March 17, 2010
Canon Changes the Face of Domain Naming and Branding with .Canon
This is interesting news in naming and branding.
Canon has applied for the .Canon generic Top Level Domain (gTLD), which Antony Van Couvering of Circle ID says breaks the "thin brand line" of near universal opposition to the practice of companies buying these domain names.
The fact is, it's the "worst kept secret in the industry" that top brands are quietly acquiring their own domains from ICANN to smoke out cybersquatters, throwing costs to the wind.
This makes Canon one of the world's first companies, and certainly the biggest brand, to say "uncle" and buy its own domain name, making the future Canon home page Canon.Canon.
Many bloggers question the wisdom of this move, saying that the intuitive domain name still ends with ".com" But this may change over time, and Canon is not taking chances.
According to DomainNews.com, "The new gTLD system is expected to allow a company name, brand name, geographic region, or service type to be used as a gTLD within website and e-mail addresses."
The installation of the system is set to begin by the end of 2011.
It just seems logical that a large company with a lot of brand equity would want it's own domain, and not have it bought by some kid in a basement or a shrewd competitor.
Technorati Tags: Canon, Domain Names, Branding, Naming, Photograph, ICANN
Posted by William Lozito at 12:46 PM| Comments (0)
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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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February 12, 2010
Comcast® to Xfinity™, Lipstick on a Pig?
Comcast, the brand name that we have come to love to hate, is changing its name to Xfinity today.
For good reason... Poor service. Poor value. Poor channel lineup. Poor customer service.
The company recently announced a name change to Xfinity for its phone, television, and Internet services and the reaction has been almost universally negative.
Is Xfinity a porn site? Is it a condom brand? Is it the name of an energy drink? Is it the amount of time Comcast customers are put on hold? Is it the the number of Xcuses for poor service?
The Internet chatter piqued our curiosity enough to survey 511 consumers nationally to quantify the negative reaction to the Xfinity name.
Guess what? 70% of consumers did not think Xfinity was the name for a cable/Internet service:
- 38% thought it was a gaming console
- 16% thought it was a porn site
- 16% thought it was a condom brand
- 31% strongly agree/agree with the statement "Brand names that start with 'X' are so 1990's."
We agree. This name change comes across as nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig.
If fact, our Chief Linguistics Officer, Diane Prange, was so perplexed by the Xfinity name that she decided to drop a rhyme about it. Check out the video below:
However, new names are a funny thing. Over time they become accepted.
For instance, a few years ago there was a senator from Illinois with a very unusual name, Barack Obama. Many of us thought, what an "odd" name.
Today, we would venture to say that Barack Obama is as familiar to our ears as Steve Jobs, and even easier to pronounce.
Therefore, we think it would be helpful to look on the positive side of names that start with 'X.'
After all, 'X' is perceived as unusual, most likely because it appears in less than 3% of all English words. Additionally:
- It's the symbol for a kiss.
- It's the name of the 13th generation to be born since the American Constitution.
- 'X' is mysterious and unknown.
- 'X' piques our curiosity.
- Exclusive
- Masculine
- Innovative
- International and fascinating
The letter 'X' aside, the 'finity' word root has many positive connotations as well. It evokes definity, divinity, infinity, and the holy trinity (of phone, internet and television).
So why doesn't the resulting name resonate better with the target market? Perhaps it's because a brand is only as good as the promise it keeps.
Until then... no brand name change and no amount of money spent on advertising will change consumers' perceptions of Comcast until the brand experience changes.
Comcast should have first fixed its poor service, poor value, poor channel lineup and poor customer service before changing its name to Xfinity.
Apparently Comcast management is aware that they will need more than a name change to alter consumer perceptions. The company has registered xfinitysucks.com, xfinitysucks.org, xfinitysucks.net, etc.
The positive associations of the letter 'X' aside, the Xfinity name will only suck less if it Xceeds consumers' Xpectations by delivering on its brand promise.
Xfinity, Comcast, Name Change, Comcast Name Change, Xfinity Brand Name, TV Service, TV Service
Posted by William Lozito at 8:15 AM| Comments (0)
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February 11, 2010
Google Buzz Naming Puts Bee in Yahoo's Bonnet
So the launch of Google Buzz, Google's social networking application, brings into question whether the word "Buzz" can really be Google's.
Leaving aside some of the snarky reviews, the announcement of Google Buzz made Yahoo! irritated enough to tweet its dissatisfaction with the name, saying, "Two years after #Yahoo! launched #Buzz, Google follows suit".
Then the Yahoo! PR machine went into motion, with Yahoo! reminding everyone they beat Google to the punch in the social media realm.
Microsoft also fired off an irritated message, pointing out that, "Busy people don't want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation. We've done that. Hotmail customers have benefited from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008."
Google, so far at least, has ignored Yahoo's implication of trademark infringement, probably because the two applications do fairly different things.
However, this may spell trouble for the Google Buzz name.
Yahoo first used the Buzz name on May 12,2008, and filed for a trademark on June 9, 2008; although through today it has not been approved or disapproved by the US Trademark Office.
Moreover, we could find no record of Google filing for the Buzz trademark.
I wouldn't be surprised if Yahoo will prevail legally and tell Google to, "Buzz off."
Well, maybe not in so many words.
Technorati Tags: Google, Yahoo, Naming, Microsoft, soicial, trademark
Posted by William Lozito at 8:47 AM| Comments (1)
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February 4, 2010
Is Comcast's Xfinity Brand Name Xcellent or Xcrement?
Since the news of Comcast's name change to Xfinity broke, Twitter's been all a 'tweet' with opinions on the new name.
Unfortunately for Comcast, many of these virtual birds weren't singing a happy song about the naming switch.
In order to quantify those negative Xfinity tweets, we quickly surveyed a 511 U.S. consumers, at 95% confidence. In plain English this means the data are projectable nationally.
Although 30% of respondents did associate the Xfinity name with an Internet/Cable Service, significantly more consumers, 38%, thought the name was better suited for a Gaming Console.
Moreover, and the most troublesome for Comcast, is the potential association with either a Porn Site, 16%, or Condoms, 16%.
Many consumers think brand names that start with 'X' are dated.
For instance,
significantly more consumers, 31%, strongly agree / agree with the statement "Brand names that start with 'X' are so 1990's," in comparison to 20% that strongly disagree / disagree.
Finally, if Comcast was hoping the name change would break them from their notorious mold of spotty customer service and expensive bills in the eyes of their customers, they'd be disappointed to learn that a majority of respondents, 56%, strongly agreed / agreed with the statement, "Comcast's name change does not affect my perceptions of its service."
While Comcast can be commended on an Xcellent effort, its renamed value may appear to be worth little more than... well, you know.
Or in other words, this is an example of putting lipstick on a pig.
Technorati Tags: Xfinity, Comcast Name Change, Xfinity Brand Name, Rebranding, Comcast
Posted by William Lozito at 2:51 PM| Comments (0)
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January 28, 2010
It's Official: iPad Naming Makes Women Cringe
OK, I've already apologized for predicting Steve Jobs would name his new gadget the iSlate.
It is indeed the iPad, a name I would not have chosen for two reasons. First, as I wrote a week before the announcement, it looks like "iPod" and second, that word "iPad" already has been mocked on Mad TV as sounding too much like the Maxi Pad feminine hygiene product.
It seemed impossible that Apple would choose it, because they know full well how viral humor on the Internet can sway customer perception about a product.
I'm not alone in this, it seems.
This morning there is a backlash against the name that is pretty intense. CNET calls it "cringe-worthy", Gizmodo predicts a slew of Maxi-Pad jokes, and The New York Times says that it makes women "cringe" (there's that word again), reporting that the word "iTampon" is making the rounds across Twitter.
Fast Company is even more succinct: "Apple's iPad Name Not the First Choice for Women. Period." PC World is already counting the "sneers and jeers" on the Internet, wondering if this is a "Venus vs. Mars" issue.
Blogger Anne Althouse, wonders if Apple bothered to check with any women about this one.
Or men. Let's face it, what guy wants to buy a product that sounds like it's a Wi-Fi sanitary napkin?
It also seems that Apple doesn't have any iPad-related domain names yet, either.
As if that was not bad enough, the name also may lead to a big fight with
Since 2002, Fujitsu has been manufacturing a handheld computer called the iPad. Although Fujitsu lost its trademark rights last year, Masahiro Yamane, the PR head of Fujitsu, still believes they have the rights to the iPad name.
All in all, it is really hard to believe that Apple could not have seen this coming. I have rarely seen such quick, vitriolic backlash against a product name. I have never, ever seen such intense mockery aimed at Apple.
And while I am an Apple fan and we are a Mac shop, I might add that their past naming mistakes (cough, Lisa, ahem, Newton) perhaps not coincidentally were attached to doomed products.
Steve, what were you thinking?
Technorati Tags: iPad, Fujitsu, Maxi Pad, Naming dispute, Mac
Posted by William Lozito at 8:33 AM| Comments (0)
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January 27, 2010
HTC's "Quietly Brilliant" vs. ShoreTel's "Brilliantly Simple" Slogan Conflict
There's a potential trademark dispute brewing between HTC, the Taiwanese cell phone maker, and ShoreTel, the Sunnyvale, California-based Internet Protocol phone system provider.
HTC's new tagline is, "Quietly brilliant."ShoreTel's new tagline is, "Brilliantly simple."
The trouble is, both companies compete in International Class Code 9, and 37. International Class Codes divide consumer goods and services into similar categories and are primarily used to file trademarks.
In the United States, ShoreTel has a jump on HTC since they filed earlier on June 8, 2009, and actually were just allowed the slogan by the US trademark office.
But internationally, HTC filed for a trademark application for its "Brilliantly simple," slogan which the US and other country trademark offices have not ruled on yet.
I think, ShoreTel's trademark filing of "Brilliantly simple," has a good chance of trumping HTC's "Quietly brilliant," in both the US and globally, since ShoreTel can claim that they had every intention to file "Brilliantly simple," globally.
It will be interesting to see how this potential trademark clash will play out.
Technorati Tags: HTC, ShoreTel, Quietly brilliant, Brilliantly simple, tagline
Posted by William Lozito at 9:26 AM| Comments (0)
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