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| | The The CopyWriters Connection Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | The Science of Naming...gone awry :-) | Views: 341 | | Nov 30, 2005 1:36 pm | | The Science of Naming...gone awry :-) | # | 
NAGENDAR CHAUTHOI | | There are three pieces of advice that will serve you well in avoiding a similar dilemma:
Names don't exist in a vacuum:
There are competitors the idea is to distinguish yourself. Business is a competitive sport.
Names don't exist in a vacuum:
The notion of describing your business in the name assumes that the name will exist at some point without contextual support. This is never true for any business or product.
Names don't exist in a vacuum:
When judged without the context of a clear positioning platform and an intimate understanding of how names work and what they can do, the best solutions are either never considered or quickly dismissed.
For example, any one of the following intuitive concerns could have been enough to keep these powerful names from ever seeing the light of day:
Virgin Airlines
Says "we're new at this"
Public wants airlines to be experienced, safe and professional
Investors wont take us seriously
Religious people will be offended
Caterpillar
Tiny, creepy-crawly bug
Not macho enough easy to squash
Why not "bull" or "workhorse"?
Destroys trees, crops, responsible for famine
Banana Republic
Derogatory cultural slur
You'll be picketed by people from small, hot countries
Yahoo!
Yahoo!! It's Mountain Dew!
Yoohoo! Its a chocolate drink in a can!
Nobody will take stock quotes and world news seriously from a bunch of "Yahoos"
Oracle
Unscientific
Unreliable
Only foretold death and destruction
Only fools put their faith in an Oracle
Sounds like "orifice" people will make fun of us
The Gap
Means something is missing
The Generation Gap is a bad thing we want to sell clothes to all generations
In need of repair
Incomplete
Negative
Stingray
A slow, ugly, and dangerous fish slow, ugly and dangerous are the last qualities we want to associate with our fast, powerful, sexy sports car
The "bottom feeding fish" part isn't helping either
Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac
I don't want hillbilly residents of Dogpatch handling my finances.
They don't sound serious, and this is about a very serious matter.
As you can well imagine, this kind of negative deconstruction is at the root of why committees have difficulty agreeing on a non-descriptive name that has any meaning. It's also what gave birth to the second major school of bad naming: the "unique empty vessel" that "can become whatever you want." Here are some of the victims:
Acquient, Agilent, Alliant, Aquent, Aspirient, Aviant, Axent, Axient, Bizient, Candescent, Cendant, Cerent, Chordiant, Clarent, Comergent, Conexant, Consilient, Cotelligent, Equant, Ixtant, Livent, Luminant, Mergent, Mirant, Navigant, Naviant, Noviant, Novient, Omnient, Ravisent, Sapient, Scient, Sequant, Spirent, Taligent, Teligent, Thrivent, Versant, Versent, Viant, Vitalent and Vivient.
As with the descriptive list, these names are not part of an elegant solution, they are the seeds of a branding nightmare. This type of name is arrived at because of the lust for a domain name, consensus building and as a shortcut to trademark approval. At some point in the process marketing left the room, and nobody seemed to notice. And while they may technically be unique, it's at the level of a snow flake in a snow bank.
The third type of name is the evocative name. These include the aforementioned Apple, Stingray, Oracle, Virgin, Yahoo etc. While everyone respects evocative naming when done well, most corporations don't go down this road because it's the toughest to understand and execute.
On a very fundamental level, here are the basic ingredients of the best evocative names:
Differentiate
A competitive analysis is an essential first step. How are your competitors positioning themselves? What types of names are common among them? Are they all projecting a similar attitude? Do their similarities offer you a huge opportunity to stand out from the crowd?
Apple needed to distance itself from the cold, unapproachable, complicated imagery created by the other computer companies at the time who had names like IBM, NEC, DEC, ADPAC, Cincom, Dylakor, Input, Integral Systems, Sperry Rand, SAP, PSDI, Syncsort, and Tesseract.
They needed to reverse the entrenched view of computers in order to get people to use them at home. They were looking for a name that was not like a traditional computer company, and supported a Positioning Strategy that was to be perceived as simple, warm, human, approachable and different.
Positioning
The next step is to carefully define your positioning. The idea is to position yourself in a way that rings true in a fresh way that cuts through all of the noise out there. The goal is to have your audience personalize the experience of your brand, to make an emotional connection with it, and ultimately to take you in. To redefine and own the territory.
One of most important things that the best of the best brands accomplish is to be thought of as greater than the goods and services offered, to create an aspiration. Nike's "Just Do It' helps them rise above selling sneakers. Apple's "Think Different" is bigger than computers. Fannie Mae's "We're in the American Dream Business" elevates them from mere mortgage brokers.
On a product level, Velveeta, Slinky, Mustang, Snapple, etc., are tapping into something outside of the narrow definition of what it is they do, and are allowing the consumer to make the connection, to personalize the experience. This type of active engagement created by playing off of images that everyone is already carrying around in their heads is an essential ingredient in creating a great name.
From there, a name should contain as many of the following qualities as possible. The more of them that are present, the more powerful the name:
SELF-PROPELLING
A name that people will talk about.
A name that works its way through the world on its own.
A name that's a story in itself, whether it's at the local bar, on the job, or on CNBC.
EMOTIONAL CONNECTION
What does the name suggest?
Does it make you feel good?
Does it make you smile?
Does it lock into your brain?
Does it make you want to know more?
POETRY
How does the name physically look and sound?
How does it roll off the tongue?
How much internal electricity does it have?
How does it sound the millionth time?
Will people remember it?
PERSONALITY
Does the name have attitude?
Does it exude qualities like confidence, mystery, presence, warmth, and a sense of humor?
Is it provocative, engaging?
Is it a tough act to follow?
DEEP WELL
Is the name a constant source of inspiration for advertising and marketing?
Does it have "legs"?
Does it work on a lot of different levels?
The key is to step outside the box that the industry - any industry - has drawn for itself, and to do it in a fresh way that hits home with the audience. To accomplish this, it is necessary to think about names in this fashion:
Virgin
Positioning: different, confident, exciting, alive, human, provocative, fun. The innovative name forces people to create a separate box in their head to put it in.
Qualities: Self-propelling, Connects Emotionally, Personality, Deep Well.
Oracle
Positioning: different, confident, superhuman, evocative, powerful, forward thinking.
Qualities: Self-propelling, Connects Emotionally, Personality, Deep Well.
As an exercise, go back and see how the other names deconstructed above Apple, Caterpillar, Banana Republic, Yahoo!, The Gap, Stingray, and Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac stand up when held to these high standards. These are the qualities that separate a potent, evocative name from a useless one that is built without a considered positioning platform, such as BlueMartini or Razorfish. Random names like these disallow audience engagement, because there are no pathways between the image and the product there is no connection to be made.
Private Reply to NAGENDAR CHAUTHOI | | Nov 30, 2005 8:05 pm | | re: The Science of Naming...gone awry :-) | # | 
Steven Boaze | |
This science of naming is well thought out
and a job well done. Similarly, there's
another which includes Product Wording.
This is a list of what all the advertising
terms on products really mean...
NEW - Different color from previous design.
ALL NEW - Parts are not interchangeable with
previous design.
EXCLUSIVE - Imported product.
UNMATCHED - Almost as good as the
competition.
FOOLPROOF OPERATION - No provision for
adjustments.
ADVANCED DESIGN - The advertising agency
doesn't understand it.
IT'S HERE AT LAST - Rush job. Nobody knew
it was coming.
FIELD TESTED - Manufacturer lacks test
equipment.
HIGH ACCURACY - Unit on which all parts fit.
FUTURISTIC - No other reason why it looks
the way it does.
REDESIGNED - Previous flaws fixed - we hope.
DIRECT SALES ONLY - Factory had a big
argument with distributor.
YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT - We finally got one
to work.
BREAKTHROUGH - We finally figured out
a use for it.
MAINTENANCE FREE - Impossible to fix.
MEETS ALL STANDARDS - Ours, not yours.
SOLID-STATE - Heavy as hell.
LESS FATTENING - Now doesn't have the
same fat content as pig stomach lining.
HIGH RELIABILITY - We made it work long
enough to ship it.
NON-REFUNDABLE - We couldn't make it work
long enough to ship it.
FAT FREE - You pay for the food, but the
fat is free.
Steven BoazePrivate Reply to Steven Boaze | | |
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