As consumers, it is not often we stop and think about the name of a product we are buying or the company we are buying from, especially in the case of familiar brands. On reflection, and particularly taking a name out of context, we might notice some strange choices. For example, have you noticed that Christian Dior’s perfume range called ‘Poison’ is not exactly an enticing name for a liquid product? And have you ever really thought about Richard Branson’s…
Read more >A brand can be considered as many things from several perspectives. A brand is a construction of customer sentiments. A brand is a value on a balance sheet. But a brand is not a legal entity unless it has trademark protection. If your name is not registered as a trademark, there may be a number of restrictions on how you can use it. For example, many people enjoy using a ‘gmail’ account. But, in certain European territories, you can only…
Read more >It is well-known that the Chevy Nova was a failure in Spanish-speaking markets because “nova” translates as “no-go”. That’s not the kind of message you want to transmit in a car name. It may be well-known, but it’s also untrue – the translation is inaccurate and, in any case, the car was a success. But that doesn’t mean that linguistic howlers don’t occur all the time. There are three types of error to avoid. Firstly, the inadvertent use of words…
Read more >When you hear a product name and immediately recognise the underlying brand, you know you’re witnessing a highly effective naming strategy. That’s how it is with a sports car beginning with the letter ‘E’: it’s a Lotus. It has been so for decades and it was central to Nomen’s brief to create a name for the first new Lotus model since the Elise in 1995. But the strategy’s longevity is a double-edged sword and presents two significant naming challenges. Firstly,…
Read more >The trouble with words is that they don’t mean anything. People mean things – words are simply the form most commonly chosen by people to try to get their meaning into the mind of someone else.But when I hear a word, do I hear the same as you? Consider a simple word like “green”, or choose something a little more controversial, like the word “good”. The word I say is not always what it seems… yet words tend to pass…
Read more >Is a floor littered with discarded clothes, a student’s bedroom or is it a clothing storage system known as a floordrobe? Is the manipulation of photographic or video images to convey a false representation of events, an admirable skill or is it fauxtography? Is this just an excuse to list some examples from the Macquarie Online Dictionary Word of the Year competition or is it highlighting an untapped source of naming ideas? Slang words rarely feature in naming because of…
Read more >New products and services are continually being created on the basis of a combination of customer knowledge, technical innovation and a desire to gain increased market share. The naming process comes later and seeks to capture the essence of the product or service as determined by this market analysis. The name tells the potential customer that this is the product or service for them and their specific needs. But, in Singapore, the process has been uniquely reversed. The managing director…
Read more >Naming projects tend to be singular affairs. They come to the fore when the need to find a name for an umbrella brand or a new product/service comes across the relevant executives’ desks. But it is crucial not to view them in isolation because, in the absence of an overall strategy, confusion can reign. Consider Microsoft where, in the past, names have originated at the individual product group level rather than centrally. All its online services now fall under the…
Read more >Sceptical about the persuasive power of names? Well the work of University of Buffalo behavioural scientist Brett Pelham might change your mind. It suggests that people: 1) are more likely to agree to requests from people with similar names 2) are attracted to professions in the same way – US dentists are 82 per cent more likely to be named Dennis than expected 3) live in cities that match their birthday number – Three Forks, Montana has a disproportionate number…
Read more >
