June 2007 Archives: Name Wire: The Product Naming Blog

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June 30, 2007

iPhone Brand Name An Instant Legend

iPhone The iPhone is here.

No matter if you love the name it or hate it — or love the phone or think it’s terrible — there are now only two mobile phones in American history that consumers ask for by product name: The Motorola Razr and the Apple iPhone.

I think that is a milestone.

There is room to argue that the iPhone name is inaccurate (and admittedly this gadget is a convergence multimedia entertainment and organizational device), but I consider the iPhone a great brand name.

Why? It leverages the iEquity of 100,000,000 iPods that are already in the hands of consumers.

And we still call that thing you pick up and call another person with a “phone” even though they can do a million other things, just like we call these things sitting on our desks computers, despite the fact that they are converging in to media and communication devices.

Let’s face it, the iPod name is doing just fine and we never used “pods” for anything related to music until Apple came along. Now it’s hard to disassociate the name from the word “MP3 player” or even “music player.” And chances are, no matter what Apple called this device, we’d be referring to it as an “iPhone.”

This is a luxury buy, the ultimate phone for the person with some extra cash and a love of gadgetry.

Last week, the New York Times quoted Nokia President Bill Plummer in an article that is cautiously optimistic about a product that is possibly too expensive and fragile for the average buyer, who says the iPhone is the “evolution of the status quo.”

The big question is still whether or not the well named iPhone, coupled with the super powerful Apple corporate name, will find the hoary AT&T name that provides the wireless service a liability.

It is far too early to tell but my feeling now is that the iPhone brand name is so strong that pretty much any carrier would do.

Yes, I will be watching very carefully from the sidelines to see how these two mega brand names with utterly different corporate cultures and marketing skills work together.

But here’s a hint: So far, Apple’s association with the Intel brand name has been pretty darn lucrative. If we’re willing to buy iMacs with Intel inside, I’m sure we can learn to love iPhones with AT&T inside.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, Apple, ATT

Posted by William Lozito at 2:53 PM

Posted to Brand Naming | Consumer Electronics
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June 29, 2007

Brand Naming: "Easy" Does It?

Steve Blow has a great article up in the Dallas Morning News about packaging that is difficult to open. Hard to open packaging is inspiring a new affliction that has been given the name "wrap rage" by consumers who are tired of struggling with package backs that do not come off and toys that seem permanently affixed to their boxes.

Things have gotten so bad that Consumer Reports has given the "Oyster Awards" to the new Oral-B electric toothbrush that was almost "demolished" upon opening and Bratz Sisters dolls that require almost eight minutes to free from their plastic casing.

I'd add that easy to open packaging joins green packaging as the new clarion call for consumers: the new name is "sustainable packaging," spearheaded by none other than Wal-Mart Canada.

If suppliers do not reduce the amount of packaging on their products, Wal-Mart says, they could get excluded. This comes on the heels of The Toronto Star's report that toymakers are missing the green revolution by filling our landfills with tons and tons of cardboard, plastic and bubble wrap.

On the other hand, product tampering and theft seem to be major worries on the part of the packaging industry.

It seems to me, however, that this affects naming because packages that are clearly labeled "easy to open" or that tout their "green" attributes should capture the eye of legions of parents and grandparents who dread Christmas day and the bags of trash-and sore fingers-that attend the hours of opening the presents once they have been unwrapped. Right now, as Steve Blow points out, "Easy Opening" does not always mean it's easy to open.

no-bottle Who should be listening? Toymakers, food suppliers and hygiene product suppliers. How about making packaging that foregrounds the product and is green friendly...like the NoBottle bottle from Sidel.

Technorati Tags: Packaging, Wal-Mart, Oral-B, Consumer Reports, Bratz, NoBottle, Sidel

June 28, 2007

Brand Naming: Sprint Drops Nextel Name

Sprint Sprint Nextel seems to be borrowing a page out of AT&T's brand naming handbook by dropping the Nextel name in its "Sprint Ahead" campaign and its NASCAR sponsorship. Starting next year, the Nextel Cup will be the NASCAR Sprint Cup, and at least one blogger feels fans are fed up with the constant changes to the name of the race.

Many analysts seem wary of this move, since Sprint Nextel's marketing to date has created a meaningless brand name for many customers.

iPhone The new campaign is designed to focus on the customer and not the phone, explaining on how wireless improves people's lives. Part of this is the launch of the 'whyPhone' initiative which is an early response to the pressure the Apple iPhone will be putting on the company.

I covered the Sprint Nextel name change awhile ago and I am not surprised that the company is shortening its name to Sprint.

Sprint is a much stronger consumer brand name and has a rich heritage, while Nextel is primarily a B2B brand.

The familiar Nextel yellow color that Sprint has been using will be dropped in favor of "neon-hued streaks of light." Sprint has made a conscientious decision, I think, to walk away from Nextel's equity, hoping to gain improved brand perceptions and brand equity among the larger consumer market.

It strikes me that Sprint is tinkering with the packaging rather than what's in the package. By that I mean their unfortunate deterioration of service.

Sprint's new campaign feels like the classic Pepsi Generation strategy. Once a category becomes commoditized with little product differentiation, like cola or cell phones, the focus becomes more on the user and the user experience. I believe this is a sound strategy but takes massive spending and time and more time to be effective. Time will tell if Sprint is making this type of commitment.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, Sprint, Nextel, AT&T, NASCAR

June 27, 2007

Name That Job

People Naming companies' employees aren't the only people who think names matter. Studies have shown that having the right job title-especially if they get to pick it themselves-can be more important to employees than getting a raise. Even the Department of Labor acknowledges such titles as "Chief Blogging Officer," and no large corporation these days can manage without a Vice President of Search. British communicator John Smythe has just written a book about "the other CEO," the Chief Engagement Officer.

Here are just a few of the creative titles people have today:

Chief Interrupter (Joseph Jaffe, crayon)
Playing Editor (Arnold Palmer, Golf Digest)
Chief Inspiration Officer (Ardath Rodale, Rodale, Inc.)
Chief of Confusion (John Seely Brown, consultant)

If you need an unusual job title and can't think of one yourself, you can visit The Cubes™ Job Title Generator.

Technorati Tags: Naming Company, Department of Labor, Job Titles

June 26, 2007

Beckham Brand Name: Never Bigger

Adidas Adidas is launching a new campaign around the David Beckham name, where we will be treated to "David Beckham and New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush swapping sports during practice in 'Futbol vs. Football.'"

David_Beckham David Beckham transcends the game of soccer and sponsors seem to be expecting him to become a better brand name than Pelé. Adidas's "The Impossible is Nothing" commercials have been re-taped to make David Beckham's past and soccer in general more understandable to American audiences.

Victoria_Beckham Beckham brand is also greatly supported by the fame of David's wife, Victoria Beckham, the former member of the Spice Girls.

Technorati Tags: David Beckham, Adidas, Victoria Beckham, Spice Girls

Posted by William Lozito at 10:04 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Media and Entertainment | Sports and Recreation
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June 25, 2007

iPop Goes the Weasel

Orbitcoms logo New Zealand software company Orbitcoms has created a CRM (customer relationship management) tool which makes substantial use of pop-up windows. Their proposed name for the product? "iPop."

And Apple, naturally, has objected. It might not be possible to trademark that initial lower-case "i," but even so, anyone who uses it, particularly for software or electronics, is going to get slapped with an iLawsuit.

In this case, Apple might have some justification: there is only one letter’s difference between “iPop” and “iPod.” It’s highly unlikely anyone would ever confuse the two products, but it’s possible they would confuse the names, and expect something with the name “iPop” to be manufactured by Apple, Inc.

Apple may actually be doing Orbitcoms a favor. “iPop” is a frivolous name, and CRM is serious business. The name suggests consumer entertainment, not corporate productivity.

Using a different name would save Orbitcoms at least NZ$50,000 and probably resonate better with their target market.

But I don’t recommend they call the product “PopI.”

Technorati Tags: Orbitcoms, Apple, iPod, iPop, CRM

Posted by William Lozito at 1:17 PM

Posted to Consumer Electronics | Technology | Trademarking
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Brand Name Oxymorons: Confusing, Contradictory, or Clever?

Oxymorons (or, more properly, oxymora) are one of the better-known and more popular figures of speech. It doesn't take a degree in literature to see that there's something funny about phrases like "jumbo shrimp" and "advanced beginner."

jeep_pioneer As a naming strategy, oxymorons are something of a two-edged sword. If you decided to call your company "Crash Airlines," you might drive customers away, or you might attract people who want to fly with someone who has a sense of humor. Most companies prefer not to take the risk, but a few have jumped right in:

The Fluke Corporation manufactures testing and measuring equipment. Customers don't seem to worry that the results they get might be a fluke.
Jeep manufactured an SUV called the Cherokee Pioneer from the 1980s to the early 2000s. In American history, at least, the Cherokee were settled natives whom European pioneers displaced.
Some Krispy Kreme doughnuts may be both crispy and creamy, but cream itself is anything but crispy.

krispy_kreme In politics, interest groups often choose names that are not merely ironic but downright misleading. Phillip Morris Tobacco bankrolled "Californians for Statewide Smoking Restriction," which sponsored an initiative to weaken smoking ordinances.

Most often, however, it's consumers who decide that a particular product name is a contradiction in terms. (The top candidate in this category is probably "Microsoft Works.") Rob Hof of BusinessWeek argues that the iPhone is not a phone, but a computer. The Los Angeles Business Journal called Hollywood Park, Inc. "the most misnamed company in town" after it sold Hollywood Park to Churchill Downs. And there's a certain irony in ordering your laser toner from the Ink Jet Superstore.

It may not be possible to avoid having your brand name used against you, but it's a good idea to plan for the possibility and to make your product live up to its name. It's much better to catch people's attention with a deliberately incongruous name than to have dissatisfied customers conclude that your product has been misnamed.

Technorati Tags: Oxymoron, Jeep Cherokee, Krispy Kreme, Phillip Morris, iPhone

June 23, 2007

The Universal Sound of Desire? Maybe Not

Axe Spray BusinessWeek reports that when Unilever wanted to market its Axe deodorant/body spray in 75 countries simultaneously, vice-president Russell Taylor went looking for "an international expression of lust," a single phrase to represent uncontrollable female desire.

Leaving aside the inherent improbability that any scent will cause women to go mad with desire (particularly when worn by young men, who always put on three times as much cologne as they need and make me sneeze), coming up with a universal word or phrase for anything is impossible. Once you get past facial expressions and inarticulate grunts, you run into vast differences in language.

And Unilever's chosen phrase to encapsulate the response women have to Axe? "Bom Chicka Wah Wah."

Urban Dictionary claims the phrase is an attempt to mimic a 1970s guitar porn riff. I was around in the Seventies, and I didn't know there was such a thing as a porn riff.

Whatever the derivation, however, "Bom Chicka Wah Wah" seems about as far as you can get from any natural expression of lust or desire. (Of course, true universal sounds of lust are not the kinds of things you can put on prime-time TV.) Granted I'm a ways from the late teen-early twenties crowd Axe is marketed at, but even in my most slang-happy teenage days, I would have expected any guy to respond to "Bom Chicka Wah Wah" by calling the nearest mental hospital to see whether they'd misplaced a patient.

Nevertheless, perhaps due to an intensive advertising campaign that's found its way onto YouTube, the phrase seems to be gaining some traction. Which means that before too long, "Bom Chicka Wah Wah" really might become a universal expression.

Technorati Tags: Axe, Lynx, Advertising, Bom Chicka Wah Wah

Posted by William Lozito at 5:18 PM

Posted to Branding | Health and Beauty | Marketing | Taglines
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Brand Naming: Can Too Many Names Dilute Your Brand?

Even though we make our living creating them, there's such a thing as having too many brand names-at least when a company uses different names to refer to the same product or service. Michael Hyatt of Thomas Nelson Publishers, Inc told it this way at Book Expo America on June 12th:

By 2004, we had 18 total imprints... I remember being at a meeting in New York with Barnes and Noble. Several of our executives had gone to that meeting, and as we presented our newest products with some enthusiasm and fanfare, we did the traditional business card exchange. The Barnes and Noble executives looked at the cards kind of quizzically, puzzled by them, and then they looked up at us and said, "Do you guys all work for the same company?"

Every imprint had a different name, so every executive had a different business card. And while those names were meaningful to the executives, as far as booksellers were concerned, they were clutter. They served primarily to confuse the stores about where to order books. To make matters worse, there was no meaningful distinction between many of them, and they were competing for internal resources.

But back to the names. A name that doesn't mean anything to your clients and customers isn't very useful, and having too many names for subdivisions that customers can't tell apart just undermines your primary brand name. Thomas Nelson recognized that it had a problem and got rid of most of its separate imprints and sub-brand names, keeping only a few, like children's books and big-name authors. That gave the name "Thomas Nelson" more prominence with the likes of Barnes and Noble.

By way of contrast, Hallmark Cards has created several successful imprints which cater to different markets. They've been creating cards for African Americans under the name "Mahogany" since 1987. That name resonates both with elegance and good taste and with darker skin tones. It tells shoppers who to buy these cards for. "Shoebox" (named for the fact that it is, or was, "a tiny little division of Hallmark, and for the shoebox of postcards Hallmark's founder started out with) is now the nation's number one brand of humor cards.

Multiple brand names can work either for or against your company. The moral of the story: every name has to have a good reason for its existence.

June 22, 2007

Changing Your Name When Your Business Changes

Sometimes, as with the change from "IPTV" to "Mediaroom," a company picks a new brand name because the old one didn't go over very well with consumers. Sometimes a company discovers that its name has rude connotations in another language, and changes its name in order to avoid offending people.

And sometimes a company changes its name because the original name is too narrow to cover the scope of the work the company is doing. That's what happened to PodZinger, the audio search company that just changed its name to EveryZing in order to expand into video search.

While podcasts, the source of the first half of the name "PodZinger," can be audio or video, a lot of the most popular online video is not delivered as a podcast, and plenty of YouTube fans would be hard-pressed to tell you what a podcast is. Business 2.0 blogger Erik Schonfeld takes the name change as evidence that podcasting itself is a dud, but I'm not sure that follows. Nevertheless, even podcasters debate the appropriateness of the name "podcasting," and Alexandra Berzon is right that having "pod" in your brand name might drive away potential customers. While "EveryZing" doesn't automatically say "search," at least it's general enough to cover multiple media formats.

Not all companies that started out focused on one thing end up having to change their names. Berzon points out that Kiptronic, an ad-insertion service, has a name that applies equally well to audio and video. It's worth noting that the URL their home page redirects to has "podcaster" in it, but the page itself refers to "automated ad insertion for downloadable media." And Technorati, once primarily a blog search tool, has redesigned itself to cover "photos, videos, blogs, and more" without needing to change its name, a nice portmanteau of "technology" and "literati."

If you provide specialized services and expect to continue to operate in that particular niche, it may make sense to use a name that reflects it.

However, more often then not, companies that start in a niche expand and grow beyond that niche.
Therefore, I recommend a name that is broad enough to accommodate unforeseen growth opportunities and expansion to new markets and businesses.

Technorati Tags: IPTV, Mediaroom, EveryZing, PodZinger, Podcasting

June 21, 2007

BenQ to Qisda: A Bad Brand Name to A Bad Brand Name

Anyone who reads our blog on a regular basis knows that we do not make a habit of being negative. That's too easy, anybody can do that.

However, this post is an exception.

BenQ I've never understood the Taiwan-based electronics company Acer changing its brand name to BenQ. I think it's fair to say that this name has no meaning to English speakers, but Wikipedia indicates that it's an acronym for "Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to life."

The new brand name, Qisda, has nothing going for it. But maybe that's a bit too harsh:

It does start with the letter "Q," which is the least used letter in English alphabet, thus making the name distinctive
Our proprietary consonant research of the English alphabet indicates that the letter "Q" is associated with innovation

Apparently, this Taiwanese electronics company is fond of naming its brands after acronyms:

Qisda reportedly stands for "Quality Innovation Speed Driving and Achievement"

Alphabet Soup Bowl However, Qisda falls short of the mark in English, because the letter "Q" always appears before the vowel "U" and takes on the sound "kw" as in quest, quarter or queen.

When speakers of English see "Q" followed by a vowel other than "U," they quickly recognize it as a foreign word and invariably muddle the pronunciation.

For example, it's been almost 6 years since September 11, 2001, but the terrorist group, Al Qaeda, still enjoys two very distinct articulations in the media:

Al K- Da
Al Qwada

Now BenQ is asking speakers of English to pronounce another "Q" name followed by yet another vowel.

In my opinion, this is a classic example of a brand name developed internally with management sitting around the conference room table with little to no regard for the target market.

If you want to see what others think of the new Qisda name, there is an interesting image on Engadget.

Technorati Tags: BenQ, Qisda, English Alphabet

June 20, 2007

USDA Helping or Hurting Organic Beer Brand Naming?

USDA logo I am very interested to see the brouhaha that is developing over whether most organic beers can legitimately claim being "organic" at all, not least because it turns out that "almost all U.S.-made organic beers contain hops that have been chemically treated to fight mildew and insects."

anheuser-busch logo This must be bad news for all the new organic beer labels that are coming out lately, including a whole bunch from New England like Wolaver's and Peak Organic.

The former has seen sales increase 18% yearly, which says something about America's love for microbreweries and organic products.

steinlager logo Of course, Anheuser-Busch has gotten into the act, with its Stone Mill Pale Ale and Wild Hop Lager. And therein lies the rub: Anheuser-Busch and others are trying to take advantage of a clause in the law that says just 95% of a product's ingredients need to be organic to be classed as USDA Organic on the label. So they are pushing to have their non-organic hops added to the list of exemptions.

But as one activist pointed out, "organic means organic," and, "when you're selling products that contain some ingredients that aren't organic, you lose the meaning of the word and the meaning of the organic movement."

This obviously puts bona-fide organic beer makers on the back foot. Most true organic hops come from New Zealand, where Steinlager has just announced a new Pure version of its popular beer brand name.

Technorati Tags: Organic Beer, Anheuser-Busch, USDA, Wolaver's, Peak Organic, Stone Mill Pale Ale, Wild Hop Lager, Steinlager, Pure, Spirits Naming

June 19, 2007

Princess Diana Is The Brand Name That Will Outlive Us All

The late Princess Diana may no longer be with us, but the Princess Diana brand name has been going strong for the last ten years. Time Magazine published a great article about the "Dianabilia" industry that keeps us digging into our pockets to buy more things bearing her name.

Time posits that she can join the ranks of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe who can "still shift the merchandise long after they're gone."

There are three books coming our way, TV movie and a line of bath products launched by Paul Burrell, her ex-butler. He also has a wine, furniture and rug collection out in addition to a talent show called "American Princess."

Technorati Tags: Princess Diane, Time Magazine, Elvis, Merilyn Monroe, Paul Burrell

June 18, 2007

Microsoft Mediaroom: the Ingredient Brand Name

Kudos to funnyman blogger Long Zheng for guessing a few weeks ago that Microsoft was planning to rename its IPTV platform with a "friendlier" name Microsoft Mediaroom. This new brand name is supposedly the AppleTV killer.

The Mediaroom brand name will be announced today in Chicago and is supposedly "more appealing and descriptive of its expanding features."

The rollout of this Internet TV platform has not been very smooth and comes on the back of AT&T's $4.6 billion upgrade of its fiber-optic lines which will enable the delivery of its (possibly doomed, certainly awkwardly named) U-verse service. This will make Mediaroom a reality in living rooms across the nation.

Mediaroom will function as an ingredient brand the way Gore-Tex is sold in conjunction with numerous clothing labels or computer makers use Intel Inside.

In this case, Mediaroom will be the key ingredient in IPTV services offered by telecoms like AT&T.

While the Mediaroom product name itself is not too bad and works as a metaphor, I am very interested to see if this means that Microsoft is willing to let its own brand name take a back seat to a telecom brand name when it comes to IPTV.

Paid Content says that the ingredient brand moniker means "service providers who don't see Microsoft as a marketing plus can skip it."

Wow, that's a brand-naming milestone for Microsoft.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, AT&T, IPTV, Mediaroom, U-verse, Brand Naming

June 16, 2007

Danny Devito Becomes Limoncello, Restaurant Brand Name

Danny DeVito claims to put his name on "every single thing I do," so it is no surprise that his new restaurant is called DeVito South Beach. This just opened following his decision to launch a new Limoncello drink in August called Danny DeVito's Premium Limoncello after a very embarrassing episode on the View where he was still a bit tipsy from the night before. Talk about turning lemons into, well, limoncello!

The opening looks like it was typical Hollywood A-list fare in the trendy SoFi (South of Fifth) neighborhood. If you want to drop in, smart money says the Global Steak Flight is the thing to order: it offers cuts from Japanese Kobe Beef, Australian Wagyu Rollatini and American Kobe Flat Iron. An interesting name indeed for what must be a very expensive dish.

The LA Times notes that there is certainly a long list of celebrities who have tried to “become a brand name” — Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton, Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, to name a few.

But one word of warning seems to be that stars like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis failed to make a go of it with Planet Hollywood despite their brand name clout.

Britney Spears’s restaurant NYLA seems to be going strong — interesting she turned down the name "Pinky" for her own restaurant (the nickname ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake gave her) and avoided putting her own name over the door.

On that note, my favorite name for a celebrity restaurant is Angus McIndoe, a Broadway eatery that is partially owned by Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Mel Brooks, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, as well as writer Frank McCourt.

Technorati Tags: Danny DeVito, Celebrities, Restaurants, Liqueur, Limoncello

Posted by William Lozito at 1:44 PM

Posted to Brand Naming | Food | Media and Entertainment | Spirits
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June 15, 2007

Product Name Stress

Jaiku logo As you know, I have blogged before about how important it is to choose a company or product name that's easy to pronounce.

Avid users of Jaiku are still debating how to pronounce its name. They obviously haven't read our post on it yet.

Part of the problem is that English is not a phonetic language.

How we pronounce words depends a lot on what language they came to English from, but even then English speakers don't pronounce imported words the way speakers of the export language do.
Even in English, "Nike" assuredly does not rhyme with "bike" — but the original Greek pronunciation would have been "NEE-kay," not "NYE-kee."

Worse yet, as John Xavier points out in his Linguistics Zone Blog, there are no set rules about where to put the stress in an English word.

We can guess where the stress goes in "Jaiku" because of the parallel with "haiku," but it's not always obvious which word should be the model for a coined name.

Verizon logo Xavier's example is "Verizon," which in fact rhymes with "horizon," but could theoretically rhyme with "Amazon" and have the stress on the first syllable.

That particular example seems to be stretching it a bit — I, at least, would not think of "Amazon" as a possible rhyme for "Verizon," but people did mispronounce it in the days before the ads saturated the TV networks, and many people mispronounce polysyllabic words when they see them written for the first time.

Does that mean you should stick with one-syllable names for your company or product?

Not necessarily. There's no way to guarantee that everyone seeing your product name will pronounce it the same way, even with a one-syllable name, as we said when the Wii first appeared.

"Verizon" is actually a great brand name. It may not make you think of cell phones, but if the network stretches from horizon to horizon, that's definitely a good thing. And "Jaiku" is witty and apt.

But if there's any chance people might mispronounce your product name, make sure you put a pronunciation guide — and better yet, an audio clip — on your website.

Technorati Tags: Jaiku, Nike, Verizon, Amazon, English, Pronunciation

Posted by William Lozito at 11:34 AM

Posted to Linguistics | Naming | Product Naming
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June 14, 2007

Product Names Backwards and Forwards

A palindrome is a word, phrase, or sentence which reads the same backwards and forwards. Most English speakers are familiar with the palindromes "Madam, I'm Adam" and "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama."

Wikipedia has an interesting list of palindromic place-names, but most of those names seem to be natural palindromes, not names which were made up or chosen because you could read them in either direction.

One examining attorney in a trademark application case argued that palindromes make stronger marks, and the fact that two similar names were both palindromes increased the likelihood of confusion between them, but John L. Welch of the TTAB Blog isn't buying it.

The two names in question, Niccin and Nicocin, are indeed both palindromes, but, as with anagrams, you have to be looking for a palindrome in order to notice it.

Nicocin isn't the only palindrome in the trademark register. There's the Rotavator, the Honda Civic, the Intel Viiv, and the drug Xanax, among others.

But if palindromes really made such great brand names, you'd expect to find more of them, particularly among coined names.

Natural palindromes are fairly rare in English; if they were more common, they'd be less interesting.

The name "Palindrome," on the other hand, seems to be quite popular. Fourteen companies have applied to trademark the term "Palindrome," but the only currently registered Palindrome marks are for clothing and for computer consulting.

Technorati Tags: Palindromes, Anagrams, Names, Trademarks

Posted by William Lozito at 8:14 AM

Posted to Linguistics | Product Naming | Trademarking | Travel and Tourism
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June 13, 2007

Your Brand Name is Chinese to Me

Chinese Coke Billboard When Greek people don't understand something, they say "It's Chinese to me," and they have a point. English and Greek are at least related; Chinese is completely different.

If you're thinking of expanding your business into China, you may well need to come up with a completely new brand name. A name that works well in English-speaking countries may be incomprehensible, unpronounceable, or even rude in Chinese. To paraphrase the Clicks2Customers blog, Chinese who work for foreign companies complain that their employers have names that their parents can't pronounce.

That works both ways, of course: Americans rarely pronounce Chinese words and names correctly, in part because most of us have so much trouble even hearing the difference in tones, never mind duplicating them.

Whichever direction you're crossing the Pacific in, however, you want a brand name which both sounds good and has an appropriate meaning.

As for why it should be harder to create such a name for the Chinese market than, say, the Spanish-speaking market — or even t

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