April 22, 2008
Brandz Ranks the Value of Brand Names Globally
Millward Brown's Top 100 Most Powerful Brandz report is a major undertaking, congratulations to MB.
However, you may call me a cynic, but I always question huge percentage changes in data over a one year period.
For instance, are we to believe that during 2007
- Apple's brand value increased by 123%?
- Blackberry's brand value increased by 390%?
What it tells me more than anything is that the Millward Brown Brandz methodology, at least in some instances, is overly sensitive to input.
Having said that, the broad findings of the most powerful brands are most likely valid, but I wouldn't put a lot of stock in the yearly percent change in brand value.
The study ranks Google #1 in brand value worldwide. Maybe that's true. Maybe it's not.
Could Google's ranking, be in part, because the name is ubiquitous as both a noun and a verb or is it vice-versa?
It would be interesting to see what a buyer would pay to acquire Google, which consists primarily of intellectual property or intangible assets versus the #2 brand, GE, which consists primarily of physical assets.
David Goldstein quoted a Millward Brown exec that stated that “strong brands continue to outperform weak ones in terms of market share and share price during recessions.”
Again, I don't think so.
I'm not aware of a recession in the U.S. or worldwide during 2007, the study period. My understanding of economics is that a recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of declining GDP.
Again, am I being overly picky? You decide.
Finally, Millward Brown is to be congratulated on this major brand study, even with its perceived shortcomings by a sample of one.
Technorati Tags: Google, Blackberry, Apple, Brand Value, Global Brand, Market Share, Share Price
Posted by William Lozito at 10:33 AM
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April 18, 2008
A Product Code Name Worth Watching
Remember when tubular was a term of approbation? Okay, maybe not.
Nokia’s code name for its proposed “iPhone killer” is Tube.
The mobile giant isn’t big on giving its products real names; Symbian Freak speculates that the Tube is part of the S60 line. For the general public, however, Tube is easier to remember.
Engadget describes the Tube as “grossly codenamed," and I have to agree that tube is not an especially sexy word, and in one meaning, conveys entirely the wrong shape for a mobile phone.
But there is logic to the name. The dominant feature of the Nokia Tube, like the Apple iPhone, is its screen. It’s a phone for watching video on. Back in the day, everyone referred to the television as the tube.
These days, not even televisions have vacuum tubes in them any more, but language can be slow to catch up with technology. We still talk about rewinding digital audio and video files. Although it may be that a more typical alphanumeric Nokia designation will actually sound more modern.
Besides, the example of pace Microsoft, the real name is supposed to be cooler than the code name.
Technorati Tags: Nokia Tube, Apple iPhone, Apple, Inc, Nokia, Cell Phone, iPhone Killer, Microsoft
Posted by Diane Prange at 8:05 AM
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April 16, 2008
Pico: The Latest Word in Nano Product Naming
By now, everyone knows that nano means small. Though Apple’s iPod Nano is the most famous product to possess that name, there are 299 registered or trademarked Nano products in the same class, and more than 1200 overall.
In short, the Nano name is getting tired. If you want to name something small, you have to look elsewhere for inspiration.
That’s just what Super Talent has done in creating its Pico drives, which I first spotted on Pocket-lint.
While Engadget points out that at least five other companies have claimed to produce the world’s smallest USB flash drive, Pico is the most aptly named.
The other contenders are the Kingmax Super Stick, the iDisk II, the Pretec Bella, and Toshiba’s MK2001MTN hard drive, which doesn’t use flash memory.
In the International System of Units, pico denotes one trillionth, whereas nano is one billionth. So a pico-whatever is definitely smaller than a nano-whatever.
It wouldn’t surprise me, however, if Apple started using Pico drives to make its Nano even smaller.
Technorati Tags: Pico, Nano, Apple, Super Talent, USB Drives, Toshiba, Size, Hard Drive
Posted by Diane Prange at 9:56 AM
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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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April 14, 2008
Shared Names Breed Kinship—But Only If Your Name is NOT Your Brand
The New York Times reported last week on an interesting side effect of the now commonplace practice of ego surfing (looking yourself up in Google). People are making friends with their Googlegängers for the same reason women named Virginia move to Virginia: we have a natural affinity for people, places, and things that share our names.
Well, usually. If your namesake happens to be a porn star, you might not be so amused. And if your name is your brand, you might feel just as annoyed by the existence of Googlegängers as record company Apple Corps Ltd did when Apple Inc. (then Apple Computer Inc.) decided to go into the music-selling business.
A company can trademark its brand name and defend it against infringement and domain squatting, within reason, anyway. Apple Inc. challenges aspiring new brand name trademarks with impartial ruthlessness.
But you can’t trademark your own personal name, and you’re not likely to get very far if you accuse someone else who has as much right to the name as you do of domain squatting in order to cash in on your success, unless you are already far more famous than they are.
So if you’re not fortunate enough to be the only person with your personal name to show up in Google, or at the very least the first one to register that name as a domain, you might be better off giving your company a unique, memorable brand name. That gives you a chance to trademark it, grab the “.com” version, and establish your brand.
What’s more, creating a strong association between your name and your company’s helps distinguish you from your Googlegängers when friends and family are trying to find you online.
Technorati Tags: Googleganger, Apple Inc, Apple Corps Ltd, Google, Domain Names, Personal Name
Posted by Diane Prange at 8:05 AM
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April 10, 2008
Apple Bullies GreenNYC Naming and Branding
Legal Satyricon has a point regarding the hoopla between Apple and New York over their GreenNYC campaign’s apple logo is probably not going to be a win for Apple.
There is hardly a chance that the two logos could be confused and let's face it, we are not likely to see brand name dilution here. 
New York was “The Big Apple” long before Apple, Inc. was the innovative leader in the technology space.
I think that Apple is well aware that they may not have a strong case here, but by challenging all apple logo treatments consistently, it will strengthen their long-term protection of the Apple logo. Likewise, Logo Design Works supports this argument when pointing out that although “the GREENYC logo is not competing in the consumer electronics category,” Apple may only be sending a warning to others who want to use a similar logo.
Logical Complex Infinitive considers this a case of Apple “bullying” New York, can anyone really bully New York?
It will be interesting to see how the courts courts view this situation if it ever gets that far. It won't, I predict.
Technorati Tags: The Big Apple, Green Apple NYC, Apple, Environment, New York, GreenNYC, Mac
Posted by William Lozito at 8:03 AM
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April 1, 2008
Does Social Media Need A New Name?
Thought Leader in South Africa has a great post up suggesting that social
media, including blogs, email, and social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, needs a new name that will encompass the true marketing nature of all of these social forums. Gino Cosme of Think Leader believes that its a given that public relation agencies should be the ones to bring social media to a new level. His suggestion, therefore, is "social-media relations."
Hmmm. Well, he does lead us to an interesting post about social media marketing strategies but at least one very convincing blogger says that social media leadership will not come from the world of Public Relations.
I think that the name will stay for the time being, but I do agree that advertisers are not likely to take over the medium any time soon.
Technorati Tags: Social Media, Public Relations, Advertisers, Advertisers, Advertisers, MySpace, Facebook
Posted by William Lozito at 9:30 AM
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March 28, 2008
Pingg and the Evolution of Language
Once upon a time, a programmer needed to do some network troubleshooting.
He wrote a little program to tell him whether a given network host was accessible and how long it took to get a signal there and back. He named this program after the sonar pulses used to determine how far away an object was in space.
And thus “ping” was born.
Five years ago, most of us only encountered the term if we had to call our ISP’s tech support because we couldn’t get online. Then the tech support technician would ask us to open a command line and ping Google or some other site they absolutely knew was working.
But now the word “ping” has entered our everyday language, particularly among the BlackBerry-toting business types who use “offline” when they mean “in private” or “after this discussion is over.” (Real geeks know that what they want to say is “use the back-channel.”)
“Ping me” does not mean “try to reach my network host to see if it’s working.” It means “contact me” or “remind me.” Keith Ferrazzi uses “pinging” to mean keeping in frequent touch with your contacts, to remind them who you are and how helpful you can be to them.
Now there’s pingg, an online invitation service discovered this week by Springwise.
Despite the obligatory Web 2.0 spelling of the name, pingg shows us just how far this once-obscure term has penetrated into popular consciousness. It doesn’t take a geek to want to send out invitations online, and pingg provides every conceivable way to get your friends’ attention: e-mail, SMS text message, social networks, and even good old-fashioned snail mail.
Technorati Tags: Pingg, Blackberry, ISP, Sonar Pulses, Ping
Posted by Diane Prange at 8:02 AM
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March 14, 2008
Tribute or Threat? Shoetube Prompts Trademarking Questions
There are now dozens, if not hundreds, of video-sharing sites, but none so famous as YouTube. Now the clever spotters over at Springwise have discovered a niche video whose name is a tribute to that popularity.
Shoetube caters exclusively to shoe-lovers. If you’re an Imelda Marcos wannabe (oh, I am dating myself here), this site is for you.
I love the name. It’s clever, funny, and tells you exactly what you’re going to find on the site. But I do wonder about the fate of the intent-to-use trademark application that the owner of Powderhouse Productions has filed. It’s possible that even if Google doesn’t choose to file a cease-and-desist on behalf of the name YouTube, the examining attorney at the US Patent and Trademark Office will still reject the application.
There are other registered trademarks that end in “–tube,” but the rhyme makes it tricky, and the USPTO doesn’t look favorably on attempts to cash in on a competitor’s more famous name.
Of course, Google may face its own challenges (its TM for “YouTube” hasn’t made it all the way through the registration process yet), thanks to an abandoned mark for “YouTube” in the same class filed by a Belgian manufacturer of scientific equipment.
Let’s hope Shoetube makes it, but also that “-tube” doesn’t become the “i-” of 2008, with dozens of copycat names to follow.
Technorati Tags: Shoetube, YouTube, USPTO, Trademark, Shoes, Video, Shoetube, Naming
Posted by William Lozito at 1:11 PM
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March 3, 2008
Intel Atom: Processor Product Naming for Your PC, Fridge or Mirror
Intel, long known for their confusing naming strategies, has selected the name Atom for its new chip line that could find itself in all kinds of new devices, including many that “haven’t had a serious processor before,” like, say, your refrigerator, toaster or even your bathroom mirror.
The Atom naming replaces the Silverthorne code name and also will be used in the Centrino Atom brand name for those products (mostly mobile Internet devices) that carry only Intel processors.
The name also does away with the Diamondville code name processors for desktops and notebooks.
This naming launch has focused some bloggers on the (pretty vague) difference between notebooks and netbooks. As Tech-Ex says, “Great, more terminology.”
Intel's sub branding nomenclature is doing a nice job of balancing the emphasis of its master brand and new sub brands.
Technorati Tags:Atom, Intel, PC, Silverthorne, Centrino Atom, Diamondville, Naming
Posted by William Lozito at 8:04 AM
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February 8, 2008
Return of Detroit Electric Car Turns Company Naming Back a Century
I think that it is great news that the Detroit Electric Car brand name will see light again after a hundred year absence, even if the first offices will actually be in California.
The reintroduction of a car carrying the brand name favored by the likes of Thomas Edison and John D Rockerfeller Jr. is a joint venture between US electric car company ZAP and China Youngman Automotive Group.
The Zap Alias model will carry the Detroit Electric Car brand naming. The company’s base in California will help solidify that state as the heart of alternative energy cars, especially electric cars. I do have to wonder if anyone finds it funny that the Detroit name will be appended to a company that really has nothing to do with Motown, but I am always pleased to see a classic name make a comeback.
I’ve said it before: you just can’t kill a good brand.
Possibly the name of the new company will remind car buyers that electric cars were once very popular in the US and not seen as alternatives at all.
Technorati Tags: Detroit, Electric Car, Zap, Alias, Brand Naming, Energy
Posted by William Lozito at 7:31 AM
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February 7, 2008
Rome and Yahoo! Brand Naming Not Built in a Day
Jack Trout has a great post up about the brand naming duality of Google and Yahoo! if Microsoft’s plan to buy the company goes ahead.
One thing is pretty certain, the Yahoo! brand will stay and allow Microsoft an instant, huge piece of the search market and possibly leave MSN as the odd man out.
Trout suggests that Yahoo! and Google will become the Coke and Pepsi of the world of search. Or the McDonald’s and Burger King. Or the GM and Toyota. He feels that for most industries, sooner or later it comes down to two huge brand names and everyone else is left on the outside looking in.
Trout’s view seems overly simplistic to me. I think the broader the penetration of a product category, the more likely it is that there will be multiple competitors.
This make sense to you?
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Yahoo, Rome, Google, Brand Naming, Trout, Live, Search Engine, MSN
Posted by William Lozito at 7:30 AM
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February 4, 2008
Go Daddy Builds Danica Patrick’s Beaver into Its Brand Naming
John Moore’s Brand Autopsy blog has some wonderful Monday morning quarterbacking on the ads that ran on Superbowl Sunday, and I had to weigh in on Go Daddy’s efforts... just like many of Moore’s furious responders do.
Some backstory: Go Daddy had a very racy commercial rejected by Fox because it centered around a stripping Danica Patrick and the word “beaver,” which has a misogynistic sexual innuendo. They got free exposure by having nine others rejected as well.
So instead of unveiling their actual commercial on the air, the company’s Superbowl spot leads viewers to their website to watch the controversial ad.
They have also been airing a slightly less offensive advertisement that equated to registering domains on Go Daddy with a variety of sexual milestones.
The web version, which many believe was purposely made to get railroaded by Fox’s censors, has gotten fairly high rankings today: Alexander Wolfe at Information Week gives it a B+. And while Go Daddy swears the censor’s rejection was not planned, they have managed to drive lots of traffic to their web site — their objective, considering that’s where they do business.
What is bad is that they have forever associated the word “beaver” with their brand name and raised the ire of fifty percent of the online population, many of whom will spend this week convincing their employers to drop Go Daddy. Go Daddy’s CEO, Bob Parsons doesn’t really seem to care and is loving the attention, claiming that those who are offended are in the minority.
Maybe. Maybe not. But that's a pretty vocal group, as they should be.
Technorati Tags: Brand Naming, Super Bowl, Commercials, Advertisements, Ads, Danica Patrick, Go Daddy
Posted by William Lozito at 7:38 AM
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January 31, 2008
Sony’s Buzz! Brand Naming Gets Buzztime Buzzing
The buzz in the blogosphere is that Sony is being sued by US based Buzztime Entertainment over the buzz naming in its Buzz! trivia game.
Buzztime does not (and probably cannot) trademark the word buzz but it is interesting to note that we are talking about two electronic games. Buzztime claims that Sony is capitalizing on its brand name and calls the trespass “"malicious, fraudulent, knowing, willful, and deliberate."
Joystiq.com wonders if the smart move would be for Sony to buy Buzztime outright to avoid a legal wrangle that it probably will lose: the two competing brand names are in a similar market and easily confused.
That said, the argument in Sony’s favor would be that buzzers and buzzing and indeed the word buzz is clearly associated with trivia games and its fair game for anyone, but I would imagine that Sony is in trouble here. They want to trademark Buzz! as well as two other versions of the word for use in the electronic trivia game field and that puts them head to head with Buzztime.
In addition, Buzztime has been around since 1985 and is pretty popular. I find it hard to believe that Sony isn’t aware that the word buzz has a certain automatic, built in association.
Technorati Tags: Sony, Buzztime, Buzz, Playstation, Trivia, Brand Naming, Trademarking
Posted by William Lozito at 7:29 AM
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January 23, 2008
A Green BMW Could be a Triumph in Product Naming
It seems that the rumors that were flying around last November are true: BMW is looking for a new brand name for a line of eco-friendly cars.
Hilton Holloway thinks the solution is to simply make the MINI brand name the eco-brand, while Lascelles Linton at AutoblogGreen argues that BMW’s hydrogen car project, alongside its fuel-efficient Mini and gas sipping Smart brand, should be enough for the Bavarians. No new brand naming required.
I am partial to the idea of BMW trotting out a clean, green Triumph, a brand it also owns, which seems to be all but languishing despite its enormous appeal.
If the MINI can be brought back in new livery, why can’t the Triumph be a “triumph” in green engineering? I’d say that the first model should come out in British racing green and use BMW’s Efficient Dynamics Technology. That would be a sweet ride indeed.
Technorati Tags: BMW, Triumph, Product Naming, Eco-Friendly Cars
Posted by William Lozito at 7:28 AM
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January 22, 2008
Nike and Apple Take to the Air in Brand Naming
I have been mulling over Apple’s new MacBook Air brand name, which was announced last week at Macworld.
And here are a number of points that come to mind:
- Mac lovers knew the name was coming (and Apple may have helped them figure it out with their “There’s something in the air posters)
- David Pogue of the the New York Times writes that “the name ‘Air’ is particularly apt. It describes not only the laptop’s aerodynamic shape, but also its nearly complete inability to connect to cables.” I agree.
- Some people wonder if the folks over at Nike aren't going to think this is some kind of move on their turf, with one wag asking “So when the MacBook Jordans coming out?."
Or maybe that’s not a joke: in the very same week that Jobs announced the brand naming of his new computer, Nike let it slip that their 23rd Air Jordan was set for release.
Yes, “Air” is Nike territory, but I’d add that Apple and Nike are selling to an overlapping target market. By the way, I wonder if Apple minds the recently introduced Tata Nano auto, manufactured by Tata Motors in India.
Technorati Tags: Macbook Air, Nike Air, Brand Naming, Air Jordan, Apple
Posted by William Lozito at 7:33 AM
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January 14, 2008
Embracing English Naming Trend, Panasonic Drops Matsushita’s from Brand Name
The news that Panasonic is dropping “Matsushita” from its brand naming has been applauded across the blogosphere. As Thomas Ricker at Engadget points out, it might be hard to lose the founder’s name, but the “dual-naming scheme hurt both brands and created confusion in the global marketplace.” Lee Distad, however, notes that Panasonic’s well regarded Technics brand name is still going strong.
An article in The Daily Yomiuri Online takes a good look at the naming strategy that Panasonic is embracing, and the belief that a single, congruent brand name is the means through which Panasonic will re-energize its brand and initiate a “second phase in the company’s history.”
More than that, there is a definite trend towards English-sounding names and abbreviations happening in Japanese company naming. Two notable examples are:- until 2002 Pentax was officially Asahi Kogaku Kogyo
- until 1983 popular tape brand TDK was officially Tokyo Denki Kagaku Kogyo.
This move towards English sounding names will only accelerate since the Justice Minister, in 2002, ruled that Japanese companies can use Roman characters in their name.
Technorati Tags: Panasonic, Pentax, Matsushita, English Naming Trend
Posted by William Lozito at 10:29 AM
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January 10, 2008
Branding: New Xerox Brand Identity
Xerox has refreshed its brand identity in order to get a little distance from simply being perceived as a copier company.
The revised Xerox "wordmark," just like Google, has seen its name used as a noun and a verb and has struggled with “genericide.”
Gone are the imposing high capital letters, replaced by a friendlier rounded lowercase font treatment with a globe icon beside it.
Let’s hope the new logo will help to “disrupt the mental model of Xerox as just a copier company.”
Some have observed, however, that the X on the globe of Xerox logo is surprisingly similar to Microsoft's Xbox logo.
Technorati Tags: Xerox, Brand Identity, Wordmark, Google
Posted by William Lozito at 7:52 AM
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January 4, 2008
Product Naming: Identity Crisis for “Ego”?
Mike Himowitz at the Baltimore Sun plans to use his ego to help keep his New Year’s Resolutions — or rather, to use his eGo, an external hard drive from Iomega.
No doubt the “Go” in “eGo” is meant to emphasize the drive’s portability, but plays on the name are appropriate as well as inevitable. 
(You can fit your whole ego into something that small? Really?) Our identities are closely bound up with our data these days, and ego is merely Latin for “I.”
Nevertheless, the eGo drive seems to be suffering from an identity crisis. Mike at the My Tech Talk blog claims that the drive looks like a hip flask, which in fact it does, but that’s not the real issue. If you type “ego drive” into Technorati, what do you find? The Raytel EGO Drive GPS system on display at CES right now.
What’s more, “eGo” is already trademarked for digital media kiosks. In fact, a trademark search brings up 63 entries for “ego” in the electronics class alone.
Talk about egomania in naming!
Technorati Tags: Iomega, Hard Drive, eGo, Technology Brand
Posted by William Lozito at 8:42 AM
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January 3, 2008
Technology Brand Naming Men's Health Article
You may have seen the special edition of Men's Health Tech Guide 2008.
There are a lot of cool gadgets covered in this issue:
- Sierra Designs Echo Sleeping Bag
- Yamaha 2008 FXSHO Personal Watercraft
- Saeco Primea Cappuccino Touch Plus
Men's Health invited me to write an article on technology brand naming.
Technorati Tags: Men's Health, Technology Brands, Yamaha, Saeco
Posted by William Lozito at 8:01 AM
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January 2, 2008
Wikipedia’s Other Competitor Beats Google at the Name Game
On Monday, while Bill was musing on Google’s newly-announced Knol, I came across another alternative to Wikipedia — this one with a far better name.
“Knol(l),” in my mind, is tied inevitablly with the word “grassy;” not the mental association Google wants me to have, I’m sure.
Contrast that with Citizendium, a portmanteau of “citizen” and “compendium.” Even though the term “citizen journalism” may not be flavor of the month any more among web trend-setters, the name does a great job of conveying what the project is about — as does “Wikipedia” itself.
The name “Citizendium” also has a “by the people, for the people” feel to it, even though Citizendium, like Knol, emphasizes the credibility and identity of its authors. They’re using a service called BeenVerified to establish author credentials. “BeenVerified” is itself name and tagline in one: “You can believe what I say: I’ve BeenVerified.”
Google has the fame and money that Citizendium lacks, but I’m still hoping the best name wins. And I suspect that people will start referring to Knol as “Googlepedia.”
Hat tip to John C. Havens and Media 2.Open.
Technorati Tags: Wikipedia, Google, Knol, Citizendium
Posted by Diane Prange at 7:51 AM
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December 28, 2007
Google Prevails with Gu Ge Brand Name in China
What a difference a day makes. In life. And in trademark law.
We've blogged earlier in July of 2007 about the Chinese having difficulty pronouncing Google, which led the company to re-brand its search engine "Gu Ge."
In an earlier blog of April 2006 we acknowledged the conventional marketing wisdom of one brand globally. However, in the case of China, with four times the population of U.S., it was an appropriate trade off for Google to change its name there.
It turns out that Google registered the Gu Ge brand name in China only 7 days before another company, Gu Ge Technology did.
Gu Ge Technology tried to sue Google over Gu Ge, however, the Haid