April 15, 2008
Silver Seal is Product Naming Gold
I just read about Seal Shield's medical grade washable keyboard that uses exclusive waterproof technology and antimicrobial plastic. The alliterative Silver Seal name grabs your attention and promises a higher quality solution (in the silver) and protection (in the seal).
But there is more to name behind the product. Most consumers are not aware that silver has antimicrobial properties that kill germs and prevent the spread of disease.
Samsung introduced the idea of silver nano particles in household appliances back in 2003 (refrigerators, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners) and silver nano has been used to combat germs in socks, shampoo, and toothbrushes and it’s now being used to irradiate microbials on your keyboard, which by the way has “400 times more bacteria than your average toilet.”
The Silver Seal product name may be slightly ahead of its time, in terms of consumers fully appreciating the implications of silver, but it is poised to name a growing category of silver products developed to combat staph infections and other serious disease on your keyboard or in your washing machine.
The fact that it is dishwasher safe gets my vote too.
Technorati Tags: Silver Seal, Seal Shield, Silver Seal, Antimicrobial, Samsung, Silver Nano, Keyboard, Washing Machine
Posted by Diane Prange at 12:33 PM
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February 29, 2008
Ink Product Naming and Branding: Krink is the Street’s Quink
The Razor Apple blog has a great commentary on a recent New York Times Magazine article discussing Krink, a new ink that comes right out of the world of tagging and graffiti.
The packaging is interesting, and the naming is going to work despite, or because of, the fact that we often get "krinks” in our necks or shoulders.
The name reminds me of Parker’s Quink, one of the best product names for fountain pen ink. The Quink name is well regarded by ink aficionados and the Krink naming looks like a street derivation of this popular brand.
Technorati Tags: Krink, graffiti, Parker's Quink, Ink, Pen, Naming, Branding, Brand
Posted by William Lozito at 7:54 AM
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January 29, 2008
Sears and Halston Return to their Brand Naming Roots
The old adage “Know Thyself” is certainly true when it comes to popular brands.
Two news stories today put this into bold relief: the first is the return of glamour fashion brand names Halston and Ossie Clark, both of which died when they tried to move into popular, low brow fashion, but which have experienced a revival in recent years thanks to the likes of Kate Moss and Jennifer Aniston (pictured right, wearing a Halston dress). Maybe this time they will have learned something about sticking to their target markets.
The second was addressed by Jack Trout on Forbes.com yesterday when he wrote about the various brand names that helped build Sears: Kenmore, Craftsman, Die-Hard and Weatherbeater.
These are legendary brand names in American culture and are synonymous with the Sears brand name.
Trout suggests that allowing them to be sold by other retailers could spell disaster for Sears, adding that he feels that Sears should take over the Kmart brand naming altogether and present a united, unique front to Wal-Mart and Target.
It would be very interesting to see Kmart suddenly turn into Sears, which would immediately increase the brand name’s presence nationally. More importantly, it would be an over promise and is inconsistent with the merchandise offered in the current Kmart stores. In other words, this would be a band-aid fix.
Sometimes a brand name has to return to its origins to move forward, and remember the values customers have traditionally associated with their brand.
Technorati Tags: Halston, Ossie Clark, Sears, Kmart, Brand Naming, Kenmore, Craftsman, Die-Hard, Weatherbeater, Jennifer Aniston
Posted by William Lozito at 7:28 AM
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January 15, 2008
"Sticky Ass Glue" is Silly Brand Naming
It seems to me that the name “Super Glue” is so good that it has made competitors desperate for names that are even more suggestive of incredible stickiness.
Thus we have “Gorilla Glue” which has decided to top its already fearsome sounding brand naming with the more clunky sounding “Gorilla Super Glue Impact-Tough Formula”—they just cannot seem to avoid using that term “super” when it comes to really good glue.
Today, we have news of something that is supposed to be just as strong: "Sticky Ass Glue" which is “stubbornly strong” and has a jackass for a logo. Toologics got a sneak peak last year and at least one commenter claimed it was better than Gorilla Glue...but is it better than the “Gorilla Super Glue Impact-Tough Formula”?
I can’t help but be reminded of the Big Ass trademark hassles of 2006 that erupted in California. Here’s a great glue that all of the brewers and wine makers who like to put “ass” in their brand naming can use on the premises.
Technorati Tags: Super Glue, Gorilla Glue, Brand Naming, Sticky Ass Glue
Posted by William Lozito at 7:31 AM
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December 6, 2007
Brand Name Evaluation - The Importance of Context
As naming professionals, we are always surprised with associations that people make with the name candidates we present.
I feel it tells us as much about the person and their view of the world as it does their opinion on the name candidate.
One very common response we hear is "That name reminds me of x."
Our response is "You really have to evaluate the name candidates in context." Take the name American Eagle, for example.
- American Eagle is the regional carrier for American Airlines.
- American Eagle is also a retail clothing chain that is located in many shopping malls.
So, if our assignment were to name a clothing chain and we recommended American Eagle, it's very typical for client to say "It reminds me of an airline" and dismiss it for that reason.
We say, "Wait a minute." How about the Ford Fusion and the Gillette Fusion razor and the V8 Fusion juice?
As you can see, the same name can co-exist in multiple categories and not be confusing since all of these brand names are presented in context.
When I go to a store to buy Gillette Fusion razors, I don't think automobiles or juice.
Technorati Tags: American Eagle, American Airline, Ford Fusion, Gillette Fusion, V8 Fusion
Posted by William Lozito at 1:51 PM
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December 4, 2007
Brand Naming Can Tattoo You
I've said it before and I'll say it again: If you want a sure way to get your brand naming under people's skin, think tattoos.
As the latest trend, companies are not only incorporating tattoo art into their brand names, but also creating brands that are designed to appeal to people with tattoos.
- The convenience store chain 7-Eleven has a new energy drink called "Inked," which is "aimed at people who either have tattoos or those who want to think of themselves as the tattoo type."
- Dunlop has offered free tires for years to anyone who will get their "Flying D" tattooed to their body.
- General Mills is selling fruit roll-ups that allow kids to create "temporary tongue tattoos."
- Christian Dior, Tag Heur, Aussiebum, Bling, Benefit Cosmetics are all looking into creating "tattoo logos" in India, because tattoos are a big part of Indian culture.
Captain Morgan's new rum is called "Tattoo."
As you can imagine, people of all ages and nationalities wear tattoos, which means that you almost cannot lose by incorporating tattoo advertising into your brand.
What's next?
Technorati Tags: Tattoo, Brand Tattoos, 7-Eleven, Dunlop, General Mills, Christian Dior, Aussiebum, Captain Morgan
Posted by William Lozito at 9:47 AM
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November 15, 2007
Martha Stewart Wins and Loses Katonah Brand Naming Dispute
The New York Times reports today that the dispute between Martha Stewart and her fellow residents of Katonah is now over: she will be able to use the exclusive village's name on "furniture, mirrors, and chair cushions" but not on things "such as hardware, paint, lighting and home textiles."
Her plans to create a Katonah brand hit a snag when the US Patent and Trademark Office took up the case of the Katonah Hardware store and the Katonah Village Improvement Society, which have indicated disappointment with their challenge to the domestic diva.
As I have written about this before, it seems to me that Martha is not getting much out of this deal.
Technorati Tags: Martha Stewart, Katonah, Trademark, Furniture
Posted by William Lozito at 8:50 AM
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November 13, 2007
eBay's Counterfeit Couture a Threat to Tiffany Brand Name
Tiffany's battle against eBay for not vigorously patrolling the sale of counterfeit Tiffany items is about to commence. The focus is on the ridiculous number of fake goods being sold by the online auctioneer.
Hermes has weighed into the battle, as have L'Oreal and others.
Despite the fact that eBay forbids the sale of these things quite explicitly, it seems that major brand names want eBay to take more responsibility for the no-good-nicks that fall through the cracks - and there seem to be thousands of them selling everything from Gibson guitars for under $3 to computers.
There can be no question that tracking what people want on eBay is a great way of tracking the world's most desirable brand names. And if eBay becomes the portal through which people undermine brand name equity of some of the most desirable names out there, then that is a real shame.
Add to that the ready availability for almost any brand name luxury good over the Web itself and it might be argued that "counterfeit couture" could very well wipe out the real thing.
Technorati Tags: eBay, Tiffany, L'Oreal, Hermes, Gibson Guitars
Posted by William Lozito at 9:58 AM
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November 6, 2007
Brand Naming: Handi-Vac Name That Sucks
The good news, at least for anyone who's ever experienced freezer burn: Reynolds is bringing out a $9.99 vacuum-sealing unit.
The bad news: they're calling it Handi-Vac.
If a "Handi-Vac" sounds like a wannabe Dustbuster to you, there's a reason. There are several Handi-Vacs out there already, with minor variations in spelling but the common function of providing suction.
- The Handi-Vac pick-up tool
- The HandiVac refrigerant recovery unit
- Hoover Handivac vacuum cleaners (no longer sold)
- Handy Vac wet/dry vacuums
- Hand-E-Vac medical aspirators
Worse yet, the name sounds a lot like Handi-Wrap-which is not a Reynolds product.
What's wrong with "Freezer Vac"? The domain and trademark are both available, and it would make the purpose of the product a whole lot clearer.
Technorati Tags: Reynolds, Handi-Vac, Dustbuster
Posted by William Lozito at 10:09 AM
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November 1, 2007
Coined Brand Names: Findability vs. Brand Dilution
We've talked before about the trend toward funky names and alternative spellings among Web 2.0 companies. Many of them even have similar logos, making them even harder to tell apart.
Some domain name specialists argue that if you don't choose a generic name, one that describes the nature of your business, for an Internet-based company, you are leaving money on the table.
The basic reasoning behind this argument is that when people are looking for something online, they're likely to try typing a generic name into the address bar. So, if they wanted to find books, they might type "books.com." And if you call your online bookstore "Books.com," people will find you online even if you don't do a lot of advertising.
Just about everyone now online knows that if you want to find books, what you actually type is "Amazon.com." But that's only because Amazon has done good job marketing itself, to the point where people associate Amazon with books in much the way they associate Kleenex with facial tissues and Xerox with photocopying.
Owning a generic domain name can certainly be useful. If you type "books.com," you get redirected to Barnes & Noble, which wasn't about to change its very recognizable name just to get a website, but had clever enough SEO advisors to take this step to associate its name with its product.
But the last thing a company trying to build a lasting brand wants is to commit genericide and have everyone else's knock-offs confused with their quality product - even if such genericization is a sign that your product is the one with the most market mind-share.
It's true that companies with physical presences and products have an easier time associating a coined or fanciful name with a particular thing - we see the Kleenex boxes on the shelves of the supermarket, after all. But even those companies have to spend time, energy, and money on advertising and marketing before they become household names.
A company with a descriptive or generic name still has to promote itself. Flicker.com only gets 150,000 visitors a month because Flickr is so popular. Even though the folks at Flickr would do well to buy flicker.com (if they can) and any other possible spellings, the "generic" name is only valuable because of what the specific name means to people.
Technorati Tags: Amazon, Kleenex, Flickr, Barnes & Noble, Xerox
Posted by Diane Prange at 11:24 AM
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October 17, 2007
APWagner Looking For Oldest Appliance: What Brand Name Will Win?
APWagner, an appliance parts company, is running a contest to find America's oldest appliance.
The Absolute Overall Oldest Appliance owner will get three new Whirlpool appliances plus $1000 cash, while the "Craziest Video Entry" winner will get three new GE appliances.
It seems APWagner figured the Whirlpool brand name would appeal to people who want longevity out of their appliances, while GE would appeal to creative people. In my opinion, however, all of these brands have qualities built into their names.
If you still wonder how old your appliance has to be in order to win a contest, the Old House Web has a list up:
- Dishwashers should give you from 5-12 years of usage
- Washers and dryers 8-12 years
- Fridges and stoves 15-20 years
Now we have to wait and see which appliance brand name will beat these numbers.
Technorati Tags: GE, Whirlpool, Appliances
Posted by Diane Prange at 3:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 14, 2007
The Influence of China on Brand Perceptions
It's no surprise to anyone reading this post that China has been in the news the last few months regarding numerous product recalls for pet food, prescription drugs and toys.
This prompted us to conduct primary research among 503 consumers in the US. The sample was balanced by gender, age, household income and census region.
This week, some of the findings of our study were the subject of a cover story of Brandweek.
Next week, we plan to publish more of our proprietary research findings on the influence of China on brand perceptions.
Technorati Tags: Brandweek, Strategic Name Development.
Posted by William Lozito at 12:34 PM
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August 25, 2007
Paint Color Naming Not a Game
Product naming for a paint company is one of the more challenging assignments for a naming consultant. Or, as Michael Marturello says, it's "nothing to sneeze at."
He learned about the myriad of naming issues that one encounters given the thousands — millions — of possible colors out there, wondering in his excellent column what color "canary green" should be (yellow? green?). Turns out it's a greenish yellow. Go figure.
He jokingly suggests a paint called "sneeze green," which sounds a little crazy until you realize there really are product names out there like "pickling spice" and "twisted knot" and "marsh misery."
Spare a thought for Crayola, who has to think up colors that are both useful and child friendly. You can play a color game on their site if you are so inclined. Just don't make the same mistakes they have made in the past by creating famously politically incorrect names like "Indian Red" and "flesh" (which is pink, but not always). They still have "Fuzzy Wuzzy Brown," which in some circles is considered racist.
Paint companies have an assortment of names on offer. Check out the Sherwin-Williams site for an "online color visualizer" or swing over to Behr Paint and Wood Stain and "Paint Your Place".
But if you really want an idea of how hard it is to match color naming schemes to the actual colors, go on and play the online paint game from the Dulux range.
I dare you to tell me what color "Labrador Sands" is. Or "Party Surprise."
Technorati Tags: Paint, Color, Color Names, Crayola, Sherwin Williams, Behr
Posted by William Lozito at 11:11 AM
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July 31, 2007
Getting Greener and Cleaner: Company Naming Changes and Brand Names
You'd have to be on Mars not to know that there's a growing green movement in the U.S. (and Europe).
The green trend has manifest itself with more and more company names and brand names in the U.S. capitalizing on increased consumer interest in protecting the environment and concern about global warming.
Our proprietary 2006 Company Naming Changes Report identifies at least 10 companies that have changed their name to take advantage of the green trend. Two examples are
- Safer Residence Corp. to Solar Enertech Corp.
- Metasun Enterprises, Inc. to Pure Biofuels Corp.
This green trend, as mentioned earlier, is also being reflected in some interesting new product names.
For example, wine makers are trying to sell us old wine in new plastic bottles and vodka makers are creating a more ecologically-friendly tipple.
The world's first eco-friendly vodka, 360 Vodka, uses locally grown grains resulting in reduced fossil fuel consumption in transporting raw materials to the distillery, and their glass bottle is made from 85% recycled glass.
Furthermore, we've already covered how Steve Jobs is repositioning Apple to be a greener and friendlier computer company.
Now the Chinese computer archrival Lenovo brand is trying to clean up its act as well... as are Dell and HP. These days, it seems, Greenpeace is actually becoming a brand name consultant to big businesses.
For more analysis on company naming changes in 2006, click on the Company Naming Changes Report button at the top of our home page.
Technorati Tags: Company Naming Changes Report, Safer Residence Corp., Solar Enertech Corp., Metasun Enterprises, Inc., Pure Biofuels Corp., Steve Jobs, 360 Vodka, Lenovo, Dell, HP.
Posted by William Lozito at 7:25 AM
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July 17, 2007
New Bottled Water Has a Bling Brand Name
Is it just me, or do others out there feel that Paris Hilton should be thrown in jail again for giving a bottle of the new luxe bottled water, "Bling H2O," which carries a $35 price tag per bottle, to her dog?
Bling H2O is co-branded with Swarovski, with a product name that says it all.
Bottled water branding is going further than anyone ever would have imagined even a few years ago, with at least one restaurant creating a "sommelier" type position for a water expert who can actually pair bottled water with food (possibly this person would be named a "hydrolier").
The branding of these items is that rarified now... and well it should be, given that we're talking about a $100 billion a year biz.
New high end water brands include 10 thousand BC from, well, BC, as in British Columbia.
I also find it interesting that we have an assortment of names for the kinds of waters that make up these brands. For instance, do you know the difference between artesian water and mineral water? If not, Laura Smith has put together a primer.
Before you drop a few bucks on Bling H2O, I must warn you that one blogger comes to us with the news that Poland Spring ($1) is actually better tasting... go figure.
San Francisco spends nearly $500,000 on bottled water yearly despite owning its own pristine reservoir in the Sierra Nevada. This reservoir is said to produce some of the country's best tasting tap water.
In an effort to cut bottled water spending, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning the use of city money to buy bottled water.
By December 1st, all city departments located on city property must switch from bottled water dispensers to dispensers that attached to taps or water pipes.
On the wave of all this, of course, is the New York City effort to tout its own water, which consistently gets rated as better than bottled competitors.
Bottled water is the largest area of growth among all beverages, selling 15 billion in 2002.
Unfortunately, only about 12 percent of those bottles are being recycled... that's 40 million bottles a day that are being thrown away.
Technorati Tags: Bling H2O, 10 Thousand BC, Poland Spring, Bottled Water, Swarovski, Laura Smith.
Posted by William Lozito at 8:25 AM
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June 29, 2007
Brand Naming: "Easy" Does It?
Steve Blow has a great article up in the Dallas Morning News about packaging that is difficult to open. Hard to open packaging is inspiring a new affliction that has been given the name "wrap rage" by consumers who are tired of struggling with package backs that do not come off and toys that seem permanently affixed to their boxes.
Things have gotten so bad that Consumer Reports has given the "Oyster Awards" to the new Oral-B electric toothbrush that was almost "demolished" upon opening and Bratz Sisters dolls that require almost eight minutes to free from their plastic casing.
I'd add that easy to open packaging joins green packaging as the new clarion call for consumers: the new name is "sustainable packaging," spearheaded by none other than Wal-Mart Canada.
If suppliers do not reduce the amount of packaging on their products, Wal-Mart says, they could get excluded. This comes on the heels of The Toronto Star's report that toymakers are missing the green revolution by filling our landfills with tons and tons of cardboard, plastic and bubble wrap.
On the other hand, product tampering and theft seem to be major worries on the part of the packaging industry.
It seems to me, however, that this affects naming because packages that are clearly labeled "easy to open" or that tout their "green" attributes should capture the eye of legions of parents and grandparents who dread Christmas day and the bags of trash-and sore fingers-that attend the hours of opening the presents once they have been unwrapped. Right now, as Steve Blow points out, "Easy Opening" does not always mean it's easy to open.
Who should be listening? Toymakers, food suppliers and hygiene product suppliers. How about making packaging that foregrounds the product and is green friendly...like the NoBottle bottle from Sidel.
Technorati Tags: Packaging, Wal-Mart, Oral-B, Consumer Reports, Bratz, NoBottle, Sidel
Posted by William Lozito at 9:48 AM
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January 21, 2007
Branding Katonah, Martha, Isn't a Good Thing
Martha Stewart's idea to trademark a line of furniture named after her upstate New York home town of Katonah has probably not earned her many friends.
The neighbors don’t seem to mind her use of the name but cannot see why it has to be trademarked.
One of Stewart's people has said this will be "a tribute" to the town, like "Philadelphia Cream Cheese or London Fog raincoats."
The head of the Village Improvement Society has countered, "I don’t object to Ms. Stewart's using the name, but her attempt to prevent others from using it is disturbing."
My advice as a professional naming consultant: use it, but don’t try to protect it. As at least one Katonah resident has already figured out, the patent application is doomed anyway simply because Stewart cannot claim the furniture, which will in all likelihood not be made by local craftsmen, comes from Katonah, NY. These days, 70% of furniture sold in the US is not made in the US.
The Katohah brand name is not a good thing, Martha.
Technorati Tags: Martha Stewart, Katonah, Trademark, Furniture
Posted by William Lozito at 12:01 PM
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May 25, 2006
Brand Naming: To Google or Not to Google - That is Genericization
Google is worried about the genericization of its name, which means that it doesn't want its trademark to become generic in meaning and suffer the same fate as Kleenex, Rollerblade and Xerox.
I think that genericization is a bug bear of product naming. On the one hand you want your brand name to be a household word, but on the other you want it to still mean your product.
The bone of contention is the infinitive "to google". Google claims that the overuse of the word Google as a verb will lead to "Googling" being the generic term for "searching the Internet with a search engine".
Google has gone so far as to remove the usage from the Wordspy online dictionary, but as Jason Lee Miller (who has done some pretty cool brand name research) points out, various forms of the word Google remain in the dictionary and in common discourse: Googlebombing," "Googleverse," and "Googlejuice." As well as Googtopia, Googler and Googlite.
And it is not entirely clear to me if Google allows you to do all the Googling you want...so long as you use Google? Do they really sit around at Google Corporate Headquarters (called the Googleplex) and not "google"?
Lee also points out that Google did not raise the alarm when Pontiac asked users to "Google Pontiac" in a recent TV campaign (which we linked to in an earlier post) and it does seem unlikely that people will start "googling about" with Yahoo! and MSN Search.
However, I believe Google should by all means protect its trademark - the Google brand name is one with massive equity behind it and they would be remiss in not being concerned about its misuse.
Technorati Tags: Google, Generic Brand Names, Genericize, Googling, Googlebombing, Xerox, Google Pontiac, Search Engine, Web Search
Posted by William Lozito at 2:03 PM
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May 2, 2006
Product Naming: The Trademarking Hurdle
Did you know that the US Trademark office rejected a product name called Lotsa Suds? Or that well known brand names such as Tender Vittles, Chap Stick and Bufferin are actually very difficult trademarks to defend in court?
Trademark issues are becoming more and more complex and can bedevil a product name or brand name and a major part of what a naming company deals with on a daily basis. A recent article, What Not to Name Your Product, by Mark C. Jacobs, reminds us that a trademark is not a Service Mark and that trademarks are always “adjectives and not nouns". Jacobs means that there is no such thing as a "Buick" in the world of trademarks, but there is only a "Buick car".
I think that people who are not naming consultants may not be aware of a few other interesting things: it’s very hard to trademark a person’s last name and almost impossible to trademark a geographic name for a product or service that does not come from that place.
The fact is, if a trademark registration application is rejected, it is an incredible headache for the applicant. I believe that navigating these rough waters is part of the job of any good naming company that knows how to do the proper brand name research necessary to avoid trademark hassles.
Technorati Tags: Trademark Office, Service Mark, Trademark Issues, Mark Jacobs
Posted by William Lozito at 11:28 AM
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April 24, 2006
Earth Day: The Products Are Great; The Brand Names May Not Be
April 22nd was Earth Day, which puts into focus Earth-friendly products and brand names for today.
I think that the people at Coolhunting have found an interesting array of Earth-friendly products that appeal to those of us interested in saving the planet; they also have directed us to the “Preserve” range of disposable plates.
There can be no doubt that social activism and concerns should have a direct link to brand naming and brand name research. At least one store has made its entire focus on environmentally friendly products, including, amazingly, composting toilets and “woody pens” from the amusingly and forthrightly named Goodkind Pen Company.
I think the company name is OK, but the product name “woody pen”...may need some work.
Technorati Tags: Earth Day, Green Store, Composting Toilets, Woody Pen
Posted by William Lozito at 10:38 AM
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November 3, 2005
Why Companies Change Their Name
The November issue of Business 2.0 takes a good look at when and how an established company must change its most valuable asset.
Corporate name changes are up 12% over last year. Times change and business names change with them, whether it's Kodak dropping Ofoto in favor of Kodak EasyShare or beleaguered WorldCom returning to plain old MCI. We're also now seeing the post-bust demise of the ".com" company name. However, the article points out that the "leading trigger" for corporate name changes is mergers and acquisitions, which are way up nowadays (9,000 last year, up 50% from 2003).
When one company takes over another, you either have to settle on one of the old names, combine the two, or think up a new name. The key is to evaluate each M & A partner's brand. When I was asked by the writer of the article how this is accomplished, I said: "You do substantial quantitative research" using rigorous but subjective surveys. I suggested that the companies ask themselves "Can the brand be described as a leader or a follower? Does it feel young or old?"
Many times it is best to find a compromise, such as when Sprint acquired Nextel. Sprint's adoption of Nextel's yellow and black color scheme, along with the tagline, display what I felt is "the perfect example of co-branding" (see our September 6 post on the subject).
Some companies start with a fresh name, such as the name Novartis that grew from the merger of Swiss pharmaceutical giants Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz Laboratories. Sometimes, however, the new name is simply an awkward amalgamation of the two partners: think ConocoPhillips, DaimlerChrysler, ExxonMobil and, lamely, Konica Minolta.
Other companies either seem to rename themselves after their top product. Xerox was once boring Haloid; Relational Software is now called Oracle after its best selling database product; Motorola started as the name of a car radio produced by Galvin manufacturing in the 1930s.
Renaming a company usually involves hiring branding agency, which can do the hardcore research involved in finding new names and how they will appeal to customers. We often provide "demos" of how the new name will look on letterheads, corporate reports, the website and even on business cards. Then comes introducing the new name to workers, and finally, to the world.
Even the best laid plans can go awry thanks to mismanagement and corporate bungling that can make any new name go sour (think how hard it is to associate positive meanings with the name that resulted from the merger of Houston Natural Gas and Internorth: Enron). But change can bring growth. Since Kodak dropped the Ofoto name, the online service has grown from 18 million to 25 million users...good news for a well-known and loved brand name that's facing an uncertain future.
Technorati Tags: Company Name Change, Corporate Branding, Name Change, Naming a Company
Posted by William Lozito at 3:29 PM
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September 14, 2005
Google This. One "G" Too Many
In an earlier blog on September 2, I reported on the new George Foreman grill, which uses "G5" in the p