March 11, 2010
Sony "Moves" Away From Arc Naming and Branding; Better Than "Giggle Stick"
Oops, well I'm only human. Back in January I believed the hype and predicted that Sony would name its new PlayStation wireless controller the "Arc."
Nope. It's going to be called the "Move" and it's coming out this fall in a kit costing under $100.
CNET's Crave says that by unveiling the name Sony can start its all-out attack on Nintendo. The name was announced yesterday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
It works with the PlayStation Eye web cam, and Sony claims 36 third party developers and publishers have signed up to support the new product, not to mention the 20 games Sony has planned for it as well.
Its subcontroller adds a joystick and a directional pad.
There were some pretty provocative ideas for the naming sent in by Joystiq readers, but when Joystiq's blog did a poll on it, Move won out.
Joystiq also notes that the logo looks suspiciously like the letter "A", because, they posit, Sony did want to name their controller the Arc but ran into trademark issues.
Already blogosphere wags have generated eight "better" names for the thing, including "Giggle Stick," "Party Rod," and "The Sceptre of Ultimate Power".
Um, maybe not, but good effort bloggers.
The bottom line is that this controller launching with this name is a good move by Sony.
Technorati Tags: Sony, PS3, Move, Arc, Joystiq, Video Game,
Posted by William Lozito at 8:05 AM| Comments (0)
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March 10, 2010
The Unfortunate Saga of Risqué Domain Naming and Branding Continues with the Sale of Sex.com
The domain name Sex.com is up for grabs.
That's right, potentially the most expensive domain name in history is in foreclosure and will be sold at auction, with bids starting at a cool $1 million. It was sold for $14 million in 2006, which was a record then until Insure.Com went for $16 million.
I have previously written about how the domain name Sex.com has been poorly managed, and even swindled from previous owners. Now, the story seems to have continued its downward spiral.
It will be sold "as is" in the equivalent of a foreclosure sale and should generate a lot of interest, as it can apparently generate $15,000 of revenue a day if managed correct.
Sex.com is one of the top five most profitable domain names on the web today, the others being Fund.com, Porn.com, Poker.com and Business.com.
The Sex.com domain name has been mismanaged, of course, and is surrounded by clouds of legal skullduggery. It is claimed that one of the previous owners had the name stolen from him, and commenced a ten-year manhunt to find the culprit.
DOM Partners, a New Jersey lender is foreclosing the domain and will auction it on March 18, at the New York law firm, Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf.
Ecoconsultancy has a great post up entitled "Six things you can learn from Sex.com's failure," and number one is: A great domain only goes so far.
I have to agree.
It takes more than a name to make a product or a domain name shine. However, we at Strategic Name Development can say, a great name never hurts.
Technorati Tags: Sex.com, Domain Name, Auction, Ecoconsultancy, Foreclosure,
Posted by William Lozito at 9:34 AM| Comments (0)
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March 8, 2010
Obama Naming and Branding Losing Luster
All politics aside, the Obama brand name is not helping some businesses.
An article out today looks at the dozen or so Michigan businesses that have used the name to sell everything from pharmaceuticals to realty to auto body repair. And, funnily enough, the President hasn't clamped down on these small business owners, in fact, one of them actually got a friendly call from the White House. Nonetheless, consumers aren't buying it.
The building of the Obama brand, of course, is not new. There are plenty of political analyses out there describing how he used branding to create an excellent image for himself.
However, the appeal of the name seems to flow out of politics, as evidenced by the apparent Israeli love for it.
But now the brand doesn't sell, and that includes political t-shirts with his likeness and name on them. The Obama store in Union Station has been closed.
Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, a book speaking to the evils of branding, wrote last year about how the Obama brand is just another example of how corporate branding has taken over American politics. If that's the case (and I am unsure if it is), then the brand itself is liable to face the same challenges of any other in the marketplace.
I'm not sure what it means when a pharmacy named after Obama decides to change its name to a far more generic Community Health Pharmacy, but I am thinking that the President's brand name equity may be in trouble.
Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, No Logo, Brand Equity, Branding, Names
Posted by William Lozito at 8:56 AM| Comments (0)
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March 1, 2010
Chinese Naming and Branding the Way of the Future?
I'm fascinated by the future of brand naming in China and happy that we have already been involved in it. My gut feeling is that we are seeing the world of branding and naming happen at an accelerated pace.
Right now, it seems that the Chinese, especially at the regional level, are all about price points and trademarks - there were 800,000 applications in 2009 alone!
Still, there is a view that the Chinese are starting to look for good homegrown names even as they create weird mash-up names that are knock offs of the western brands we all know and love. One such example is pictured at right.
The fact is, creating a Chinese brand name is very difficult.
There is an entire world of syllables, imagery and phraseology that is a challenge to any naming and branding company, although we in the West are quickly learning how to create appealing Chinese names for Chinese customers.
At least one company in San Francisco is headed by a person who speaks both Chinese and English and one look at all the challenges that go into a Chinese name can give one pause.
One tidbit:
Your Chinese company or brand name should be two to three characters and never more than five. The more characters in the name, the weaker it sounds and the less memorable it becomes. The name should also be easy to pronounce and free from negative political, social, historical, or psychological associations.
Is it worth it? Yes, of course. This will soon be the world's biggest consumer market. Every naming company has to be involved in China.
There is no doubt in my mind that the country will soon be a goldmine of interesting brand names, and now is the time to be involved.
Technorati Tags: Brands, Wilson, China, Menlow, Names, Transliteration
Posted by William Lozito at 8:10 AM| Comments (0)
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February 26, 2010
Hummer Car, Brand Naming Finally Heading for the Scrap Heap
I'm really trying to feel nostalgic about the demise of the Hummer brand name, but I'm just not getting anywhere with it.
This is the car, after all, that had Fortune Magazine asking "What Car Would Satan Drive?"
The smug, name (a shortening of M998 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) or Hum-Vee) was irritating, as was the car's obvious target market of people who could care less about aesthetics or damage to the environment. This was, after all, the Terminator's ride of choice, or it was until even Arnie saw them as too ridiculously, lunkheadedly macho.
GM tried to dump it on the Chinese, but thank goodness they dropped the idea, the last thing China (or the world) needs is a popular Chinese gas guzzler.
This has been bad news to the 4 x 4 limo market but really, a stretch Hummer is just adding insult to injury.
Cory Doctorow put it best saying, "This car was like the high-fructose corn syrup of automobiles, something that concentrated everything bad about motoring until it underwent a phase-change and somehow became an object of desire."
Technorati Tags: Brands, Hummer, China, Going green, Names
Posted by William Lozito at 8:20 AM| Comments (0)
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February 22, 2010
The Washington Post's John Kelly Doesn't Like Metaphorical Naming, We At Strategic Name Development Disagree
Washington Post correspondent John Kelly quotes me this morning in a pretty amusing column, lamenting the evolution of a brand's original descriptive name to a more metaphorical one.
You know, Spray 'n Wash changing its name to Resolve. Seems that John prefers the more descriptive type of name: "Wite-Out and Liquid Paper leave no doubt as to their purpose. Same with Ty-D-Bol It gets your bowl tidy." It seems that the travel industry agrees with him.
Some othe examples of descriptive product name changes that limited the brand are Confinity changing its name to PayPal, Bridgegate Computers to Compaq, and Kentucky Fried Chicken to the shortened KFC.
Metaphorical naming seems to bridge cultural divides and satisfies "deeply held consumer needs and desires." As Evelyn Rodriguez puts it, "The bite in the Apple logo at once conveys the garden of Eden, wisdom, crossing the lines of convention, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."
More and more research is promoting the idea that "brand equity based on symbolic values" is what marketers see is the Holy Grail.
In any event, we enjoyed the Post interview and especially John Kelly's sense of humor in the article.
Technorati Tags: Washington Post, Brand, Product Naming, Metaphor, Descriptive, Spray 'n Wash, Resolve
Posted by William Lozito at 8:59 AM| Comments (0)
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February 18, 2010
Chrysler Sebring Naming to Go, Some Believe Car Should As Well
It is probably just about time for Chrysler to finally do away with the Sebring brand name.
After all, it is attached to what one reviewer believes is the "worst car in the entire world." Despite being named after a racetrack, the car has never lived up to its name, so to speak.
The Sebring has just over a decade of good sales and was once the vehicle of choice for the retired set.
Then things started to go wrong, and now it only sells about 70,000 vehicles a year, compared to Ford's Fusion (138,000) and the Honda Civic (322,000).
Now, the company has announced that it plans on "refreshing" its line up, including spiffing up the car that many in the blogosphere want to see "killed."
The new Sebring will be a "different animal" we are assured, and according to Motor Authority will possibly bear the 200 name and look something like the 200c EV Concept Car.
The new Sebring will be around until 2013 when it is finally put out of its misery.
Technorati Tags: Chrysler, Brand, Sebring, 200, Naming, Auto, Ford Fusion
Posted by William Lozito at 8:52 AM| Comments (0)
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