Shakespeare was wrong. A rose by any other name just wouldn’t be the same.
A recent issue of Bloomberg Businessweek carried an interesting article titled The Twitter Effect: The struggle to create the next perfectly weird company name.
As I read the article, I agreed with the author’s premise that “the corporate name game” is difficult. There are more than a million names, slogans and logos registered at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. And, according to VeriSign, a global domain name registry, 11 million Internet domain names have been registered in the last 12 months, a 6 percent increase versus a year ago. VeriSign says that 193 million Internet domain names are now owned or in use.
So how does a company go about choosing a new brand name? The author chose Twitter as a brand name to illustrate his point that a brand name must be “weird” to stand out in today’s crowded marketplace. The author also cited Google, Verizon and Häagen-Dazs as made-up “weird” words that are successful brand names.
Where I disagree with the author, however, is that the name has to be weird to be successful. Different? Okay. Unique? Yes. But weird? Not necessarily.
I’ve always felt that a successful brand name carries something extra. It should communicate what the brand is about – it’s values, it’s benefits, it’s reason for being. Unless you have a lot of time and cash to seat the name in the customer’s mind, a name that carries some connotation of what the brand is about is essential.
Too many brands today are based on invented, meaningless words. A brand name that connects to a known idea and your brand promise is much more powerful.
Pollywog, a Minneapolis-based branding agency says this about naming a brand, “Unlike naming companies and consultants, we understand what a brand name needs—instant meaning, impact, emotional connections, nuance—to go beyond being merely an identifier to becoming a brand building force. Pollywog publishes an annual list of Best and Worst Brand Names. Here are their 10 best for 2009:
1. Rolls-Royce Ghost
Who would give a new product a name that reminds people of haunting, horror and death? Rolls-Royce bravely did when it introduced the 2009 Ghost. Though the name is likely a nod to the British automakers 1906 “Silver Ghost,” this is a car for the unapologetically intimidating, with a ride that’s smooth as mist drifting over a moor.
2. Droid
Verizon licensed this name from the “Star Wars” universe for the cellphone it hopes will lead a rebellion against the iPhone empire. Droid was probably worth whatever Mr. Lucas charged. It communicates extremely advanced technology, yet it’s familiar and a little bit cute—it makes the phone seem like a pocket-sized C3PO or R2D2. How could gadget geeks resist?
3. Mars Fling Candy Bar
At 85 calories per serving, Mars’ new candy bar aimed at women promises a brief, mostly harmless indulgence. Summed up by its fitting tagline, a Fling is “Naughty, but not that naughty.”
4. Hunch
This online decision-making tool learns about you through your answers to a series of preference questions. Then Hunch makes suggestions about what you might like—from movies to travel destinations to what you should eat for lunch. The name is apt, human and engaging, and it refreshingly under-promises the service’s accuracy.
5. Shard
Looking like a small, pointy chunk of metal, this new multifunction keychain tool from knife manufacturer Gerber is appropriately named the “Shard.” Though the Shard has no actual blade and is officially airline-safe, the danger implied in the name adds to its appeal and is likely a key factor in the flurry of online chatter from customers who can’t wait to get their hands on the soon-to-be released tool.
6. Envy
Only a laptop as slim, sleek, smart and sexy as this glossy-screened beauty from HP could pull off the name “Envy.” Even Apple may be turning a little green.
7. Fever
The first in a new category of drinks dubbed “stimulation beverages,” Fever claims to enhance feelings of euphoria and even stimulate the libido thanks to its mix of several herbal ingredients. The name communicates excitement and a physical effect on the body, without crossing into the risqué.
8. Thinair
Thinair is a wind turbine with just one blade. In severe weather, the Thinair turbine parks its blade horizontally, with the narrow edge to the wind to minimize damage. We like the slightly mysterious quality of the name and how it communicates the blade’s ability to effectively vanish from destructive winds.
9. Peek
The Peek is a pocket-sized device that sends and receives email and text messages. That’s it. No phone, no calendar, no music, no camera. A device with such limited capabilities needs a proportionately modest name. Suggesting a quick, casual look, “Peek” hits just the right note for customers who don’t want to fuss with complicated hardware.
10. SweetLeaf
Three stevia-based sweetener brands—Zevia, Truvia and PureVia—made our Top Ten Worst Brand Names of 2008 list because of the similarity of their unimaginative, contrived names. So it was nice to see SweetLeaf enter the market this year with a name that conveys “natural sweetener” using—duh!—natural words.
While I agree with their thinking on building an emotional connection to the brand and its benefits, I disagree with one of the brand names they listed as Worst – Bing. When I first heard the name Bing, I got a sense of immediacy and impact. I envisioned snapping my fingers. These are images that reinforce the basic brand premise, that Microsoft’s search engine does something specific . . . it gets you to the answer in a hurry.
So what do you think? Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?
