the product naming blog

J.C. Penney Moving from a Recognized Name to a Loved Brand

J.C. Penney is tearing a page out of Apple's playbook to move from being a recognized name, to a brand, according to Forbes.

Robert Passikoff the Forbes reporter comments that "J.C. Penney has become a 'placeholder,' a kind of ACME Department Store of the 21st century where low, lower, lowest pricing has become the price-of-entry, certainly not an emotional differentiator."

I agree.

J.C. Penney is trying to move away from simply being well known to being well liked by hiring CEO Ron Johnson, the ex-Apple Senior Vice President of Retail Operations, who helped make Apple the retail super brand it is today.

Johnson was quoted saying "I would describe J.C. Penney as one of a handful of great American brands that seemed like it was dormant," but also thinks it is the "biggest opportunity in American retailing."

Remember when Apple was pretty much washed up? Not the super brand it is now? Think hard... think pre-iPod.

J.C. Penney is currently in its pre-iPod days. We know the name, but don't have love for it.

The new strategy is three-fold - drilling right through the fluff to the prices, introducing a new logo, and revamping stores.

Those hundreds of promotions that are run in-store will fall away, as Johnson says, "At some point you, as a brand, look desperate if you have to market that much!" There will be three types of pricing - everyday prices, month-long values, and best prices which will be available every first and third Friday of the month.

The remodeled stores will feature a "Main Street shopping area with a series of 80 to 100 brand-name shops," and the stores will be far more open, light and airy (like, say, I don't know... the Apple store?).

The Main Street area will create a "store within a store" effect, paring down underperforming brands and leveraging the ones that work.

Offering everyday low prices will help create a brand identity for J.C. Penney, although it could be a risky move.

The goal will be to create a brand from a name that has lost most of its meaning to mall shoppers who have ignored the store on the way to the Genius Bar.

I have my doubts, serious doubts, about this strategy working for three reasons:

• It's a change in positioning without changing the product, since it will take years for the stores to be revamped. I sense over-promise here.
• It's tough to wein someone off "heroine." By that I mean, current J.C. Penney customers have been conditioned to buy on sale. I would not be surprised if many current J.C. Penney customers flee to Kohl's and other retail alternatives.
• J.C. Penney will have to attract new customers for this strategy to work which will take time, lots of time, and money.

However, I hope my assessment is wrong, since J.C. Penney is one of those pillars of retail branding along with Sears.

Technorati Tags: J.C. Penney, J.C. Penney Branding, Brand Naming, Naming, Branding, Marketing

Posted by William Lozito at 7:59 AM
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Posted to Apparel | Branding | Marketing

Burt's Bees Güd Tagline May Not Be Good for Product Naming

Here's a naming challenge for you. You have a product with a distinctly unfeminine name (like Burt's Bees), and you need to sell a brand extension to young women.

Well, Burt's Bees has faced exactly this problem with some panache and created a new beauty care line called "güd," pronounced "good." To add distinction, the company has stylized the umlaut above the letter "U" creating a smiley face.

Then there is the "güd happens" tagline.

This tagline is reminiscent of "sh*t happens," a common colloquialism. And sh*t isn't so good.

This expression is "an acknowledgment that bad things sometimes occur for no particular reason" and the best thing to do is accept them with a kind of slacker stoicism.

Volkswagen played off the sh*t happens phrase in a series of commercials in 2006, which emphasized safety. For these commercials, Volkswagen developed the memorable tagline "safe happens."

It will be interesting to see how the target market perceives the güd brand tagline and if they can even pronounce it correctly.

Would you pronounce güd as "good" or "guhd?"

Technorati Tags: Burt's Bees, Gud, Brand Extension, Product Naming, Branding, Naming, Tagline

Posted by William Lozito at 8:04 AM
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Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Marketing | Naming | Product Naming | Taglines

The Cure For Skin Cancer Digs Up Hedgehog Brand Name

Science routinely provides us with wackier names than energy drinks.

Take, for example, the first FDA approved drug to help treat advanced cases of
basal-cell skin cancer, the most common type of skin cancer.

The drug, developed with the help of a group called Curis Inc., will be marketed by Genentech Inc. These seem like pretty standard medical-sounding company names. Curis find cures, I guess, and Genentech looks at things related to genes.

But it gets better.

The drug's generic name is "vismodegib," which will be marketed under the Erivedge brand.

Erivedge. Yup. They decided to keep it weird. Say this out loud. It sounds like a vegetable drink. I'm sure the company wants us to focus on the "edge" in the name, however.

The drug, which will set you back a cool $75,000 for a ten-month treatment, functions by inhibiting the "so-called Hedgehog signaling pathway by binding to a protein called Smoothened."

The above sentence was from a New York Times piece on the new drug, and I just had to know more. I had no idea there was a hedgehog pathway in our body. And Smoothened sounds like something you get at a yogurt bar.

But yes, we have hedgehog genes, including two called "Sonic hedgehog homolog and Indian hedgehog b, previously known as Echidna hedgehog." These are a part of the Hedgehog signaling pathway that regulated your growth as a child. The last inhibitor was discovered in 2009 and was called "Robotnikinin."

Robotnikinin! Now that's a cool drug name! It sounds like a character out of a lost sci-fi fairy tale.

Imagine the head of the FDA had to stand in front of the press and make the following statement with a straight face - "Our understanding of molecular pathways involved in cancer, such as the hedgehog pathway, has enabled the development of targeted drugs for specific cancers."

Then he had to pronounce the generic vismodegib name properly.

Technorati Tags: Cancer, Vismodegib, Erivedge, FDA, Treatment, Branding, Naming

Posted by William Lozito at 8:28 AM
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Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Marketing | Naming | Pharmaceutical | Product Naming

Dodge Dart Brand Name Hits the Spot

Today, AutoSpies raises its bloggy eyebrow at the Dodge Dart name.

The Dart was one of the stars of the 2012 Detroit Auto Show and consumers seem generally happy with the car's specs and appearance.

AutoSpies, however, brings up a problem with the name by commenting, "In it's day the original Dart was the LAMEST Dodge built and only grannies drove it. They even had special editions called 'Swinger' and 'Demon' and even THEY were lame."

That aura of lameness around the Dart name did briefly make me pause before giving it the nod. But my nod still stands, for a number of reasons.

First, Dodge almost called this car The Hornet. The Hornet brand name comes to us from the 1950's and has survived in various incarnations throughout to the 70's. It is just a little "way out" there and, like Dart, it has been slapped on some cars that are frankly not memorable.

Second, the CEO for Dodge, Reid Bigland, tells us that when they showed pictures of the new car to a target group under 35, "Dart was the overwhelming bulls-eye. These people weren't very familiar with the 1960-1976 Dart. They were just looking at Dart for matching the design and the aero of the current car." Plus, around 4 million "lame" Darts were sold.

Bottom line?

The target market is not aware of the original Dart that was sold between 1960-1976, when most of the consumers likely to buy the car were born.

The admittedly biased DodgeDartCentral.Com recently conducted a poll that showed 51.6% of respondents voting for the name.

Motor Trend says that Dodge "hits the bullseye" with the name, bemoaning the "inscrutable alphanumeric names" GM has saddled itself with.

I believe the Dart name fits the car and will resonate with young buyers, while those who remember the original Dart may simply not be in the market for a car like it.

Technorati Tags: Dodge, Dart, Branding, Naming

Posted by William Lozito at 8:00 AM
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Posted to Automotive | Brand Naming | Branding | Marketing | Naming | Product Naming

Will Nintendo Have to Change the Wii U Brand Name?

The news that Nintendo may change the Wii U name is interesting since the Wii brand name has been such a success. Wii U, however, was muddled and silly from day one.

This is really an example of how easily brand naming can become confusing. The Wii U is a new console and the name is just too similar to "Wii." Even hardcore gamers are getting a little confused.

This news comes after Nintendo was forced to add a disclaimer on TV advertisements for the Nintendo 3DS saying, "This is not DS, this is Nintendo 3DS." Consumers were not understanding the difference - that the DS is the old version and the 3DS is the new one.

As one blogger put it, "Apparently adding a single letter or number to an existing product name doesn't exactly convince consumers that the device truly is 'the next generation.'"

I have to agree. You need to dig hard to figure out that the Wii U is a new product.

I suppose Wii II would sound a little strange, but there needs to a be a clear means through which consumers can figure out what they are getting. When you need to put warning stickers on boxes and printed messages on TV ads, you know you have a naming issue.

One Nintendo enthusiast has suggested naming it "The Super Awesome Super Sexy Super Exclusive Machine." So much for crowdsourcing!

Technorati Tags: Nintendo, Wii, Wii U, Branding, Naming

Posted by William Lozito at 8:27 AM
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Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Marketing | Naming | Product Naming

Jeep Opens Cherokee Naming and Branding to the Crowd

The news that Chrysler will name its new Grand Cherokee concept through an online contest has me thinking once again about the use of crowdsourcing for naming and branding.

This nifty new "stealth" version of the Cherokee looks pretty modern and people interested in naming it can go to Jeep.com/namemyride to submit a name.

This will, I should note, be the name of a limited edition model. Jeep has had other limited edition versions, like the Wrangler Call of Duty, the Wrangler Arctic, Islander and the Liberty Arctic.

Jeep seems "fascinated" by special edition packages, possibly because they lend a sense of individuality to each car and also keep the Jeep brand fresh in the consumer's mind.

This marketing move is not really about the name. It's about the excitement created for the Cherokee brand.

Mountain Dew, Pepsi and Doritos have all learned that they can reinvent their image with the help of consumers.

But to those who think that all brand names can be crowdsourced, I have one word:

iPad.

And another word:

Wii.

These are two of the more successful brand names of the last ten years, and I guarantee that you would not get them from a crowd. Both names were laughed at when they were introduced, and both have endured.

The crowd, you see, does not work with the brand everyday. They do not know brand strategy or consumer insights, or that pesky trademark minefield. They want to create names that look cool and get little uphill from fellow Tweeters and Facebookers. Names that win contests.

Nobody hoping to win a contest would dream up a name like "Wii." It's too out there, too different. Yet it's a successful brand name.

To open your brand to the crowd is to open it to thousands of people who will only take about five minutes to brainstorm a name.

You generate buzz and excitement around the new product, yes, but you almost certainly will not get a successful name like iPad and Wii.

Technorati Tags: Jeep, Cherokee, NameMyRide, Brand Naming, Branding

Posted by William Lozito at 8:00 AM
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Posted to Automotive | Branding | Marketing

Sony Drops Ericsson From Its Handset Brand Name, World Takes Notice

Sony's new phones launched in Vegas this month were the first in a decade not to bear the Ericsson name. Sony now has its own brand name of handsets, and it will be interesting to see if this helps Sony fare better in the cutthroat sector.

The name change hurt Sony's profits at the end of 2011, when the company bought out Ericsson for $1.47 billion. At one time, the Sony Ericsson partnership was the sixth biggest player in the global market a few years ago, but the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy put an end to that.

Now, as Sony goes it alone, it faces an "uphill struggle" as the mobile phone market slows down. Still, the geekosphere has noted that the new Xperia is "All Sony, No Ericsson." The new naming and branding will be very much aimed at the U.S. market.

GoMo feels, as I do, that the "Sony Ericsson brand name was clumsy." It was simply not a good marriage of brands and now Sony can consolidate its products under its own brand name.

Sony has some wonderful names under its belt, such as Playstation, Walkman, Xperia and Cyber-shot, but they never seem to really score with them. The Ericsson name further diluted these.

Sony should focus on its Masterbrand and very strong line of sub-brands.

Customers know and trust Sony, but one analyst hits it perfectly when he says "The company was never able to differentiate with a strong set of devices at competitive price points and was always seen as a tier 2 supplier to most operators. The handset business was the missing part and will drive this integration."

In English, this means that mobile phones might drive Sony back to the top of the charts, and pull along its other worthy products. Just ask Apple how this works.

Technorati Tags: Sony, Ericsson, Branding, Naming

Posted by William Lozito at 8:05 AM
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Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Marketing | Naming | Technology