September 2006 Archives: Name Wire: The Product Naming Blog

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September 30, 2006

Links du Jour 09-30-06

HP/Voodoo HP to Buy Voodoo, Don't Think About HP Scandal - HP is buying PC company VoodooPC and Joystiq thinks this is a ploy to divert attention from HP’s current woes. The link between this well-known computer maker and the well-known gaming PC brand name is very similar to Dell’s recent buy of Alienware.

Brand Credit or Brand Debit - John Moore has a great post up that explores the idea of a Brand Checkbook to determine what activities are beneficial or detrimental to your brand name. This is naming research direct from Starbucks. You can read his complete article on the subject at MarketingProfs.com.

R.I.P. Vital Radiance - Revlon is dropping its Vital Radiance line after shares in the company dropped 12%. Michele Miller has some very strong feelings about why, exactly, this good product is not working — and why cosmetics companies in general seem to be striking out in pushing good brand names for women over 50.

PC, Computers, Brand Checkbook, Cosmetics

Posted by William Lozito at 2:09 PM

Posted to Branding | Consumer Electronics | Health and Beauty | Marketing
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Product Names: Ubunto Is Linux for Human Beings

The new Ubuntu Linux Beta just launched and its been named Edgy Eft, and includes a host of new technologies.

Ubuntu is a free, open source, solid and reliable linux operating system that South African billionaire Mark Shuttleworth feels will revolutionize the computer industry. The name he choose is an African word meaning, essentially, “sharing and community” although a larger definition is on the Ubuntu site: "humanity to others", or "I am what I am because of who we all are". Many of the smaller apps are named after South African animals including Hoary Hedgehog, Python 2.5 and Warty Warthog - even its code name was Breezy Badger.

Ubuntu Ubuntu's naming architecture for its other projects is pretty cool: Other product names include Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu.

Xubuntu is a GNU/Linux based system using the Xfce Desktop environment
Kubuntu is based on KDE, the K Desktop Environment
Edubuntu is Ubuntu aimed at classroom use

Many South Africans hope that Ubunto will bring South African culture direct into the cybersphere. Governments in Brazil, China, India and Malaysia are already using open source software, and Shuttleworth is convinced that his project will help bring computers into Africa, where Microsoft has already introduced versions of Windows in the Zulu, Setswana and Afrikaans languages.

But Shuttleworth, the first African in space, is a well respected, flamboyant figure in South Africa and may have the ability to work some serious juju on his bigger competitors in California.

Posted by William Lozito at 10:12 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Company Naming | Product Naming | Technology
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September 29, 2006

Links du Jour 09-29-06

Name Chinese miffed by lewd Japanese computer game - History often has its part to play in even the most cutting edge product naming: Chinese gamers are angry about a new game named “Slaves of the Red Mansion” that seems to be a clear slur on the classic Chinese literary work entitled “The Dream of the Red Chamber.”

The latter is an ancient morality tale written by Cao Xueqin in the mid-eighteenth century during the Qing Dynasty and considered the Zenith of classical Chinese fiction. “Slaves of the Red Mansion,” is a mildly pornographic game with a heroine much like that in “The Dream of the Red Chamber.”

Chinese gamers are furiously creating a new game that extols the virtues of the Chinese resistance to Japan during WWII - it has yet to be named but is sure to further strain relations between the two countries.

Name Microsoft and Yahoo Messengers update their Mac clients - Yahoo and Microsoft's instant messaging products can now speak to each other and are updating the Mac clients to allow for a new symbiosis of brand names that was not available until recently.

This gives Microsoft another badly needed foothold in the Web 2.0 world: Messenger can now communicate with Yahoo IM, AIM and iChat. This also helps make the relationship between Yahoo and Microsoft yet cosier, and a clear move to match the virtual marriage between the Google and Apple brand names.

Name Pole officially Pesky - The Boston Red Sox have named their right-field foul pole in honor of Johnny Pesky before the Sept 28th game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The pole has had the official moniker for some years but yesterday it was made official - it’s now Pesky’s Pole, after the first player to have three 200-hit seasons. The honor was bestowed to him on his 87th birthday, and he threw out the first pitch of the game.

Final score: Tampa Bay 11, Boston 0. Congratulations, Johnny!

Technorati Tags: Slaves of the Red Mansion, Microsoft, Yahoo, IM, Pesky's Pole, Boston Red Sox, Johnny Pesky

September 28, 2006

Product Naming: The Devil Wears Prada; We Like Crocs

CNN Money has a great article on the rising popularity of the strange-looking shoes called Crocs, which are also an interesting example of product naming.

The name for these pretty ugly shoes comes from the creator, Lyndon "Duke" Hanson, who claims they, like their namesake, are “good on both land and water, live a long time, and have no natural predators.” Plus, when you look at a green Croc from the side it looks just like a crocodile.

Movie stars love them, as do people from every walk of life from yuppies to outdoorsmen. The brand name’s success would make a crocodile smile: in 2003 they sold 76,000 pairs to the tune of $1.2 million. The forecast is for sales of 20 million pairs in 2006, which would gross $300 million.

Crocs are eminently comfortable, lightweight and sweat proof. They are examples that pop up now and again of really ugly, comfy shoes that capture the market for a time before slithering away: think Uggs, Birkenstocks, Jellies and Earth Shoes, all of which are profiled in the CNN Money article, and all of which are truly weird examples of shoe naming.

I may be rushing to judgment, however: the mysterious writer at Searchblog finds them beautiful. On that note, Crocs are also one of the most blogged about shoes in history. There’s the Croc Shoes Fans blog and the Cute Crocs blog just for starters.

As Tim Manners of the Reveries Magazine blog points out, the inventors of Crocs (Scott Seamans, George Boedecker, and Hanson) have “created their own category of footwear,” which is known as “ugly but comfortable,” and despite the clear faddishness of the shoes and the name, they have extended the brand name to sandals, slippers and boots as well as knee pads, t-shorts, and, interestingly enough, therapeutic Crocs Rx Shoes, as well as sponsoring a beach volleyball tour.

At $30 a throw they’re a bargain and you can even put them in the dishwasher, dryer and microwave.

Try that with a pair of Pradas.

Technorati Tags: Crocs, Prada, Shoe Naming

Links du Jour 09-28-06

Is Flash-y E-commerce Always a Safe Bet? - Kelly Mooney brings up an interesting point about online commerce, in general inspired by Nike’s relaunch of its online store: secure web pages for checkout. She’s noticed that the all important page is “http” and not “https”, which means that she’s a tad worried about entering her credit card details on an open page.

She also points out that she’s not fooled by the “Verisign” logo on the page, because it probably isn’t being used - its just available to the Nike developers. She makes the point that trust online is crucial for shoppers who want to buy your product...and that tiny difference in the URL makes all the difference to the savvy shopper. If Nike is making this mistake, who else is?

How to bring Rover back quickly - Jack Yan has a great post up about how the Rover brand name might be given new life now that Ford owns it. For one, SAIC will have to drop the brand name.

But Jack asks us to think of this: could expanding the Rover product name to Mercury exports possibly work? The Mercury Milan is a great candidate for this, and with a little tweaking could be a great flagship for the ailing Rover brand, which still commands a great deal of loyalty for European buyers.

This is a pretty crafty idea, as the Mercury name is hardly known at all in Europe, and Rover is beloved.

NTL: Telewest and Virgin launch Quadplay - The package includes multi-channel TV with video-on-demand, broadband, home telephone and a mobile service. It’s the very first offering from the newly united NTL:Telewest and Virgin Mobile brands, which will be rebranded (and possibly renamed?) as a single communications/entertainment provider.

Looks like they beat Vodafone and BP to the punch - but as Vecosys points out, telcom companies have been merging across Europe all with the purpose of linking communications with entertainment, so look for more new brand names offering the same services.

Technorati Tags: Nike, https, Rover, Mercury, Telewest, Virgin Mobile

September 27, 2006

Links du Jour 09-27-06

Alcohol ads suddenly awkward for Paris - Paris Hilton's recent charge over a DUI has caught up with her and ironically she has lent her name to winemaker Prosecco, who uses her as the subject of his ads touting his Rich line of sparkling wines. Chris Thilk wonders aloud whether somebody who was caught driving under the influence is a great person to associate with an alcohol product name.

One Fruit's Story - Martin Schwimmer leads us to an interesting post on how the humble Kiwi fruit is benefiting from some really savvy handling of intellectual property law.

CBS.com uses "Netcast" instead of "Podcast" like Leo Laporte - Great conversation on Digg right now about whether CBS has chosen to use the term "netcast" over "podcast" to avoid litigation by Apple. Check out some other posts I've linked to here and here about this issue. It seems as if Apple is not going to be successful in protecting the “podcast” name.

Technorati Tags: Paris Hilton, Apple, Podcast, Intellectual Property, Kiwi, Netcast

Findable Company Names: Is A-1 Losing Its Appeal?

The thick layer of dust on the phone book on my shelf is a sign of the times. Why look in the White Pages when we have Google and InfoSpace?

This change has enormous implications for company naming. Back when we depended on paper directories, there was a real advantage in having a name that started with “A.” Open the Yellow Pages under “Storage” and what’s the first thing you see? AAAAA Rent-a-Space. Everything from taxis to mortgage companies has been tagged with the name “A-1,” and not just to indicate good quality.

But search engines, unlike directories, don’t rely on alphabetical order. Unless your company's name is also a keyword or phrase that people search when looking for a company that does what you do, having it start with “A” won’t help much.

What search engines like best are descriptive names. Computers are boringly literal creatures. They won’t know you’re a bank or a car dealer unless you put “bank” or “car dealer” in your company name.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have a fanciful name and appeal to humans as well as search engines, but if you choose a name which isn’t one of the keywords people search when looking for products like yours, you need to take steps to make sure you put those keywords elsewhere on your company's website, like in the title and the body of the text.

For more perspectives on naming for search engines, check out the forum at Search Engine Roundtable.

Technorati Tags: Search Engine Optimization, SEO, AAA Rent-a-Space, Company Naming, Product Naming

Posted by Diane Prange at 9:23 AM

Posted to Company Naming | Naming | Product Naming | Technology
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September 26, 2006

Airline Restrictions Build Smaller Brand Names

The US is to “relax” its ban on liquids on planes, restricting travellers to 3 oz. containers or less if they are in “zip-top bags,” according to Yahoo News.

This seems like another opportunity for web sites and business that have sprung up to deal with the new rules, like www.mywetstuff.com, for example. Little bottles of toiletries that look like “samples” offer airlines wonderful co-branding opportunities.

In fact, UK based easyGroup must already be ahead of the curve: they offer us easyJet as well as easy4men, a cosmetics line that is sure to be resized. So it seems that whoever can imaginatively and immediately introduce new toiletry products that come pre-bagged and in small containers will have a distinct edge. Are you listening, small brands?

An article in the Hartford Courant illustrates all the different, heretofore little known product names that are benefiting from the new air travel restrictions, and which are scrambling to take market share from the lucrative business traveller market.

Brand names that are niche products now, like Superbrite Dry Mouthwash, or Burt' Bees Shampoo Bars are taking center stage over the big names from Proctor and Gamble that are either too wet or big to take onboard. Hotels are already getting into the act -- Clinique has hugely benefited from the ban, but so have the Omni, Wyndham and Marriot brand names.

Hotels supply these to customers and gain their kudos, but think about it: If you were to be the high-end, small-time toiletry maker that offered an entire range of products in 1-3 oz bottles, your first customers would probably be hotel buyers.

And what about Ziploc, the brand name that is - let’s face it - synonymous with the term “zip top bag”? It seems like now is the right time to push their very middle class brand name to travellers and yuppies and not simply stay-at-home moms and brown baggers.

Ziploc has an opportunity to offer prepackaged deals with cosmetics and toiletry manufacturers, and co-brand with high-end product names like Clinique and L’Oreal. If these restrictions stay, I would imagine it should be a breeze to get a carton of shampoos all individually packed in Ziploc bags that would fit in a briefcase or carry on.

Or maybe they should create a “travellers” Ziploc brand extension that offers slightly smaller bags to accommodate those little shampoo bottles. Ziploc, if you don’t do it, some other "zip-top bag" maker will -- and probably one you’ve never heard of.

Technorati Tags: Airline Restrictions, Zip Top Bags, Ziploc, easyGroup, Clinique

Posted by William Lozito at 3:46 PM

Posted to Brand Naming
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Links du Jour 09-26-06

How Apple, at its core, is like the French - Stephen Baker at Businessweek Blogspotting tells us that Apple’s recent struggles to trademark “pod” and “podcast” illustrate exactly why the French try to stay away from words that come right out of advertising. So, if things go well, instead of podcasts, we might have “baladodiffusions.” You can read all about Apple’s struggles to trademark the names on ZDNet.

Spoiled Rotten (Apple) - Joseph Jaffe links to some great posts that are generally critical of Apple’s efforts to protect words related to “pod”. Interesting material here about how Apple may be hurting its brand name with this action - is “tripod” next? Watch out, camera buffs.

Once again, death becomes her - Take a look at the graphics used to support the new Black Dahlia Movie versus those behind Six Feet Under, both of which probably appeal to the same audience. I do not think this is an outright trademark violation but the Six Feet Under image is very much associated with that particular brand name and Black Dahlia’s promotional poster looks very similar.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Podcast, Pod, Trademark Podcast, Black Dahlia, Six Feet Under

Branding and Kaizen: It's Not Just About the Batteries

The recent exploding battery issue faced by Sony, Dell, and Apple (and now Toshiba and Panasonic) is not helping the worldwide perception of Japanese brand names, while giving a serious boost to Asian competitors such as Samsung and LG.

The quality problems have spilled into the motor industry as well, with auto-giant Toyota also calling back millions of poorly made cars, (2.2 million of them in 2005 vs 200,000 in 2003) and even into the food industry.

Indeed, Korea’s Samsung plans on taking Sony’s place as the second largest battery maker in the world within the next few months and Hyundai can barely conceal its delight at Toyota’s failings.

The Japanese conception of “kaizen” or “improvement” is so central to the Japanese national identity - and for years so well represented in the craftsmanship of Sony and Toyota products - that the recent damage done to these brand names has caused a national furor and a suspicion that “something is amiss in Japan.”

Technorati Tags: Sony, Battery, Kaizen, Samsung, Panasonic, Toyota, Japanese, Hyundai

September 25, 2006

Links du Jour 09-25-06

Brand Impressions Formed At Retail - Corporate branding and experiential marketing can go a long way: the Umpqua Bank in the Pacific Northwest has grown from $150 million in deposits to a whopping $7 billion in 12 years by providing comfortable “lobbies” for customers, offering them Umpqua brand name coffee and even doing away with the word “branch” - Umpqua instead operates “stores” and sees itself as a “retailer”. Interesting post and comments.

Materazzi has the last laugh in Nike ad - We already wrote about how Zinedine Zidane of the World Cup Head butt fame has found his (brand) appeal double in recent weeks despite losing the all-important game for France. It also seems that Marco Materazzi, the Italian recipient of the head butt, is also doing very well and is the subject of a recent Nike commercial.

Virgin Atlantic revises complete Dell, Apple laptop ban - Virgin has slightly changed its policy of banning all Inspiron, Latitude, iBook, PowerBook, MacBook and MacBook Pro batteries on its flights but Cyrus Farivar at Engadget wonders whether batteries from Panasonic, Toshiba and IBM aren’t next.

The battery fiasco must be horrific for these brands which are already suffering from recent airline bans. Are inspectors savvy enough to distinguish the “good” laptop brands from the “bad” ones?

Technorati Tags: Experiential Marketing, Umpqua, Bank Branding, Zinedine Zidane, Nike, Marco Materazzi, Virgin Atlantic, Laptop Batteries, Laptop Brands

Posted by William Lozito at 8:35 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Marketing | Product Naming
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September 24, 2006

Brand Naming: Move Up Tinkerbell. Sorry Princesses

Princesses, move over for Tinkerbell. Ypulse links to a story in The Tennessean that informs us that Disney has permitted the Tinkerbell brand name to take pride of place over the princesses.

Disney princesses For some time now Disney has touted the Princesses brand name collection (Cinderella, Aurora, Jasmine, Belle, and Snow White) in their clothing, games and DVDs, but now it seems the 50 year old Tinkerbell brand name is taking over — at least as far as grade school girls are concerned.

Watch out, Barbie

Technorati Tags: Disney, Tinkerbell, Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, Snow White, Clothing, Games, DVD

September 23, 2006

Links du Jour 09-23-06

Apple Wants to Own "Podcast" Trademark - Steve Rubel wrote an interesting post yesterday about Apple issuing a cease and desist to Podcast Ready, claiming that the terms "Podcast Ready" and "myPodder" infringe on Apple's trademarks, and that they cause confusion among consumers. Like Rubel, I would also not be surprised to see some product name changes as a result.

Soccer Star Zidane May Have Lost His Head, But(t) It Hasn't Hurt Him - Stephen Baker at Blogspotting confesses that he was wrong about head butter Zinedine Zidane’s head butt in the World Cup costing him $20 million is endorsements. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article by Marie Valla, Zidane’s allure (and brand) has only been “enhanced.” He is now France’s “favorite personality” and Adidas and Danone have both stood by him because of the “immense reserve of goodwill” he has garnered over the years from fans.

ASA backs Razr-wielding designers - There was a recent outcry over an ad for the Motorola RAZR that pushed the boundaries a bit: it shows the allusion to a “razor” in the brand name being taken to a rather violent end in a recent ad that smacked of violence: the tagline “"the cutting edge of technology" was presented a little too literally.

Why Google is your brand - Great blog on Bizhack by John Koetsier that points out that for many marketers what Google says about your brand name is pretty much what customers know about your brand name. Which means that ”the new tastemakers are us”. I agree.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Podcast, ASA, RAZR, Google, Bizhack, Zidane, Adidas, Danone

September 22, 2006

Brand Naming: Is Microsoft's "Live" Dead?

Windows Live Logos I am now pretty sure that the Microsoft Live Search Center product name has been scrapped.

The news is not firm yet but a few very reputable blogs, including Liveside, show that evidence exists, supported by a recent newsgroup post at MSDN, to announce that Live Search Center is going to be renamed Windows Search Preview. Liveside gives us a nice history of the ill-starred product name:

Originally codenamed Casino and internally called OneView
Announced by Bill Gates as just Windows Live Search
Named as Windows Live Search Center by Steve Ballmer
Now being called Windows Search Preview

This may actually herald the end of the Live product name itself (although I doubt it). We have all known that there have been problems with the Live brand name that have been picked up by the press especially as it applies to the Windows search engine and it seems somebody in Redmond was listening.

This is the second application, after MSN Soapbox, to lose the “Live” name and I am sure that trend will continue: the Live name is now appended to email, domain hosting and games, and it’s just too confusing.

Watch out for the official announcement, it’s surely on the way, just as more Live products are going to be renamed.

Technorati Tags: Windows Live, Microsoft Live Search Center, Windows Search Preview, OneView, Live

Posted by William Lozito at 8:56 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Product Naming | Technology
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Links du Jour 09-22-06

My life. My card. My work. My lawsuit. - A freelance art director who submitted his "My Card. My Work." portfolio to AMEX's advertising agency, Ogilvy, claims they stole his slogan to promote the American Express brand, with the “My life. My card.” slogan.

Yahoo To Buy Facebook For $1 billion - Yahoo and Facebook are now one. As I have written before, Microsoft is also linked to Facebook. Linking the Yahoo brand name with Facebook is a great move, just as the Google brand name is inextricably linked with MySpace, which is now even more popular than Yahoo and Google.

How to explain RSS the Oprah way - The name RSS means “Really Simple Syndication” which is anything but a really simple concept for millions of people. This article on the Back in Skinny Jeans blog offers a very usable alternative definition of the application’s name (“Ready for Some Stories”) and is a great introduction to the concept of RSS.

'Grand Theft Auto' Fan Arrested For...Guess What? - Sometimes a product name can give people dumb ideas. Especially interesting is that he had the Grand Theft Auto name and logo tattooed on his back, which reminds me of the fact that the Nike swoosh is the most popular corporate tattoo, pushed tirelessly by a group of employees who are ultra-devoted to the NIKE brand who refer to themselves by the name EKIN (Nike spelled backwards). At least they’re not out there stealing cars.

Technorati Tags: AMEX, Ogilvy, My Life My Card, Yahoo, Facebook, RSS, Oprah, Grand Theft Auto, Corporate Tattoo

September 21, 2006

Disneyland Brand Not Working in China

Hong Kong Disney Logo The Disneyland brand does not seem to have the same cachet in Hong Kong as elsewhere despite the best efforts of the company to appeal to Chinese vacationers.

The problems they have faced in China are myriad, from workers striking over low pay and hot costumes to disgruntled visitors fed up with long lines or simply locked out on huge Chinese holidays. A public opinion poll taken in May shows that 70% of Hong Kong people now have a negative opinion of Disney.

Summer Fun Promo The problem is Disney’s inability, despite its best efforts, to assimilate into the culture: Asians are not as interested in scary roller coasters as Americans, instead preferring more sedate pleasures and opportunities to take photographs.

Disney’s market researchers have found that while Chinese familiarity with the Disney brand is high, familiarity with the Disney theme park concept is lacking. One executive said, simply, that Hong Kong people “need to understand what Buzz Lightyear is" before the Disneyland brand can take off.

Hong Kong Mickey Meanwhile, Disney’s biggest competitor in China is 30 year old Ocean Park, a much more sedate water park that has more brand name recognition and fewer crowds based on the California Sea World model.

Although, as Jared Huber correctly explains, it seems likely that Disney will bounce back, given the multiple touch points between China and the Disney. So, it seems that the Disney corporate brand name in China is insulated from the Disneyland Hong Kong brand.

Technorati Tags: Disneyland Hong Kong, Chinese Translation, Ocean Park, Disney Brand

Links du Jour 09-21-06

Noise Is Good - Greg Veerman at Fresh Glue writes about noise and asks if it could be beneficial in the marketing communications arena. He discusses the book, Noise, by Dr. Bart Kosko, and how noise, in all its formats - auditory, visual, informational, or neurological - affects how we perceive the world around us. Does the “noise” of competing brand names really impede your brand from being heard?

More "Americana" - this time from Toyota - Japanese giant Toyota is trying to be yet more American than GM in its promotion of the Tundra truck brand name by associating it with NASCAR, the uber-American name.

There is ferocious competition between pick-up brands in the U

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