July 2007 Archives: Name Wire: The Product Naming Blog

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July 31, 2007

Are These Mexican Restaurant Brand Names Different or Similar?

A Mexican restaurant chain based in Delaware changed its name from La Tolteca to La Tonalteca.

The basic reason for the change is that they did not register its original restaurant brand name, La Tolteca. You guessed it, other Mexican restaurants opened up with the same La Tolteca name.

Although the new name, La Tonalteca, has an interesting translation (the lady or queen from Tonala) it strikes me as a difference without a distinction versus the original La Tolteca name.

Of course, 'La' translates to 'the'
Both names start with 'To'
Both names end with '-teca', which translates to 'tribe'

Although this linguistic origin of the new restaurant name, is very interesting, I'm wondering, just wondering, if the average Joe or Jane will see a difference between the two restaurant brand names.

I said as much in a recent article in the Delaware NewsJournal.

Technorati Tags: La Tolteca, La Tonalteca, Delaware NewsJournal.

Getting Greener and Cleaner: Company Naming Changes and Brand Names

You'd have to be on Mars not to know that there's a growing green movement in the U.S. (and Europe).

The green trend has manifest itself with more and more company names and brand names in the U.S. capitalizing on increased consumer interest in protecting the environment and concern about global warming.

Our proprietary 2006 Company Naming Changes Report identifies at least 10 companies that have changed their name to take advantage of the green trend. Two examples are

Safer Residence Corp. to Solar Enertech Corp.
Metasun Enterprises, Inc. to Pure Biofuels Corp.

This green trend, as mentioned earlier, is also being reflected in some interesting new product names.

For example, wine makers are trying to sell us old wine in new plastic bottles and vodka makers are creating a more ecologically-friendly tipple.

The world's first eco-friendly vodka, 360 Vodka, uses locally grown grains resulting in reduced fossil fuel consumption in transporting raw materials to the distillery, and their glass bottle is made from 85% recycled glass.

Furthermore, we've already covered how Steve Jobs is repositioning Apple to be a greener and friendlier computer company.

Now the Chinese computer archrival Lenovo brand is trying to clean up its act as well... as are Dell and HP. These days, it seems, Greenpeace is actually becoming a brand name consultant to big businesses.

For more analysis on company naming changes in 2006, click on the Company Naming Changes Report button at the top of our home page.

Technorati Tags: Company Naming Changes Report, Safer Residence Corp., Solar Enertech Corp., Metasun Enterprises, Inc., Pure Biofuels Corp., Steve Jobs, 360 Vodka, Lenovo, Dell, HP.

July 30, 2007

Technology Companies using Branding to Move Closer to Consumers

It's a well-known economic fact that the higher you "move up the food chain" to the consumer, the higher the margins.

Technology companies are well aware of this Law of Proximity, a term I just coined.

However, technology companies execute against the Law of Proximity in different ways.

In the case of Intel, they branded a component of a computer and established a brand preference for it with its Intel Inside® campaign. Even engineers with Master's degrees in electrical engineering, who should know better, prefer Intel over Advanced Micro Devices as the chip in their personal computer, while both are capable of the same functionality and performance.

Seagate is moving up the food chain with its introduction of a new product called FreeAgent&trade. Although this product has functionality such as duplicating content and sending it via email or to your iPod, it essentially is a mini-server positioned for the B2C market.

Cisco has largely bought its way up the way up the food chain by purchasing B2C companies such as Linkysys. However, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, has just acknowledged that although Linksys is a better-known product in the US, over time, it will be dropping this name in favor of the Cisco master brand. In effect, Cisco will evolve from a B2B brand to a combination B2B and B2C brand.

Technorati Tags: Intel, Intel Inside, Seagate, FreeAgent, Cisco, Linksys.

July 28, 2007

Fine Lines in Aquafina Brand Name

Aquafina bottle The CNN Money headline proclaims "Pepsi says Aquafina is tap water."

If you read the article, though, Pepsi never denied that Aquafina (like its rival from Coca-Cola, Dasani) is essentially tap water. They just didn’t make the truth explicit enough for Corporate Accountability International.

The old Aquafina labels say "P.W.S." instead of "Public Water Source." Now, admittedly, "Public Water Source" might not have been my first guess as to what "P.W.S." stood for. But the initials by no means conjured up visions of pure mountain springs (should such a thing still exist).

And I would argue that Aquafina, Dasani, and the like taste better and are safer than a lot of tap water in the US, never mind in countries whose public water supplies are home to unfriendly intestinal parasites. They may be overpriced for what they are, but then, so is soda, and part of what we’re paying for is the convenient portable container, delivered cold.

Certainly nothing in the name Aquafina is put to the lie by the explicit admission that it comes from the same place as municipal water supplies.

“Aqua” just means water in Latin.
“Fina” is doubtless meant to conjure the English word “fine,” though the closest Latin word is finis, meaning “end” or “boundary.”

And I would say that wherever it comes from Aquafina is perfectly fine water, but way, way overpriced.

Technorati Tags: Aquafina, Dasani, Water, Labeling, Tap Water, Spring Water

Posted by Diane Prange at 4:04 AM

Posted to Beverages | Brand Naming
Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 27, 2007

International Product Naming and Branding: New Improved Shito is Hard to Digest

Remember those Hungarian Peppers, Portuguese Sardines and Spanish Fig Cakes your Uncle Bob and Aunt Bertha brought back from their European tour in '72? The sheer uniqueness of the hard-to-find food products made them a valuable and treasured gift... in fact, they were almost too good to eat.

Flash forward to 2007.

Today, international packaged food products can cross borders at the click of a mouse... creating entirely new markets for what was once a niche specialty. As a result, savvy food marketers from all over the world are queuing up to list their packaged products with online specialty retailers, grocery delivery services and even on eBay.

But a word of caution is long overdue. Some of these products names do not translate well into the international language of commerce: English.

Here are some naming and branding product examples that could have benefited from a second linguistic opinion.

Technorati Tags: Hungarian Peppers, Portuguese Sardines, Spanish Fig Cakes, Shito, Batata, Cock Soup.

July 26, 2007

Are Domain Names Becoming Brand Names in the Press?

An interesting post has been published by The Conceptualist that looks at the way established brand names are now referring to themselves in the press using their domain name.

Our proprietary analysis of company name changes showed a definate obvious shift away from dot-com names. I'm wondering, just wondering, if we're going full circle with dot-com names beginning to become in vogue again? Could this be due to the Web 2.0 influence. Or is this just another example of the natural rhythm of nature. What's out is in, and what's in is out, back to what's out is in.

But The Conceptualist has identified the fact that while the company's official name may not be a dot-com, they are happy to refer to themselves that way.

The Conceptualist points out that ABC refers to themselves as ABC.com and that Advanced Internet Technologies refers to themselves at AIT.com.

That's a darn good observation, and illustrates the fluidity of company naming.

Although it's obviously becoming easier for companies to simply refer to themselves as domain names if they want to drive traffic to their site, it also makes having a domain name that is pretty close to your company name or brand name much more important.

Obviously, your domain name has become a crucial part of naming a business.

This is all probably ringing a bell at Twentieth Century Fox, who just won its suit against a cybersquatter over The Simpsons Movie domain name.

In any event, the real game here, of course, is getting people to come to your web site without having to type in the domain directly.

Technorati Tags: The Conceptualist, ABC.com, Advanced Internet Technologies, AIT.com, Twentieth Century Fox, The Simpsons Movie.

July 25, 2007

Saucony Name Branding Getting Corny Without Cheerleaders

Saucony Saucony has me stumped. The '80s shoe brand name has a new parent company, Payless Shoe Source, and is stepping out with a new brand identity, including a new brand name and refined logo: the brand name is now lowercase and neater looking. By the way, lower-case logos, either brand or company, appear to be a trend these days - think nielsen, at&t, unum.

OK. So far, so good.

They have kept their "Loyal to the Sport" slogan. Which is fine except for the fact that lots of their sneakers look like they are made for relatively sedentary non-runners. Who is Saucony being loyal to? Skateboarders, walkers or runners? Competitive rap artists? Which one is THE sport?

Ok, never mind. Let's move on. The real head scratcher is that Saucony is introducing a new brand "manifesto" on boxes and hangtags: "A good day is when we get to run. A great day is when we inspire someone else to run."

I'm just not getting this. It sounds like a weird take on Nike's "Just Do It" slogan, but in this case it's "Just Get Someone Else to Do It." It's right up there with that old riff on the Soloflex "No Pain, No Gain" campaign, which was transmogrified by some wags to "No Pain, No Pain."

Nobody seems to know where a slogan stops and where a "manifesto" begins, by the way.

Additionally, Saucony will use the line "No Cheerleaders Required" to promote their cross country shoes.

Well, yeah, that's right, guys. Cross-country runners don't get cheerleaders. They have never been required. Am I missing something? Are there squadrons of teenage girls out there somewhere waving pom-poms at long distance runners?

The whole point of this new campaign is to make the brand name more streamlined and congruent. This has not been achieved, people. You have an ad line, a tagline and a manifesto and not much of it makes sense.

Plus, and I hate to say it, but nobody can pronounce your company name. Is it "sock-on-ye," or "sew-cone-ee"? Surely, it's not "so corny"?

That's not very inspiring.

Technorati Tags: Saucony, Payless Shoes, New Logo, No Pain, No Gain, Nike, Just Do It, Loyal to the Sport, Soloflex

July 24, 2007

Hot Ghetto Mess The Worst Naming Mistake of 2007, Possibly Ever

Who says bloggers can't force a media company to reexamine its naming strategy?

The recent news that the exploitative and ridiculous Hot Ghetto Mess aired by BET has had its name changed to We Got To Do Better, is great news for anyone with a shred of decency.

The change was forced on the network largely through the efforts of one lone blogger, Gina McCauley, whose blog, What About Our Daughters slammed the incredibly racist content of this show which is, amazingly, supported by a black network despite the fact that it references an obscene website that might as well be a propaganda medium for the KKK.

Jasmyne Cannick asks the logical question about the name change: "After we finish laughing at each other so hard that it hurts, are we then supposed to be inspired to do better for ourselves?"

One thing is clear: No sponsor in its right mind wants to tie their brand name to a show (and by proxy to a website) "featuring naked black women and a black-face cartoon."

It seems that no one on TV is more exploitative of black culture than BET, who has claimed that they are not really backpedaling: The original name of the show was Hot Ghetto Mess: We Got To Do Better.

Yeah, whatever.

Jack and Jill Politics asks: "When will the minstrel shows end?" and suggest the current grammatically incorrect name get changed to BET Got to Do Better.

BET, nix the show, you nitwits.

You don't have to be a naming company to see that this is rotten to the core.

Technorati Tags: BET, Hot Ghetto Mess, We Got To Do Better, Gina McCauley, Jasmyne Cannick, Jack and Jill Politics.

July 23, 2007

5 Boroughs Ice Cream Staten Island Landfill Great Product Naming

I believe that one great way of getting people interested in your brand name is to get people angry at you.

This is certainly the case with 5 Boroughs Ice Cream, a New York based ice cream company which was attacked last month by Staten Island Borough President James P. Molinaro for their Staten Island Landfill flavor.

Seems Mr. Molinaro found this product name "insulting and derogatory" to the borough.

But after Mr. Molinaro's outburst (and his urging that Staten Islanders boycott the stuff), sales skyrocketed, drawing attention to the company's other cheeky product names that have a distinct New York flair: Upper East Side Rich White Vanilla, Jackson Heights Mangodesh, Bakla-Wha?! and South Bronx Cha Cha Chocolate.

This has even prompted people to write in from Connecticut asking for their own flavor on the grounds that the small state is the "sixth borough."

I'm all for supporting the small business person and like the idea of these unique names on ice cream. New Yorkers, I would bet, eat lots of ice cream, as do the rest of us, who all want a piece of the city. And there can be no doubt that when a name enrages certain people, well, you're on your way.

Especially if it's a clever name.

On the other hand, McDonald's ill-fated Supersize name branding campaign seems to have come back from the dead in a new format: The "Hugo," a whopping 42 oz. drink that you can get for as little as 89 cents.

The New York Times says they may as well call it the "Tubbo" and notes that Wendy's is also offering its own gargantuan drink brand name: The medium is now "The Biggie".

McDonald's knows that they are really competing with places like 7-Eleven, who have been offering The Big Gulp for years.

The celebrity diet doctor calls this "Super-Sized II, The Sequel" and another blogger wonders why McDonald's would name a drink after a hurricane.

As for me, I was reminded of Hugo the Hippo, which is what we'll become if we drink too many of these things.

Technorati Tags: 5 Boroughs Ice Cream, McDonald's, New York Times, Wendy's, 7-Eleven.

July 21, 2007

LEGO Brand Name Usage Pretty Complicated

LEGO bricks An amusing post by Ken Jennings caught my eye this morning: Ken takes on one of the bugbears of product naming: How the heck do we use the word "Lego" without offending the company?

Seems that one of his readers wants us to use the word as LEGO, and we never add an "s", something I have written about before. The LEGO Company agrees.

Ken notes that the Chicago Manual of Style doesn't seem to agree, stating that the way we write ad copy is different from the way we write prose in other contexts. This means the all-caps formulation is not necessary.

Ken points out that a quick Google search (almost used that word as a verb) shows us that people just ignore these injunctions.

And nobody uses the term "LEGO bricks" — some of my staff have bags of the stuff and even though they are about as brand name conscious as can be, they admit to never, ever suggesting to their kids that they go "make something out of those LEGO bricks." It's "go make something out of Lego," which is a no-no, just as bad as "Go play with some Legos."

Friday's "Secret Diary of Steve Jobs" accuses Google employees of being "a bunch of spoiled coddled self-involved Lego-playing 20-somethings" — no, according to LEGO, they should be "spoiled twenty-somethings playing with LEGO bricks," which doesn't really work in context.

You also cannot point out to the world that "Salt n' Pepper's Here... in Lego Form" as Gearlog does in regard to a pretty nifty salt and pepper set made of LEGO bricks.

Plus you cannot tell the world about a Self-Stirring LEGO Mug (Gizmodo got the words right but forgot that nagging "bricks" as well as the registration mark).

On the other hand, maybe LEGO should just give it up and be happy that their brand name is so well recognized.

Technorati Tags: LEGO, Trademark

Posted by William Lozito at 10:31 AM

Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Trademarking
Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 20, 2007

Air Zoom Vick V Brand Name Grounded... Dogs Everywhere Rejoice

It's no secret that we are big dog lovers, so we were very pleased to see that Nike has suspended (hopefully indefinitely) its Air Zoom Vick V product line after The Falcons Michael Vick was caught operating an illegal dog-fighting ring.

I am amazed, frankly, that the four shoe products and three shirts bearing this person's name will remain in stores.

I simply cannot see the upside for Nike in associating its company name with this idiot, and most of the blogosphere agrees with me... one dog loving blogger has even recreated the Air Zoom Vick V to reflect Vick's cruel habit.

The Humane Society agrees, having called upon Nike to pull its Vick clothing and shoes from retailers and its web site.

Yeah, I know all about, "innocent until proven guilty," blah, blah, blah. But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck!

Zac Bissonette points out that most sports contracts contain some kind of moral turpitude clause; I am sure Nike is smart enough to include something similar in their sponsorship deals.

Yes, Nike stands to lose $1.5 million on this after scrapping 30,000 pairs of shoes.

Look at it as an investment in your brand name, Nike.

I'm thinking "recall."

In any event, the event is rather fait accompli: Who on earth would buy anything with Vick's name on it?

Technorati Tags: Nike, Air Zoom Vick V, The Falcons, Michael Vick, Humane Society.

July 19, 2007

Jon Bon Jovi Wants Mijovi Brand Name Dead, Not Alive

Jon Bon Jovi is not happy at all about a new energy drink called Mijovi, a name that the drink's creator claims was inspired not by the famous rocker but by his girlfriend, Jovita Saenz.

The company's marketing materials include other words such as "itsmijovi" and "itsmilife" which look like fairly clear references to Bon Jovi's song "It's My Life."

So far the US Trademark office is supporting Mijovi, and while there is a great deal of law out there that protects trademarks that are considered famous, the argument that Bon Jovi sells songs and Mijovi is a drink in the log run will probably not hold, er, water.

People building piggyback brand names from famous stars is a daily headache for product naming experts.

Companies that attempt to trade off of someone else's equity, either a famous person's or famous brand, are low-life parasites.

I am sure that if she decides to pursue it, for instance, Gwen Stefani's suit against retail chain Forever 21, which seems to be marketing and promoting products that are the same as her Harajuku Lovers fashion brand name, will be successful.

Forever 21 has even gone so far as to copy the Harajuku Lovers logo and brand name by changing the word "Harajuku" to "Forever" and the word "Lovers" to "Love."

And Evel Knievel is jumping mad at Kanye West for ripping off his image and name in a video that features rapper "Evel Kanyevel" and a reenactment of Knievel's doomed attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon. Ouch.

In any event, energy drink naming is pretty crazy. Witness the advent of "Bloom," the new Del Monte Energy drink for women (one of the very few female orientated names out there, it seems, aside from Tab Energy and Go Girl Energy).

The newer Energy drink names look set to bring the meaning of the word "energy" closer to the word "hyper" (whoops, looks like there's already a drink called "Hype").

Technorati Tags: Mijovi, Jon Bon Jovi, Gwen Stefani, Harajuku Lovers, Evel Knievel, Kanye West, Bloom, TabEnergy, Wired Citrus Punch, Go Girl Energy, Hype.

July 18, 2007

New Product Names for Turning Technologies' Latest Products

As you may be aware, the No Child Left Behind Act requires that students meet certain levels of proficiency. The testing related to this is often referred to as "high stakes" testing.

Turning Technologies, LLC has introduced three new assessment tools to enhance their audience response system which helps students improve their academic performance.

TestingPoint™ allows teachers to easily develop, format and administer tests.
VantagePoint™, a web-based analytics application for creating different analysis reports or summaries of student performance against state standards and AYP goals, uploads session files from TurningPoint, TestingPoint and paper-based bubble tests.
QuestionPoint™, a question bank powered by LearnStar, provides high-quality content questions, which can be uploaded into TurningPoint and TestingPoint.

Strategic Name Development created the TestingPoint, VantagePoint and QuestionPoint product names to be consistent with Turning Technologies' brand architecture and nomenclature. That is, all components of the suite names end in "point," but still emphasize the versatility and flexibility of a program that offers something for everyone.

Turning Technologies is another satisfied client.

"Strategic Name Development was creative, responsive, and provided us with a broad range of strategically sound name candidates. They are very easy and enjoyable to work with," said Tony DeAscentis, Vice President of Marketing at Turning Technologies.

Thanks to Tony and the entire Turning Technologies team. You were great to work with, very professional and insightful.

Technorati Tags: Turning Technologies, TurningPoint, TestingPoint, VantagePoint, QuestionPoint, Strategic Name Development, Product Naming.

Legendary Game Boy Brand Name To Be Retired

Some names in the gaming world are legendary.

One of these, Game Boy, looks set to be retired soon, after years of being one of the most recognizable handheld gaming brand names in the market.

Nintendo seems to have decided to focus on the new Nintendo DS product name not to mention the Wii brand name that I have written about in depth. Nintendo is also focusing on its WiiWare service, which may be coming earlier than expected.

Nintendo has almost rewritten the book on appealing product naming, taking odd sounding names and making them hugely popular.

Making a break from an established trademark like Game Boy has obviously caused much soul searching at Nintendo, who seem to be teaching us that new product naming in the gaming field has to be quirky, memorable and ever changing, ever growing.

This news comes just as Microsoft pledges to clean up its abysmal name branding strategies.

Sources at Microsoft seem to excuse their terrible naming by saying that new product naming is difficult, probably because you need to find congruent web domain names and deal with mazes of legal hassle.

Well, Apple and Nintendo seem to be doing just fine with it, guys.

Technorati Tags: Nintendo, Game Boy, Nintendo DS, WiiWare, Brand Naming.

July 17, 2007

New Bottled Water Has a Bling Brand Name

Is it just me, or do others out there feel that Paris Hilton should be thrown in jail again for giving a bottle of the new luxe bottled water, "Bling H2O," which carries a $35 price tag per bottle, to her dog?

Bling H2O is co-branded with Swarovski, with a product name that says it all.

Bottled water branding is going further than anyone ever would have imagined even a few years ago, with at least one restaurant creating a "sommelier" type position for a water expert who can actually pair bottled water with food (possibly this person would be named a "hydrolier").

The branding of these items is that rarified now... and well it should be, given that we're talking about a $100 billion a year biz.

New high end water brands include 10 thousand BC from, well, BC, as in British Columbia.

I also find it interesting that we have an assortment of names for the kinds of waters that make up these brands. For instance, do you know the difference between artesian water and mineral water? If not, Laura Smith has put together a primer.

Before you drop a few bucks on Bling H2O, I must warn you that one blogger comes to us with the news that Poland Spring ($1) is actually better tasting... go figure.

San Francisco spends nearly $500,000 on bottled water yearly despite owning its own pristine reservoir in the Sierra Nevada. This reservoir is said to produce some of the country's best tasting tap water.

In an effort to cut bottled water spending, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning the use of city money to buy bottled water.

By December 1st, all city departments located on city property must switch from bottled water dispensers to dispensers that attached to taps or water pipes.

On the wave of all this, of course, is the New York City effort to tout its own water, which consistently gets rated as better than bottled competitors.

Bottled water is the largest area of growth among all beverages, selling 15 billion in 2002.

Unfortunately, only about 12 percent of those bottles are being recycled... that's 40 million bottles a day that are being thrown away.

Technorati Tags: Bling H2O, 10 Thousand BC, Poland Spring, Bottled Water, Swarovski, Laura Smith.

July 16, 2007

Naming Problems Still Haunt Google

Though apparently poised to take over the world, Google still has problems going global.

First there were problems with Gmail. Then there was China.

Never mind the censorship controversy; the Chinese couldn't pronounce "Google." So the company rebranded its search engine "Gu Ge," which the Chinese greeted with less than unanimous enthusiasm.

Now Beijing Guge Science and Technology Ltd. is suing Google for trademark infringement. They're tired of having people call them looking for Google, which somehow failed to get itself into the telephone directory under either "Google" or "Gu Ge."

Perhaps Google should take another look at the alternatives proposed in 2006 on www.noguge.com, like Gou Gou and Gou Le.

The noguge.com site has been taken down, but it's probably still in the Google cache somewhere.

Technorati Tags: Google, Beijing Guge Science and Technology Ltd., noguge.com, Gmail.

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