August 2006 Archives: Name Wire: The Product Naming Blog

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August 31, 2006

Company Naming: A Chorus of Admiration

I was interested to read about the corporate name change undergone by MDSERVE, Inc. which was announced earlier this week.

From here on in, the company name will be Chorus with the tagline “Working Together”. I note this name change for numerous reasons, not least because the new name is far more resonant than the old, virtually meaningless one, and also because it is the result of a merger.

Mergers and acquisitions are the most frequest reasons companies change their names, responsible for 33% of the company name changes in 2006. In this case, a private company (MDSERVE) was bought by Practice Management Ventures, LLC ("PMV") and simultaneously formed a link with the National Association of Community Health Centers ("NACHC"), making it the very first software development firm to be owned by community health centers.

This means a totally new direction for MDSERVE and the name change nicely reflects that direction.

Chorus logo It seems to me that companies and their customers should always be “working together”, and yet so often - especially in the medical and pharmaceutical industry - there is the perception among consumers that this is not the case.

The name MDSERVE, from a brand strategy perspective, puts the focus on the service the company could provide for doctors. Chorus is a much friendlier, holistic company name that includes the patients those doctors depend upon, and incorporates the expanded scope of the company.

Healthcare in the United States is constantly getting knocked for being too greedy, too corporate, and too impersonal, as evidenced within the blogoshpere and at least one new book entitled “Money Driven Medicine”.

It seems to me that one way in which healthcare brands can change their image is to focus on “working together” with patients. I hope that company name changes like this reflect a shift in the healthcare business toward a more friendly, cooperative dynamic between doctor and patient.

Technorati Tags: MDSERVE, Chorus, Company Name Changes, Mergers, PMV, NACHC, Brand Positioning, Brand Strategy, Money Driven Medicine

Posted by William Lozito at 11:38 AM

Posted to Branding | Company Naming | Pharmaceutical | Taglines
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Links Du Jour 8-31-06

Are You Gellin? Will Dr. Scholl’s put a sock in it? - It seems that one of the most hated pay off lines this month in the ad business is “Are you gellin’? Like Magellan?” Camelbak certainly thinks so.

I think that Dr. Scholl’s might have made an error with this particular slogan, and this has to have an effect on the future of the Massaging Gel insoles they sell. Yes, promoting a “gel” brand name is difficult, but shaving gel makers have been doing it for years. The word “gel” in a product name can be a blessing and pitfall: just ask Laura Ries.

Half.com City What ever happened to Half.com, Oregon? - I have an interest in weird town names. I’ve explored the marketing strategy in some earlier blog posts. Silt, Colorado and Dish, Texas are a couple examples.

Half.Com in Oregon has the distinction of being the first town that was dot-commed. The Boing Boing blog investigates what happens when geographic place-names become rebranded as product names.

Fake MySpace Pages by Advertisers Are Totally Lame - Using fake MySpace pages to promote your brand name can be potentially hazardous. BL Ochman offers some interesting alternatives to how companies can get their product names associated with social networking services without raising the ire of the target market.

Creating fake pages may not only hurt the advertisers’ credibility, but might also hurt the reputation of the MySpace and FaceBook brand names.

Technorati Tags: Dr. Scholl's, Are You Gellin'?, Gel, Half.com, Marketing Strategy, Fake MySpace, FaceBook, BL Ochman

August 30, 2006

Links Du Jour 8-30-06

Sign Storey In-store ads sway opinions - Yes, those little ads you see when you walk down the aisle do work.

Albertsons and Pathmark have found great success using the SignStorey video network in 1300 stores. Of those surveyed by Nielsen, 68% said they would be influenced by such ads, while 44% said they would actually swap a product because of an in-store ad.

I think this is yet another means of promoting your brand name at the point of sale - or pretty darn close to it. The nice thing is that stores that use SignStorey products have received positive feedback from their customers who seem to perceive the store as more modern.

Pluto Why care about Pluto? - Seth Godin seems to share my interest in Pluto and in outer-space in general, as do the People for Pluto at The Agitator.

Seth also feels that a great marketing strategy would be for the planetary powers that be to allow marketers to sell the naming rights to lesser known planets - and for the resultant funds to be used for education. Not a bad idea for those who might like to align their brand name with science and education.

OLPC Laptop One Laptop Per Marketing Executive - yet another new name for OLPC computer - It's official! The One Laptop Per Child computer is to be called the Children's Machine One, or CM1. Oh, no; sorry. It's official. The CM1 is to be called the 2B1.

It is a very interesting machine that seems to have had a few name changes, but the official product name, for now, is 2B1. It was briefly dubbed the CM1 and the OLPC (one Laptop Per Child) machine. 2B1 might or might not be the most effective name. What's your opinion? Nevertheless, Engadget wants a million of them, and I love the concept of a cheap, reliable computer for every child.

Technorati Tags: Advertising, SignStorey, Pluto, OLPC, CM1, 2B1, Naming Rights

Product Naming: Beware of Faux Amis

Eiffel Tower The French have a term for words that look like cognates but aren’t: faux amis, or “false friends.”

These words trip up language students - and sometimes marketers, as well.

Préservatif is French, not for “preservative,” but for “condom.”
Jalousie means “Venetian blind,” not “jealousy,” in German.
Embarazada means “pregnant” in Spanish - not "embarassed", although Parker Pens quite famously embarrassed itself with that mistake with the tagline, "Won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."

Before you name your product or company, check to see whether your name candidate has another meaning in a foreign language. (A good place to do this is the LOGOS multilingual dictionary).

Microsoft Zune Coining your own name doesn’t necessarily protect you, either - look at the debate over whether “Zune” does or does not mean something rude in Hebrew. It was also reported that Zune may have been French-Canadian slang to describe parts of the male anatomy.

Faux amis don’t just make it difficult to learn a foreign language. In this era of globalization and Internet searches, they make it harder to come up with a brand name that won’t embarass you...or make you pregnant.

Technorati Tags: Faux Amis, False Friends, Language, Global Linguistic Analysis, Zune, Parker Pens, Jalousie, Embarazada, Preservatif

August 29, 2006

Watch Brand Names and Mobile Devices

Today the debate is raging over the future of the humble watch. To wit: is the watch dead, to be replaced by the cell phone? A CNN article proclaims that watch sales are down by almost 5% due to the fact that cell phones are taking over.

This has prompted high end brands like Swatch, which owns Tissot and Omega, to push their offerings towards luxury watches, because wristwatches are now more “fashion statement” than useful tool. PDAs and cell phones are the way we tell time now, it seems. In fact, one blog about pocket watches noted that some feel cell phones are the “pocket watch of the future.”

Timex Indiglo Last year the people at Timex answered the question with a flat out: no way. Cell phones were making a mark, they argued, but wristwatches were still cheaper, more convenient, and were offering more and more add-ons like heart meters, altimeters and timers.

I am reminded of a blog that presents a mock up of a ”Triple Watch Cell Phone” that might bring watch makers some joy, and an article in BusinessWeek that predicted the end of the cellphone/PDA as we know it, which was also blogged about at the LADS blog.

Cell Phone Time Gizmodo went out and asked people how they tell the time and found that people who use the “cell phone only “ to tell the time indeed make up the vast majority of respondents (53.3% vs. a measly 13.3% for “watch only”). But then again, I would imagine most of the people who read Gizmodo are mostly guys. That skews the field: as Reuters points out, women are still devotees of the wristwatch.

I for one doubt that the wristwatch is dead and think that strong, mid-range brands from Timex (Indiglo - worn by President Bush) and Casio (G-shock) are here to stay.

Technorati Tags: Cell Phones, Watches, Timex, Swatch

Posted by William Lozito at 10:33 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Consumer Electronics | Product Naming
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Links Du Jour 8-29-06

RIM Logo RIM could learn from Apple - I recently wrote about the dispute between Creative and Apple that led to Apple’s payout of $100 million to Creative for patent and trademark infringements.

The Blackberry Cool blog led me to a great article on TheStreet.com that explains exactly why that $100 million was worth every penny: it saves Apple from a messy fight that could hurt their brand name - and leaves the door open for future licensing agreements between the two companies.

Companies can quite easily come to trademark and patent sharing agreements that can help them avoid mutual destruction.

Infiniti Logo Not Much to "Experience" at Infiniti.com - I’m a big fan of Kelly Mooney and loved her book The Ten Demandments, as well as its very catchy title. So I read with interest her rant against Infiniti for putting out such a lame site to sell a high end product. Web sites are the means through which customers get beyond the brand name. If the site is slow loading or filled with boring copy, it does not offer customers much of a positive experience.

Coincidentally, Guy Kawasaki picks up on this, saying that the people who are most likely to spread your company name or brand via word of mouth are the new customers like Ms. Mooney, who are already jazzed up about their new product and want to spread the word. In this case, Infiniti lost out.

BW podcast on personal brand-building ignores blogs - and podcasts - Stephen Baker of BusinessWeek points us to an interesting podcast on building your personal brand identity. It’s a great way to spend 18 minutes, but seems to ignore blogging – and podcasting - as personal branding activities.

It’s a good blog to read in conjunction with Seth Godin’s recent post on the tradeoffs between building a flashy brand that sells off the shelf and one that goes the distance.

Technorati Tags: RIM, Trademark Infringements, Infiniti, Kelly Mooney, Stephen Baker, Brand Identity

August 28, 2006

Branding: Strategic Name Development Goes Hollywood

People Magazine Hollywood Daily As you may know, the 58th Emmy Awards program, based in Hollywood, was on TV last evening.

In a special Hollywood edition of People magazine, I was asked to comment on the CW Network, a merger of CBS’s UPN and Warner Bros.' WB Network.

You may find this article an interesting read since CW’s Executive VP of Marketing and Brand Strategy, Rick Haskins, also comments on the CW Network brand name.

Technorati Tags: 58th Emmy Awards, People Magazine, Hollywood Daily, CW Network, Warner Bros., CBS, UPN, WB Network, CW Logo, Brand Name

Posted by William Lozito at 1:54 PM

Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Marketing | Media and Entertainment
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Links Du Jour 8-28-06

Heineken Wages Fierce Battle vs. New Rival – Itself - Looks like the new Heineken Premium Light brand is doing better than expected, but at the cost of its sister brand, Amstel Light.

Amstel Light I was very pleased to see the Heineken Premium Light brand name introduced (the company’s first line extension in 133 years, according to Adblabber!), but they may have misjudged their target market as being predominately female.

Amstel Light may be a guys’ beer brand, but so is Heineken. And I think sponsoring the US Open was clearly a move to help the brand appeal to men.

Oprah's Favorite Burger? - It's served at an eatery called The Counter, which is now looking at franchising thanks to her thumbs up. The problem is, of course, that the unique, authenticity of the brand name is at risk here - its very coolness is at stake, as it goes from being a neighborhood eatery to a chain.

I wrote about what it takes to build a cool brand last Thursday, August 24th, and two of the comments to that post, from Rajan Sodhi, and Tate Linden, respectively, pointed out that coolness is both hard to define and ephemeral.

Google Makes Its Move: Office 2.0 - Google appears to be taking on Microsoft Office, but they sure are doing it with an odd product name: Google Apps for Your Domain. Love Office or hate it, it is a very easy name to remember.

The blog post mentions an InformationWeek article that explains Google's new move, and also lists of Office wannabes from yesteryear whose brand names are ready for the nostalgia bin (WordPerfect, Lotus Symphony and StarOffice.)

iPod Why I Shouldn't Have Named My iPod "Unicorn Princess" - You can go to iPodnames.com and register the name of your iPod for a dollar. This is an interesting way for consumers to create their own brand name, and its a naming service that utilizes the interest consumers have in product personalization. Plus, it has the added benefit of enhancing the consumer's emotional connection with the iPod brand.

Technorati Tags: Heineken Premium Light, Amstel Light, Line Extension, Oprah Winfrey, The Counter Burger, Google Apps for Your Domain, iPod Names

August 27, 2006

Links du Jour 08-27-06

VW Rabbit VW Aims at Nostalgia Niche - And so does GM. The Rabbit, Scirocco, Camaro, and Dodge Challenger are all coming back. These are great car names from the past that deserve a second life. I must say I like the new implementation of the Rabbit logo, and agree with Third Way: the Rabbit brand name still has more cache than Golf. Go figure.

Fruity Goodness - Here’s a blast from the past with a very interesting update: the Fruit of the Loom guys are back, online, on a microsite that allows you to download Fruit of the Loom songs like You Can’t Overlove your Underwear. What can I say? These are brand icons that have a very long shelf life and have built a strong brand name. Catchy tune, too.

Digg sends C&D to DiggGames? - This is an interesting post because it speaks to the strategy behind protecting a trademark name. If you want to legally do so, you have to be perceived by the court as aggressively taking action to protect your trademark from use by both competitors and even by fans who want to set up complementary web sites using your brand name. Google did not take steps like these until it was too late, and Digg does not want to make the same mistake in protecting its mark.

Making Promises. Meeting Expectations. - Nice post and link for those of us in the brand naming business who might need a jump start in the creative process, whether thinking up a company name, slogan, logo or pretty much anything else.

Share Your Secret - I have to agree with Holly Buchanan: the Share Your Secret campaign for Secret Deodorant is making women look like tattletales or worse. Her post is mild compared to the one on Marketing Pop Culture, which slams the campaign for being aimed at “vapid, narcissistic soccer moms.” Ouch! The “Secret” in the “Secret” product name should be presented as something more interesting than a recipe for pecan pie, but I am not sure if the Share Your Secret site should go the way of PostSecret yet — a little too intense for me, but point taken.

Technorati Tags: VW, Volkswagen, GM, General Motors, Rabbit, Scirocco, Camaro, Challenger, Fruit of the Loom, Digg, DiggGames, Secret, Trademark

August 26, 2006

Links du Jour 08-26-06

Fashion Skull - Here’s some far out brand name research. John Winsor recently noted that skulls as logos and decoration on clothing seem to be everywhere. So did the New York Times last month, who posit that skulls may be the new happy face sign.

Why? Well, Pirates of the Caribbean has something to do with it, punk/goth culture in the suburbs as well, and a dash of Latino culture.

But also, writes one astrologer, the fact that we are sitting smack dab in the middle of the Pluto in Scorpio generation, which is a generation with the death’s head motif. Interesting to read these in conjunction with our recent posts on Pluto.
Microsoft Unveils Inca Windows Patch - Interesting how Microsoft has found its way into indigenous culture. In the Incan (Quechua) language, which is still spoken by 12.6 million people in South America and 30% of Bolivians, file becomes knotted cords.

This means that the Microsoft product name will be the one of choice for these new computer users.
Can Starbury Change Sneaker Culture? - Can it be that a player from the NBA will put his name behind an affordable brand name of sneakers? Stephon Marbury is promoting the $14.98 Starbury sneaker. I have to wonder, as they do at Adfreak, if this is not the dawn of the new Chuck Taylors. Just seeing an NBA star use such inexpensive brand name sneakers will be a total paradigm shift for those in the sneaker product naming business. Can we build an affordable sneaker product name?

Technorati Tags: Skull, Fashion, Style, Trends, Pirates, Punk, Goth, Microsoft, Windows, Bolivia, Quechua, Marbury, Starbury, Basketball, Shoes, Sneakers

Posted by William Lozito at 1:43 PM

Posted to Marketing
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Trademarking: Apple of Our “i”

In the last few days, Apple has filed for a trademark for its Safari RSS, which leads me to a quick discussion on trademarking web images and names. The MacNN blog has a nice piece on this, as well as Apple’s recent files for patents on iPod stuff and on a "display actuator," which means a tool to manipulate displays on electronic gizmos (think iPod wheels).

I blogged about the latter a few days ago, and the Mac site gives us the lowdown not on the trademark of the movement but the device itself. The Safari post mentions “Design Search Codes,” or the trademarks of “figurative, non-textual elements” found on marks. Web shots are sent in with the application, which covers color and design…meaning that not just anyone can use a blue compass for an RSS or search icon and get away with it. This is interesting stuff indeed for those who want to know more about the guts of brand naming and what a naming company grapples with on a daily basis.

Reading about Apple’s trademark applications gets me thinking about Apple in general and the unique names and devices they seem to launch on the market almost monthly.

iWoz Wired mentions that The Woz (Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs' partner in the founding of Apple) has just written a book entitled iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It, news that was gleefully picked up on Digg.

I’ll order it for sure, but have to wonder at the title. A book entitled iCon: Steve Jobs was published as the official unauthorized biography of the man. He hated it so much he has had all books by its publisher, John Wiley & Sons, banned from Apple Stores. You have to wonder if the use of the word “Icon” in the title of Woz’s autobiography was intentional, especially since Steve Jobs refused the offer to write Woz’s foreword because he felt it made him look like "sort of a bad guy."

Technorati Tags: Apple, Safari, RSS, Trademark, Patent, Woz, Wozniak, Jobs, iWoz, iCon

August 25, 2006

Links Du Jour 08-25-06

New Spacecraft Name Leaked Into Space - Looks like an astronaut Jeff Williams let it slip that the new vehicle NASA hopes will bring us back to the moon is to be named Orion. I've written before about my fascination with space and the naming conventions used by astronomers that are taken right out of Greek Mythology. Orion means "The Hunter" and most people are aware of Orion's Belt, a constellation of three stars easily viewed by the naked eye.

India's Hitler-Themed Eatery To Get New Name - And now, for the dumbest product name of the year: an Indian eatery that was until recently named "Hitler's Cross" and which was decorated with Nazi symbols. A good one to file under "What were you thinking?" category. This was probably a misguided effort to generate instant buzz about an otherwise unremarkable restaurant, but I have written before about how certain names, especially those relevant to the Nazi era, are simply no-go areas. I did find it interesting that the swastika, a symbol that by all means should be cast into infamy, once was a symbol of good luck in India. It is a symbol filled with occult meaning and mystery. But now it's just another casualty of the Nazis.

Azayo Pursues South Africa Name Change Campaign - The Azanian Youth Organisation (Azayo) is pushing for the name Azania to replace the Republic of South Africa, noting that the name has been used for years by the various liberation movements within the country. The origins of country name changes are fascinating and I was interviewed about this by Southern California Public Radio on July 20th, 2006. My contacts in Cape Town assure me that this name change is probably not going to happen, but it is indeed a long running debate. One of the reasons the name will probably fail is because it is not an African word--it is from ancient Greek word azainein meaning "dry", its mythological roots lie closer to Somalia, and as such the African National Congress sees it as a yet more colonialist name that South Africa.

Technorati Tags: India, Restaurant Name Change, NASA, South Africa, Youth Organization, Azayo, Orion, Space Shuttle

August 24, 2006

Branding: Trying To Be Cool

I recently read a great post on What's Your Brand Mantra about trying to be cool. Every naming company at one time or another wants to come up with cool brand names and it's very difficult to pinpoint what is cool at all.

Jennifer's Rice's words struck a chord: You Can't Copy Cool. HP wants to be cool like Apple, but will not do it by trying to be like Apple.

You can't sound cool: On the other hand, don't think you can be cool by sounding like a cool brand. Wal-Mart seems to have a less than cool networking site that calls users "hubsters" (sounds like hipsters, get it?).

Which iPod Are You? You cannot buy cool: I was surprised to read that McDonald's, a very good brand name, tried to buy into the rap scene by paying rappers to rap about their Big Mac. How uncool!

Coolness is authentic. A cool name, linked to an authentic brand selling stuff that is authentically cool is... yes ...cool.

My own thought about coolness, to paraphrase a famous quote about a cool band called the Grateful Dead:

You get cool by being the best at what you do... and being the only one who does it.

Robin Sharma goes so far as to say that even people are brands, so they might as well be cool brands.

Technorati Tags: Cool, Brand, HP, Apple, Wal-Mart, McDonald's

Links Du Jour 8-24-06

Microsoft to serve ads on Facebook - They wanted MySpace but nabbed a co-branding deal with Facebook, which gives Microsoft entry into the all important youth market. The Facebook product name is a good one for Microsoft. Social networking sites are just crucial for brand name building now, and Microsoft knows it.

Apple Pays Creative $100 Million To Settle iPod Suit - This battle has been going on for years and finally Creative has been paid to go away. Lawsuits like this simply hurt the authenticity of the brand name and draw attention to wannabe products. Apple and Creative have fought over several issues, not least the Nano brand name, which Creative has argued is generic. The Wall Street Journal argues that this is what happens when one company (Creative) invests very little in its brand name marketing and makes no effort to come to a trademark agreement that would help the two companies work together. On the other hand, the Guardian Tech Blog puts it very nicely by quoting the Chinese proverb that "Rich men shouldn't start quarrels." These lawsuits, as I have written before, are indeed avoidable if companies are willing to enter into trademark co-existence agreements.

Elizabeth Arden's New Fragrance Called "So...?" - This is a pretty nifty brand name for a perfume targeted to 12-18 year-old females. Interestingly, girls can also play with the brand name by personalizing bumper stickers that affix to a billboard. As Marketing Blurb pointed out, the name itself is what every single parent has heard his or her preteen girl say (or scream) at one time or another.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, Nano, Perfume So, Brand Positioning, Lawsuit, Brand Naming

August 23, 2006

Branding: Not Just Chia Pets: DRTV Goes Big.

DRTV (Direct Response TV) has a bad rap from serious branders.

Think of those late night infomercials for Ginsu Knives, Chia Pet and the Clapper and you get the idea. OK, they’re lame (even though I would bet every single person reading this blog knows what these brand names are and has even possibly considered buying one.)

Now, add Dell, Gateway, RadioShack and Hewlett Packard and then throw in Apple Computer, Nikon, Evinrude, Nissan, Redken. Stir in YouTube’s new Brand Channel and what you have is a pretty sweet means of promoting your brand name to millions of people.

DRTV requires a whole new approach - an entirely new way of offering customers an in-depth experience with your brand name and an instant means of buying. Because the shows are longer format, customers see the item, interact with it, and buy it. The emotive stuff - the whiz bang of a 30 second spot - is complemented.

You Tube This brings consumers into the heart and soul of the brand. Kind of cool. So cool that America Online, the U.S. Navy, Hyatt and Johnson & Johnson are all using it.

The longer format allows customers to digest complex information about your brand - great for computer companies selling products in new categories. Dell can go from PC products to consumer products, while Gateway can go the other direction, and keep customers informed on what’s up - and show them products in the comfort of their own home that they might be intimidated by in Best Buy.

This is partly why YouTube must find the new Brand Channel format irresistible - and what is this format but computer based DRTV? Customers can make purchases - think Chia Pet..or Paris Hilton’s new album, and you can get your brand name in front of people that TV spots miss.

YouTube has been so effective at reaching people that some bloggers predict Steve Jobs might even buy the company outright - or at least they fervently hope so.

Chia Pet What’s the bottom line? DRTV and YouTube’s brand channels are turning commercials and brand name promotion into entertainment. Right now, DRTV and YouTube spots offer an interesting option for those brand names that need a little more time with customers to ensure the sale. And that’s just about everyone.

Technorati Tags: Direct Response TV, DRTV, YouTube, Brand Channel, Infomercials

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