February 2007 Archives: Name Wire: The Product Naming Blog

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February 28, 2007

Federated Company Name Change to Macy’s Group Inc.

Federated Department Stores Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will be changing it’s name to Macy’s Group Inc. This is part of Federated’s larger efforts to make the Macy’s name a national brand, and comes after years of the Macy’s name replacing some of the best known names in department store history: including Marshall Field’s, a store I was especially fond of.

According to Chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren, the Macy’s name change “more accurately reflects the transformation of our business in recent years.” He added, “Today, we are a brand-driven company focused on Macy's and Bloomingdale's, not a federation of department stores.” Macy’s also got the nod for the name change because the brand name represents 90% of the company's sales.

There’s an excellent blog post up by Alexandra Biesada on Bizmology that looks at the rise of Federated and its chief rival, JC Penney. Both companies are busy revitalizing a shopping medium that once seemed dead - and bringing in younger, hipper customers by partnering with well known brand names: Federated partners with Martha Stewart and Elie Tahari while JC Penney partners with Liz Claiborne and Nicole Miller and offers in-store Sephora shops.

Federated, partly through aligning its strategy around the Macy’s brand name, has shown some very strong profits. Eli Portnoy notes on The Brand Man Speaks blog that in changing the (unknown) Federated name to the (well known) Macy’s name, the company is emulating Target's similar move and, at the same time making itself more attractive to investors.

I think that this is an excellent move on the part of Federated. As Lundgren told Women’s Wear Daily, adding the word “Group” to the name is a nod to the well known Bloomingdale’s brand name. It’s also a reflection of the way the Neiman Marcus Group operates Bergdorf Goodman or the J. Crew Group, which also has Crewcuts and Madewell in its fold.

I was interested as well to read that Macy’s in-house Hotel brand name is one of its fastest growing lines - surely what is good for the Macy’s brand name is good for this one as well.

Technorati Tags: Federated, Macy's, Name Change, Company Naming, Macy's Group, Department Store Names, Brand Name

February 27, 2007

Transforming Brand Name Cars Into Movie Stars

If the names “Bumblebee™,” “Autobot Jazz®,” “Autobot Ratchet®” and “Ironhide®” mean nothing to you, then you're not the target market for the new Transformers movie.

GM is aiming to create an association between its brand name and the movie, linking itself with toy giant Hasbro and the entire Transformers product line, which analysts expect will make a huge comeback this year.

Autobot Jazz transforms into a Pontiac Solstice, Autobot Ratchet turns into a Hummer H2, and Ironhide turns into a GMC TopKick medium-duty truck. Pretty cool...but some fans are a little miffed about Bumblebee, who, back in the day, transformed into a very recognizable...VW Beetle. Now he’s a buffed Camaro.

More than that, we are likely to see a Transformers line of GM cars. They will not actually transform into anything, but Jessica Barnes reports that they will probably simply be special versions of the above-mentioned models with “an Autobots or Decepticon” on the back.

Bloggers are asking the logical question: will product placement in a kids movie prompt adults to buy the cars? Well, millions of adults actually will be seeing the movie: those who are dragged there by their kids, and those who have already booked their tickets (and probably have a few Transformer toys lying around the basement.)

If VW can successfully place a car in Curious George, then more extensions are likely.

This is another excellent example of the growth of product placement in entertainment, which, according to Mother Jones, was worth $3.5 billion in 2004, a 200% increase from 1994. Some GM brands, in fact, live on only in reruns (and our hearts), like the now defunct Oldsmobile, for example.

Technorati Tags: Autobot Jazz, Bumblebee, Ironhide, GM, Transformers, Decepticon, Product Placement, Brand Names

February 26, 2007

Naming Cruise Ships - Disney Taking Requests

A post yesterday on Brent Scarcliff’s blog, Service Branding | The Magic Of Cruise Ship Naming, really got me thinking.

Brent links back to The Cruise Log by Gene Sloan, a USA Today blog, and discusses the “startling lack of imagination” that cruise lines display when naming their ships. Yes, The Princess and Norwegian lines seem to be virtually trading names, as are Carnival and Disney.

The names “Freedom," "Dawn,” “Pride,” and “Magic” seem to be popular. This post comes just as Disney announces that it will offer two bigger, sleeker liners - you can even watch them being built via webcam. John Frost at The Disney Blog is welcoming new naming ideas.

As a naming consultant, I suggest that the name of the new ships resonate with passengers and reflect the size. I must say that Disney seems to be leaving its competitors in its wake which puts the field wide open for some more adventurous naming.

Disney cruise liners are, from one perspective, an incredible way to build the Disney brand name. As Brent points out, the weight of nautical tradition and the onus of making the name “sound like a cruise ship," as well as a a need to “be all things to all people” are the impediments here.

The name of the current flagship, “Magic,” is taken right out of Disney's brand essence to bring “magic moments” to its customers, or "family magic" as its promise. Can that name be expanded in the future? Or is it time for Disney to turn to some of the legendary names in its stable: other liners may be called “Princess” but the Cinderella name is quintessentially Disney's.

Technorati Tags: Cruise Ship Names, Disney Magic, Carnival, Princess, Norweigan, Naming

Posted by William Lozito at 9:57 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Naming | Travel and Tourism
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February 25, 2007

Name Change to Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall Makes Me Deeppresso

Bill's Gamblin' Hall On Tuesday, the romantically named Barbary Coast casino, one of the older names on the Vegas Strip, is going to disappear and open up on Friday as Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon.

While The Barbary Coast is not one of the truly classic old names in Vegas like the Stardust, which will be imploded in March, it’s been around since 1979. In Vegas years that makes it an old dog indeed, and its naming is reminiscent of the romance of the "Old Vegas" of the fifties and early sixties, when names like The Sands, The Palms, The Stardust, and Caesar's Palace marked a trend of larger than life naming mythology.

The name change comes as ownership of The Barbary Coast is transferred from Boyd Gaming Corp. to Harrah’s for a swatch of 24 acres next to the soon to be demolished Stardust (land which includes the site of the long gone Westward Ho). The name is a tribute to Harrah’s founder Bill Harrah, not Bill Gates, but I consider it a poor choice, as does VegasRex and the responders at Two Way Hard Three.

deeppresso Vegas names are supposed to conjure up a mythical world of wealth, hope and decadence (think Bellagio). I am not really convinced that a casino name should include truncated words like "Gamblin'" in a world where half of the visitors will be booking their tickets online and may be erroneously typing "Gambling Hall" into Yahoo Travel. I just can’t see anyone getting excited to fly to Vegas and stay at a place called "Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon."

This is not the week's least appropriate name, however. That award goes to a deep roasted espresso coffee brand name in Japan. The name? Deeppresso. This name just can’t help but make you sad.

Technorati Tags: Vegas, Las Vegas, Casino, Gambling, Barbary Coast, Stardust, Sands, Palms, Caesar's Palace, Bill's Gamblin' Hall, Harrah's, Bill Harrah, Deeppresso

February 24, 2007

Super Secret Naming Companies for Beginners

Alphabet Soup A recent post on Needlenose that had me laughing was entitled "On Super Secret Company Names": sometimes the company name has to actually hide what the company does — it is a name that tries to be bland and forgettable so the company can go about its business undetected (think James Bond’s Universal Exports or Valerie Plame’s Brewster Jennings & Associates).

According to SF Gate, Iran seems to have a series of front companies that are actually into nuclear development. Their names are Tamin Tajhizat Sanayeh Hasteieh, Shakhes Behbood Sanaat and Sookht Atomi Reactorhaye Iran. But these have been named pretty badly. Translated, they mean:

Tamin Tajhizat Sanayeh Hasteieh: Corporation for Obtaining Nuclear Industries.
Shakhes Behbood Sanaat: Division for Industrial Improvement.
Sookht Atomi Reactorhaye Iran: Iranian Nuclear Reactor Fuel Company.

These are in fact corporate renamings; the original names were actually good and obscure: "Farayand Technique Co." and "Pars Thrash Co."

This article reminded me that it could be that some companies seem to "pretend" to be generic but through their own obscurity are becoming well known. Confused? Try the Olevia line of flat-panel TVs, which the New York Times calls "The No-Name Brand Behind the Latest Flat-Panel Price War" (subscription required). Olevia is a brand owned by the Syntax-Brillian Corporation, another name that is hard to remember and pronounce.

Couple that with last week’s news that GE is getting together with Asian based General Imaging Co. (now there’s a bland name worthy of a front company) to make cameras. The news is no longer "A major USA brand is outsourcing cameras to Asia." Instead we are learning the brand names of those companies that have remained nameless for so long. And those names sound established and boring and fait accompli. "General Imaging" is a name that I feel was clearly formulated to sound like a brand name extension of GE itself.

Maybe these brand names are trying to be like Lenovo, a brand name that nobody had heard of until recently and now wants to be a household name.

Technorati Tags: Company Names, Front Company, Olevia, Syntax-Brillian, GE, GI, General Electric, General Imaging, Lenovo

Posted by William Lozito at 10:23 AM

Posted to Company Naming | Linguistics
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February 23, 2007

Branding: Does Hip Hop Rule Madison & Vine?

Are hip-hop moguls the most innovative co-branders in the entertainment industry?

I am consistently impressed by the aggressive branding efforts by stars from the hip-hop scene. The crossover branding is pretty good, whether you are talking about Sean Combs or Jay-Z.

A very nice recent case in point is the way rapper DMX has gone from launching a DMX Authentic Line, to a line of canine clothes, to the forthcoming Earl Simmons Signature collection, the new brand name that “turns the Sean John business model on its head - selling his birth-name at a markup, instead of the Macy’s sale rack.”

Meanwhile, Def Jam Interactive and Electronic Arts have a feature built into their new video game Def Jam: Icon that allows players to purchase virtual brand name clothing from real life designers as part of their struggle to become hip-hop icons. Don’t expect to see Brooks Brothers or LL Bean in the game, however. Instead look out for clothing from Sean John (natch), Phat Farm and Rocawear.

This happens while hip hop fashion brand Sedgwick & Cedar ‘73 - a name which “represents the actual intersection where hip hop was born in 1973 at 1520 Sedgwick Ave (1st House Party) and Cedar Park (1st Block Party) in the Bronx NY” - is born from a promotional mix tape of some of the hottest up-and-coming emcees.

Expect to see yet more of the Sedgwick & Cedar brand name on your sports screens as well as in your iPod: they just hired sports and entertainment agent Glen Toby to promote their name with major entertainers and athletes and are looking for more co-branding deals with other consumer brands worldwide.

Technorati Tags: Sean Combs, Jay-Z, Madison & Vine, Hip Hop Brands, DMX Authentic, Earl Simmons Signature, Def Jam Icon, Sedgwick & Cedar, Glen Toby

February 22, 2007

Naming Cardiac Stents

In her A Hearty Life blog this past Monday, Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD asked us if we could provide some insights into the process of naming cardiac stents.

As Christopher Snowbeck of the St. Paul Pioneer Press pointed out in his February 19th article, there’s a long tradition of naming medical devices for their inventors.

The term “stent” itself comes from the name of a nineteenth-century British dentist, Charles T. Stent. His name, in turn, appears to be related to the Latin verb for “to stand,” from which we get the word “status.” If true, that makes “stent” a doubly appropriate name, since anything Latin has a scientific ring to it.

Professional naming companies work with clients to develop names that appeal to a new product’s target market. In most respects, naming a cardiac stent is like naming any other product. Because it’s a medical device, names based on Greek and Latin roots might be more appropriate than those derived from other languages.

Because surgeons have more influence than patients do on the purchase of stents, it’s worth considering any advantages a new stent has for the doctor, as well as benefits for the patient. Because stents are used to treat life-threatening conditions, a frivolous name would be inappropriate.

Within the community of surgeons and medical researchers, naming a product after its inventor is both attractive and effective. In a small community of specialists, everyone knows everyone else. A well-known inventor’s name brings brand-recognition to the new product—at least among the people who matter most when the product is first released.

Outside of that first generation of consumers, a name like “Stent” or “Palmaz” has less meaning. And as long as the name meets federal requirements regarding its claims of effectiveness, any kind of name is possible.

A few of my own favorites are names which suggest benefits without being too literal:

Assurant

Symphony

Fluency Plus

But I wouldn’t refuse the offer to name the product after me.

Technorati Tags: Stent, Medical Product Naming, Palmaz, Assurant, Symphony, Fluency Plus

Product Names: Toys Go Retro

According to Mike Dobbs at Out of the Inkwell, this year marks the official return of eighties toy names we all know and love.

Think My Little Pony, Rubik’s Cube, Transformers, and GI Joe with the Kung Fu Grip.

Hasbro is indeed expanding on licensed brand names like SpongeBob, Toy Story and Spiderman Three but has now decided to “build its core brands.” This often means taking an old brand name and putting it on a newer product: offering debit cards on the new Monopoly game, for example, and promoting old fashioned “Twister” as well as “Outdoor Twister” and “Dodgeball Twister.”

More than that, we’ll see new versions of “Operation” (Operation Rescue) and “Candyland” (Candyland Castle). Express versions of Scrabble and Life have been put out for people who want a “fulfilling robust game experience in 20 minutes.”

LEGO, for its part, is returning to “basics” and is moving away from the complex Bionicle line back to “what they know best: construction sets.” This means that they will sell mosaic sets for girls wanting to do art and a set called “Aqua Raiders,” the first LEGO set with an underwater theme.

There will also be an expanded offering of licensed toy names, with Star Wars being the big money spinner. This year, to celebrate the 80th release of A New Hope, George Lucas was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame. I have to wonder what took them so long: that man is responsible for the creation of more toy lines than Santa.

Of course, toy product naming can take some odd twists and turns, not least because your target market is kids. But there is no question that licensing and co-branding deals can have some very grown-up spin offs.

For example, John Deere’s toy strategy has all but ensured that every single American boy knows that John Deere makes tractors and farm equipment, even if the closest he’ll ever get to the farm is the produce aisle in Wegman’s.

NASCAR and Harley-Davidson all have interesting die cast products that are cool enough for dad to hijack once the kids are in bed. NASCAR has already co-branded with Monopoly. But, some parents find they have too many toys on their hands, and Carol Holst has some simple solutions regarding their kids' toys.

Technorati Tags: Toy Marketing, Toy Names, Brand Name, Hasbro, LEGO, Toy Industry, Co-branding, NASCAR, John Deere Kids

Posted by William Lozito at 9:22 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Product Naming | Retail
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February 20, 2007

When Name Changes Are Not So Good

Imagine the U.S. Federal Government deciding to unilaterally change the names of Atlanta, Fredericksburg and Richmond because of their associations with the Civil War.

Now imagine the proposed alternatives being names like Grant City, Lincolnville and Yankee Town.

You get the idea.

Changing place names can be a tricky business, as people in St. Arnaud in New Zealand and Potchefstroom and Pretoria in South Africa are discovering.

A town council meeting in St. Arnaud was almost evenly split on the decision to change the lake town's name to Rotoiti, with a slight majority favoring the name change. If the area is named Rotoiti, it will be a reversion back to the town's original name before it was changed in 1951 to avoid confusion with Lake Rotoiti near Rotorua (say those names ten times fast!).

Those opposed to the name want to see a clearer mandate before it goes ahead, but it looks as if the change will happen.

In South Africa, however, tabled plans to change the Afrikaans names of Pretoria (the capital of the country) and Potchefstroom have met fierce resistance from Action Group Potchefstroom and AfriForum, who plan on pooling their legal resources to fight the changes tooth and nail.

Last year nearly 5,000 Potchefstroom residents took to the streets against changing the name and a petition opposing it went to the mayor. A serious debate was held over threatened changes to another well known name of a town close to the heart of every Afrikaner: Lydenberg. These are slated to be named Tshwane, Tlokwe and Mashishing respectively.

Many other South African place names are facing a change, including Pietersburg, Louis Trichardt, Potgietersrus, Nylstroom, Warmbad, Ellisras, and Duiwelskloof. This occurs on the heels of dozens more name changes across the country that seem aimed at dispensing with Afrikaans names.

We have colleagues in Cape Town, and they remind me that many South Africans today see Afrikaans names as a hangover from the country’s colonial and apartheid past but it should be noted that not all Afrikaans names have Apartheid's taint upon them and many thousands of Afrikaans people still live in the country.

Few of the names I have listed have any relation to the National Party government that ruled the country from the end of WWII until 1994 and was instrumental in the institution of apartheid. For this reason, President Thabo Mbeki is well advised to rethink these name changes that seem designed to irritate residents of these places.

Tread carefully, South Africa.

Technorati Tags: Name Changes, St. Arnaud, Rotoiti, Pretoria, Potchefstroom, Afrikaans, Lydenberg, Apartheid, South Africa

Posted by William Lozito at 12:55 PM

Posted to Naming | Travel and Tourism
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The Audi A1 Looking for a New Brand Name

The recent announcement that the Audi A1 is going to get a revamp and a new name of course got me thinking.

This car is positioned to compete against the Mini Cooper and, interestingly, the Alfa Romeo Junior, a retro-return of the famous 1960’s brand name by the same company.

Preliminary renderings show us a pretty macho looking vehicle built on the VW Polo platform, and it makes me wonder in what direction Audi’s new team will go. Should they try to find a retro name to compete with these entrenched retro small car product names? Or should they offer a more modern alternative?

I’m thinking that this car’s design is modern enough so that digging out a 1960’s brand name or developing one that sounds like it came from decades ago is not the direction Audi will go. Instead, I would guess they will choose either another alphanumeric name or else a name that sets the car apart from the nostalgia lovers.

I do think that the car should get a real brand name, however, seeing as its major competitors which also include DaimlerChrysler’s Smart car and a mystery small car challenger by sister company VW, the king of small car brand names - think Golf, Rabbit, and Beetle, which is probably also getting a makeover.

If Audi is serious about capturing market share in this very competitive segment, I recommend that they don't use an alphanumeric nomenclature but develop a brand name that could become potentially iconic over time.

Technorati Tags: Audi A1, Car Names, Alfa Romeo Junior, Mini Cooper

Posted by William Lozito at 9:36 AM

Posted to Automotive | Brand Naming
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February 19, 2007

Brand Naming and Trademarks: The Fight Over Red Eye and GMAIL

The Chicago Tribune and Fox News are embroiled in a suit over the “Red Eye” name.

The Chicago Tribune has a free, five year old weekly tabloid called RedEye that covers current events and celebrity gossip, while Fox earlier this month introduced a late night show called “Red Eye.” The Tribune has two federal trademark registrations on RedEye, one for the name and one for the design.

The name “Red Eye” is certainly in common usage, but the Chicago Tribune might get legal traction from the fact that the paper and the Fox TV show seemed to be aimed at the same demographic and have extremely similar content, leading potential customers to erroneously assume “Fox and the RedEye products owned by Tribune are collaborating, thereby causing confusion.”

Fox, for its part, seems to have admitted to not doing a trademark search before the show’s first airing on February 6th, and “ignored” the newspaper's request not to use the name before the initial broadcast.

More care might have been taken to recognize that a potential “lawsuit” was coming, not least because it would have been clear that another news agency was already using this trademarked name and obviously prepared to defend it.

Therefore, if the Chicago Tribune's claims do hold water legally, it appears that it will be due to sheer negligence and hubris on Fox’s part. A preliminary injunction has been motioned and the first hearing will be on February 26. I have to add that it seems almost impossible to believe that a trademark search was not made on such a common name, but that might be the crux of the matter:

“Red Eye” looks to the average person as a name up for grabs; it is synonymous with early morning anything. But the Chicago Tribune's claims look pretty strong - ”likelihood of confusion” in this case is indeed pretty likely.

I predict, however, that a group of Polish poets are not going to be so lucky.

They are facing a similar problem as the Red Eye issue, but their fight is with Google over the domain name “gmail.pl” which was sold to them by a local provider. Turns out that GMAIL is an acronym in Polish for Grupa Mlodych Artystow i Literatow or Group of Young Artists and Writers.

Whoever sold these guys the domain name did so in error. Justice (poetic or not) might be Google’s, in this case. Negligently using a protected brand name, whether you are a poet or a TV broadcaster, is just not going to fly.

Technorati Tags: Fox, Chicago Tribune, RedEye, GMAIL

Posted by William Lozito at 8:06 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Media and Entertainment | Trademarking
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February 18, 2007

Disney Loses Pooh Product Name Lawsuit

Disney and the granddaughters of Pooh creators A.A. Milne and illustrator Ernest Shepard have lost a 16 year court battle against Stephen Slesinger Inc over royalties to 25 names from Winnie the Pooh. This opens the door for Slesinger’s people to sue Disney for what they perceive amounts to $2 bil worth of lost revenues over Winne the Pooh related videos and merchandise.

Disney is in the Very Messy Situation of licensing these names from Slesinger via a 76 year old agreement that might as well have been drawn up by Christopher Robin himself, who could not foresee the day when every kid's bedroom (as well as sleeping bags, pillows and pajamas) would be festooned with these characters, as well as every computer and DVD player, raking in $6 bil yearly for Disney.

I have to agree with Pribek at "Trouble Ain’t Over" that this type of situation is very un-Disney like; the company is so well known for its willingness to scrupulously protect its names and characters. While the decision has no bearing over Disney's rights to the Pooh name and those of his friends, it is A Very Sticky Business indeed.

But it is of course a lesson in protecting product names: if Disney can get stung by litigious bees, then we all have to be careful because the company has more lawyers on retainer than Pooh has honey pots.

It’s always unwise to go bouncing on to the market like Tigger without copyrighting and protecting every single name you can. The Slesinger estate is now attempting to void the trademarks on Winnie the Pooh they feel were taken illegally. This move, if successful, would be a disaster for Disney, but I think it's unlikely. I foresee some sweet stuff flowing to the Slesinger crew and Disney carrying on the Pooh legacy forever and ever.

Technorati Tags: Disney, Trademark, Intellectual Property, IP, Pooh

Posted by William Lozito at 9:57 AM

Posted to Licensing | Media and Entertainment | Product Naming
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February 17, 2007

The Perils of Foreign Cachet Product Names

Okay, so how do you pronounce "Vichysoise"? You know, the fancy French potato soup that's served cold. Is it vee shee swah? Or is it vee shee swahz?

And how do you pronounce "coup de grâce," the kindly act performed by the officer in charge of the firing squad at the end of his duties? You hear it all the time in the movies, and you probably say it yourself from time to time. Do you say koo duh grahss or is it koo duh grah?

Are you sure of that? Because the correct pronunciations (if we take as our index of correctness the way the words would be pronounced by an educated native French speaker) are, respectively, vee shee swahz and koo duh grahss.

It's funny, isn't it, how apt we are as Americans to characterize as "charming" the vaguely butchered English cobbled together by so many native French speakers? The French (and particularly the Parisians) certainly don't appear to be charmed by our less-than-perfect attempts to speak their language.

But I digress! This little essay is not really about the linguistic intolerance of the French. Nor does it seek to belittle those Americans whose pronunciation of French words is less than perfect. In fact, I would venture to guess that a majority of Americans would tend to pronounce one or both of the above French terms without the final consonant sound; swah and grah just sound more French, don't they? Besides, anyone who has ever suffered through a few Elementary French classes knows that half the consonants in French are silent. The question is just which ones!

So now consider this: Suppose you were trying to market a brand of fancy French potato soup to be served cold, and you wanted to benefit by the (you should pardon the expression) "cachet" that seems to be automatically conveyed by the French language in all matters culinary.

Would you dare call it Vichysoise, and, if you did, how would you pronounce it?
Would it be vee shee swahz (which is "correct" and therefore pleasing to the potential market in France, plus the rather limited group of Americans who have devoted years of study to the French language "as she is spoke by ze Parisien").
Or should it be vee shee swah (which might actually sound "righter" to a much greater number of American consumers)?

There is, of course, no absolute answer to this question. The problem cannot and should not be resolved without the requisite study and careful consideration it deserves.

Which brings me to the point I would like to make: be very careful when using foreign words to achieve cachet with a product name. Stopping by the foreign language department of the nearby college to see if your grammar and/or pronunciation are "correct" is simply not enough.

Technorati Tags: Pronunciation, Language, Linguistics

February 16, 2007

Lipstick on a Camel: Sexy New No. 9 Brand Name For Women

The New York Times’ Stuart Elliott just profiled RJ Reynolds’s new brand for women, Camel No. 9, which it will add to its herd of almost 30 variations on the Camel brand name (Camel Wides, Camel Turkish Gold, Kamel Special Lights and Camel 99 are just a few).

Reynolds has discovered that despite the massive name recognition and appeal of its 80 year old Camel brand name, only 30% of the its buyers are women despite the fact that women make up half of the smoking demographic, seeming to prefer competing brands like Marlboro (40% women buyers), Newport (50%) and female-orientated Virginia Slims.

With all due respect to RJ Reynolds, at first glance the brand name “Camel” is just not going to be much of a winner with women, given that the average camel is a large, humped, bad-smelling beast and most of the advertising around the name over the years has been decidedly macho (think Joe Camel and The Camel Man).

Targeting Women

Camel No. 9 seems to get around this problem by brazenly associating the iconic name with perfume, especially hoping consumers recall sound-alike Chanel No. 19 and, possibly, the perfume-tinged song “Love Potion No. 9.”

The Reynolds reps insist that “No. 9” simply signifies “dressed to the nines, putting on your best.” But the slick black box with its hot pink piping looks like a it was deeply inspired by the Chanel box, as is the typography of the words “No. 9.”

I also cannot help but be reminded of the distinctive Tiffany (who also conveniently have their own perfume) box in terms of the overall layout as well as the teal color chosen for the menthol version. The Camel itself has been shrunk, centered and rendered in hot-pink fuchsia, now truly a brand logo rather than a motif, and the familiar desert scenery is gone.

This is Camel by night - a glammed up version of the familiar brand name.

More than that, the slogan used to support the name has a distinct feminine feel: “light and luscious.” My feeling is that this brand name illustrates very well that you can choose your own product name associations and effectively reposition a sub-brand away from the parent brand if you know what you are doing.

Making women think of perfume when they see the the ubiquitous Camel? That is no small feat.

Technorati Tags: Camel, RJ Reynolds, Product Names, No. 9, Cigarette Naming, Chanel No. 19, Cigarette Branding

Posted by William Lozito at 9:15 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Marketing | Product Naming
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February 15, 2007

Naming is Framing

Guy Kawasaki just wrote a blog post about “framing”: the way word choice affects our perceptions of the thing the words describe. He uses music-sharing as an example: is it “piracy,” or is it “a music-listener’s revolt” against an oppressive industry?

This is a clear example of the power of names and the importance of choosing the right name—as the commenter who asks whether “framing” isn’t just a fancy term for “spin” points out.

Kawasaki himself keeps reframing his blog by renaming it. It started out as “Let the Good Times Roll,” a play on his name (and a possible trademark infringement, but let’s not get into that). That was a name that implied fun, rather than a serious approach to the topics he covered. When he decided to use the Latin version of that name, “Bona Tempora Volvantur,” the effect was somewhat more highbrow. But would anyone looking for Kawasaki’s thoughts on business search for it? Not likely.

The next name, “Signum Sine Tinnitu,” Latin for “signal without noise,” created a better frame—for those who knew what it meant. Kawasaki explained the meaning in a post at the time he made the change, but was still stuck with a name most readers wouldn’t understand, never mind search for.

As of this writing, the blog is called “How to Change the World: A Practical Blog for Impractical People.” It’s a good name. It has drama. It’s in English. It makes you want to know more. Moreover, it’s the likely title of Kawasaki’s next book, so it has marketing value beyond the blog itself.

But the name which matters most with regard to this blog is still “Guy Kawasaki.”

Technorati Tags: Guy Kawasaki, Naming, Framing

Posted by Diane Prange at 8:01 AM

Posted to Branding | Linguistics | Marketing | Naming
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Citigroup Changes Name, Returns Travelers’ Umbrella

Citogroups’s recent announcement that the company was uniting its businesses under the “Citi” brand name and selling its red umbrella logo to insurance giant St. Paul Travelers was not a surprise to most people.

Citigroup has long needed to present a unified brand name to the world and has done it with the Citi initiative.

The company’s various divisions (which briefly included the original Travelers Group and its umbrella logo) will start using different colored logos all with the recognizable red arc logo. The company names will change to reflect inclusion in the Citi brand as well: Citi Smith Barney, Citi Investment Research and Citi Private Bank. Citi’s legal corporate name, however, will remain Citigroup Inc.

Citi’s return of the famous Travelers umbrella has caused much happiness in Hartford, the original home of Travelers, which had flirted with the idea of throwing out the umbrella altogether as part of its effort to build its brand name via its new parent company, St Paul Travelers Cos under a winged shield logo.

Obviously, common sense prevailed and St. Paul Travelers, after it buys the umbrella for undisclosed millions, is going to change its company name to The Travelers Cos (the stock goes to TRV from STA) and will be using that umbrella logo once again.

Citigroup’s effort to collate its myriad interests under one simple, memorable, and Google-friendly name is a great one, not least because they have also named the local stadium after themselves.

The experience with the Travelers umbrella is a nice lesson in branding: you just cannot trade logos between industries. The umbrella logo says “insurance” to millions of people, not “banking.”

Technorati Tags: Citi, Citigroup, St. Paul Travelers, Rebranding, Brand Logo, Company Name Change, Insurance Branding, Umbrella Logo

Posted by William Lozito at 7:04 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Company Naming | Financial Services
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February 14, 2007

Motorcycle Naming: Lessons from Suckers in Spain and Pulsars in India

A recent posting by Oliver Milman on the Madcomments blog notes that “Spanish is the most likely language to be mangled by English-speaking brands.”

Hence the importance of Global Linguistic Analysis.

He lists a few true howlers, not least the famous “Got milk?” slogan that was translated as “Are you lactating?” and a U.S. airline’s unfortunate urging to customers to “fly in leather” that was translated as “fly naked.”

It’s a shame because Spain has some excellent branding work, like the raging success of Chupa Chups lollies, suckers of choice to stars like Britney Spears and Elton John.

The brand name Chupa Chups may sound funny to Americans but is

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