This is a very insightful article that highlights some key differneces between how product naming is managed by Microsoft and Apple.
Apple does a much beter job naming products.

Microsoft aren't the only ones attempting to rename RSS. Google's new Desktop Sidebar features "Web Clips." See http://desktop.google.com/features.html

"Ain't going to happen," said the mayor of New Bern, NC, about the DISH Networks offer of free service if the town changes it name to DISH.
See http://www.newbernsj.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=23212&Section=Local.

It does look like a publicity stunt by DISH networks. You know the Hollywood adage "Any publicity is good publicity.
On the other hand, who knows, there probably will be a town that agrees to change its name to DISH.
The company wins both ways.
Wonder if this technique can be applied to naming a new product, servce or company?

I think the name is intended to imply vibe, vive (ie, life, vivacity, vivacious), and live. There's also the symmetry of the palindrome that might indicate information moving back and forth, and that may be further stressed by the way the I's look like forward slashes.

The Urban Legends Reference Pages at http://www.snopes.com/ list a number of stories of American product names or ad slogans translating badly, but most of them have been determined to be false. Among them are:

Southern California Sav-On drug store outlets were renamed Osco after an acquisition, then reverted to the original Sav-On name when their parent company discovered "asco" means "disgust" or "loathing" in Spanish - http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/osco.asp

The Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries because its name translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish - http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

The title of the arcade game 'Donkey Kong' was the result of a mistranslation - http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/donkeykong.asp

The John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" was published in a Japanese translation bearing the title "The Angry Raisins" - http://www.snopes.com/language/misxlate/raisins.asp

Coca-Cola's initial transliteration of their name into Chinese produced a rendering whose meaning was "bite the wax tadpole" - http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp

Salton picked a winner here - George Foreman, the only boxer who would not seem out of place russling up a batch of cookies with grandma on a Sunday afternoon, while at the same time having the ability to "grill" most mortal men into oblivion if they ran into him in a drak alley with twenty of their toughest chums. However its not the "tough" that sells, probably the reason the Mike Tyson range of 'juicers' is farther off than Mike is hoping.....

"...Sprint logo incorporates a stylized bird wing suggesting flight and perhaps span."

I actually think the logo is reminiscent of their old advertising image of a pin dropping.

Although I miss the Sprint red logo, I am willing to give the new logo a try.
Rather than a bird's wing, the symbol looks like a spiral stair case of rib cage.
The Sprint press release seems to have a lot of buzz word jargon in it. It's certainly not how a business person normally speaks. It appears to be written more to impress rather than express a point. In the end, it expresses the change poorly.

G is also something one calls a friend in the hip hop community. I think it's short for OG, which stands for "original gangster".

I guess Budweiser with its 'Natty Up' joined the companies such as Coca-Cola and FedEx that trademarked the slang versions of their brand names in order to appeal to the consumers. I believe you wrote about it in your earlier blog "Lego: To S or Not to S?"

I wonder if BMW will trademark 'Beamer' since more and more people refer to their cars by this name?

It looks like Motorola has not trademarked "moto," which I believe is an abbreviation created by their customers which they've been using in their advertising for some time. At the bottom of their web pages it says "MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office." No moto.

Great blog article! This is the first time I have found someone that wrote about the naming aspect of hurricanes.
Another article in The Hilltop from Howard University indicated that the first instance of naming storms took place in the West Indies where storms wher named after Catholic saints.
On September 13, 1876, San Felipe struck Puerto Rico.

There's also the Arriva tire, by Goodyear, which I think makes use of "arrive," "river" (the way it channels water was a big part of the tire's advertising), and the Spanish word arriba, which I believe means "up," "above," "higher," and "faster".

I'm so incensed with Federated! What they are doing is nothing short of cultural genocide. Marshall Fileds isn't just a store or an architectural artifact - the Marshall Fields NAME is a "living" legacy of the City of Chicago that is under assasination. Marshall Fields is a part of what makes Chicago "Chicago." Without Marshall Fields, intact, Chicago could be "Anyplace USA." Can you image changing the name of the Eiffel Tower to the Trump Tower Paris? Would Parisians go for it? It's that rediculous! Yes the Eiffel Tower would still be there, but it would evolve from a cultural icon into a living joke. People would never look at it the same way again. By changing the Marshall Fields name to Macys the people of Chicago will never look at the State Street flagship the same way again either - it will be a joke.

I've interviewed people from all over about this. Most people from New York that I've interviewed aren't sympathetic to whats happening. Maybe they want Macy's to dominate American retailing because the Macy's name is nostaligic to them. Maybe some New Yorkers are bitter about loosing their landmark [towers] so they might not be so sympathetic about Chicagoans loosing thier most important cultural landmark. Still others may see Marshall Fields as a "commercial" entity rather than a cultural icon, and have no sympathy for this reason.

Caddy as it may seem to outsiders the Marshall Fields NAME represents many things to me and other Chicagoans: it represents the man [Marshall Field] who along with Montgomery Ward [another recent death] fought FOR the people of Chicago, and AGAINST developers, to preserve the beautiful Chicago lakefront for the people of Chicago for all time. Had Marshall Field not been so insistent the Chicago lakefront would be owned by private developers and NOT the people of Chicago. How many civic leaders would do that kind of thing today?

The NAME Marshall Field represents a man who also worked hard to help rebuild Chicago after the Chicago fire - but this time as a world class city ("Paris on the Prairie" as it was known). The Field NAME also represents a family who gave us one of the greatest museum campuses in the world. To many Chicagoans Marshall Fields represents home, something familiar and comforting in a hostile world. To Chicagoans, the name Marshall Field represents a man and a family that fought to protect Chicago AND give Chicagoans many of the things that they have to enjoy today. Transplants to Chicago may not know why Chicago has such a beautiful waterfront, they may not know why the city is so civically wonderful. Less educated Chicagoans probably just take for granted that these things just exist and have no idea why. Marshall Field worked HARD for the people of Chicago, now the people of Chicago need to work hard to fight and save the legacy that fought so hard give Chicagoans the things they enjoy today.

Until now the Macy's name meant nothing to Chicagoans other than a parade on Thanksgiving Day - now it represents a hostile imposition on thier city. Macy's Chicago will probably be a mediocre success. When they change the name on the State Street store curious looky-loos, will probably be there and it will LOOK like a big success to Federated but over time Macy's will see a backlash and the State Street store will suffer. When [gulp] Macy's State Street fails, I wouldn't be surprised if Federated sold the State Street property to developers to make it into condominiums and a food court [when Macy's bought Bullock's Downtown Los Angeles the landmark was sold off and converted into a parking garage!!]. Federated NEVER promised to preserve this cultural legacy as a department store - which was the world's first established 140 years ago.

Any idea what Sony means when they refer to the Bravia as "The World's First Television for Men and Women"?

Or is the whole idea of that tagline to get people asking what they mean by it?

This is a great way to illustrate your point and a very creative post.

This is a very insightful post on the naming and branding implications of a possible merger between Northwest and Delta.
Keep up the first class blog!
You have a winner on your hands. A tiger by the tail.
It's a pleasure to read your blog.

"Metro 7" seems like rather an ironic name for Wal-Mart, which is about as un-metropolitan as it's possible to be. As a general rule, they open their big box stores on the outskirts of towns, thus harming businesses and life in general in what had been town centers.

In addition, FCUK also has discovered that a clever name, without other forms of differentiation, is insufficient in branding. It always has been. I’m involved with fashion media, and while there are some indications of things changing, for many years it was just a same-again brand.

I'm not at all clear about how "jetrosexuals" differ from "metrosexuals," not to mention "übersexuals"

The product is marketed to women. Sony discovered that the majority of high tech, new slim, pricey TV's were being purchased by men. "Well, lets introduce a television that women will buy? Okay, but lets make sure we don't exclude our male customers."

I don't have any proof that this conversation ever took place, but you get the point. Not too surprisingly, the TV commercials and online ads have vanished. Nowhere on any of the Sony websites could I find the words "Finally, The World's First Television for Men and Women". It appears Sony stopped this one before the campaign got any-worse.

Diane,

I find this article on the influence and flexibility of the English language fascinating!

I consider the Strategic Name Development post in a class by themselves in terms of content and appearance.

Please keep up the good work, Diane.

I am a bit scared of what will happen to MF - especially the downtown store. I live downstate in Peoria and every Thanksgiving we make the trek up to Chicago and spend hours shopping and eating at Fields. I am not from Chicago and I didn't know the whole history of Mr. Fields and that seems to make it even worse. I have been to a few Macys and they are at the level of JC Penneys and there's nothing wrong with that but MF is so classy and special it seems so horrible to turn it into a Macys. I also think it's insulting almost because Macys is from NY. Chicago holds its own with NY because it has its own special icons and traditions. It doesn't try to be like NY and it is just as good IMHO. Having its local flag ship store turned into a NY knock off makes me want to cry.

I find the name of the collection to be ironic in some sense. Are they using an already established brand 7 Jeans in order to soup up their image?

Hi Diane,

I'm often finding myself discussing the nuances of the English language with my foreign counterparts (about 1/3 of the work I do is international) and, as a result, found this post to be of particular interest.

Please keep up the great work on the blog. I refer folks to it frequently from the "Much Ado About Marketing" blog I write.

Thanks again,

Mike Bawden
Brand Central Station

Scientific America(n) has a piece on people getting their name wrong:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=0004F64D-BDB6-1353-BDB683414B7F01CA&ref=rss

Here is the tv spot if you're interested:
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/tv/sony_bravia_balls

That didn't run in the US, did it?

I get the feeling Edmunds' main problem with the Echo is its "cartoonish styling, annoying gauge placement,[and] shaky handling." Source: http://www.edmunds.com/new/2005/toyota/echo/100397164/review.html

And if the Yaris is the same car with a different name I doubt their opinion of it will change much.

I agree, the name is a complete turnoff.

#8 on the list, "slickery," was used (and defined -- "It's slick, it's slippery... it's slickery!") in a TV ad for a cough drop. Do you think some marketers may have contributed to the list?

I think the Yaris is a great little car and I think it will do well with the younger crowd especially with that "Uncle Yaris" advertising. Which does a nice job of changing how people look at the car, more so than the usual car ads with the car driving aimlessly along counrty roads.

I love language and this blog is one of the best for making the distinct connection between what we mean, the words we use and the impact those words have on people. Thanks for this post and your blog, in general.

Please keep it up.

I've added you to our review of blogs on marketing at "Much Ado About Marketing" for tomorrow (11/3).

Regards,

Mike Bawden
Brand Central Station

This blog post was fun to read and very informative.
Please write more.
Oh, I think IKEA is great.

Thanks for the informative post. I'll be adding this to Thursday's (11/10)summary of interesting blog posts to read on the "Much Ado About Marketing" blog.

Great info!

Regards,

Mike Bawden
Brand Central Station

Please sign the petition at www.keepitfields.org, and spread the word. With enough signatures (currently 35,000), hopefully this travesty can be stopped.

William,

I enjoy your insightful analysis and broad array of subject this blog covers.
I never fail to learn something when I read this blog.

Keep up the good work.

Great blog post!!

RMHP Defined Standard Medicare PDP Plan

A "PDP Plan". I guess that's like an ATM machine, a PIN number or a VIN number.

Very surprising that you state that OED has yet to recognize the word Bling. In 2003, the term bling-bling which is where the word bling derives from was added to the OED. It was among 6,000 words/slang terms added to the OED. I found it rather odd that you added that as a sidebar; especially two years after the word was recognized.

Rachel,

If you search OED for "Bling," there are 0 results. I just tried.

What about Sheep Dip Malt Whisky or Pigs Nose blended whisky as great names and even better whiskies

I thought you were kidding, but I looked those two up, and they're for real. I searched Google for sheep dip, and the top result was Sheep Dip Pure Malt Scotch Whisky - scotchwhisky.net. However, #2 was BBC News | Health | Report raises sheep dip health fears, which begins, "Exposure to certain types of sheep dip is linked to an increased risk of ill health, a report presented to the government says."

Hopefully, they don't mean the whisky. I would assume that exposure to the other kind would be understood to be dangerous.

It happened.

"This week, Clark, Texas, morphed into DISH in exchange for a decade of free satellite television from the DISH Network for the town's 55 homes."

Granted, Dish Network received a "deal" when you look at the media costs of the publicity received via the stunt versus paid media - but haven't they also taken on a considerable risk? What happens when someone in Dish, Texas switches to cable?

I think it would be interesting to know more about this "deal" cut by Dish Network.

Thanks,

Mike Bawden
Brand Central Station

Sorry, just went off of reports Associated Press posted. AP is usually reliable, and I remember there being a big deal about certain slang words being introduced into OED.

Gen Y (I guess it is) has a rap song out about a year ago called "Holiday Inn" by Chingy and Snoop Dog.

Maybe it is not as "out" as one might think.

William,

I appreciate your unvarished and independent perspective on the AT&T logo change.

And I appreiciate the trackbacks to the opinions of others regarding the AT&T logo change.

Coffee soda isn't actually a new thing. Manhattan Special has been around for more than a century.

For a French perspective on Coke Blak, go to:

http://www.beveragedaily.com/news/ng.asp?n=64464-coca-cola-coffee-soft-drinks

It's worth the read.

I don't see why Victoria's Secret would market lingerie under the name Niagara. Lingerie is supposed to be delicate and light. And Niagara is a waterfall! Last time I checked, wet underwear do not sell well...

An old friend of mine told me about a friend of his who spent a year of high school as an exchange student in France. She presented her host family with a gift of a can of aerosol "cheese," and the father exclaimed something to the effect of "Ca? Ce n'est pas fromage!"

I agree William that a Niagara brand name makes no sense for a product line in Victoria's Secret.

It's hard to imagine that Coke Blak will do any better than Pepsi Kona, from a few years ago, or Pepsi Cappuccino, currently on sale in a number of countries. The taste is... horrendous.

I wouldn't count on Americans learning how to pronounce it. What percentage of us say "croissant" correctly? Almost everyone seems to say "kra-sont". Why Americans don't simply call them "crescents" is a mystery.

William,

How about B.com for Bed, Bath and Beyond?

According to the BBC, an American came up with the winning name: Australus.
But it looks like the judges were the only ones who liked the entry.

From the article:

The competition entries, submitted by people in 41 countries, included kangasaurus, marsupan, jumpmeat, kangarly and MOM (meat of marsupials).

One contestant even suggested Skippy, the name of an old television series whose eponymous hero was an intelligent and lovable kangaroo.

But they were all beaten by US citizen Steven West, who thought up "australus" while working at a hotel school near Sydney.

Mr Nathan, Food Companion's editor, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper: "The new name may be a huge breakthrough for the kangaroo meat industry."

But the head of the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia, John Kelly, said that although his association had helped to sponsor the contest, it had "no really serious intention" of changing the meat's name.

M.com would fit for McDonnald's. You could even include it in the logo, just the ".com" behind the golden M.

I didn't figure out the angus reference at all. To me, "australus" sounds too much like a biological term, like "australopithecus".

I kind of like "marsupan," even if it sounds more like a dessert than a meat.

Interesting idea about the M for McDonald's. I was thinking G for Google's Gmail would be a good one, too. Their logo accentuates the letter G.

At what point does a publicity stunt like this "jump the shark"? (A term that may have jumped its own shark by now, I realize.)

I've linked to this on my own blog to try and get people to comment on it as well. I'm just wondering how much more ridiculous this community re-naming trend is going to get.

Thanks, Bill. Have a great new year.

Regards,

Mike Bawden
Brand Central Station

You are right that this does depend somewhat on the connection an audience member would form between the Wal- prefix and the presence of the Walgreen’s logo, which does not seem prominent enough to me. However, Walgreen’s has survived based on a gradual-expansion strategy over decades, rather than anything adventurous. It will put in the right amount of marketing—not too much to necessitate changing its budget, but not too little that the product fizzles out—and grow the line over another few decades. I say: stick with the Wal-line, though I personally would omit the hyphen, which leans heavily toward Wal-mart versus the hyphenless Walgreen’s.

The way I see it, this may move from the realm of the publicity stunt and into just marketing. What's to stop communities from doing this even after newspapers and blogs stop pointing it out?

New York's Mayor Bloomberg announced a plan about a year ago to have companies bid to be sponsors of the city: New York's official beverage, etc.

In my opinion, that's just a step or two past selling naming rights to arenas, which I personally find irritating enough. When they started building the replacement for the Boston Garden, we were told that Shawmut Bank was sponsoring it, so it would be called the Shawmut Centre. Shawmut got bought out by Fleet, so it was renamed the Fleet Centre before it even opened. Fleet got bought out by Bank of America, but they didn't rename it -- maybe the contract on the name had run out. So now it's the TD Banknorth Garden, and who knows what it will be called in ten years.

These structures are important to the people of a city. I'm not a sports fan, but the Boston Garden was part of the city, like the Boston Common, or the North End. The TD Banknorth Garden may as well be a shopping mall.

People who care about sports often think of arenas as shrines to the history of their respective teams. I have a hard time imagining a few generations of a family getting together to talk about all the thrilling memories they share of the Planters Honey Roasted Mixed Nuts Memorial Field.

I have to say "Wal", for me, is somewhat associated with Wal-Mart, more than Walgreens.

The hypen in Wal-Mart put more emphasis on the two words as potentially being separate concepts.

Whilst searching for online travel deals, I came accross this search engine called Bezurk.com I found the name interesting as I am a brand marketer. I came across the namedevelopment blog site, and am interested to hear your thoughts on the name Bezurk ..... I kinda like it as it sticks in your mind and is not literal in meaning

Isnt this a rip off of STEAZ Green Tea Soda...the Original??

Ed

William,

I could not agree with you more.

I think the changes at Intel are more about the Chief Marketing Officer wanting to put his stamp on things rather for solid strategic reasons. Or if it's for both, the former is driving efforts more than the latter.

By the way, don't the Samsung engineers, management and the products themselves deserve some or most of the credit for the dramatic rise of the Samsung brand?

Though not terribly impressed by either "leap ahead" or the new logo, I have heard it said on the For Immediate Release PR/communications podcast that the new logo and slogan reflect a greater change within the culture of Intel, brought about by the new CEO.

Also, the long association of "Intel Inside" with Windows machines would not be an advantage in the new Apple/Intel partnership.

Still, I'd think they could be a little more creative.

Sallie,

The Podcast you referred to makes my point. Leap Ahead does indeed sound like the company talking to itself.

The objective of changing the Intel culture by its CEO is understandable, but why utilize an external marketing tool (i. e. Slogan) to accomplish an internat objective?

There are many tools and techniques for changing a company culture without misusing a slogn which is an opportunity to emotionally bond with the consumer?

I like the new Intel logo. It looks more up to date than the old one.

But I really like the old Intel slogan better than the new one. "Intel inside" was the perfect expression of the co-branding strategy that was an important part of Intel's success: Making people ask for a computer with an Intel processor inside. This claim was very popular (even if I can only speak of how things are here in Germany).

The explanation that the new slogan fits better with the expansion into new market fields is not really convincing in my eyes. The old slogan would have done it as well. But for me "Leap ahead" sounds much weaker than "Intel inside". The new slogan sounds like typical expressionless marketing babble - "we are super-duper" ... You know what I mean. It could be the slogan of any other company as well.

Is this sort of thing still called a "portmanteau" word? That's the term we were taught in high school, but no one I speak with seems to be familiar with it. The idea is that you've got two words you put together to form another, in the same way that the two halves of a portmanteau (which is not exactly a common word to start with) come together when you close it.

In any case, I can't imagine Philips put the i in there to represent high technology. If that had been their intention, I expect they'd have called the product the iTable.

I did a quick search at the USPTO, and I didn't see any claims made on "entertable" (without the i), so I guess they actually intended to use the version they ended up with.

Do you think it's possible they decided against "entertable" because they were afraid it would be pronounced incorrectly, like en-TER-ta-bull?

We always consider naming something that under Virgin is a bad name strategy. In fact, how many people will sensitive to the name rather to the price and quality? Guess it is time for rewrite the history

I htink Kissables are wonderful - I have written about them a few times:
http://candyaddict.com/blog/index.php?s=kissables

Brian

The name Waldorf has already been lifted by the Waldorf schools. As I understand it, they were given that name in order to make people associate them with America, whereas the schools are based on a philosophy that was created in Switzerland.

Astoria, while there's apparently one in Oregon, is a decidedly New York name. It's a section of the borough of Queens, and there are many local businesses with that word in their name.

I don't think this is a good strategy, myself. Maybe it's because I'm originally from NY, but the name "Waldorf-Astoria" makes me think of the city, not the quality of service.

And Waldorf salad has nothing to do with Arizona.

If Hilton brings the Waldorf Astoria to other locals, over time it will be second nature to us.
Think of the New York Times. It's home delivered to many homes throughout the US, and we don't give in origin, New York a second thought. Rather than meaning New York it means very liberal. Likewise, the Waldorf Astoria will convey luxury more than New York.

What I find interesting about the name (and I'm sure they thought more about this one than they did about Kisses in the first place) is that the word is an adjective. Kiss/Kisses are nouns or verbs.

Most candy bars are nouns: Crunch, Snickers, Mr. Goodbar, Cow Tales, Bull's Eyes, etc.

Whereas a Kiss is something you give or get, Kissable is a state of being. It implies desireability and the fact that you get so many in a bag implies repetition. It also seems to imply sharing and giving - kissing is, after all, something done in at least pairs. The candy name gives you the sense of belonging and being loved.

I think the launch has gone exceptionally well for Hershey's and they're capitalizing on the fact that the candy is manufactured in a plant without nuts, so kids with allergies are able to eat them (unlike M&Ms). I've seen them at just about every check stand I've been to in the past month - so visiblity is good. The trick is usually to get people to try them and I think they've overcome that hurdle. (Though I haven't seen any Valentine's candies, which seems a shame with a name like that.)

That's an interesting thought about the name being an adjective, but I think that by adding the s at the end, what Hershey's is doing (or trying to do) is to turn the adjective into a noun -- that is, creating a single word that means "things that are kissable."

I'm sure that's been done before (this blog recently had a post about "Lunchables"), but I can't think of any words like that which have actually found their way into the language, as opposed to just being used as a product name. There must be some out there, though.

If the changes are just intended to make the language easier, then I'd say this is at least prefereble to what the Academie Francaise dictates about the French language. They want to keep French French, so instead of francofying (if that's a word) the spellings of words borrowed from other languages, they make up equivalent French words, replacing "le weekend" with "le fin de semaine," "le walkman" with "le balladeur," etc.

As far as simplified spelling goes, I find written Kreole (Haitian) absolutely fascinating. I assume it has something to do with the fact that Haiti has a very low literacy rate, but many of the spelling rules, if you can call them rules, seem to be based on English. For example, words which in French would end in "tion" are spelled with "shun" in Kreole, and there is no "sh" in French. I've also noticed that the French word "ou," which means both "where" and "or," is commonly spelled "w" in Kreole.

one little correction: the campain was not initiated nor financed by germen government, it's a "private" campaign (better: a campaign of some neoliberal lobbygroups and mediafirms)

Hi i tested this product today in the UK. I saw the packaging designs and the three different types of container. The ones i saw was a 330ml standard can, a 330ml tall can, and a 500ml bottel. There were three flavours, mango, orange and peach. The drink is slightly carbonated. You can smell the tea more than you can taste it. It is a good product but you need to drink it three times a day to lose up to 160 calories. The price will be around 99p for a 330ml can.

Don't you mean Schadenfreude?

Mike,

Thanks for sharing the feedback on sampling the Enviga product.
Sounds like a lot of running to the can (water closet) frequently.

If will be interesting, Mike, to see how Enviga does over time.

Sallie,

Thanks for catching the typo.

First of all, Mobile Me is not quite as "catchy" as the iEverything else they have been dubbing their products. Secondly, the rumor mill has been pointing to a few options, Apple actually entering the mobile phone market to compensate for the horrible Rokkr phone that was introduced in the last quarter of 05, OR to create a whole new product that will integrate features of the crackberry (excuse me)Blackberry, iTunes and portable media display (movies on your mobile). I would go with the latter, considering Apple has been consistently moving towards the entertainment arena, I would be on the lookout for some fancy device that I can watch the latest episode of South Park while talking to my friends and simultaneously buying up and downloading music traxx to my .mac account. Hmmm. . . . somthing to ponder over the weekend eh?

I am a native of Chicago and now live in Florida. I grew up shopping at Marshall Field's with my mom. Every time I am in Chicago, I always make a point to shop there. However, when I am in New York or Florida, I do not make a point to go to Macy's. WHY? The same reason I do not shop at WalMart. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!! I will not shop at Macy's Chicago. The name change would be a very sad day for the city of Chicago and the midwest. How exciting will this be? NOT AT ALL! Please do not change the name, BUT keep the tradition instead.

It looks like BMW is suing Nissan over the letter M.

I hope that Ford can keep the Lincoln brand alive.
It deserves to survive.

I'm not so sure the Lincoln brand is worth salvaging. I think it's more of an entitlement than a brand.

I totally agree with you, the Ameriprise name is fatal; I am very surprise with that bad naming from AMEX. That Name overlapping with AMERIQUEST is so obvious.

I think the new at&t brand ID is marvelous, cooked at InterBrand, I am sure there was some big thinking behind it. Is revamp, the new it. 3D and movement lives inside it, Do you think is a Beach Ball, Super lets play with it, is fun, positive.

Aw, you were just teasing us with the year's supply of Kissables, weren't you?

Cybele and All Other Interested Parties,

The year's supply of Kissables offer is for real.

I encourage all of you to submit a comment.

yaris in turkish means to race or racey

So, how did we manage to get "Prague" out of "Praha"?

And the French... have you noticed that they have no problem with changing the names of other cities, like Nouvelle Orleans?

I think the American revenge comes in the way we give cities French names but slaughter the pronounciation: Prairie du Chien Iowa, Montpelier Vermont, Versailles Indiana, etc.

I respectfully disagree. The names of cities *should* be pronounced as the (majority of) natives of said city pronounce. Aftearll, they should know because it's *their* city.

From there, you simply change the English spelling to be the phonetic equivalent. Suddenly, everyone is happy (arguably). The words are written in a way English-speakers can pronounce, but the sound is the same (or very close) as the native. We all win.

I've posted about this very issue before.
http://romerican.com/2005/12/beaucoup-rest-shhh.html

Heh, that is a great post. If only the McMarketers would come to terms with your perspective. I suppose what happens is that Ron's Steakhouse was too successful in the past with simple names like Big Mac and such. Now, as they struggle to grow, there's always some new jack who wants to take his boss' place on the corporate lunch line. So, to get that corner office, what else is he to do but boldy suggest going against the brand... and somehow that will help the brand. I guess.

[Meanwhile, in eastern Europe they McLabel McEverything to McDeath. Pop in for a quick tour and you'll find McKetchup, McFries, McPlay (those plastic ball pools for kids), and McDrive (drive thru). It's McSilly.]

I don't know if that's realistic for most Americans. I doubt most of us are capable of correctly pronouncing Le Havre, Gdansk, etc.

And then there are country names that are completely different from what we're accustomed to: India's real name is Bharat, Japan is Nippon (which I'm told is pronounced more like Nee-hon), and when Bush correctly (I think) pronounces the name of the country to the south of the US, I'm afraid it sounds rather comical.

About ten years ago, Jimmy Smits hosted Saturday Night Live, and they did a sketch in which everyone but him in a business meeting insisted on pronouncing any word that came from -- or may have come from -- Spanish, as if they were speaking Spanish. For example, "I'd never live in a mobile home. One torrrrrNAHdo and your house is history."

William,

Your view of the importance of a name is right on.
I had never thought of life insurance as death insurance. Great insight.
I really enjoy your posts. I look forward to reading them.

The choice of a name doesn’t concern me near as much as the dynamics of the process that unfolded before, during and after its announcement. I'm still concerned, from a PR perspective: judging from the media I’ve read on the subject, the team seemed to do all the correct work before making the decision, received the blessing of the Mexican-American political and business leaders, involved prominent Mexican-Americans in the public introduction of the name yet were blindsided by a small group of Mexican-Americans. From that, I can draw from several possible conclusions:

1. The research effort was not all that exhaustive and the ownership of the team either was inept or lied to the community about the results. This is not a good sign for the future of the team or of its ability to forge long-term relationships.

2. The so-called Mexican-American business and political leaders are NOT, in fact, leaders and do NOT represent the Mexican-American community. This is not a good sign for the Mexican-American political and business leaders who hope to be a voice for their constituency and improve their representation in the greater Houston community or the community that has high expectations for its leaders.

3. A small but vocal ethnic community can effect change within the greater Houston community. This is not good for the businesses that now must invest even more resources to ensure that it is being sensitive to the community or be the target of the next effort.

4. The "small" community described in the media was, in fact, quite large, has a legitimate influence and, thus, can really mean trouble for organizations, business and political leaders and businesses who don’t pay enough attention to them before acting.

To those who care about the team, about Houston and about its Mexican-American community, which of these conclusions – if any – is correct?

William,

Thank you for making me aware of these TV ads. They're great. Get the message across.

Do you know where I can get a sample?

Jeff,

Loreal Men Expert can be purchased onlline at:

www.drugstore.com

Thanks Jeff.

Bourbon is a species of arabica coffee that flourishes in Rwanda's high elevations and makes for an excellent cup. The word "blue" refers to the blue-green color of the unroasted coffee. This coffee, which comes from two coffee-washing stations (Karengera and Gatare, is 100% arabica Bourbon.

The same thing is happening to Kaufmanns and all of the other May Company brands. I remember the good old days. Kaufmanns gave me my first credit card and my first job. Ill be sad to see it go.

I found a poll related to MF:
http://www.misterpoll.com/567200689.html

Thanks for the trackback and the email.

It's interesting to see these various countries with their ads promoting tourism. The Nepal ad seems to be begging people to come visit. Maybe they should go with something like Nepal: Did you see us in Batman Begins? Our country is good enough for Bruce Wayne!

Everyone wants to build a new brand with their tourism board. It seems like a lot of money, when not a lot of places are doing it as well as they should.

Z for s only makes sense (and originated) when s is sounded as z. Bratz is a stupid name.

Maybe they meant to call it Operation Schwarma, and somebody just misspelled it.

I think Milan to LA would be called Mila. A sexy name.

MiMa makes you think of momma mia? weird. i think it's cute.

People still "dial" telephone numbers. I don't know what percentage of telephone users still have rotary phones, but I'd bet it's well under 1%. But what would we stay instead of that -- punch in, enter, type?

William, thank you for your link to my blog. I’ll browse a bit more—there are some good posts here.

If it were not for OEM deals, I would never have heard of ASUS, which made my old CD-ROM drive. As to BenQ, I have heard of it, but never made the connection to Acer, which at least in these parts has recognition—as an inferior product. As your Lenovo example shows, the mainland Chinese may be more conscious on how to build a brand in consumers’ consciousness—particularly strange given the more cosmopolitan orientation of the Republic of China (i.e. Taiwan).

I don't think Lenovo is an example of the PRC "building" a brand. All they did was buy IBM's Thinkpad business, then slowly bring their own name into the advertising for the product.

My guess would be that at this point, the majority of people who purchase one of these laptops refer to it as a Thinkpad, or possibly even an IBM, and not very many announce to their friends "I just got a new Lenovo."

'Melts in the mouth, not in the hand' is an advertising slogan that has been in use in the UK for many years for a coated chocolate drop product called Minstrels, produced by the Galaxy chocolate company. Hershey had better check that out should they ever wish to market Kissables abroad.

Ah, but Cadbury Adams no longer offers Certs Powerful Mints... they quit making them some time ago...

Dachau has a similar "image problem". Livejournal blogger Zdenka noted on her visit that the only place where she encountered a "Welcome to Dachau" sign was a local McDonalds.

This is a great blog. It's interesting to read about people's views on the Benq, Acer, and Asus brands. These are the "high-profile" Taiwanese brands. Asus (my favourite, and the notebook of choice of Taiwan's computer engineers) is one of Apple's partners, and manufactures many of their products (iPod/Nano) in China. Quanta and Inventec were/are also partners with Apple.

Interestingly, while many of these firms are attempting to forward integrate; they still get most of their revenue from OEM/ODM.

I wrote a post recently about Benq here:

http://orxilinasia.blogspot.com/2005/11/taiwan-brands-ii.html

Regards,
Gordon

Good points, Diane. Regardless of the official name, everyone will call it Auschwitz. This reminds me of those people who insisted that after Y2K we should write the year with four digits. Six years in to the millennium, most are abbreviating the year to the last two anyway. Auschwitz will always be Auschwitz, and people will continue to visit the former camp to pay tribute to the fallen.

On point (6), what about the French city of Lyon, or Lyons in English? Personally, I adopt Romerican’s standard, although I Anglicize country names.

I tend to use Hart’s Rules as the final arbiter for English, and at least the Oxford University Press doesn’t retire 14,000 words!