August 31, 2010

Is the iPod Brand Name Ending Tomorrow?

Could the iPod name be on its way out?

It's hard to think of a brand name that has so much resonance could be abandoned, and yet there are some interesting reasons why Apple may drop it.

For one, Beatweek Magazine points out that the brand name is nine years old. Its not "hot" and trendy anymore.

This might even spell the end of the click-wheel, which PC Mag predicts may only exist on the iPod Classic, which will hang on "until the day Flash memory is affordable enough to make a 128GB iPad touch."

Tomorrow, when Apple has its "special event" at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, we may see them addressing the iPod and it's naming.

If Apple is going to make the new iPods - which have not been redesigned for some time - with feature touch screens (leaked photos indicate this is so), then we may have to say good-bye to some really classic names.

But all that said, I still have trouble believing that the end of the iPod name is at hand.

Technorati Tags: iPod, iPod Brand Name, MP3 Brands, Apple Brands, iPad, iPad, iPhone, Technology Brands, Technology Naming

Posted by William Lozito at 9:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 12, 2010

AT&T Drops Own Name From Logo

How could I forget to blog about AT&T's new naming, or lack thereof?

I wrote about their last one back in 2005, when the letters went to lowercase and the Death Star, er, globe, went three dimensional.

Now, with its "Rethink Possible" campaign, At&T is repositioning itself as a "lifestyle company."

To do this, they have removed the company name from the logo. They are emulating Apple, the company that makes that iPhone, for which AT&T is the sole carrier.

In fact, up until now, Apple has presumptuously claimed that they were the only company in the world that did not include the company's name with the logo. Even though, there are other companies that don't include their name in their logo namely Nike, and Target. Logo recognition for AT&T's globe design seems to be on a par with those two companies, Nike's Swoosh and Target's bullseye.

AT&T is making this change to position themselves as an "innovation company" rather than just the carrier that gives less than ideal reception on those cool iPhones.

According to one AT&T exec,

"Rethink Possible will highlight how AT&T is delivering meaningful innovation that's changing how people live, work and play. It conveys our desire to push the limits of what's possible to make life better for our customers. We rethink possible so our customers can rethink possible."

This is a clear move to accentuate the positive and move the focus away from its products.

But, more importantly, according to Marketing Review, this is a necessary move for AT&T if it wants its brand to stay relevant in an "industry that keeps reinventing itself."

I'm not casting judgment because I'm biased: I'm still disappointed with AT&T for doing away with the Cingular Jumping Jack logo.

Technorati Tags: AT&T, Apple, logo change, Nike, Target, naming, branding, Cingular

Posted by William Lozito at 9:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 17, 2010

Canon Changes the Face of Domain Naming and Branding with .Canon

This is interesting news in naming and branding.

Canon has applied for the .Canon generic Top Level Domain (gTLD), which Antony Van Couvering of Circle ID says breaks the "thin brand line" of near universal opposition to the practice of companies buying these domain names.

The fact is, it's the "worst kept secret in the industry" that top brands are quietly acquiring their own domains from ICANN to smoke out cybersquatters, throwing costs to the wind.

This makes Canon one of the world's first companies, and certainly the biggest brand, to say "uncle" and buy its own domain name, making the future Canon home page Canon.Canon.

Many bloggers question the wisdom of this move, saying that the intuitive domain name still ends with ".com" But this may change over time, and Canon is not taking chances.

According to DomainNews.com, "The new gTLD system is expected to allow a company name, brand name, geographic region, or service type to be used as a gTLD within website and e-mail addresses."

The installation of the system is set to begin by the end of 2011.

It just seems logical that a large company with a lot of brand equity would want it's own domain, and not have it bought by some kid in a basement or a shrewd competitor.

Technorati Tags: Canon, Domain Names, Branding, Naming, Photograph, ICANN

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March 16, 2010

Tommy Hilfiger's $3.38 Billion Acquisition Biggest Deal Ever in Apparel Naming and Branding

The Tommy Hilfiger name has been acquired by the Philips Van Heusen Corporation (PVH) for $3.38 billion after the current owners failed to get it listed.

Tommy Hilfiger may seem to be a true American brand but in fact two thirds of the company's business is in Europe.

Philips Van Heusen also owns Calvin Klein, Izod, and Arrow, and the plan is to launch the name into Asia, making Hilfiger a truly global brand name. This is also the biggest deal ever in terms of dollars spent to acquire a clothing brand and makes Philips Van Heusen the world's fourth largest apparel company.

This almost certainly signals a revamp for the brand which saw its heyday in the preppy 80's and 90's and which is on an upswing after some bad years.

Some say this mega-deal is the "return of private equity."

But what is really interesting is that PVH is trying to ensure that control of Tommy Hilfiger himself rests with them. PVH is seeking "ironclad" ability to control the name, and not just the trademarks. Hilfiger is staying on as "Principal Designer and Visionary" for the Tommy Hilfiger brand but he has been quietly acquiring smaller brands, leading to the worry on the part of PVH that Hilfiger may have plans to create a breakout, competitive brand name.

Ultimately, they need to avoid what happened around the Joseph Abboud name, a trademark law precedent I have written about before. In this case, Jospeh Abboud found a way to use his name to promote another line of clothes after selling it off to another buyer.

Should Hilfiger do the same this, it would sour a deal that is fifty times larger than Abboud's $65.5 million 2008 acquisition by JA Apparel.

Technorati Tags: Tommy Hilfiger, Philips Van Heusen, Apparel, Branding, JA Apparel

Posted by William Lozito at 11:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 5, 2009

Chrysler Gets New Brand Identity and Ram Dodges Criticism About Split

So before Chrysler could even release their new logo yesterday, the blogosphere was flooded with reviews of the change.

For one, Motor Authority described it as lovely retrospective of past logos:

The logo, which seems oddly compressed in the vertical axis, is a sort of retro-modern combination of the winged Chrysler logos of the 1990s with a modern typeface and the Chrysler name. It may be yet another visible aspect of the Fiat restructuring and rebranding of Chrysler though the symbol also bears at least a passing resemblance to Aston Martin's famous winged icon.

For those disappointed to see the old logo go, don't get too upset because it seems that the familiar Pentastar will not be wholly retired, living on as the company's corporate identity.

But the new logo hasn't been the only news coming out of Chrysler recently, the Ram brand is also making a big change, divorcing itself from Dodge.

I have written about this before, but now the company's new "My name is Ram" ad campaign is reintroducing the brand to hard core truck lovers.

One executive asks that we think of the relationship between Dodge and Ram as akin to that shared by the iPod, iMac, and iPhone brands with Apple: "They are part of Apple, but also compelling brands on their own." A very nice thought, but also a comparison that Automobile Magazine calls "a reach." I agree.

In fact, there is much anger in the blogosphere about the Ram brand. Pickuptrucks.com gives us "5 Reasons Why It's Wrong To Divorce Ram From Dodge" and number one is "Dodge Ram pickup truck owners say they drive a 'Dodge Ram'" and dropping "Dodge" from the name leaves a "void."

The company is going to push the Ram name and the truck hard, promising "you'll never have trouble recognizing what a big bad Ram looks like."

Maybe so, but some odd combinations just seem to work well together, like a banana split. No one quite knows why, but dessert definitely sounds a lot less exciting when you're just eating a banana.

Good luck Ram, here's hoping the move proves to be a fruitful one.

Technorati Tags: Chrysler Rebranding, Chrysler Logo, Car Logos, Ram Trucks, Dodge Ram

Posted by William Lozito at 8:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 28, 2009

Can Catchy Product Naming Save Crocs from Extinction?

If you haven't heard, the Crocs brand is in deep trouble.

This is a brand that seemed headed for extinction, but like their namesake, have proven that with the help of a little strategic naming they are a brand that can endure the toughest of times. Recent "business improvements" have given Crocs a chance to actually pull itself into the black by 2010.

The Crocs strategy mainly consists of promoting sub-brands, as well as naming around particular product attributes. In fact, new naming may save Crocs:

• The Crocs Beach sounds a little less frightening, but beside having a different name, they are essentially the same thing as Regular Crocs.

• Crocs Cayman are Crocs that further push the "beach" idea (in fact, the water motif is big across the entire web site"). But again, these are pretty much the same thing as regular Crocs, just a little more narrow to stop the wiggle when you walk.
• As of yesterday, they also offer a new "retro" version called "Crocband."
• While the Kids Crocs all feature characters we know and love, like Nickelodeon's Dora, Spongebob, and Batman.

However, Crocs main competitor lives across the border in Canada and is called Holeys. And while Crocs have become commonplace in our consumer vocabulary, possibly even becoming generic, it's not hard to see how its Holeys chose their name.

A recent article explores the competition between the two companies that seem to sell extremely similar products. But just like Crocs, Holeys appears to be refining their naming architecture.

Holeys also appears to be focusing on its sub-brands, which includes the Critters line for kids that is becoming more popular than the Holeys brand name.

In addition, their new Coastal Boot, as well as their Weatheralls, Drifters and Dreamerzs, don't have any holes at all. Holey Moley!

As a simple idea that went from a consumer craze to a free fallin' concept, a small bit of intelligent product naming may just be intriguing enough to save the foam footwear business.

Technorati Tags: Crocs, Holeys, Crocs Naming Architecture, Holeys Product Naming, Naming Strategy

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August 5, 2009

Luxury Brand Naming on Ketchup?

Time Magazine asks us today if "BMW should sell ketchup," and the question is actually a good one.

In this down market, people seem more willing to spend money on small luxuries with known brand names than on big ticket items like, well, a BMW. Consumers like to see luxury names even on products that have nothing to do with the company's core offering.

This might explain why you can get items such as a Dunhill flash drive or an Armani TV made by Samsung or even a "My Dior" Luxury phone by Christian Dior.

But can luxury brand names be applied to consumables? Yes, and no.

Although, luxury brands names like Louis Vuitton are not ready to get into the cracker business just yet. They firmly believe that times will get better and some have noted that there are still many consumers who want to buy one $1500 handbag over five $300 bags.

That said, super premium denim brand names are starting to fade and even stalwarts like Coach and Tiffany have had to think fast.

Coach has a cheerful new product line called "Poppy," with price points 20% lower than their $290 average. While Tiffany has quietly lowered their prices on engagement rings by an striking 10%. Versace, Chloe and Chanel have all done the same thing.

The other tack has been to simply bling out the recession: note the new Moet & Chandon bottles you can personalize with Swarovski crystals, which might come in handy because there may be reason to celebrate.

Internet searches for Aston Martin and Mercedes Benz are up 33% over last year and Gucci is up 8%. And the Millward Brown 2009 Brandz survey shows luxury brands actually gaining value over the last 12 months - Rolex alone has enjoyed a 35% increase in the value of its brand name.

So I'm guessing that we won't see a BMW ketchup anytime soon, even though it would probably race off the shelves.

Technorati Tags: Luxury Brands, Luxury Naming, Luxury Brand Value

Posted by William Lozito at 9:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 29, 2009

GM Struggles to Corral Popular Penske Naming With Saturn Brand

Today's Wall Street Journal reminds me of the fact that sometimes two big names can be a mixed blessing.

Here I am thinking of the Saturn and Penske combination that has been created by celebrity driver and businessman Roger Penske's Penske Automotive Group with its purchase of GM's Saturn brand name.

An upsurge in interest in Saturn cars by Penske fans has been initially seen as a result of the deal, but GM is currently asking the (very relieved) Saturn dealers not to trumpet the name too loudly lest it dilute the beleaguered Saturn brand. GM still has a major interest here, as they will still make the Aura, VUE, and Outlook for the next 2 years, but will discontinue the Astra and Sky.

Penske, for his part, might outsource production to Renault Samsung Motors of Korea. In addition, Penske has also hinted that he might introduce an electric car under the Saturn name.

Penske has already agreed to keep the Saturn "look," stating that it has a certain "brand value," which most everyone understands to have a very loyal following.

The key, I believe, is to not only to keep the look, but to go back to the integrity of the meaning behind the brand itself.

For example, Penske shouldn't do to Saturn what GM did to Saab. Essentially, Saab was made more boring by GM making it much less exotic and Swedish.

Consider, on the other hand, Range Rover, which has changed hands a few times (for better or worse), but still has its own unique brand equity.

The simple question the people at Penske should ask is this: would they create a "Penske" mid-range sedan? If the answer is no, they need to compartmentalize the names as much as possible.

Frankly, Saturn itself is a brand in rehabilitation after GM did its best to mainstream it.

Technorati Tags: Saturn, Saturn Brand Name, Penske, GM Branding, GM Brands

Posted by William Lozito at 8:41 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 12, 2009

Ben & Jerry's Flavor Naming Offers Value in Grape Depression

I came across a pretty obscure news piece about two flavor gurus from Ben & Jerry's who are in Turkey this week looking for inspiration. As part of the company's "do the world a flavor" competition, the gurus have asked people from 25 countries to create a new flavor of ice cream.

Not surprisingly, some of the flavor names from this competition have been very clever, such as Peace of Cake and Yes Pecan!, a direct reference to Barrack Obama's mantra. But the gurus jokingly say that the "little known secret to naming success at the company is to think of flavors that start with ch, like Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey.

The company has also been in the news recently for criticizing Häagen-Dazs for shrinking their pint tubs from 16 oz to 14 oz - Ben & Jerry's doesn't actually name the competitor, but do refer to them as the one's with the "funny sounding European name."

The blogosphere seems to be siding with Ben & Jerry's on this, with one blogger commenting on how their competitor's shrinking pint has allowed Ben & Jerry's to let some of their old values shine.

The trend may be towards offering us less for the same price, but Ben & Jerry's is offering us the same old pint, and gaining quite a bit of advertising equity from it.

Another blogger has taken the "Yes Pecan" naming idea and applied it to the financial crisis, offering us recession inspired ice cream names that are pretty nifty, including Grape Depression, Cluster Fudge, and Credit Crunch.

I don't think that there is a person out there that wouldn't see the true value in having a big, tasty scoop of Credit Crunch right about now.

Technorati Tags: Flavor Naming, Flavor Names, Ice Cream, Ben & Jerry's, Product Names, Pint Size, Ice Cream Names, Product Value, Depression, Credit Crunch

Posted by William Lozito at 9:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 23, 2009

Are Muscle Cars Too Strong To Be Killed By Pontiac Brand Naming Retirement?

The retiring of the Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac brand names has fired up a great deal of debate on the blogosphere.

I have long thought that the best thing for GM to do is to follow Toyota's lead and streamline its brand architecture, keeping Chevy, Buick, Cadillac and GMC. This move streamlines GM and gives its remaining brands ample room to grow.

Autoextremist goes so far as to say that GM should in fact rename itself, replacing General Motors with Precision Motors. That, however, may be a little extreme, as others have pointed out.

Although one must admit that some of these popular brand names will not go quietly.

Jalopnik has followed the demise of Pontiac pretty closely and wishes it a cheerful adieu, but I feel like playing devil's advocate today.

Why?

Because CNN has all but declared the "muscle car" dead with the demise of Pontiac which really makes me wonder.

Pontiac really was all about muscle cars. At least a few decades ago. And Americans love their muscle cars. We still have them in our genes, like mullets, sleeveless t-shirts and heavy metal. Europeans and Japanese automakers just do not get muscle cars. And for every person out there wanting to buy a Prius or a Fusion, there's ten guys who dream about owning a Trans-Am or a Corvette or a Gran Torino, which was just named "Hollywood's Coolest Car."

Remember when Kevin Spacey traded in his Toyota for a Firebird in American Beauty? He was speaking for legions of men who feel a little part of their souls die when they crawl into a Camry.

Love them or hate them, muscle cars are what Americans do best. Pontaic has been stuck with the Aztek, but deep down it's a rude, nasty nameplate for people like Burt Reynolds and Steve McQueen.

The New York Times went to a group of experts to gain some insight on this topic, and not surprisingly, many of them were not too thrilled with the departure of this well loved brand name.

Let Hummer go, Let Saab go, they say, but Pontiac has some real equity to leverage.

How about putting that Pontiac name on a few, select models? It may sound crazy, but Pontiac is to muscle cars as Harley Davidson is to hogs.

And I can vividly recall when Harley seemed doomed.

Some enterprising entrepreneur will buy the Pontiac business and find a way to make it work as a fuel efficient muscle car.

Technorati Tags: GM, Brand Naming, Pontiac, Car Brands, Branding, Hummer, Saab, GM Brands, Brand Retirement, Muscle Cars, Grand Torino, Naming, Brand Name

Posted by William Lozito at 10:00 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 26, 2009

Recent Naming and Branding Failures Remind Us To Use Good Brand Names Wisely

An essay on brand conformity got me thinking this morning about the mysterious process through which naming and branding works, and doesn't work.

I think that we all accept that customers have a deep belief that well-named and branded products work better than brands that do not resonate visually or aesthetically.

The problem occurs when we misuse the magic of a brand name. One instance where this tends to happen is with brand extensions, and the way in which incredibly well-positioned and regarded brand names can be, quite frankly, abused. I'm thinking about Burger King underwear, Playboy Energy Drinks and $1200 Sleeping Beauty fountain pens.

Add Pre4cious Moments coffins, Hooters airlines, Cheetos lip balm and Salvador Dali deodorant and you can see where I'm heading with this.

The care and feeding of a good brand name includes being careful not to misuse the aura you have built around it like Bic's "disposable pantyhose" or the Harley-Davidson cake decorating kit have done.

There is no use building a solid brand when you are willing to introduce products that dilute the value and image that the brand conveys to the consumer. Extending a brand name beyond its rightful limits only has the power to diminish the quality of the brand itself.

My suggestion: Learn from the mistakes of others and build a brand name that lives up to its promise to the consumer.

Technorati Tags: Brands, Brand Names, Product Names, Naming, Branding

Posted by William Lozito at 10:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 3, 2008

GM's Brand Naming Cuts Were a Long Time Coming

The news that GM is set to drop four vehicle brand names - Hummer, Pontiac, Saab, and Saturn - in order to streamline its business is not a big surprise to us in the U.S. naming and branding business.

The woes that the Big Three face today may herald an entirely new approach to marketing and naming cars in the U.S.

Al Ries and Adam Hanft have both come out and said that bad marketing killed the car industry in the U.S., not bad cars. Old fashioned add campaigns, and nebulous and confusing brand naming (Hanft bemoans "the way Detroit names its cars - with all the originality of meeting rooms at a Westin") are greatly at fault here.

GM is finally coming to grips with the reality that they simply cannot be all things to all people. They need to pare down their offerings and add meaning to the brands that remain. In a sense, what they really need to do is bring the romance back to the automotive industry.

The biggest U.S. successes at this year's LA Auto Show were, arguably, the Ford Mustang and Chevy Camero, brand names whose allure never seems to fade. Of course people will miss brands like Saturn, but this exhibits a return to the basics.

This strategy closely resembles that of Japanese car manufacturers who focus on a few core brand names. The parent brand is everything everywhere else in the world, and here, we are now looking at a total shift in focus back to Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac, all of the names that have the most value and most resonance among consumers.

I'd say it's about time.

Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac are names that should tower over the competition. We are currently in a world where people are going to return to what they know and be much more likely to buy American made if the price is right.

Frankly, I want to see these brand names - filled with the romance of the American open road - survive. And now is the time for GM to rethink the management of its classic brands.

Technorati Tags: GM, Brand Names, Hummer, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Ford Mustang, Chevy Camero, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Naming, Big Three

Posted by William Lozito at 9:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 21, 2008

Anheuser-Busch InBev New Company Naming of Biggest Brewer in the World

The name that has resulted from the merger of American beer giant Anheuser-Busch and Belgian beer behemoth InBev, not surprisingly is Anheuser-Busch InBev. The new company's vision statement points out that it strives to be "The Best Beer Company in a Better World".

This merger has created the world's largest brewer, thus also creating the biggest name in beer, ever. The new logo clearly displays the "vision" of the new organization and according to the company's site is designed to "reflect our collective vision, drive and energy." Further, "The combination of rich golden colors captures what we know and do best: our expertise and heritage in brewing great beer, which is so often a part of enjoyable moments shared by friends."

Under Consideration notes that the logo is "unabashedly American," with an Eagle seemingly flying out from the name itself, despite the fact that its suggested message isn't entirely accurate.

The typography of "AB" also hearkens back to the old Anheuser-Busch logo, which has used an eagle motif since 1872, although some say theirs was "fiercer."

However, in the end this is a corporate logo. The average beer drinker will be interacting with the familiar naming and branding on the beer brands that the company sells, which include Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Beck's. The merger itself is something that is mostly happening behind the scenes. Yet, the logo is designed to be "a beacon of a bright, vibrant future for employees, customers, consumers and the communities where we work and live."

Given that in reality the image is one that will rest on legal documents and memos, after all, it has a refreshing quality and will not look out of place in an international corporate environment.

Technorati Tags: ABInBev, Anheuser-Busch InBev, New Logo, Anhesuer-Busch, InBev, Eagle Logo, Beer, Company Naming, New Company, Merger

Posted by William Lozito at 9:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 16, 2008

Wigwam's New Brand Architecture and Product Naming

Have you looked in your sock drawer recently?

Kind of a mess isn't it? Mine is anyway.

The Wigwam sock line, all 138 styles, certainly wasn't a mess, but definitely had expanded into a challenging portfolio for retailers to work with.

Strategic Name Development partnered with Wigwam, one of the few, if not the only, major sock manufacturer that can still claim "Made in the USA," to create a common naming nomenclature for its extensive line of 138 sock styles.

The styles were grouped into 5 competency areas:

• Sport


• Snowsport


• Outdoor


• Health


• At Work

The assignment included brand architecture, product naming and a packaging copy system to accompany the award winning packaging created by MSLK Graphic Design.

Some of the consumer-friendly language is reflected in the new product names like:

• The Big Easy


• Diamond Dancer


• Blue Ox


• Snow Whisper Pro

In fact, that consumer-friendly language included a new twist on "Made in USA" to "Proudly Made in Sheboygan USA." For those of you who may not know, Sheboygan is located on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin.

Technorati Tags: Wigwam, Socks, Sock Naming, Product Naming, Brand Architecture, MSLK Graphic Design, Sheboygan

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September 24, 2008

What do you think of the T-Mobile G1 brand naming?

The new Google phone is out and it has been named the "G1."  Well, let me be more precise. 

This is a Google-powered phone sold by T-Mobile USA that uses the vaunted Android operating system. It's official name is actually the "T-Mobile G1" leading one blogger to ask "G1, Gphone, Tphone - what will you call your Google phone?"

To confuse matters even further, HTC, the Taiwan based manufacturer of the phone, code-named it the Dream. I've rarely seen a technology device referred to by so many names.

When I first saw the term G1, I immediately thought that this must be for an old product. Why?

I was immediately reminded of:

• Apple's G-Series of Towers which ended in the discontinued G5
• Then there is the Pontiac G5 and G6
• Oh, did I mention that ASUS has a G1 and G2 laptop

• Finally, maybe this is a little bit of a stretch, but I was also reminded of the George Foreman G5 grill

Most likely G1 refers to Google's first generation Android smart-phone software, since the tagline is "G1 with Google."

While I agree with New Gadgets and Gizmos that the T-Mobile G1 Phone is not an iPhone killer, I strongly disagree with the assertion that iPhone will become a genericized brand, like Kleenex, Xerox and Band-Aids.

Just as Apple tightly controls third party developer software for the iPhone, it has a track record of vigorously defending its brand trademarks.

Technorati Tags: G1, T-Mobile G1, iPhone, Google, Pontiac, George Foreman, Computers, Cell Phones, Android

Posted by William Lozito at 8:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 3, 2008

Google Chrome Offers Shiny New Browser Naming

Google Chrome is out. As a browser designed to take on Firefox, Opera and IE8, it's become big, big news.

The world already knows the Chrome name and frankly, almost anything with the name Google behind it is going to pique our curiosity, it is a brand that appeals to anyone with a computer.

Still, Chrome?

It sounds like a fragrance for men. Google claims that it refers to the typical bells and whistles around browsers, with the idea being to "minimize chrome."

Regardless, it is a name that has seen a lot of use in the XUL, "an XML user interface markup language developed by the Mozilla project."

Most of the features on Chrome have pretty standard names, although it does feature an "incognito mode" that is similar to Microsoft's new InPrivate browsing feature. Mozilla is also working on a similar feature and Safari already has a setting simply called "Privacy" for Mac OS.

Computer browsers all have odd names but I think this one is possibly a little impractical because it has been used before and because it is so jarring. "Google" is a funky word we've never seen before, but "Chrome" is not.

Nonetheless, I'm curious, and that's half the battle won for Google. And as a great blog post at Nature and Cyberspace mentions, this is a fabulous word but "this browser name is loaded with metaphors, both good and bad."

I think this is an example of "inside baseball" naming.

Technorati Tags: Chrome, Google, Firefox, Mozilla, InPrivate, Incognito Mode, IE8

Posted by William Lozito at 9:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 20, 2008

DEWmocracy Electrifies Mountain Dew's Brand Naming with Voltage

Mountain Dew Voltage has won its DEWmocracy election, handily beating proposed brand names Mountain Dew Revolution and Mountain Dew Supernova.

The DEWmocracy initiative has been a major consumer-driven campaign that collected 350,000 votes (Voltage received 42% of them). Around 1.6 million people visited the site to help design the product, watch indy movies and play games, all of which ultimately made Voltage the "people's Dew" according to one Pepsi executive.

This stuff looks pretty good although there are some bloggers who don't share my enthusiasm.

Voltage and other Mountain Dew brand extensions including Dew's Code Red, Live Wire and Baja Blast, as well as this extensive naming competition, are going to elevate the Mountain Dew brand, which is already known as the best drink to buy when studying late at night.

But this initiative is yet another indicator that some branding is going to depend more and more on social media than it has in the past.

Technorati Tags: DEWmocracy, Mountain Dew Voltage, Code Red, Live Wire, Baja Blast, Brand Name Extension, Voltage, People's DEW

Posted by William Lozito at 8:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 14, 2008

Simplified Intel Core i7 Naming: What Does It Mean?

Pentium is now officially retired, as is "2 Duo," which is being replaced by "i7. And though it may be a new name, it still "does not have any deeper meaning."

However, one naming component will remain the same for Intel's new generation of chips. At least the newest versions will retain the "Core" brand name.

Now, lets get this straight.  The new Intel Core i7 replaces the chip codenamed Nehalem, a chip actually named after a river in Oregon.

The adoption of the Core name is a good idea, but the appending of a meaningless i7 moniker is only going to lead Intel down a slippery slope of senseless naming.

The problem here is that Intel spins off new versions of its products so quickly (there are already two different colored logos to differentiate the "regular" from the "Extreme Edition" models). It is this speed that has shifted consumer focus from its company naming to its product naming.

Yes, it is wise naming strategy to use the recognizable "Core" brand across the board, but I'm one of those people who still recall when it was a good thing that Intel was "Inside." 

Intel has now left ten million computer salespeople out in the cold after admitting that they do not want there to be any meaning behind their product naming, leaving it up to the computer sales force to explain to confused customers fifty times a day that i7 means "nothing," its actually just the upgraded Core 2 Duo.

Since Intel isn't defining the meaning between i7, I will.

• Is it like the magnificent 7, but in this case it's the Intel magnificent 7?
• Was the development of this chip completed in July, the 7th month of the year?
• Did 7 engineers work on it for 7 years?
• Or does Intel have long-term plans of competing with Apple's iPhone? (just kidding of course).
• Or perhaps the lower case "i" was a typo. You may be aware that the distance between the pitchers mound and the batter in baseball is 60' 6''. It was supposed to be 60' 0'', but someone misread the plans.

Technorati Tags: Intel, Core, Core 2 Duo, Core i7, Pentium, Intel Inside, Computer, Intel Core i7

Posted by William Lozito at 10:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 4, 2008

Apple Tech Brand Naming: Mobile Me, You Complete Me

I’m starting to believe the rumors that the Me.com domain name has been bought by Apple, who reportedly also bought Mobileme.com.

It seems as if the .Mac service is going to be rebranded as Mobile Me, leading Apple into a whole new world of connectivity and web dominance.

I dug into the trademark database and discovered that Apple has been working to gain a trademark for Mobile Me in the United States. Currently, they have an international mark, but the federal mark for the United States is still pending in various class codes.

Make no mistake about it, Apple is all about mobility and the Mobile Me name would fit well with the new iPhone 2.0 that is coming out soon, as well as the various iPods and the Mac Air. There is no doubt that Apple is positioning itself as the brand name of choice for the tech on the go.

To this end, Mac has been buying up .Me domain names with a focus on verbs such as fly.me or drive.me. Some users are not really happy with the Mobile Me name, but I think it fits.

.Mac puts the entire focus of it’s online presence on the Mac rather than on the mobile wizardry that has rescued the company from extinction, but Mobile Me's appearance coincides well with the upcoming iPhone 2.0 announcement.

Apple will be seamlessly covering four areas: computing, digital audio, portable consumer electronics and a huge amount of web based activity. It brings the balkanized and expensive .Mac concept into Apple’s center stage.

If—and it is a very big if—Apple succeeds here, it will be bringing Internet connectivity into a whole new stratosphere, allowing people to use their new iPhones like desktop computers and to easily hop on and off the Web to publish and update web pages with pictures, music, design, you name it.

What really makes me curious, however, is exactly what this will do to the signature nomeclature “i” g that Apple started a decade ago with iPod.

The “i” is so tied up with the Apple brand that it is difficult to imagine “me” fitting into Apple's product naming strategy. Although, I do think that the two names will stand up well in the marketplace.

I would be happy to use an iPhone to connect to Mobile Me or use Mobile Me to track back to my iMac via my iPhone.

Technorati Tags: Mac, Apple, Mobile Me, iPhone 2.0, iPod, Domain Names, Me.com

Posted by William Lozito at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 31, 2007

Brand Naming v. Brand Extensions: Survival of the Funniest?

As a naming consultant, developing product names for brand extensions is a topic that I've written about before... and it's a strategy that is often necessary for a brand to continue growing.

The recent news that Guinness is diversifying into red beer with the launch of their new Guinness Red drink is a perfect example of this kind of brand extension.

For 250 years, Guinness has meant black and white. It's a black beer with a white froth. Now, parent company Diageo is pushing the brand in directions never been before... offering us Guinness bread and even your own froth maker called a "surger."

Some drinkers are not impressed... the World of Beer grumbles, "Guinness is stout, plain and simple. Not some Kilkenny knock off, not a weird looking creation which, judging by the photo published online at The Sun, boasts tomato juice as an ingredient, but stout. The black stuff. Period." Yet, other beer bloggers can hardly wait for the weekend to try it.

What's up? Extending a brand name, no matter how old and powerful and well loved it is, is something marketers feel compelled to do.

Even Guinness can't rest on its laurels... it has to offer extensions to customers or be swept away in a tide of microbrews and light beers into the ever smaller space of a niche brand name.

TD Clark's excellent article on the subject talks about how newer brands, like Crocs shoes, are already creating new brand names out of old ones. The Crocs brand is now offering apparel consumers "Crosslite rt" or "relaxed technology" shoes. This is aggressive brand naming at its finest, given the relative newness of the Crocs brand name.

Similarly, Mars is offering us a Starburst Drink... you remember Starburst fruit chews, right? By the way, this is an awful line extension, I think, and is doomed to fail. And current TV is using brand extension strategies to "expand its web presence and increase its marketing efforts."

Technorati Tags: Guinness, Diageo, World of Beer, TDClark, Crocs, Mars, StarburstDrink, Brand Naming, BrandExtensions.

Posted by William Lozito at 8:04 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

August 20, 2007

Product Line Extensions - The Awful and the Brilliant

When I saw an ad for Crisco Extra Virgin Olive Oil, I cringed.

I couldn't think of a more inappropriate or awful product line extension.

The Crisco brand connotes:

• Deep frying
• Fat
• Grease
• Clogged arteries
• Everything else that extra virgin olive oil is not

What were the people at P&G thinking? I'm convinced that someone at P&G let this out the door when deep down they knew better.

For more on inappropriate line extensions, check out Laura Ries' blog on Hellman's Mayonnaise versus Kraft's Miracle Whip.

Now for a brilliant line extension.

What could be more natural than a rum from Tommy Bahama?

• Tommy Bahama by virtue of its name says warm, relaxed and a casual environment
• The leading rum brand, Bacardi, is produced in the Bahamas
• Additionally, what could be more natural than wearing Tommy Bahama clothing while sipping rum in the Bahamas or the Caribbean, the birthplace of rum dating back to the 17th century?

Crisco Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Awful.

Tommy Bahama Rum. Brilliant.

Technorati Tags: Product Line Extensions, Crisco, Crisco Olive Oil, Tommy Bahama, Tommy Bahama Rum, P & G, Bacardi, Brand Names.

Posted by William Lozito at 9:44 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 23, 2007

Formica is Now a New Zealand Brand Name

Fascinating news that Formica Corporation has been sold to a New Zealand company. Formica has joined Xerox and Dumpster in the popular lexicon as a genericized brand name.

Like most people, I was under the impression that Formica was a type of laminated plastic, that lost its status as a trademarkable brand name.

I was interested to see that Cerberus was part of the sale of this legendary and quintessentially American brand name, which has been defined by Webster’s New World Dictionary as “a trademark for a laminated, heat-resistant thermosetting plastic used for table and sink tops.''

Formica has been around since 1913 when a young engineer created it for use as electrical insulation, and the name comes from the fact that the stuff can be used instead of mica, literally “for mica.”

Formica's product nomenclature includes VirrVarr, Atomic Orange and Aqua Boomerang. These are names left over from the fifties and I am interested to see what happens what New Zealanders and neighboring Australians make of them. And I wonder how “VirrVarr” will translate overseas.

I’m not sure we should be selling anything with the word Atomic, and Atomic Orange seems like a fairly agressive product name. But that would depend on the category and target market.

How about an Atomic Orange energy drink?

Of course the word boomerang may ring false with some Australians—or else it may be taken as a tribute to where boomerangs come from.

Technorati Tags: Formica, Genericized, Trademark, VirrVarr, Atomic Orange, Product Names, Branding

Posted by William Lozito at 8:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 18, 2007

To Masterbrand or Sub-brand? That is the Question

One of the oldest debates in branding is whether you introduce a new product under the existing parent brand or create a sub-brand name. Some marketing consultants essentially say that sub-brands don't work. That seems like an over-simplification to me, as well as not a universal truth.

Toyota is extending its Prius sub-brand for its hybrid vehicles, removing the Toyota moniker, and, in effect, creating a new parent brand. Does Toyota know what they're doing? I think so.

In the consumer's mind, I believe, Prius equals hybrid, green and good. Therefore, I think its wise that Toyota's new hybrid models, which we'll start to see in 2009, will be called Prius A, Prius B and Prius C.

However, I think the A, B and C nomenclature is a mistake. Anyone that's received a grade in school would much prefer to get an A than a C. And what happens when Toyota introduces its sixth Prius model? Would you want a Prius F?

If you've read this far, I've fooled you. The Prius A, B and C are only internal code names, once again demonstrating that Toyota knows what they're doing.

As you're probably aware by now, AT&T, which, a few months ago, was acquired by much bigger SBC Communications, which renamed itself AT&T despite its much larger size. That "was a bit like France marching into Brussels and renaming itself Belgium," said Stephanie Mehta of Fortune, in her article yesterday, Meet the new AT&T.

Although controversial, AT&T did away with the very well known and probably much hipper Cingular name. I predict that long-term, the Cingular brand will reemerge in some place in some way, like many other zombie brands.

Technorati Tags: Toyota, AT&T, Brand Naming, Prius, SBC Communications, Branding Strategy, Cingular, Masterbrand, Sub-brand

Posted by William Lozito at 9:40 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 17, 2007

Crumpler Wants To Be A Naming Company

If voters compare candidates like boxes of cornflakes, do photographers shop for camera bags the way they’d buy real estate?

Crumpler seems to think so, given the fact that they produce a “Million Dollar Home” line of camera bags. These range from the 1 Million Dollar Home to the 7 Million Dollar Home—and there’s a Brazillion Dollar Home, as well.

As with homes, the higher numbers reflect greater square footage. The Brazillion Dollar home holds two SLR cameras and a laptop, with straps for your tripod. The Sherpa required to carry all of that is not included in the $280 price, however.

As a recent review of the 4 Million Dollar Home points out, Crumpler is known for its unique product naming schemes. And rightly so. “Crumpler” is a counter-intuitive name for a company that manufactures bags for fragile equipment. The last thing you want your camera or laptop to undergo is crumpling.

But that’s as nothing to the names of the bags themselves. In addition to the Million Dollar Home series, there’s:

• the Bucket series
• the Bundle series
• the Customary and Sinking Barge (a name even less reassuring than “Crumpler”)
• the Whickey and Cox (sounds like a pub, doesn't it?)
• the Karachi Outpost
• the Keystone

And that’s just in camera bags. There’s also:

• a book (or beer) bag called the Hoax
• laptop bags called the Salary Sacrifice and the Dreadful Embarrassment
• a traveling bag called the Status Belly
• a cell phone/accessory bag called the HooJah

The product descriptions are, if anything, crazier than the names. Which seems to be a big part of why they’re popular as far away as Kota Kinabalu.

It seems Crumpler uses different product names for its bags in Europe, which could get confusing. In England the bags go by completely different but equally outrageous names:

• Pretty Boy
• The Daily
• The Warm Shower
• Stripper Ripper

Maybe Crumpler employees all have a secret aspiration to work for naming companies. They certainly out-name competitors like Tamrac and Lowepro. Not that “Cyber Pro” and “Velocity” (Tamrac) are bad names; neither are “Vertex” and “Road Runner” (Lowepro).

But none of them are as memorably funky as the names of the Crumpler bags.

Technorati Tags: Crumpler, Million Dollar Home, Naming Company, Bag Names, Product Naming, Creative Names, Naming Schemes, Tamrac, Lowepro

Posted by Diane Prange at 9:14 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 15, 2007

AMD New Phenom Brand Name

AMD’s new brand name for its next generation dual and quad core desktop processors is set to be Phenom, as in “Phenomenal” and not “Phenomenon.”

Phenom is what we refer to as a clipping. That is, phenom was clipped from the word phenomenal. With most of the English language trademarked, clipping of existing words is becoming a more common naming technique.

A potential downside in this instance is that Phenom may not be instantly pronounceable and require us to think about how it's pronounced. However, with time and money, the pronunciation of Phenom should become easier.

AMD plans on dropping the “64” add-on and they will make up AMD’s high-end product line: the Athlon X2 will stay awhile longer while the stand-alone Athlon brand is gone and the Sempron (single-core) will compete against the Celeron.

The Phenom brand name is a “metaphor for the company’s expectation for the chips,” which are set to compete against market dominator Intel. Phenom chips will be the ultra-pricey, ultra-powerful chips set to take advantage of the demands of Windows Vista.

Technorati Tags: AMD, Intel, Phenom Chip, Brand Architecture, Processor Names, New Brand Name, Phenom

Posted by William Lozito at 7:43 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 8, 2007

Brand Architecture: Choose a Vista or an Apple Mac

Brand architecture should simplify information and choices for consumers.

I think it's fair to say the 6 different versions of Microsoft Vista adds confusion.

It's another example of branding by committee, as illustrated by the old adage, "a camel is a horse designed by committee."

While watching 24 last night, I was treated to Apple's latest installment of the "Get a Mac" TV ad campaign. Last night's spot made fun of the Microsoft Windows Vista brand architecture.

Enjoy the commercial:

To see the latest "Get a Mac" ads, visit the website.

Technorati Tags: Get A Mac, Vista, Brand Architecture, Choose A Vista, Apple, Microsoft, Branding

Posted by at 10:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail: Do Too Many Big Names Spoil the Brand?

The news of the launch of Windows Live Hotmail, the rebranding of MSN Hotmail, was no surprise.

Like the writer at the SunbeltBLOG I am not much of a fan of Microsoft’s product naming nomenclature, and in other posts I have looked into the Windows Live Hotmail brand name—the best part of it is “Hotmail,” as Microsoft overuses Live.

A New York Times article on Saturday about the troubles suffered by merged FedEx and Kinko’s best describes the trouble many people will probably have with the Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail brand name.

Kinko’s was once known for its laid back culture, while FedEx is known for its clipped efficiency. It is hard for a store to be known as both laid back and super-efficient, the two corporate brews just do no mix. FedEx Kinko’s is thus having some hard times despite the obvious synergy in their business offerings.

Hotmail is one of the oldest online mail services that I know of, a logical base for Microsoft which wants to use it to catch up with Gmail and Yahoo, but by forcing not only the Microsoft name but the Windows name as well as the Live name next to it, it is hard to feel a sense of authenticity.

I think this was named by committee. You know what they say about naming by committee. When trying to name a horse, you end up with a camel.

Does the Windows Live brand name really have the same longevity and equity as the Hotmail name?

I suppose that the success of this name is intertwined with the success of the Windows Live platform of services. If I were a Microsoft/Hotmail user, I might feel funny using my new Vista to access Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail.

In the meantime, it is still good to see Hotmail alive (which takes its name from the acronym HTML.)

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Hotmail, MSN Hotmail, Microsoft Nomenclature, FedEx Kinko’s, Brand Name, Rebranding

Posted by William Lozito at 9:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 27, 2007

Durable Disney to Drop Buena Vista Brand Name

Walt Disney is set to change the Buena Vista brand name to Disney in an effort to “simplify the company's marketing and reduce costs.”

Disney wants to focus on their core brands: Disney, ESPN and ABC. Two months ago, Disney CEO Robert Iger changed Touchstone Television production company to ABC Television Studio and Buena Vista Games to Disney Interactive Studios.

The Buena Vista name has plenty of brand equity: it dates from 1953 and is taken from the street name in Burbank, CA where the Disney brothers created a studio and corporate headquarters for film distribution.

Interestingly, the Pixar, Touchstone and Mirimax studio names, which are also owned by Disney, will stay, possibly because there is strong brand equity and differentiation among these: the Pixar name is synonymous with animation, Touchstone with big budget, mainstream films, and Mirimax with art house.

Iger believes that the Disney brand is a “durable brand” and can easily be stretched over even more of its businesses to create a strong brand architecture.

I support this move by Disney: today’s consumers are aware that Disney is more than Mickey Mouse and Orlando. And as one analyst pointed out, most people are not even aware that Buena Vista is owned by Disney, I agree with that as well. It seems crazy for the average moviegoer to watch a Disney film under the impression that it has been distributed by another company.

Technorati Tags: Disney, Buena Vista, Brand Name, ABC Television Studio, Disney Interactive Studios, Brand Architecture

Posted by William Lozito at 1:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 17, 2007

The Tall, Grande and Venti of Hosting Plan Names

Starbucks is well known (if not universally loved) for its refusal to describe its coffee sizes the way everyone else does. Instead of “small, medium, and large,” at Starbucks it’s “Tall, Grande and Venti.”

This decision to differentiate by choosing unusual names for different sizes or packages isn’t unique to Starbucks. Many web hosting companies, particularly the smaller ones, adopt a similar strategy.

While big names stick to straightforward terms like “Economy, Deluxe, and Premium,” or have only a single one size fits all plan, indie shops lean toward the outlandish.

Simple, descriptive names like “Economy, Deluxe, and Premium” are easy to understand and unlikely to offend anyone. But, like “small, medium, and large,” they suffer from blandness.

• A small company going up against giants can’t afford to be bland. Remember, Starbucks wasn’t always a massive multinational chain.
• Small companies also can’t afford to compete on price. If you’re the cheapest, then a lot of people won’t care what you call your products.

Creative names like “Hatchling, Baby, and Swamp” demonstrate personality and a sense of humor.

• They show prospective customers that HostGator isn’t a faceless corporation but a group of individuals.
• They also suggest that the company wants customers who share that sense of creativity and humor.

Technorati Tags: Starbucks, Hosting Companies, Hosting Plan Names, Naming Architecture, HostGator, Differentiation

Posted by at 9:11 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 3, 2007

New Luxury Brand Name from Hyundai?

It seems that Hyundai is serious about building a new premium brand to sell alongside its own marquee, reports Noah Joseph at Autoblog. The recent introduction of the Genesis concept car seems to be a sign of things to come.

This, of course, is similar to Toyota creating the premium Lexus brand name expanding its brand architecture, just as Nissan accomplished with Infiniti and Honda with Acura.

I think what we're really seeing here is the beginning of a shift in consumers' perceived quality of the Hyundai brand. For some time, the Hyundai name has lived on the fringe and was associated with economy. Taking cues from the formula Toyota and Honda made successful, I think this is the right direction for Hyundai. The difference? They're doing it much faster.

Hyundai is well aware that there are incredible challenges in its way. First of all, it seems as if Hyundai has to give its dealers lessons in how to sell luxury cars as opposed to “value” cars. And an article in the Washington Post points out that Hyundai has a long way to go in the U.S., where its cars are still considered “cheap."

It also does not help that Chung Mong Koo, the company’s chairman, was caught embezzling the equivalent of $73.8 million from the company.

Nevertheless, Hyundai has pitted its Veracruz vs. the Lexus RX350 and their overall product line keeps getting kudus for its quality, not least from JD power and Associates, who ranked the brand third in the U.S. for overall quality. On the other hand, the same company put Hyundai among the 7 car brand names (Jaguar, Jeep, Hyundai, Kia, Land Rover, Saab and Suzuki) with the worst reputations in the business among consumers last year.

Hyundai is the official vehicle of the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa and I can say with confidence that the advertisers there have been told to expect a new high-end premium brand name from Hyundai. This will be a huge platform on which to launch a super-premium brand for Hyundai.

Technorati Tags: Hyundai, Genesis Concept Car, Luxury Brand Name, Automotive Naming

Posted by William Lozito at 10:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 28, 2007

Brand Naming: Chevrolet Resurrecting a Nomad?

Chevy seems to be set to revive the Nomad brand name for a new 2009 crossover vehicle whose lines do seem to hearken back to the famous 2-door surfer wagon of the 1950s.

It would be an interesting replacement for the Uplander and would be marketed as a counterpoint to the GMC Acadia. This would also be the latest GM car to utilize the Lambda chassis, after the Saturn Outlook, the GMC Acadia and the Buick Enclave. These names could be a foundation for a very unique brand architecture system.

The Inside Line blog was told from industry sources that Chevy’s flirtation with the Nomad brand name is yet another example of “what’s old is new again” but some people say that we should not hold our breaths, that the brand name is not even “on radar the screen.”

I like the idea of a reawakening of the “Nomad” name, even if it is yet another "zombie brand", which I wrote about on March 24th.

By the way, Read Daniel Gross' insightful articles on zombie brands in Slate magazine here.

The original car may be from a few generations ago but I recognize it from old movies and Nomad does have a catchy ring to it.

The name makes sense, as well, because as far as I can see, it is loyal to its original marquee by being, at heart, a 2-door wagon. It also fits into the automotive trend to bring back favorite brand names from the past, like Taurus and Escort.

The name also fits with the GM brand name “Acadia”: rugged Acadia was the site of the permanent French settlement of North America and hardy Acadians lived a quasi-nomadic and studiously neutral life during the conflicts between the French and British.

Technorati Tags: Brand Architecture, Nomad, Chevrolet, Brand Naming, Zombie Brand, Daniel Gross, GMC Acadia, Automotive Names

Posted by William Lozito at 11:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 9, 2007

Hotmail Brand Name Gets to Live

Richard Sim, Senior Product manager at Windows Live, has announced on his blog yesterday that Microsoft has chosen to keep the Hotmail brand name, incorporating it into its mail application as Windows Live Hotmail rather than Windows Live Mail.

The Hotmail brand name, which was acquired by Microsoft in 1998 and has been in jeopardy for a while thanks to its “historical association with spam problems,” still holds considerable equity among consumers. Most technology are pleased with this move, which will coincide with product improvements to Hotmail.

Mr. Sim said, "By adopting the name 'Windows Live Hotmail,' we believe we're bringing together the best of both worlds - new and old. We're able to offer the great new technology that Windows Live has to offer while also bringing the emotional connection many existing and loyal users have with Hotmail."

Microsoft has made a few product naming mistakes in the past, but I must agree that this is a good move.

The Hotmail name is really synonymous with web-based mail and doing away with it would cause unnecessary confusion for the millions of users of the service. The fact the Microsoft has held on to it for so long has made the brand one of the good things we associate with Microsoft - making the service better (more competitive with Gmail and Yahoo) would be more than welcomed.

To read more about the Windows Live Brand Architecture, check out our September 22nd blog post, Brand Naming: Is Microsoft's "Live" Dead?

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Hotmail, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, Product Name, Brand Architecture

Posted by William Lozito at 8:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 5, 2007

Ford Truck Naming Is Super Duty

It seems to me that the trend in luxury car naming is toward developing an alpha-numeric brand architecture - that much is certain. But not so much when it comes to the naming of pickup trucks, where it may be that the inverse is true.

In the automotive industry, there is one brand name that stands tall: the mighty Ford F-Series, the best selling vehicle in the United States, the most awarded truck in auto history and sales leader in category for 29 years. The brand name was introduced in 1948 and since then over 32 million of these trucks have been sold worldwide, with one sold in the U.S. every 21 seconds.

Is this the triumph of alpha-numeric naming in the field?

Well, Toyota has an answer for that as does Dodge, who are both offering revamped versions of the Tundra and Ram respectively, leading to a panic stricken news reports last week that predict trouble down the road for this stalwart.

The Super Bowl spots yesterday for the brand name were nothing less than the initiation of a fight to hold the number one position in the U.S.

One option is to think up a new theme song for the truck. The other, Ford has discovered, is to get serious about product naming. Look at the top 10 cars in the U.S. for 2006. You’ll recognize names like “Silverado“ and "Ram.”

The Toyota Tundra sticks in your mind, too, even if it isn't in the Top Ten (Toyota has the Camry and the Corolla up there). The top of the list is the F-Series, which will be depending on a revamp of its equally boringly named “Super Duty” extension to keep itself up there.

Rather than do away with the equity around the F-Series, Ford has focused their naming on the extensions within the range. The Super Duty represents 40% of the F-Series line, and it has some interesting extensions built in, including the “King Ranch” and the “Lariat Tough-Luxury.”

On top of that, there is the FX2 Harley-Davidson SuperCrew specialty model. These names, all introduced within the last few years, I think, are far more evocative of what the truck is about and their success will drive the truck’s sales.

Superior naming strategies and co-branding deals with companies like Harley-Davidson might just keep Ford on top.

Technorati Tags: F-Series, Ford, Truck Names, Brand Naming, Brand Architecture, Alpha-numeric, Silverado, Ram, Tundra, Super Duty, King Ranch, Lariat Tough-Luxury

Posted by William Lozito at 9:59 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 29, 2007

The Alphabet Soup of Auto Brand Names

Any of us who have purchased a car have probably needed a scorecard to figure out some of the alphanumeric nomenclature.

There’s the...

• Mercedes C, E, and S classes
• Mazda 3 and Mazda 6
• BMW 3, 5, and 7 series
• Honda Civic GX NGV
• SAAB 9-2, 9-3, 9-5, 9-7X

Need I say more?

An article on auto brand naming that makes some sense of the auto brand name architecture appeared in a recent issue of Top Gear NZ.

The writer drew on Strategic Name Development's proprietary consonant research for auto names to determine the inherent associations consumers have with each consonant letter. I think you'll find the article interesting and eye-opening.

Technorati Tags: Cars, Automobiles, Nomenclature, Mercedes, Mazda, BMW, Honda, SAAB

Posted by William Lozito at 1:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 21, 2007

A Brief History of AT&T Brand Architecture

Steven Colbert has a very funny explanation for the evolution of the serious business of AT&T’s brand architecture.

The video clip speaks for itself. Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: AT&T, Cingular, Cellular, Mobile

Posted by William Lozito at 12:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 15, 2007

Brand Names as Logos: Apple, Cross, Kiss and Swoosh

Michael Simon on Spymac has a tantalizing post up that posits we are about to see a brand naming shift from “i” to “” as in iPhone, Life, Work, Chat, and DVD. Even iPod will go to iPod. The post picks up on the fact that Apple has dropped “Computer” from its company name, “presumably to put more attention on its music and mobile initiatives.”

Simon may or may not be correct but one thing is certain: that the Apple logo already carries a great deal of weight in Apple’s brand architecture, which is becoming confusing to some people. It leads me to think about the challenges involved in taking it a step further and integrating logo development with product naming.

Apple’s products, if they go this route, will most likely be referred to in the press is “Apple ____” as in “Apple Life, Apple DVD.” This draws attention to the hugely powerful Apple brand name. But the visual branding of these product names will be Life and DVD.

Think the Red Cross, whose brand name is simply its logo. The recent decision to include a Red Crystal symbol for Israel’s admission to the Red Cross, and the ensuing bitter debate, illustrates just how deeply and irrevocably the logo-brand association is to this very well known name. In this case, Israel wanted a Red Star of David to offset the obviously Christian “cross” of “Red Cross,” a symbol taken from the Swiss flag which in turns takes it origins from the crucifix.

Nike and Apple have cerainly capitalized on the awareness of their respective logos by collectively taking the logo-branding approach even further with the Nike + iPod product (Nike-designed workout software for an iPod). The Nike swoosh and the Apple logo combine to tell you exactly what you're getting.

Another piece of news shows how counting on people to recognize a symbol may carry risks. Yesterday the post office announced a “love stamp” that features the ubiquitous Hershey Kiss with the word “Love” over it. The CEO of Hershey’s stated that “The Hershey®’s Kisses® brand is an enduring symbol of love, affection and sharing, recognized world over for its distinct shape, classic silver foil and unmistakable plume."

Hershey's also says that the With Love and Kisses stamp reinforces the passion and emotional connection consumers have with the iconic Hershey’s Kisses Brand. I hope people around the world are able to recognize the image on that stamp...if you send a Valentine to a person unfamiliar with the candy, it will look like you are sending them an image of Mount Blanc with a “kisses” flag on top, which might not be a good thing.

Apple, Hershey's and Nike make the (probably correct) assumption that we are all so familiar with their products and their logos that we will immediately “get it” when we see them. Makes marketing sense, I think.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Nike+, Brand Architecture, Logo Branding, Red Cross, Swoosh, Hershey's Kiss, With Love And Kisses, Icon

Posted by William Lozito at 9:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 7, 2006

Links du Jour 12-07-06

Strong CPG Company Names as Masterbrands - This is a great article which discusses CPG brand names that are deemed masterbrands, which means it has to be available across at least three different categories and marketed with the same name, or name derivative, in all three categories. The article also points out how company names are often used as masterbrand endorsements:

• Nestlé has extended its 'Nes' derivative, or prefix, into various different areas such as Nestea, Nesquick and Nestum


• The Sunlight brand name exists across five personal and home care categories, with the Sun derivative being present in another five


• Brands such as Garnier or Elvive are very rarely seen without the company brand name, L'Oreal, appearing before them

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Widgets and Protecting Your Brand - Great post. Widgets and brand names are heading on a collision course, writes Dare Obasanjo. The problem? Widgets open up a security risk on people who have personal data protected by a username and password. When things get phishy, who’s at fault: the widget designer or the protected site?

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Gwen Stefani Takes L.A.M.B. To Loftier Pasture - Gwen's lending her name to a new perfume like so many other stars have. It might actually be interesting. Stefani seems to be a fashion maven, her L.A.M.B brand is attaching her name to bags, sneakers and watches. By the way, L.A.M.B. is an acronym for “Love Angel Music Baby.”

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A Name to Remember: the Wii, by Nintendo - Dave Magliano analyzes the Nintendo brand name, and the Nintendo Wii. Read this post. It's extremely insightful. Magliano says the Nintendo name was synonymous with gaming itself. Playing Nintendo was what you did, even if you owned a Sega Genesis. Today, PlayStation is video gaming, just like Nintendo was long ago.

While so much has been made of Nintendo's interesting choice of names with the Wii, what has been lost is the Nintendo brand. But, Dave says, by leaving the Nintendo name behind - Wii is just Wii, not Nintendo Wii. Nintendo's Wii advertising does not even mention Nintendo at all, not even a Nintendo logo. Hmmm...doesn't that marketing strategy remind you of a new little gadget called the Zune (by Microsoft?)

Technorati Tags: Gwen Stefani, L.A.M.B., Masterbrand Strategy, Nestlé, Widgets, Dave Magliano, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Brand, Gaming

Posted by William Lozito at 10:43 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 20, 2006

Branding: Yahoo! Peanut Butter

Michael Parekh's wrote a great post on his blog Saturday, giving some very insightful observations on Yahoo!'s multiple overlapping services, and other "Yahoo 2.0" considerations. It's a great read... and might make you start craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The news is all about the The Wall Street Journal story on Yahoo!’s amusingly named “Peanut Butter Manifesto”, penned by a senior executive which is an insight into the strife that has beset that Internet giant. Brad Garlinghouse, the writer of manifesto memo, claims that Yahoo! is trying be all things to everybody, and thus has spread itself too thin over a variety of business ventures.

Jim Benson suggests that when “life gives you peanut butter, make peanut butter cookies", and that Yahoo! has "open sourced their business strategy." Matt Asay at AC/OS has an excellent post up entitled “Yahoo! High in Fat”. Maybe so, but analysts remain bullish on Yahoo!, even if things are a little sticky over there.

Technorati Tags: Yahoo!, Yahoo 2.0, Peanut Butter Manifesto

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October 24, 2006

Links du Jour 10-24-06

Toyota Auris springs into action - The bloggers at Auto Park say the new name is an amalgamation of “Aygo” (the name of their smallest offering) and “Yaris” (slightly bigger model). The Japanese Cars Watch blog, on the other hand, claims the word is Latin for “good taste”. In fact, the name comes from the Latin word for gold which is “Aurum”.

Toyota has changed this to Auris to keep it consistent with the brand architecture led by the Avensis and Yaris brands. It is also the successor to the Corolla brand name, which seems to be on the way out after 40 years and 30 million sales.

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Mad Ave Goes Soft - The Mog Beta blog has an in-depth discussion about a recent Forbes article that outlines the ways in which pornography has infiltrated modern advertising and brand name building. Names and promotional efforts that were once considered sleazy have gone mainstream.

"Stars" like Jenna Jameson are now being associated with clean cut brand names like Adidas. Mainstream clothing brands are creating yet sleazier sites and names to attract an ever edgier customer base.

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The record store that wouldn't die - On August 22nd, I wrote about the longevity of certain brands like London Fog and Tower Records and it looks as if reports regarding Tower’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

It seems like an unnamed consortium of investors is intent on keeping the legendary 80s brand name alive in a smaller version. Grant Robinson is sceptical, however, about the brand name’s chances for success. I’m hoping for the best. Are you?

Technorati Tags: Toyota, Aygo, Yaris, Auris, Tower Records

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September 8, 2006

Links du Jour 09-08-06

Nokia just announced the company will change its naming nomenclature, following Motorola's lead. Nokia is going to embrace brand names rather than alphanumeric naming in future cell phones after seeing the success of brand names developed by competitors like LG’s Chocolate and Motorola’s RAZR.

I have written extensively about Motorola’s naming strategy, from its treatment of vowels to its transition from RAZR to SCPL. I think Nokia is making a good move, as long as they included brand name research.

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It looks like Federated Department Stores senses the unhappiness many customers feel about the loss of beloved brand names like Marshall Field’s to their Macy’s brand, a subject I have written about a few times.

Federated is now trying to win over the hearts and minds of customers to the Macy’s brand name, in what they're calling their "biggest advertising campaign ever to support the re-branding.” I think they have their work cut out for them: some company names are hard to forget. But, time will tell.

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How should Katie sign off each newscast? Here’s your chance to contribute to Katie Couric’s recent debut: figure out a good sign-off tagline for her and send it in to CBS. Cronkite’s was “And that’s the way it is”, Murrow’s was “Good Night and Good Luck”, Dan Rather’s was “Courage”…what will Couric's be?

Readers of the Adfreak blog have some pretty interesting thoughts. Can you think of some creative sign-off taglines?

Technorati Tags: Nokia, Motorola, Alphanumeric Naming, Macy's, Marshall Field's, Federated Department Stores, Katie Couric, Edward Murrow, Walter Cronkite

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September 2, 2006

Links du Jour 09-02-06

Don't They Have a Pill You Can Take? - Finally, somebody has felt my pain over the Yahoo campaign.

The ads we get on the site are sort of random, from a very confused big guy telling us "My Son Is Always Looking at His Yahoo" to a perky woman saying "I Have The Most Popular Yahoo on Campus."

What, exactly, is being suggested here? I'm at a loss, but it gives me a creepy feeling every time I log in, and creeping out your customers just can't be good for the product name. I am thinking seriously of getting Gmail just to avoid these weird ads. Stop the madness, Yahoo!

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Men. Who Are We? - The fact is, most of today's marketing is not reaching us. Darryl Ohrt at Brandflakes leads us to a very nice article on Businessweek that declares the demise of the metrosexual (RIP) and the irrelevance of the retrosexual male shopper.

Brand names like KB Home, Coke, and Adidas, as well as apartment brands and even vacuum brands are figuring out new ways to appeal to the 75% of male shoppers who are just not seeing themselves reflected in ads and brands.

What are we learning? Men are not being catered to in most advertising. I'd add that we shop differently and perceive stores differently. Crucial research for anyone who hopes to reach guys with their brand names.

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Tony the Tiger Plays Baseball - Kellogg's is repositioning the brand name of Frosted Flakes with its Work Hard, Eat Right and Earn Your Stripes campaign and John Winsor likes it.

Nice to see this kids' cereal brand name stepping up to the plate with the Earn Your Stripes Award.

Derrek Lee of the Chicago Cubs is helping built this product name into something more than just something that tastes Grrreat.

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, Men, Metrosexual, Retrosexual, Cereal, Baseball

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August 8, 2006

Will Microsoft’s Product Naming Missteps Impact Microsoft's Master Brand Equity?

Microsoft has been voted the top UK brand, as the number one “Superbrand” in that country according to the Superbrand council. The other top brands in order of ranking were BBC, British Airways, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.

It seems ironic to me that Microsoft grabs this award because the company stubs its toe so often when it comes to product naming. We have written before about consumer dissatisfaction with the ill-named IE7+ which caused an embarrassing branding backtrack this year. IE7+ was a product name we disliked because it created confusion.

Microsoft then named another product “Live Search”, sowing yet more outcry among users who found the word over-utilized in the Microsoft branding lexicon. Turns out the confusion over the Live brand name was actually the result of two linked divisions not doing brand name research in tandem. As I reported last year, Microsoft has also been the target of numerous lawsuits and lots of ill will related to the “Vista”, “RSS” and “Java” names.

Product naming snafus notwithstanding, the BusinessWeek Top 100 Brands ranks Microsoft the second biggest brand in the world behind Coke, with an equity of almost $57 billion.

However, I think that sooner or later the Microsoft product naming missteps will catch up with them and will impact the Microsoft Master Brand equity. Then again, with Microsoft’s massive spending, it may not. But, it doesn’t do Microsoft any good to stub their toe repeatedly.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Superbrands, Top Brands, Brand Equity, Masterbrand, Brand Positioning

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August 4, 2006

Brand Naming: Der Zune vs. iPod

Microsoft’s imaginative strategy to trademark the Zune brand name. In a recent piece for Markenbusiness, Lawyer Karsten Prehm pointed out that Microsoft’s recent $500 mil investment in Zune, the supposed big contender v. iPod, has not been protected by a US trademark. Instead, the product name has been quietly registered in Germany. This allows Microsoft to apply for international protection of the name at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva.

When this is successful, Microsoft can have the trademark enforced in the USA dating from its German registration on July 7 of this year. It’s a nifty and streamlined way to get instant worldwide protection for this very American brand name.

Apple is also doing some interesting under the table dealing, it seems: the guys at Endgadget recently told us that Apple has joined the Khronos Group, a consortium of just about everyone who is anyone in the mobile communications and media market. It’s devoted to the creation of “open standard APIs to enable the authoring and playback of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices,” which means that they’re probably that much closer to releasing the much-anticipated iPhone, a crucial step forward for the iPod brand name.

The guys at the Unofficial Apple Weblog, for their part, have picked up on Jeff Scoble’s recent hints that Apple is about to introduce a bunch of new products — could the iPhone be one of them? I remain skeptical.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Zune, Apple, iPod, iPhone, Trademark, Khronos Group, Mobile Communications

Posted by William Lozito at 4:00 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 26, 2006

Motorola's New Phone Brands: Too Mch of a Gd Thng?

Motorola has just introduced a slew of new cell phone brands.

• KRZR, pronounced Crazer, perhaps based on the popular phrase "crazy cool"
• RIZR, pronounced Riser, a slider phone
• RAZR MAXX, a quad-band phone with music player
• RAZR XX, a tri-band phone with a 1.3 megapixel camera
• RAZR V3b, uses bluetooth for voice calls with a home network

I am beginning to wonder if Motorola is taking a good thing too far.

The RAZR brand name makes a lot of sense, but the KRZR and RAZR XX, for instance, seem to have taken Motorola from distinctive brand names, de facto back to an alpha or alpha-numeric nomenclature.

I think Motorola runs the risk of encountering what Lincoln just had to deal with. Their MKZ, MKX, and MKS nameplates were changed after only 6 months in the marketplace because the consumer wasn't getting it. More accurately, they're changing the pronounciation from [mark-zee] to [em-kay-zee].

Admittedly, the Lincoln target market is quite a bit older than Motorola's, but I think it's fair to consider the possibility of Motorola experiencing the same fate as they continue to introduce new phone brand names.

Motorola is a great company with some great phone products, and is on a roll (50 million RAZR phones sold worldwide.) I, for one, hope it continues on that trajectory.

To read more about Motorola's new RIZR and KRZR phones, check out these recent blog posts:

• Phone Scoop - Eric Lin has some inside information straight from Motorola's global launch in Cape Town, South Africa
• Talkin' Tech - Berniej says GDBY RAZR HLLO KRZR
• Good Morning Silicon Valley - John Paczkowski reports that "Motorola CEO to change name to Ed Zndr"
• Mobile World - Detailed specs on the KRZR, RIZR, maxx and V3xx

Technorati Tags: Cell Phone Brands, Phone Naming, Motorola Phones, KRZR, RIZR, RAZR MAXX, RAZR XX, RAZR V3b

Posted by William Lozito at 11:53 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 24, 2006

Brand Naming: Lincoln's MKZ Is Not A Motorola RAZR

Lincoln is changing the name of its new MKZ nameplate.

More accurately, they're chaning the pronunciation from [mark-zee] to [em-kay-zee]. There's a very well-written article by Bryce G. Hoffman, in The Detroit News detailing the change. Also changing are the 'MK' components of the MKX and MKS brand names.

I guess MKZ is no RAZR. The latter is easier to pronounce because only the vowel is missing. On the other hand, to pronounce MKZ as Mark Z is perhaps asking too much of the consumer with both a vowel and consonant removed from Mark.

As successful as Motorola has been with RAZR, ROKR, and PEBL, in all cases, removing the vowels, Motorola's planned SCPL (for scalpel cell phone) may encounter the same fate as the Lincoln MKZ. See my May 30th blog post, Brand Naming: Is Motorola's SCPL Cutting Too Much?

Apparently, in the brief 6 months of the Lincoln MKZ and Lincoln MKX brand nomenclature, dealers complained about the brand architecture approach.

For both the MKZ and MKX, keeping the nameplate but pronouncing them differently, which is more in keeping with European and luxury auto nomenclature, it is probably a good compromise. I could just imagine the cost of changing the nameplate to something entirely different and the additional confusion that would create.

Additionally, our proprietary research of all the consonants in the English language has indicated that both the letters X and Z are perceived as innovative. Fortunately, for Lincoln, both letters are used and should work to convey that Lincoln is offering innovative automobiles.

Could this brand naming "stubbing of the toe" have been avoided with some brand name research?

Autoblog and Leftlane News both picked up on this story earlier today. Check out their readers' insightful comments.

Technorati Tags: Auto Naming, Lincoln Nomenclature, MKZ, MKX, Automotive Brands, Brand Architecture, Brand Naming, Brand Name Research

Posted by William Lozito at 5:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 6, 2006

Should a Company Change Its Name?

There appears to be great interest in the business press regarding company name changes and its potential impact on the target market and market place.

There are many reasons for a company to change its name – an acquisition, bad publicity, evolving business strategy or charter, and let’s not forget management ego.

In a May 29 Chicago Tribune article, Judy Artunian discussed some of the reasons and implications regarding company name changes.

I was asked to comment on the subject. If you are interested in the subject of company name changes, I think the article is worth the read.

Technorati Tags: Company Name Changes, Chicago Tribune

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June 5, 2006

Korea Company Naming is Going Glocal

Korean companies are slowly but surely changing over to English corporate identities, according to the Korea Times. Of the 715 companies on the KSE, 28 have opted for English brand naming, while 23 of 925 companies on the "tech-heavy Kosdaq" have done the same.

• Taepyongyang, Korea's No. 1 cosmetics and health care products manufacturer has changed its name to the AmorePacific Corporation
• Ssangbangwool, one of Korea's top underclothing corporations, will now be known as TRYBRANDS, Inc., named after its top selling "Try" line
• Mukunghwais, a bath product maker, is now Huenco, a name formed by combining the first two letters of the English words: human, environment and cooperation.

I think these kinds of changes are unavoidable as English entrenches itself as the language of globalization.

In an earlier post titled “Konglish Gives Korea Businesses a Bad Name”, I discussed the difficulty many South Koreans have writing in English. Therefore, it would be interesting to see how the other Korean companies choose to change their names to English.

Two years ago the Asia Times ran an article outlining the challenges South Asian languages face in a world run by English Web pages and English–speaking business interests.

The Asia Times introduced the idea of "glocal" English, that is English with a "local" flair. Already, more Asians speak English than any other population. English is a fluid and changing language and it is therefore expected that glocal English will likely affect and influence the way we speak in English-speaking countries.

To this end the Asia Times referenced the old Malay saying: "your mouth is your tiger".

Apparently, so is your brand name.

Technorati Tags: Asian Languages, Globalization, Anglicization, Glocal, Corporate Identity, Kosdaq, AmorePacific, TRYBRANDS, Huenco

Posted by William Lozito at 11:09 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 4, 2006

Brand Architecture: The Mac is Back

It appears as though Apple is moving towards a revised Mac-orientated masterbrand (also spelled master brand) architecture with its new brand names starting with “Mac.” I agree with this new nomenclature.

• The PowerBook G4 laptop now sports the MacBook Pro brand name.
• The iBook G4 laptop is morphed into the MacBook brand.

Now it is rumored that the PowerMac desktop brand name will evolve into MacPro.

Xserve may adopt the MacServe brand name as well, and iMac may be given a “pure” Mac product name as well.

I think these brand architecture name changes make sense because the Mac brand has immeasurable equity, has a very strong emotional bond with consumers and it's a legend in the product naming Hall of Fame.

I realize some Mac lovers think the new masterbrand strategy is confusing. That's to be expected, but we (I am a Mac lover), should realize that this is “poetry in motion.” Once the full Mac nomenclature is implemented on all the new Intel-based Macs, the Mac faithful and consumers in general will accept the brand name changes.

I also agree that the iMac simply has a dated brand name. Apple has almost an obligation to build its brand around the Mac name which is almost three decades old — and anyway, any name with a lower case “i” at the beginning it is simply “too nineties,” iPods, iTunes, iLife etc. notwithstanding.

This raises an interesting brand architecture question. Should Apple drop the “i” from its iPod name? What should Apple replace the i in iPod with?

For more news on Apple, here are some blogs I recommend:

• The Unofficial Apple Weblog
• Mac Rumors
• The mini Blog
• Tech Pedia theorizes that Apple is dropping the “Power” names because they are replacing IBM's PowerPC architecture.

Here are some perspectives on Apple from some of our favorite marketing gurus:

• Guy Kawasaki, who used to work for Apple, writes about how he joined the company and offers a review of the autobiography of Apple's co-founder, iWoz.
• Seth Godin writes about a personal experience with Apple's customer support people last year: Part 1 and Part 2.
• Steve Rubel offers an open letter to MS: Dear Microsoft, I am Dumping You

Technorati Tags: Apple, Mac, PowerBook, iBook, MacBook, iMac, PowerMac, MacPro, iPod

Posted by William Lozito at 11:54 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 30, 2006

Brand Naming: Is Motorola’s SCPL Cutting Too Much?

If you’ve got one phone named after a razor, it makes thematic sense to have a second phone named after a scalpel. Slim, sharp, cutting edge—they’re all good connotations.

The problem comes when you start removing too many letters from a word. Motorola has decided to call its new phone “SCPL.”

“SCLPL” would be much clearer, I think, but using 5 letters would break the 4-letter Motorola naming convention (RAZR, SLVR, PEBL, ROKR).

But did Motorola put too much of a scalpel to the new brand name by removing all vowels and a consonant?

RAZR, ROKR, and PEBL are unambiguous. Each already contains a vowel, and there’s only one way to pronounce them and still come up with an English word. I actually thought SLVR stood for “silver” rather than “sliver” when I first saw it, but the mistake still produces a good name.

“Scalpel” may be just too hard to abbreviate. I think Motorola may have gone too far with the SCPL brand name. I am guessing that consumers will have more difficulty figuring out what SCPL stands for versus Motorola’s other reduced-vowel brand names.

It will be interesting to see how the target market perceives the SCPL name.

Here is what other blogs are saying about the SCPL name:

• The Mobile Weblog
• Nishi's Blogosphere
• Gizmodo
• Talkin' Tech (Among Other Things...)

Technorati Tags: SCPL, Motorola, Cellular Phone, Technology

Posted by William Lozito at 1:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 21, 2006

Product Naming: Paramount Gets Arty

Paramount Pictures' art house division, Paramount Classics, is changing its name to Paramount Vantage.

It seems that the Paramount Classics name signified “old” and not “arty” to movie buffs. That's just good brand name research and common sense.

The Paramount Vantage name is intended to distance Paramount Classics from its unsuccessful independent film past.

But the name Paramount Classics will not be dropped — it will just handle foreign films and documentaries. This signals a new era for Paramount, whose art house films have struggled to keep up with those distributed by competitors like Fox Searchlight from Twentieth Century Fox and Focus Features from Universal.

This seems like a tortured name architecture to me. Or a typical “split the baby” corporate name decision.

It seems that small, arty films have breathed new life and new finance structures into the studio system in Hollywood: films that were once the realm of the beret and black turtleneck set are now going mainstream — sort of like how small, independent label breweries suddenly went big time.

Films like Crash, Brokeback Mountain and Good Night and Good Luck are bringing in the critical acclaim and the audiences to make small, art house films really profitable.

Disney now owns art house legend Miramax, which is exemplary of the trend of bigger studios who simply buy well known independent studios and add them to their stables. Paramount Classics, however, was built from scratch.

Interestingly, Sony Pictures Entertainment has Sony Pictures Classics. For me the imagery of Sony, a high tech company, and Classics are an unnatural association.

Should Sony Pictures Classics also consider a new brand name? Not really, unnatural association not withstanding. This Sony unit won the 2005 Palme d'Or at Cannes for L’Enfant (The Child).

Here are some other perspectives on the name change and sources for news and opinions on independent film:

• Paramount's press release announcing the name change.
• For news and opinions on independent film, check out the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film's Chlotrudis Mewsings blog.
• IndieWIRE is an important source for news on independent movies.
• DISContent thinks Paramount's new name is problematic because of another association with the word “Vantage.”
• Fearful Symmetries hopes this means there will be more interesting options coming to the cineplexes.

Technorati Tags: Art House, Movies, Film, Cinema, Independent Film, Movie Studios

Posted by William Lozito at 4:11 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 18, 2006

Brand Naming: Live Has Many Lives At Microsoft

The newly unveiled Microsoft Live Search is the “worst product name ever,” in one writer's opinion.

And the negative blogs and news aimed at it makes me think that Live may become the next Nintendo Wii in the most hated name stakes. There is nothing wrong with “Live” - not that it’s really great or original - the problem I've got with the brand name "Live" is that Microsoft keeps recycling the names they are already using, and thus causing great confusion.

The former Windows Live Search is an Internet search tool; the new one allows people to search their own computer, computers on their network, as well as the ‘Net. The outcry has been so intense that at least one rep has hinted they may even rename the product.

The reason Microsoft is using the Live name twice comes down to two divisions apparently not speaking to each other within Microsoft. Microsoft seems needlessly careless when it comes to product naming: Scott Fulton asks, what, exactly, is one talking about when one uses “Explorer”, for instance. I’ve also noticed that the term “search” itself has numerous meanings for Microsoft.

SeattlePI’s Todd Bishop refers to this as the George Foreman naming strategy, referring to the lovable boxer, whom we have profiled before in connection with The George Foreman G5 Grill, who named all five of his sons “George.”

I would add that George took this one step further by naming one of his five daughters “ Georgette ”.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Microsoft Live Search, Live, Search, Explorer, Todd Bishop

Posted by William Lozito at 10:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 17, 2006

Brand Naming: BRP Aims to be the BMW of ATVs

Last week, Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) announced that it will be rebranding its well-known Bombardier ATV to Can-Am. If you're not familiar with BRP, it's the company that also markets the Sea Doo and Ski Doo brands.

Rider enthusiasts will recognize the Can-Am brand name as the successful motorcycle division of BRP that started over 30 years ago. BRP is investing in the Can-Am brand name to better position its ATV line in the U.S. market.

Can-Am is something of a legendary brand, and according to the Toronto Star the Can-Am name is going to recall the maverick spirit of celebrated dirt bikes.

Most people interpret Can-Am to mean Canada-America, another big plus for BRP, during a time when big players in this market such as Suzuki, Yamaha, and Honda are clearly in the lead.

The 2007 Can-Am platform will introduce names such as the Can-Am Outlander 500, Can-Am Rally, and the Can-Am Renegade 800, a mean hybrid between a utility ATV and a sport quad. For the Renegade, BRP is even creating a new, more radical designation: the ETV (Extreme Terrain Vehicle).

Reviving the Can-Am brand name is clearly a reflection of BRP's aim to reach the Powersports enthusiast. I think that if BRP wants their new product name to convey high performance and a passion for riding, then they've really hit the mark with Can-Am.

Technorati Tags: Bombardier, BRP, Can-Am, ATV, ETV

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Links Du Jour 05-17-06

• Those $@!%ing Meetings! - A funny lesson in [conference room] naming architecture. I wonder how many corporate brand architecture decisions are made this way...
  
• Take off deep - John Winsor's fascinating take on building brand momentum. The lesson for product naming? Thorough research and a deep connection to the brand promise.
  
• Viagra and the wine blogosphere - Stormhoek is into wine porn. Kim Maxwell discusses how the company is using blogging to spread its brand name, and uses feedback from bloggers to design its labels and promote its brand name.

Technorati Tags: Brand Architecture, John Winsor, Stormhoek, Kim Maxwell, Brand Momentum

Posted by at 10:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 10, 2006

Brand Architecture: The Sophistication of Motorcycle Brand Names

In an April 30th Chicago Tribune article, Paul Duchene discusses the brand architecture or masterbrand strategy of major motorcycle manufacturers in detail.

It's quite an in-depth article. Duchene interviewed many within the motorcycle industry, including manufacturers and dealers.

I was also asked to comment on the brand architecture or masterbrand strategy being employed by the major motorcycle manufacturers.

This article makes for a very interesting read for anyone interested in motorcycles, brand architecture, or a masterbrand strategy.

Technorati Tags: Paul Duchene, Chicago Tribune, Masterbrand Strategy, Brand Architecture, Motorcycle Brands

Posted by William Lozito at 10:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 8, 2006

Brand Architecture: What's Going on Inside Intel's Brand Naming?

Intel has introduced the new Core 2 Duo processor and has possibly taken a turn towards its former brand architecture approach, where each generation of processor gets an ascending numeric designation. It reminds me of Intel's former brand architecture for the Pentium 1, 2, 3 and 4 to denote the next generation processor.

Like many others, I had the impression Intel was moving to a new brand architecture, a subject I examined in my April 26th post about the company's introduction of the vPro.

To be honest, I'm finding it a little difficult to track Intel's evolving brand architecture, but maybe I've figured it out.

As things stand, Core 2 represents the next generation of Intel's Core processor architecture, with Core Solo and Core Duo representing the first. The writers at Extreme Tech confirm that the new brand architecture represents Intel's push to set up a naming strategy that brings CPUs for desktops and laptops under one umbrella brand.

Moreover, Intel's Core 2 Extreme processor will be targeted to the gamer market.

Athough not clearly articulated at this point, these evolutionary changes are part of Intel's new Master Brand Architecture:

• It's branded platforms, or market-focused platforms consist of VIIV (rhymes with live), Centrino, Centrino Duo, and the new vPro
  
• Under each of these market-focused platforms are processor brands, whose next-generation technology will be differentiated by a simple numberic number as in the Core 2 Duo processor

This is admittedly confusing today, but in my judgement will be eminantly simple long-term for both the consumer and developers. I'm sure this is the good hand of Eric Kim, Intel's Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer at work.

Some short term confusion is typical terrain when developing and implementing a new Masterbrand Architecture - it's a bumpy road on the way to a smooth highway.

Technorati Tags: Intel, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Duo

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April 26, 2006

Brand Naming: Intel Picks vPro for Its Business Brand

Intel is forging ahead with its strategy to lend its brand to PC functionality rather than simple power through the introduction of its vPro brand platform.

In my brand strategy post on January 2nd, I discussed how Intel moved away from the nebulous "Intel Inside" slogan towards a more integrative brand name by using the "Leap Ahead" slogan. The Intel masterbrand strategy supports branded platforms and processor platforms.

Intel's Centrino platform combined a processor, mobile chipset and a wireless chip while Viiv is all about home entertainment on PCs. Intel's new strategy is clearly allowing the company's name to be all things to everyone and, more exciting, allowing it to use branded platforms to support a plethora of smaller, more technical brand names.

For instance, vPro will offer security solutions for business users through offering what Intel refers to as Active Management Technology (AMT) and Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) both of which offer IT departments PCs that are easy to manage and which is more energy efficient.

I haven't always been a fan of Intel's naming strategy, but what we are seeing now is a brand literally honing its personality and becoming much more defined. And what's more, it seems to be working.

Technorati Tags: Intel, vPro, Intel Inside, Leap Ahead, Masterbrand Strategy, Brand Platform, Centrino, Active Management Technology, Intel Virtualization Technology

Posted by William Lozito at 1:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 13, 2006

Product Naming: Doublemint May Make You Do a Doubletake

Wrigley’s has introduced its very first new non-gum product in nearly a century. It’s called Wrigley’s Doublemint Twins, a mint that comes in Wintercreme and Mintcreme, a similar nomenclature to the rest of Wrigley’s gum flavors (Doublemint, Freedent, Winterfresh). I think that the Doublemint brand name extension will, stick with the consumer (pun intended).

Wrigley’s sees this as an innovation on the very popular Doublemint brand name, which was launched in 1914.

I suppose that the move from gum to mints is partly in reaction to similar brand introductions from Wrigley’s arch competitor Cadbury Adams, which offers consumers Certs Cool Mint drops and Certs Powerful Mints as well as a host of gums -- such as Trident, Dentyne, Splash and Bublicious.

I think that the Doublemint Twins mint brand is a shrewd move, because it leverages a well-known brand name with an icon of American advertising since the 1930s: the Doublemint, which will be trotted out this time to promote the mint.

For additional information on Wrigley’s Doublemint Twins mint product, visit the Buy It or Die blog and the ADHURL blog.

Technorati Tags: Doublemint Twins mint, Wrigley’s, Freedent, Winterfresh, Cadbury Adams, Trident, Dentyne, Splash, Bublicious

Posted by William Lozito at 12:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 22, 2006

Product Naming: Digital Flatscreen TV Naming Goes Coined

Yesterday, I noticed that Toshiba announced a new global brand name for its flat panel LCD and Plasma TVs: REGZA.

This announcement comes after the company’s decision to scrap production of CRT (cathode ray tube) sets and analog LCD (liquid crystal display) sets, and throw all its effort into digital flat screens.

I think this is a good move. Last year, flat panel TV sales surpassed CRTs for the first time, and experts see this trend continuing due to improved quality and declining prices.

REGZA was created from the German “Regsam”, which connotes “vibrant and dynamic” qualities. It also appears that Real Expression Guaranteed by amaZing Architecture can be derived from the REGZA global brand name, which refers to the superlative picture quality.

I've noticed that the major flat panel TV manufacturers have two things in common with their latest flat panel brand names.

• A unified global brand for both flat panel LCD and plasma TVs
• The brand names are coined or neologisms

For instance,

• Last year, Sony launched a similar worldwide LCD brand name called Bravia, which I wrote about in a September '05 blog post. Bravia is an acronym for Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture. One could also point out Bravia's closeness to the Italian "bravo", which means well done.
• Sharp has been selling LCD sets with the Aquos brand name. Aquos is derived from the Latin word “aqua”, meaning “water”, a good association for a liquid crystal television.
• Matsushita (Panasonic) sells LCD sets in some markets, including Japan, under the “Viera” brand name, a hybrid of the Latin word “veritas” meaning ‘truth” or “accuracy”. Viera is also a common Italian last name.

Since there's a shortage of natural-language words that have enough global branding power, neologisms are becoming more prevalent. REGZA is the latest example.

Technorati Tags: Regza, Bravia, Aquos, Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, Toshiba,

Posted by Alwynn Gilgen at 2:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 15, 2006

Product Naming: A New Lotus Auto With a Demanding Name

Lotus has just introduced the new Exige S, a head turning, pint-sized monster that some owners claim can outrun a Ferrari. Exige means “demanding” in French (possibly an odd choice for an English car company), and it may be the quickest “real” world production car out there. I think the name makes more sense when one considers that the Exige follows the similar sounding Lotus Elise (released a decade ago), a name adopted from former company chairman Romano Artioli's grand-daughter.

The Exige range copies Elise in form appearance and driving platform but brings more power to the table - the Exige is for the muscle car enthusiast. I like the two car names together, Elise and Exige, which lends an air of sophistication to the brand, not least because of their similar appearance and word length. I find it interesting that there are currently no plans to market this car to Americans, which is probably a good thing, as almost anything associated with the French has a difficult time with many US buyers these days.

Technorati Tags: Lotus, Exige, Elise

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February 6, 2006

Brand Architecture: Naming a Chicken Sandwich in Thirteen Syllables or Fewer

Once upon a time it was possible to drive up to McDonald's and order a meal without reading the menu. With names like Big Mac®, Quarter Pounder® McChicken® and Egg McMuffin®, my order literally rolled right off my tongue, into the speaker and up to the window. As long as I didn't ask to hold the pickle and the lettuce, I was back on the road in a Filet-O-Flash.

Emotionally compelling coined names like Big Mac®, Sausage McGriddles® and Happy Meal® have a great reason for being. Because they're highly memorable, they serve as a colloquial short-hand that verbally strengthens the consumers' tie to the McDonald's brand. Personally, as a namer, I'm lovin' it.

So why has this mighty marketing machine changed its course and gone to a completely descriptive naming route with its chicken sandwich product line?

Today I mustered the courage (and the time) to drive right up to the McDonald's window to place an order for the new spicy chicken sandwich that's been hitting the airwaves. But placing an order wasn't easy, since McDonald's now has a total of seven descriptive chicken sandwiches all of which use four to six words and up to thirteen syllables in their "official name.*"

• Premium Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich
• Premium Crispy Chicken Classic Sandwich
• Premium Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich
• Premium Crispy Chicken Club Sandwich
• Premium Grilled Chicken Ranch BLT Sandwich
• Premium Crispy Chicken Ranch BLT Sandwich
• Premium Spicy Chicken Sandwich

Fortunately, for me and the four drivers behind me, only one of these sandwich names contains the word spicy. But I can see where the naming architecture is going and it won't be long before there's a Premium Spicy Crispy Chicken Ranch BLT Sandwich to throw me and countless other consumers off the QSR course. Perhaps the next step will be to reverse the strategy and create an alpha-numeric branding system (a la Value Meals).

I think I'll have a Mc'12 today, thank you.

*Note, in a recent study of the top 1000 most heavily advertised U.S. Brands, it was estimated that the average brand name is 3.5 syllables (contact Strategic Name Development for additional information).

Technorati Tags: McDonald's, Fast Food, Food Naming

Posted by Diane Prange at 5:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 1, 2006

Brand Naming: More History Making in the "Wireless" World

The Marconi plc brand name is no more, having been recently acquired by Swedish Electronics giant Ericsson. They have already renamed a segment of the takeover “telent” (note the lowercase “t”) and apparently have not decided what to do with the Marconi trademark. It is ironic because Marconi plc is, ultimately, the brainchild of electronics inventor Guglielmo Marconi, whose Marconi Company started life as the Wireless and Signal Company in 1897 and after a series of takeovers and mergers, found life once again as Marconi plc in 1999.

Every schoolchild can remember the Marconi name—indeed it is just about as important as Alexander Graham Bell’s in the history of communication. Titanic buffs know that help came to the stricken liner’s passengers because of frantic messages sent over the “Marconi Wireless”. And while the Ericsson brand is very strong, in my opinion it does not have the same historical resonance as Marconi. For that reason, I think they should use the Marconi brand name, but I wouldn't be surprised if Ericsson decides to give the death blow to the Marconi name once and for all.

Bon viaggio, Marconi…

If you'd like to learn more on this subject, check out these other blog posts I found interesting:

MBAD 6194

Wireless Nik

Technorati Tags: Ericsson, Marconi, Wireless and Signal Company

Posted by William Lozito at 10:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 31, 2006

Product Naming: Luxury Brands Battle of the Alphabet

On January 25th Honda Motor Company filed suit against Ford Motor Company, stating that the name for Lincoln's newest SUV, the MKX, is too close to that of the Acura MDX model designation for its SUV.

This means that as automakers migrate toward a more alpha and alphanumeric nomenclature for its luxury vehicles, it is more and more likely that potential conflicts will arise. Ford is arguing that it wants to refer to the new Lincoln MKX SUV as the “Mark X”, and thus confusion with the Acura MDX would be minimal. I’m sure Ford management is well aware that its sister brand Jaguar, first used the Mark X designation to refer to one of Britain’s finest exports.

I think that Ford is trying to have a dual-brand nomenclature for its new Lincoln SUV, which will only serve to dilute its branding efforts. Ford should decide on one naming approach and one only. That, I believe, would be in their best interest to strengthen the beleagured Lincoln nameplate.

No matter what Ford ends up with for its new Lincoln SUV nomenclature, I think it's clear that alpha and alphanumeric designations will likely conflict with existing auto brands.

I predict that the Acura-Lincoln alphabet conflict will be resolved out of court, as was the Nissan vs Audi “Q” conflict. In the latter, it was reported by Leftlane News that there was a gentleman’s agreement, with a likely financial settlement, that allows Audi to continue using the Q7 name and the Q-series nomenclature for future SUVs.

I believe that it is difficult to impossible for a brand to tie up a letter of the English alphabet. Can you think of any examples of a brand in any category with a trademarked letter or letters?

Read more commentary on the Acura vs Lincoln conflict at Autoblog.

Technorati Tags: Acura MDX, Lincoln MKX, Mark X, SUV, Alphanumeric Nomenclature

Posted by William Lozito at 11:06 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 12, 2005

Another Vine Grows in Virgin Soil

The Virgin brand's core idea is making "consumer's life easier - delivering better value for money, a better service, challenging the status quo, and injecting an element of fun into what have traditionally been dreary marketplaces."

Sir Richard Branson has been referred to as the king of über-stretch. Starting with Student Magazine, he has taken the brand to a plethora of product categories - airlines to mobile phones, jewelry, gaming, health clubs, cosmetics and now wine.

Has Sir Branson overstretched the brand with Virgin Vines wine, and do the new wines deliver on Virgin's core idea? Probably not.

Virgin Vines is a logical extension of the Virgin brand. The wines are targeted to younger consumers, most likely 21-35, which would include the Virgin Mobile and Virgin Cola target of 15-30.

And, for the most part, the new wines deliver on the Virgin brand promise.

• At $10 a bottle, the wine is priced at the sweet spot to attract younger consumers.
• One could say that a screw top is, broadly speaking, providing a better service since the wine is easier to open and more portable.
• The Virgin Vine website is definitely "injecting an element of fun" in the wine market by reducing the often stuffy wine terminology to a light-hearted fun one.
  
  
  • Traditional Wine Term: Body
    What They Say: The overall texture or weight of wine in the mouth. Most influenced by alcohol, glycerin and, in the case of dessert wines, sugar. See “light-bodied” and “full-bodied”.
    Virgin Vernacular: What everyone shows off when they are young, and hides when they are older.
    
  • Traditional Wine Term: Depth
    What They Say: Refers to a wine that is demanding of more attention. It begins with subtle layers of flavor that go deeper into more complex and secondary flavors.
    Virgin Vernacular: A very sought-after yet elusive quality in a partner. An especially rare find in men.

If I do have one quibble with the Virgin Vines extension, it's the product name. The noun, virgin, usually refers to pure, chaste and unadulterated products, such as Virgin Wool and Virgin Olive Oil. In the case of spirits, it has traditionally applied to non-alcoholic drinks - a Virgin Mary, for example.

Is the Virgin Vine product name an oxymoron, or another example of Virgin adding the element of fun to a category?

Posted by William Lozito at 1:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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