February 22, 2010
The Washington Post's John Kelly Doesn't Like Metaphorical Naming, We At Strategic Name Development Disagree
Washington Post correspondent John Kelly quotes me this morning in a pretty amusing column, lamenting the evolution of a brand's original descriptive name to a more metaphorical one.
You know, Spray 'n Wash changing its name to Resolve. Seems that John prefers the more descriptive type of name: "Wite-Out and Liquid Paper leave no doubt as to their purpose. Same with Ty-D-Bol It gets your bowl tidy." It seems that the travel industry agrees with him.
Some othe examples of descriptive product name changes that limited the brand are Confinity changing its name to PayPal, Bridgegate Computers to Compaq, and Kentucky Fried Chicken to the shortened KFC.
Metaphorical naming seems to bridge cultural divides and satisfies "deeply held consumer needs and desires." As Evelyn Rodriguez puts it, "The bite in the Apple logo at once conveys the garden of Eden, wisdom, crossing the lines of convention, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."
More and more research is promoting the idea that "brand equity based on symbolic values" is what marketers see is the Holy Grail.
In any event, we enjoyed the Post interview and especially John Kelly's sense of humor in the article.
Technorati Tags: Washington Post, Brand, Product Naming, Metaphor, Descriptive, Spray 'n Wash, Resolve
Posted by William Lozito at 8:59 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 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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Comcast's New Brand Naming Goes to Xfinity and Beyond With Irritated Bloggers
I am always interested in the emotions that are often unleashed when a high profile company changes its name. Comcast's decision to change its name to Xfinity has been met with almost immediate derision across the blogosphere.
But why do people get so angry when some companies change their names? I can break this down to two sources of irritation.
First, it seems that if the company is struggling with customer satisfaction, the name change almost always attracts some flak. Although Comcast is not changing their company name, the Xfinity brand name will be used for its cable TV, Internet, and phone services.
The change is being perceived as a kind of mask. As Philly.com says,
Xfinity seems to position the company to compete with Verizon Communications Inc, which markets its TV and Internet services as FiOS, and AT&T, which uses U-verse. Cablevision, the New York-based cable company, sells its services under the brand Optimum.
The Comcast name just has lots of baggage, and if they want to compete, the company needs a new face.
However, Comcast also needs to continue to improve its service. Ever call them? It's a voicemail maze, and that's a kind way of putting it.
This is, "repositioning the company with consumers," according to one Comcast executive. One blogger questions whether this is a "distinction without a difference."
Sean Portnoy notes that "it's a bit of a risk to surrender a very well-known brand in the hopes of sounding like a new, cutting-edge player in the game." In other words, there's an immediate authenticity issue here.
Second, it's the Xfinity the name itself. Today the "Xfinity and beyond" jokes are myriad.
Some find the Xfinity name "strange" and "harsh."
Gizmodo really rolls up its sleeves and bashes it, sarcastically saying its "the worst, pseudo-pornographic, retro-futuristic garbage marketing dollars can buy." Ouch.
Will Comcast emerge with it XDignity? We'll have to wait and see.
Technorati Tags: Comcast, Xfinity, brand, name change
Posted by William Lozito at 9:20 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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January 13, 2010
Canadian History Magazine Changes its Naming to Avoid Spam Filters, Porn Searches
Sometimes even the most innocuous names have to change with the times.
I was amused to read that the 90 year old, staid Canadian history magazine The Beaver is going to have to change its name because the word "beaver" simply has too many dubious connotations nowadays.
To be more accurate, the word "beaver" just is not search engine friendly. Electronic newsletters were being sent to reader's spam boxes and as Deborah Morrison, President and CEO of Canada's National History Society, which publishes The Beaver, points out, "We noticed monitoring our web traffic that the average visitor time to our website was eight seconds. And I have a feeling that might be because a lot of people going to the site weren't exactly looking for Canadian history content."
The press release doesn't mention the naughty connection. One blogger is fairly cranky about the name change, pointing out that the word has had a double meaning for some time.
The new name will be Canada's History.
The magazine was originally named to "evoke" the thriving fur industry of Canada which might be yet another reason to rename it.
The National Post has an amusing list of alternative names, which include "The Moose" and "The Beav" and even "Stuff That Happened in Canada."
I'm thinking that Canada's History is just fine.
Technorati Tags: Beaver, Canada, newsletter, history
Posted by William Lozito at 8:09 AM| Comments (0)
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December 14, 2009
Nexus One Naming and Branding Gets "Dogfooded" with New Google Phone
The new Google phone is being "dogfooded" (tested) by employees and it's name is going to be Nexus One.
It will be made by HTC and sold online. It seems this is the real deal, and of course has been met with real excitement across the blogosphere.
This phone is Android 2.1 based and full design control was handed over to Google. It is significant that the company is not partnering with a wireless carrier on this incarnation of
Android.
The name has an interesting background. Nexus echoes the movie "Blade Runner". To quote
John Gruber on this:
"Nexus is the brand name of the series of androids (a.k.a. replicants) in Blade Runner and Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. The story concerns escaped Nexus-6 models"
Here we have yet another movie inspired Android phone (remember the "Droid").
Interestingly, a Chinese translation company has already tried to figure out how to
translate "Nexus One" into meaningful Chinese, and is even hoping for competition from Google on this.
They are looking for a poetic version of the word "Nexus," which they remind us is "a connection or series of
connections within a particular situation or system".
Hmmmmm.
Technorati Tags: Google, Phone, Droid, Motorola, HTC
Posted by William Lozito at 9:30 AM| Comments (0)
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