When Swedish brands fail in English

by Andrew Hennigan

Swedish is a curious language where a “puss” is a kiss, a “kiss” is a piss and when your friends tell you that you are breaking the “fart” limit they just mean that you are driving too fast. Swedish English is equally interesting and while all adult Swedes speak the language with impressive fluency, they do not always use it the way a native speaker might and sometimes they are careless with unintended meanings or suggestions in their brand names….

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My farewell

by Kevin Taylor

It is going to be a rather self-indulgent post today I’m afraid! Today is my last day at Nomen UK and I’ve been told that I can write about anything I like. Oh the power! I did consider filming a 5 minute video where I gave a juggling demonstration and explained to you why in fact Sylvester Stallone is a modern day Leonardo Da Vinci but I thought I’d keep it relevant. Look out for that video on my personal…

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Matching languages to industries

by Kevin Taylor

Today’s post is a translation of an interview from Nomen Italy’s Managing Director Gianluca Billo. In it he discusses the perception of different languages when used in certain industries. Gianluca can be contacted through the Nomen Italy website: www.nomen.it How important is the choice of a language in brand naming? The choice of a language definitely is fundamental to create a new name. But it is not always as our clients see it. Most companies ask for a short name…

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Overcoming Subjectivity

by Kevin Taylor

When it comes to naming products, subjectivity comes up an awful lot. It is easy enough to rule out the name of your new international sofa range if it means ‘yoghurt’ in Italian and even easier if it happens to be a word used as an insult or sexual term in certain countries or cultures. What makes it a more difficult decision is when you are faced with someone telling you that they see certain words in your names that…

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The value of old names

by Emma Peto

In a world of rapid and frequent change, a brand name that evokes a track record of reliability and stability is a name that conveys a feeling of reassurance.  It suggests a lineage of the shared experiences of generations of customers and that makes the purchase decision less of a shot in the dark. Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which bears the world’s oldest brand name, is a commodity by-product of sugar refining.  It is literally what it says on the distinctive…

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Controversial?

by Emma Peto

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…

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The importance of trademark registration

by Emma Peto

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…

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Names and linguistic screening

by Emma Peto

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…

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Naming a car with true character

by Emma Peto

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,…

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The trouble with words

by Emma Peto

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…

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