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
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August 29, 2008
Popeyes Branding and Naming Moves Upscale
The news that Popeyes is revamping its brand name has got me thinking, Popeyes Chicken, that is.
Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits is changing its name to Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and will also unveil a new logo, tagline and ad campaign, but will continue on without a possessive apostrophe, which the founder once claimed he was "too poor" to afford.
The new name allows Popeyes to offer a broader menu than just chicken, to a slightly higher paying clientele. It also "reminds customers of the labor that goes into creating the brand's authentic taste."
Apparently, Popeyes was not originally named after the lovable cartoon sailor, but actually after Popeye Doyle, the drunken, brawling character Gene Hackman plays in the French Connection. It was only later that the company moved to successfully acquire rights to Popeye the Sailor. The problem is that both characters are becoming distant memories to the under thirty crowd and might in fact lead to the "P" in the middle of the new logo becoming all that remains of Popeyes original brand name.
That said, Popeye may actually be a name that has dubious value. Aside from the fact that it was the name of an ill fated missile, it also has some interesting literary allusions.
For one, John Ashberry's famous poem speaks of a Popeye who was "forced to leave the country."
But most notable, Popeye is the name of one of Faulkner's most notorious villains, a character inspired by Popeye Pumphrey, a real-life criminal during the 1920s in Memphis.
Technorati Tags: Popeyes, Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, New Logo, Popeye Doyle, Popeye the Sailor, Brand Naming, Company Naming
Posted by William Lozito at 8:09 AM
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August 8, 2008
Classic Car Naming and Branding for Sale
The legendary Packard name is coming up for sale along with a nifty new prototype. Total cost will be $1.5 million including the ten-year-old car, which looks like "an unholy cross between a Jaguar S and a Morgan Aero 8."
The company did not depart gracefully in 1958 and the car is not what one might describe as beautiful. So, it is possible that a better option would be purchasing the Duesenberg brand name, which comes with plans for some nifty looking cars as well as the Estate golf cart, all of which would give you some Jay Gatsby, "roaring twenties" street cred.
It is interesting to note that the expression "it's a doozy" is based upon the Duesenberg brand name, but it seems that the intervening decades since Duesneberg's collapse in 1929 has made this expression rather negative; one only hears "it's a doozy" when talking about some horrible mistake.
Technorati Tags: Packard, Duesenberg, Classic Car Brands, Doozy
Posted by William Lozito at 7:56 AM
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August 5, 2008
Starbucks' Treat Receipts Some Sweet Naming and Branding
Starbucks, which has been hit hard by the economy's downturn (a cause of some levity in the blogosphere), has decided to offer Treat Receipts to morning customers.
These green receipts allow customers to come back to the store after 2 PM to get a $2 (half price) grande cold drink.
What interests me is the fact that a deft, elegant marketing move like this allows Starbucks to offer value to customers without using that particular word; or the words sale, cheap, or half-price."
With Treat Receipts, Starbucks is not giving out cheap cold java, they are rewarding loyal customers with a treat, and that small difference reframes the offering beautifully.
However, I do not think this will be a game changer for the struggling giant, although it is a great way to preserve the brand's equity in the face of mounting financial pressures. 
As Starbucks continues its fight to stay afloat amidst the slowing economy, its main naming and branding challenge for the next year or so becomes getting rid of its image as a daily indulgence. I've read many articles making the point that you can save enough money to put the kids through school, pay off the mortgage or even settle the credit card debt simply by skipping Starbucks and making your own coffee.
I cannot speak to the validity of these claims, but the Treat Receipt offers loyal customers more value without trying to reposition Starbucks' brand name as a budget or low cost option.
Now that's a real treat.
Technorati Tags: Starbucks, Treat Receipt, Coffee, Grande, Green Receipt, Starbucks Coffee Company
Posted by William Lozito at 8:07 AM
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August 4, 2008
Zevia Hands a Bitter Pill To Truvia and Purevia Brand Naming
The rivalry between Pepsi and Coke is set to get bitter as Pepsi prepares to beat Coke to the punch with a brand new all-natural, zero-calorie sweetener called Purevia that it is launching in its SoBe life drinks in Latin America.
Purevia's chief component is a substance called stevia, which Coke has been working on with agribusiness giant Cargill for a new brand name beverage called Truvia.
Coke, until recently, called the Cargill inspired product by its "trade name" Rebiana.
Confused yet?
Stevia based sweeteners are derived from a Latin American plant in the chrysanthemum family which has been used in cultures for centuries.
However, the FDA will not allow stevia to be used as a sweetener in its traditional form, hence the race between the two cola giants to create a stevia based sweetener that can be sold as a tabletop sweetener and used in a handful of products.
So, for the record, we have stevia, which is a "dietary supplement" according to the FDA, but is not an additive. Truvia and Purevia are chemical derivatives of stevia and are additives that have not yet been approved by the FDA, but should be soon.
Truvia was launched recently amidst some fanfare in hope's of taking the wind out of its chief competitor's sails, but . . .
Now, a new drink called--wait for it--Zevia has beaten them both in the stevia stakes, telling the world that it is "the first stevia based product to offer a truly all natural alternative to artificially sweetened diet sodas." To add insult to injury, one Zevia executive has said that he is concerned that "Truvia and Purevia have strikingly similar names to Zevia which may result in consumer confusion."
So, we have a brand name called Zevia using stevia to conquer Purevia and Truvia, both created by different companies that used stevia (although one company sometimes called its additive Rebiana).
One of these is a dietary supplement, one is an additive, both can be canned and sold. Nothing that is in Zevia can be used as a tabletop sweetener, however, Purevia and Truvia get that privilege. The stevia that is in Zevia, however, can be used anytime you wish, so long as you don't think of it as a sweetner (although it is indeed sweet).
So consider yourself warned: finding stevia in the USA will be hard (thanks to the FDA), but Zevia, Truvia and Purevia are easy to find.
From a name development standpoint, this is one can happen to a client, a naming company, or us when the same morpheme root (via) is used to create a brand name. It is unusual, but it does happen. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out with trademark law considerations.
I'm sensing that there will be tremendous amount of consumer confusion here.
Technorati Tags: Truvia, Purevia, Zevia, Pepsi, Coke, Dietary Supplement, Beverage, Artificial Sweetener
Posted by William Lozito at 9:07 AM
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July 30, 2008
Scrabulous Brand Naming Not Fabulous to Hasbro
The demise of the much loved Scrabble knockoff named Scrabulous, played by thousands of avid Facebook users, has sent a "cry of woe" through the blogosphere.
This blatent copy of Scrabble has finally been shut down by Hasbro after the two brothers who invented it refused to be bought off.
While some argue that this type of fighting between online/offline game creators should prompt companies to "give up trying to protect their brand altogether and just learn how to better compete with those that counterfeit their copyright," the more interesting question is how, exactly, did Scrabulous' get itself into trouble.
The answer is partly in the name. The entire fight centered around trademark and copyright infringement, and not patent infringement.
The Scrabble brand name goes back to 1954, but the actual copyright is in reference to the very well protected and recognizable board. This offers a lot of loopholes, mainly with the contention that the fifty-four year old "Scrabble" name should be in the public domain, which arguably came out of copyright in 1994, even though technically it is still protected for another 55 years (70 years after the death of the game's inventor in 1993).
The fact is, the Scrabble brand name is immensely valuable to Hasbro and they have a duty to protect it.
The side issue here is Facebook's culpability in this matter. Simply put, the Scrabulous game attracted users to the site, and that's trademark infringement. It appears that Hasbro has decided to not take the matter up with them, but sooner or later Facebook will likely suffer from a similar case.
Technorati Tags: Hasbro, Facebook, Scrabble, Scrabulous, Copyright, Trademark, Brand Naming, Product Naming
Posted by William Lozito at 9:39 AM
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July 29, 2008
When Does Brand Naming Become UnCuil?
Giving an opinion on a name without knowing the strategy behind it leaves much to be desired.
At first blush, it is easy to understand why people are being critical of the new super search engine brand name Cuil, which is supposedly going to blow Google out of the water.
Started by some renegade engineers from Google, Cuil was launched yesterday and is meant to be the next big thing in search engines, but alas, it cannot even find its own name.
Yes, the name is an old Irish word for knowledge even though it actually comes from the alternatively spelled Finn mac Cumhaill.
Anyway, somebody who does not speak Gaelic or has never heard of Old Finn McCool (that would be pretty much all of us save for a few Irish scholars) is likely to initially pronounce it "quill."
Even if pronounced correctly, people will assumed it is spelled "cool," rather than "Cuil," which isn't great for a business that relies on the proper spelling of its URL to be able to use it. Everyone will have to tell you how to spell it, unlike say, Yahoo or Google, which are both spelled exactly the way they sound.
Already people are calling it UnCuil, which is to be expected, the name practically begs for its detractors to do so.
Others are just saying it's "not so hot," while several more have added that it will be hard to look for a word by "cuiling it" or trying to "cuil it."
Like Google, Yahoo and so many other internet related names, what is strange and unusual today becomes common place, accepted and emulated in the future.
I think we should give Cuil a chance. As a brand name. And as a search engine, which I think, does not yet measure up to Google.
Technorati Tags: Cuil, Google, Search Engines, Yahoo, Company Naming, Google It, Cool Search Engine, Brand Name, Naming
Posted by William Lozito at 8:58 AM
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