February 13, 2012
Falling in Love With Product Names
The word "love" has a special place in the heart of advertisers. It signifies both recognition and a strong emotional attachment, as well as brand loyalty.
And some brand names are feeling some serious love as Valentine's Day approaches.
In fact, one group conducted a survey asking the consumer "What brand do you love most" and "Why?" The list includes popular brands consumers easily recognize due to their immediate appeal such as Apple, Sony, and Coke.
At the beginning of the month another group generated a "brand love" index score, with Apple once again on top, followed by Porsche, BMW and Ferrari. Note how they are aspirational brands.
Ad Age is quick to remind us that "Love just isn't enough anymore. In brand relationships, good customer service, high customer satisfaction and even professed brand loyalty won't keep consumers from ditching a product for the competition. In fact, more than half of U.S. consumers did so last year."
Why? Because a whopping 44% of consumers surveyed say they expect more from their brands this year and are willing to switch if there is no delivery.
So, loving a brand and being faithful to it are two very different things.
Technorati Tags: Branding, Naming, Brand Loyalty,
Posted by William Lozito at 8:09 AM
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December 20, 2011
Chinese Brand Name Just Doesn't Travel Well
Today is a grim day in the world of brand naming.
I was tempted to write about the final demise of the Saab brand name, because I have followed the story for a few years now.
What actually caught my eye was another piece of bad news.
Despite an endorsement from Shaq, the Chinese apparel company Li Ning Co. failed to break into the American market.
The company is named after the towering Chinese athlete you may have seen at the last Olympic games. Their aggressive bid to take up headspace with the American consumer seems to have fallen short.
The fact is, beyond Chinese borders, Chinese brands are a challenge to establish. Studies show that 83% of consumers outside of China are unable to name one Chinese brand or company.
China's most valuable 50 brands have a combined value of $325 billion. Compare that to Apple's $153 billion, Google's $111 billion and IBM's $101 billion. Yup. Those three companies alone have more brand value.
The Asia Times, published an article entitled, China's Brands in the Shadows, which quoted a marketing professor referring to the top Chinese brands as "invisible dragons."
There are many reasons for this. From a lack of creativity in the "command-control" structure of Chinese companies to the typical North American reluctance to attach value to things "Made in China" despite the popularity of companies like Apple and Nike who sell Chinese made products.
Another problem may be China's inward looking marketing.
But I might add that there are clear naming problems here.
Think about it. Would you buy sneakers from a brand called Li Ning? It sounds like Lining. As in, "the sidelines."
The country's biggest Internet service portal is called Tencent. Yeah, Ten Cent.
And China's largest casual clothing retailer? Metersbonwe. Try saying that ten times fast or slow.
Technorati Tags: Li Ning, China, Branding, Naming, Brand Value
Posted by William Lozito at 8:18 AM
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November 28, 2011
Cyber Monday Naming Not As Cool as Magenta Saturday or Camo Thursday
Cyber Monday commences and sales may hit a new record. Think a projected $1.2 billion, up from $1 billion last year.
Black Friday, of course, was a a commercial success this year.
But did you know that the origin of the Black Friday name came from the headaches caused by the traffic jams and crowds in Philadelphia? The police hated the day, and dubbed it accordingly, and only recently has it been repurposed.
The name "Cyber Monday," of course, came about when The New York Times noted that "millions of otherwise productive working Americans, fresh off a Thanksgiving weekend of window shopping, were returning to high-speed Internet connections at work Monday and buying what they liked."
The Feds have took notice of this day, too, and have nabbed 130+ domain names as part of "their continued crackdown on counterfeit and piracy-related websites."
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have carried on with "Operation In Our Sites", nailing the bad guys who sell and trade counterfeit merchandise unfairly online.
Or, as Gawker puts it, "The federal government has once again made it harder to find the best online shopping spots for all your counterfeit sports jersey and fake Louis Vuitton bag holiday shopping needs. Why? Because they want your family's holiday gift-giving experience to be authentic."
So protection of brand names remains a priority today, rightly so.
But just recall that there are more days to look forward to, and they have even more creative names. Try "Magenta Saturday," created by T-Mobile, who on November 19th were selling cell phones at a discounted price.
Mattel has already held a "Pink Friday" and "Blue Friday" to reach girls and boys respectively.
And one outdoor chain is offering us "Camo Thursdays."
Heck, Amex has even held "Small Business Saturday."
But Green Tuesday is one of the more interesting days. This is from Green America, who offers us environmentally-friendly gifts made from, among other things, recycled nuclear bombs.
Technorati Tags: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Holiday Shopping, Name Origin, Marketing, Branding, Advertising
Posted by William Lozito at 8:10 AM
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October 31, 2011
Is Bad Brand Naming Folly?
I had to chuckle yesterday while reading a piece written by Alice Rawsthorn in the New York Times entitled The Power, or Folly, of a Product's Name.
She makes a few good points about some of the infuriatingly bad brand names, many of which I have commented on previously.
Rawsthron goes after techie products, laying waste to the Nikon Coolpix and the Sony Cyber-shot. She adds that she did not buy the Nikon Coolpix stating, "I had no intention of buying anything permanently emblazoned with 'Coolpix,' I passed."
This made me pause. She actually turned down the product because the product name was offensive? Really? "Coolpix" was just not cool?
This is certainly one of Nikon's most successful brand names and I have to wonder why, exactly, it is so awful. Puerile, maybe, but certainly no worse than "Instamatic", a real camera classic.
Rawsthron doesn't like it when companies add symbols to the letters, like Toys "R'" Us has done. She slates Aol, and then moves on to the Th!nk in Norway and the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, which she says is impossible to pronounce.
Okay, I'm with her on the Mitsubishi observation (and can write these off easily as culturally untransferable), but Aol? Toys "R" Us? These are fairly established brands, not victims of a "trend."
Maybe she is saying that this trend started badly and has only become worse. Close to the end of the piece, she says, "So what does the current fad for adding unpronounceable symbols to names mean? That our perceptions of language have been transformed by the abbreviations we use in texts and e-mails? And that we are so screen-dependent that we tend to type words, rather than write them by hand? Probably."
I'd say "definitely." But I would reword that to say that we type many words that we rarely have to say; that a good part of our branding input comes on a screen.
But, that said, alphanumeric branding is prevalent in the car industry. Many brands, like BMW and Mercedes, have simply always used it.
As far as cars go, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV has nothing on the "Isuzu Mysterious Utility Wizard" or the "Toyota Estima Lucida G Luxury Joyful Canopy."
Technorati Tags: Branding, Naming, Brand Naming, Product Naming, Coolpix
Posted by William Lozito at 8:54 AM
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October 28, 2011
Karl Lagerfeld Embraces Online "Masstige" Brand Name
They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. That is unless you're talking about 78 year old fashion visionary Karl Lagerfeld.
He recently told CNN that his real name should be "Lablefeld," as he is aggressively building up his own name as a fashion brand separate from Chanel, where he is creative director. He now has a namesake signature "masstige" line called "Karl" that you can buy online at Net-a-Porter.
To support the launch he has organized the following blitz, which is designed to bring high fashion to the rest of us:
- Pop-up shops in major cities, including Paris
- Lagerfeld "experience" stores (A mix of his Karl line and a new high-end line, as well as all his other interests, like books)
- Social media marketing
- A brand book
- Revamped website
- Men's wear to hit in fall 2012
Think blazers, biker jackets, jeans, and t-shirts.
There is even a logo that shows his profile featuring his famous ponytail and sunglasses.
His high-end line, called Karl Lagerfeld Paris, will be relaunched in the European market. Add into this his new perfume, called Karleidoscope. He is licensing the name Karl Lagerfeld for an assortment of other products, including Fossil watches and luxury pens made out of nail polish (I know).
Karl is really getting his name out there, shilling for Diet Coke and VW among others. This seems to be a sudden move to make fashion accessible and affordable.
Or maybe just a savvy retirement plan for one of the doyens of fashion.
Technorati Tags: Karl Lagerfeld, Lablefeld, Masstige, Chanel, Fashion, Marketing, Branding, Naming
Posted by William Lozito at 8:07 AM
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