogan, Tourism Campaign, Manitoba, Friendly Manitoba, Tom Brodbeck

Posted by William Lozito at 1:44 PM

Posted to Branding | Slogans | Taglines | Travel and Tourism
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Abercrombie & Fitch Now Available in Hospitals. Sort of.

I don't believe it.

In a July 9th post, I wrote about a trend of high schools selling naming rights.

CCH Logo I never realized that hospitals were considering the same. The Columbus Children's Hospital has named their emergency room the Abercrombie & Fitch Trauma Center. Yes, they got a $10 million donation, but are they prostituting themselves in the long run?

I'm still waiting for someone to sell the naming rights to public toilet seats. Just kidding. But, you never know.

Technorati Tags: Abercrombie & Fitch, Columbus Children's Hospital

July 13, 2006

Name The Chick Contest

Penguin No. Not that kind of chick.

The Detroit Zoo is running a contest throught July 31, 2006 to name a new male penguin chick.

Here's yet again another opportunity to try your hand at naming.

Technorati Tags: Naming Contest, Detroit Zoo, Penguin Naming

Posted by William Lozito at 9:54 AM

Posted to Naming | Travel and Tourism
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Tourism Slogan: Emulation or Trademark Infringement?

Name It was bound to happen.

A drug company is playing off the famous Las Vegas tagline, "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas."

A drug company, Samaritan Pharmaceuticals, has trademarked an AIDS medication campaign with a spin on the famous Vegas tagline: "What happens in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas."

Although the drug company claims that their marketing efforts will benefit Las Vegas tourism, as you can imagine, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority holds another view.

I'm wondering if Las Vegas can successfully challenge this slogan. What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Las Vegas, Samaritan Pharmaceuticals

An Auschwitz By Any Other Name Is Still Just As Reprehensible

“Poland wins name change for Auschwitz death camp”

That’s the headline of a Reuters article yesterday evening. I think it’s quite unbelievable. And, as it turns out, it probably is.

Although the Polish Cultural Minister, Kazimierz Ujazdowski, claimed "This decision marks a victory for both Poland and historical truth," the World Heritage Committee (WHC) of the UN is back-peddling on its decision, noting that "further international consultation" is required.

Ian Marciulionyte, of the WHC, is now quoted as saying, "In view of these complex criteria, the WHC will discuss at its next session the name of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp on the World Heritage List."

Oh, what was the new name for Auschwitz? Former Nazi German Concentration Camp of Auschwitz.

My point of view in this matter has not changed since my April 1st post. No fooling. Please see my three reasons for resisting a name change.

Whatever the outcome, most people will just call it Auschwitz anyway.

Technorati Tags: Concentration Camp, Nazi Germany, Nazi, Germany, Poland, Auschwitz, Birkenau, Holocaust, WHC

Posted by Diane Prange at 8:46 AM

Posted to Naming
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July 12, 2006

Product Naming: The Inevitable Trademark Conflict

Just yesterday, Tuesday, July 11, I read about two name changes.

What struck me about these name changes is that both of the changes were forced by a large corporation against a smaller company.

Wholebake Whopper In the UK, Burger King has stopped Wholebake from using the Whopper brand name for its vegetarian flapjacks. I fully understand this, since both companies are in the food business and many restaurant product brands end up in the supermarket, from Stouffer’s to Starbucks.

Burger King logo I can see Managing Director of Wholebake Mark Gould’s point when he says “Once again, it’s a case of a big company using its financial muscle to squash the little guy." However, I think it is very justifiable and appropriate for Burger King to protect its Whopper trademark.

However, I have a harder time understanding why Avon would consider a magazine, ANEW, a conflict with their ANEW skincare products. In my opinion, the odds of consumers confusing a magazine title and a body lotion brand are quite remote.

But, what this does illustrate is that if you’re a big company with deep pockets, like an Avon, you can challenge the trademark, and a smaller company, even if they have the right to use the name, usually doesn’t have the financial resources to fight for it.

On the other side of this issue is a Microsoft that just decides to use an existing trademark owned by a small company. That's what they did with Internet Explorer. In the end, Microsoft paid the company $5 million, which equates to about 10 cents to us.

Technorati Tags: Name Change, Wholebake Whopper, Burger King, Trademark, Mark Gould, Whopper, Anew Magazine, Avon, Microsoft

July 11, 2006

Product Naming: Stop Morphing My Phonemes!

I find one of the challenges in using foreign words to create new product names is the way sounds shift shape across languages.

Linguists call a unit of sound a “phoneme,” from the Greek word phone, meaning “voice.” And right there we have a demonstration of the problem. English “phone” is a one-syllable word, but Greek phone is two syllables, since the “e” at the end rhymes with “way.”

English has one letter, “e,” to represent the two Greek “e”s: Epsilon (the short e, pronounced like the “e” in English “bed”) and Eta, which is pronounced like a long English “a”. Not only that, but English uses “e” to represent at least two other sounds as well: the “uh” of “the” and the long “e” of “Steve.” And then there’s the silent “e,” at the end of “Steve,” which isn’t pronounced at all.

All of which means that English speakers might not be sure how to pronounce a new name with an “e” in it, unless the “e” is part of a word or name they already know.

I feel if people can’t pronounce a brand name, they’re not going to talk about it - and those who hear them might not realize which product they mean if they do. Look at the problem Nike (another Eta word, this time the name of the Greek goddess of victory) had convincing the American public that its brand name didn’t rhyme with “bike.”

This problem with the changing shape of sounds rules out a lot of otherwise good name candidates, at least for English names. Languages like Italian, Spanish, and German are much more a case of “what you see is what you get” when it comes to pronunciation and spelling.

But English, precisely because it has roots in so many languages and uses so many imported words, has many ways to represent every sound and many sounds for every combination of letters (called a “morpheme,” from the Greek word for shape).

The moral of the story? Watch out for Etas when naming.

Technorati Tags: Morphemes, Phonemes, NIKE, Greek, English Language, Languages, Pronunciation

Posted by Diane Prange at 7:05 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Linguistics | Naming | Product Naming
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July 10, 2006

Brand Naming: What Letter is in Your Freezer?

What would we do without frozen foods today?

Ever since Clarence Birdseye invented frozen foods, they've become an integral part of our lives. Yes, a few might disagree with that. However, frozen food penetration in the U.S. is almost universal.

The Frozen Food category is one of the most, if not the most, competitive in the food business. There's limited freezer space and new products are being presented to the grocery trade daily.

There are many elements that go into the marketing mix that impact the success of a frozen food product. Although not one of the 4 P's, a product's brand name is a critical element of the marketing mix.

With that in mind, our proprietary English language consonant research has revealed that a brand name beginning with the letter "S" is very appealing to female shoppers (think Sara Lee and Stouffer's).

On the other hand, brand names beginning with the letter "K" convey dependability. What could be more dependable to consumers than the Kraft brand?

For more insight into how English consonants influence consumer perceptions of frozen food brands, please see the recent Frozen Food Age article that more fully discusses our proprietary research findings.

Technorati Tags: Frozen Foods, Consonant Research, Food Marketing, Market Research, Birdseye

July 9, 2006

Is Selling High School Naming Rights a Good Idea?

Would you send your child to Skyy High (after Skyy Vodka)? What about Starbucks Academy? Or maybe the Victoria’s Secret School for Girls?

It could happen in your town. American high schools, desperate for funding, are selling off naming rights for their gymnasiums, cafeterias, classrooms and even the entire school.

Now, it’s not uncommon for universities to name buildings after the primary donors who paid for their construction. And an increasing number of sports stadiums have corporate labels attached. (This can be awkward in an age of perpetual mergers and takeovers — witness Pacific Bell — no, SBC — no, AT&T Park in San Francisco.)

Apart from the fact that public high schools are supposed to represent their entire communities, any high school considering going down this particular fundraising path risks the embarrassment of inappropriate monikers.

Consider the following high school naming rights:

Virgin High
The La-Z-Boy Gymnasium
Hefty Cafeteria
The Slim-Fast Cafeteria
Jelly Belly Gymnasium
Slumberland Study Hall
TGIF High

By the way, I do not think selling high school naming rights is a good idea. I could see MySpace lockers.

But I’d rather see the high schools in the U. S. replace 20% of teachers who cannot teach and cut waste. No, I won’t hold my breath waiting for this to happen.

Technorati Tags: Naming, Marketing, Education, Sponsorship, Branding

Posted by William Lozito at 5:31 PM

Posted to Naming Rights
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July 7, 2006

Tourism Slogans: Could Pennsylvania Have Done Any Worse?

I almost don't know where to begin.

Everything that Pennsylvania did to create their new slogan was wrong.

Their new slogan is "I break for shoofly pie". Pennsylvania officials claim that most tourists know what shoofly pie is. If you believe this, once again, I have a bridge I want to sell you. By the way, shoofly pie is a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch molasses pie. But you knew that already. Yeah, right.

To compound the insult to our intelligence, tourists are supposed to take away that the "break" in "I break for shoofly pie" conveys getting out of your cars and taking a break from driving. Baloney.

And how did Pennsylvania select this slogan from all others? It had the residents of Pennsylvania vote on the slogan. What about the target market? Aren't potential tourists really the target market? This is like a company introducing a new product and having its corporate employees vote on the product name. Ridiculous.

I'm more than convinced, I'm sorry to say, that most tourism officials, not just Pennsylvania, don't know what they're doing when it comes to developing and testing a slogan.

If more than 17% of the U.S. population is aware of shoofly pie, I'll eat 53.75* slices of shoofly pie at Independence Hall.

*That's the number of Nathan's hot dogs that Takeru Kobayashi ate to win the 2006 Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog contest.

Technorati Tags: Pennsylvania Tourism, Tourism Slogan, I Break For Shoofly Pie

Posted by William Lozito at 8:07 AM

Posted to Marketing | Slogans | Taglines | Travel and Tourism
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July 5, 2006

Is it Smart to Use Foreign Words When Naming or Branding?

Thanks to Lee Hopkins of Better Communication Results for reminding us of both the humor and the potential for disaster when using foreign words to name products or brands.

Some time back on this blog I discussed the phenomenon of "Konglish," in which Koreans (mis)use English for slogans and brand names.

The Japanese version, “Engrish,” has a long and hilarious history, chronicled at engrish.com by a dedicated webmaster who lived and worked in Japan for several years.

To be fair to the creators of the products displayed at the Engrish.com website, most are not meant for export, so there’s nothing particularly funny or embarrassing to the people buying them. As long as they’re kept out of the hands of English speakers, there’s no problem.

But such products as “Homo Soap,” “My Fannie” toilet paper and a few others I prefer not to mention but can be found here, remain an important reminder to check on the meaning of any cool-sounding foreign words before using them in public, never mind using them for naming a company, product or brand.

Technorati Tags: Japanese, Korean, Engrish, Konglish, Language

Posted by William Lozito at 7:00 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Marketing | Product Naming
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July 4, 2006

Ares Spacecraft Has a Martial Name

NASA logo Naming, be it product naming, or creating a brand name, or company naming for that matter, can have unintended consequences. That appears to be the case with NASA’s spacecraft naming.

NASA insists, however, that in naming its new exploratory spacecraft the Ares I and II, it had no desire to invoke the concept of war and destruction. They found that Ares is the Greek equivalent of Roman Mars and decided it was a fitting name for spacecraft the final destination of which is the fourth planet.

Did the researchers at NASA forget, then, that Mars was the Roman god of war, and that its red color was reminiscent of blood to those who first named it? I think they may have.

Ares Admittedly the Roman god Mars was a far more respectable deity than Greek Ares, but then again, the Romans were justly proud of their military might. They created a successful and generally well-run empire, while Greek wars tended to be internecine and leave everyone involved unequivocally worse off.

Because most of us in the modern world are introduced to Mars as the proper name of a planet before we learn any mythology, we don’t automatically associate the name with aggression. And it may be that the general public doesn’t associate much with the name Ares, except perhaps to confuse it with the astrological sign Aries.

But I think checking with a few classicists about a proposed name isn’t rocket science. I think it’s disingenuous of NASA to claim ignorance about the connotations of “Ares.”

Rockets can be and have been named after planets before (think of the Saturn series), so this isn’t like the Nyx/Nix case I recently blogged about. If they wanted a peaceful name for a Moon-Mars rocket, they could have chosen Selene, the Greek lunar deity. They didn’t.

And, I for one don't find it reassuring.

Note also that NASA is confusing matters with another pair of projects called ARES: a proposed Mars mission, dubbed Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey of Mars, and an office called Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science.

For other perspectives on the Ares name, see what other bloggers are saying:

Technorati Tags: NASA, Ares, Rocket, Space, Mars

July 3, 2006

Product Naming: PooSing a problem for Sony?

PS3 Sony appears to be taking a leaf from Nintendo’s book when it comes to product names, dubbing the controller for their upcoming Playstation 3 “P oo S.”

The announcement has sparked a great deal of toilet humor (not to mention disbelief and disgust) among gamers. While the idea behind the name may have been to create a visual representation of the controller (rather like the way the “ii” of “Wii” duplicates the shape of the twin command sticks), Sony really should have thought this one out.

The least offensive association I can attach to “PooS” is a phonetic (from an English-speaking perspective) spelling of “poes,” the Dutch word for “cat” - though the Dutch would actually pronounce “Poos” to rhyme with the English word “pose.”

Not so the English speakers among Sony’s intended consumers. While the double-o in English admits to many pronunciations, most of them zero in on the crudest. One computer expert I know based his response on IRC slang and suggested “Piece of Obsolete ****.” Another was kinder and suggested “Piece of Outstanding ****.”

It’s difficult to imagine how Sony could have expected any other response.

Technorati Tags: Gamers, Playstation 3, PS3, PooS, Sony

Posted by Diane Prange at 1:39 PM

Posted to Brand Naming | Consumer Electronics | Media and Entertainment | Product Naming
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