Anatomy of online photo book branding
Anyone who knows me understands that I am happiest when I'm creating something new. My pulse races when I enter art supply and craft stores, clay studios, fabric warehouses, and boutiques centered around handmade wares. A valid vacation for me can be defined as hours spent walking the aisles of Hobby Lobby or AC Moore stores discovering or rediscovering new tools and products.
Since my entrance into branding over ten years ago, naming has been an effective way for me to maintain that tangible sense of creation. My creative abilities have taken on new challenges; fascinated with words and the construction of names I've spent the past decade constructing letter strings and word parts to yield memorable new brands for clients.
Coupling the two primary forces in my life, branding and crafting, I look at product names in a whole new light. It’s not just, "What function can that new paper punch serve for me?", but, "How in the world did they get that name through legal?"
Excuse my crafty-namer-geek approach to this post, as I explore some big craft brands and their names for photo books.
Creative Memories: StoryBook Photo Book
Descriptive, straightforward. Their positioning has always been about preserving your memories and telling your story, so this name complements the equity they have built in their brand.
My Publisher
Recently it seems has rebranded themselves into more of a modern option for photo products. The brand has always focused on giving you the tools to tap into your own design/publishing skills.
Snapfish: Photo Book
Uses the equity in their corporate name (known for photos) for their online photo books. No additional branding required.
Shutterfly
Interesting naming approach: the company uses a generic moniker of "Photo Books," but has also branded the creation process with "Custom Path" and "Simple Path" to make the process of building your book an easier task.
Winkflash / Picaboo / Kodak
Follows suit with the other online primary photo sites and focuses branding on their individual corporate names.
SmileBooks
Custom photo books that make you smile. Um, I hope so since they're my photos and I'm paying to have them preserved in a book for posterity. At least they're using a name that stands apart from the traditional, but I'm not sure it actually communicates anything differently.
Apple: iPhoto Books
I would expect nothing less (or more) from Apple. Simple continuity within their strong lineup of product brands.
Blurb
Company uses individual brands in their arsenal of options, including BookSmart (personalizing software), Bookify (creation software), and BookShow (Facebook sharing app). Bloggers and instagr.am addicts take note: you can export your blog into a custom coffee table book to pass down your witticisms for generations. I love the continuity of their brand into defining their team members as Blurberati.
Lulu
Focuses efforts on the corporate brand and uses a descriptive naming approach for the individual book types. Lulu is more of a 'self-publishing' platform that includes photo books as one type of offering. The best part about Lulu (besides their catchy, memorable name) is that customers can sell their creations through the site.
Daily deal sites bring flavor to naming
It's become a household name: Groupon ... the fusion of 'group' + 'coupon' makes sense on all fronts from a naming perspective.
The Groupon magic goes like this: Groupon negotiates huge discounts—usually 50-90% off—with popular businesses. They send the deals to thousands of subscribers in their free daily email, and then send the businesses a ton of new customers.
While Groupon was first to market with their daily deal platform, the success of the business model has spawned hundreds of me-too sites and companies. The trouble is, Groupon has become so popular it's now genericized for these savings sites, which are currently flooding my inbox.
Check out these similar offerings and their naming styles:
Living Social: A more modern, hip name but lacks the bar call when used in conversation. "I bought the yoga Groupon" just rolls better when said aloud.
Mamasource (by Mamapedia): A great site that does good too - they give back a percentage of your purchase to a school of your choice, and the deals last longer than a day. Perfect for those indecisive shoppers who just need a bit more time to make up their mind. This is more than a daily deal site, as they offer a lot of resources for moms. The name is cute, and clearly geared towards moms.
Plum District: Arbitrary name, but a fun daily deal site designed specifically towards mom. Plus, they reward you with Plum Dollars when you refer other people to the site (as opposed to other sites who reward you only when a referral makes a purchase).
Eversave: Cute, simple, descriptive name, and their logo is cute too.
Woot: Short moniker; the most emotional daily deal name. Uniquely captures the end benefit of scoring a great deal. The catchy name works well in vernacular too: "I just scored a Woot." Woot indeed.
What are we missing? What are your favorite daily deal sites? Does the name of the site itself make you want to sign up, or is popularity driven solely by the caliber of deals offered?
Community Naming: The Center
The idea: creative. The purpose: admirable. The name: underwhelming.
Pegasus Global Holdings has secured 20 square miles in New Mexico to serve as a mock town where they can study the environmental and global effects of specific technologies. "Innovators ... (can) to test renewable energy innovations in real world conditions, such as how does a solar panel work on a shadier lot?"
With a plot of land ripe for experiments, a 'ghost town' heritage, a team targeting innovators and specialists in their respective industries, and a $200 million dollar budget, "The Center" is the name they chose? If executed correctly, Pegasus Holdings has a real opportunity to create some press and engagement around this initiative. With a name like "The Center", they've missed the mark.
How about playing up the environmental aspect in the name? Or if that is too trite, what about the dichotomy of ghost town imagery with technological innovation? Have any ideas? Post them in the comments.
The Pros and Cons of Ice Cream Sandwich
Typically our clients use an intentionally obscure project name to avoid internal rallying around the code name. Google seemed to embrace the methodology of marketing the code name, and has built an entire strategy out of the process. Enter Ice Cream Sandwich.
While I'm all for food references and love the imagery evoked by this new OS, the overall code naming strategy strikes me as an unsustainable practice.
Pros
- It's Google
- The order/lineage is easy to understand ... version C came before version D, etc.
- Desserts are fun and have an approachable personality
- It's Google
Cons
- Code names should be code names. If a company puts more marketing efforts into their code name, do they build any equity into the actual product name?
- What is the strategy if there isn't a recognizable dessert name that starts with the next letter in line for an upcoming version?
- As a namer, I wanted to ask about the story behind Ice Cream Sandwich; uncovering that it's simply the next in line from an initial letter standpoint wasn't enough for me. Cupcake is cute; short and sweet. Honeycomb referenced the structure behind the technology (and while I don't classify it as a dessert, I get that it's a sweet). Ice Cream Sandwich (intentionally missing the grammatically correct article preceding it) is designed to serve as 'one OS everywhere' but the name isn't reflective of that messaging.
Personally, I would have preferred 'Icing' as the next in line. It's one word, is typically referred to as the 'best part of the cake', and evokes a premium quality. Can't wait to see what they do with J.
Product Naming: Invisibelt
Love this product. Love the name just about as much. While it's reminiscent of my school-girl dreams of becoming Wonder Woman one day (yes, it was a gold belt but an invisible plane), this product meets the needs of women on so many levels. No longer having to choose a traditionally bulky accessory, gals can keep their fashion integrity while still maintaining comfort and style.
The manufacturers of the Invisibelt could have gone a lot of different directions when deciding on a name - trendy, obscure, arbitrary. Instead, they spoke to form and function. Nice job being clever with a descriptive name.
Product Naming Spotlight: The Transition
It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's a car. Actually, it's two out of three: a plane that transitions into a road-use vehicle. Hence the name: The Transition.
For pilots, simply land at the airport, fold your wings up and drive home.
I appreciate the simplicity of the name selected by the manufacturer, Terrafugia. Appealing to the pain point of pilots who face a dilemma of transportation once they land their aircraft, the name speaks to the benefit of 'transitioning' from plane to road vehicle.
The company could have chosen a more unique approach; after all, this is basically the FIRST flying car. Are they leaving open space for future manufacturers to own the category with a more memorable name (think what Swiffer did to the sweeping/mopping category)? I'm not sure. With close to a $300,000 price point, I think they're pretty safe in the space right now.
Welcome Garrett Lee Jobes
We are so excited to welcome Garrett Lee Jobes into the world, and congratulate Allison and Andy with their new blessing. Garrett was born at 8:15pm on Wednesday, May 11, weighing 7lbs, 10oz and 20.5 inches long.
Allison is a member of Addison Whitney's Verbal Branding Department, and our entire team has been speculating on what this creative gal would name her son. Garrett is the fourth generation of Lee in their family.
Congratulations Allison and Andy. We can't wait to meet the new addition!!
Welcome Emmerson Rose Everidge
The entire Addison Whitney team would like to welcome Emmerson Rose Everidge to our family. As our newest "designer-in-training", Emmerson will learn from the best, our very own Kristin Everidge, Manager of Visual Branding.
Baby E was born April 28th at 7:53am, weighing 8lbs, 10oz and 20 1/4" long. Congratulations Kristin and Brannon. We are so happy for you!!
Insperity | DNA of a Great Team
While a proven methodology is critical for a successful project, having the right team in place also plays a huge factor in the fluidity of any branding initiative. The Administaff/Insperity team exhibited all the characteristics of a successful project team, and the entire Addison Whitney organization would like to congratulate them on their passionate engagement in the process, willingness to embrace change, and decision to move forward on its new corporate identity with clear strategic intent.
With almost 20 years experience in managing branding projects, we'd like to offer some key attributes that client teams can adopt to result in a successful project and process, and some key takeaways from our work with Insperity.
Meeting deadlines.
Staying on deadline is imperative for an agency or client partner; our reputation is built on the ability to meet our client's time lines. However, it's important for the client to remain on deadline as well. A delayed process means momentum, energy, and excitement around the project can be lost, and those are difficult to regain after a long period of time.
An open mind.
Sometimes, as leaders of an organization, it can be difficult to be honest and open about the challenges you face. Having an open mind about refreshing your positioning, changing your name, or creating brand new standards is imperative to a successful project. If you expect it to be seamless and without challenges, you're in for a difficult journey. Rely on the experience and expertise of your agency/client partner as a resource for guiding you through the project.
Trust your gut.
Even with all of the time we spend learning about our client companies, there’s no way we’ll know your brand as well as you do. When you see results, trust your gut. Suggest changes to be more reflective of your company culture or organizational plans. Often times, the best outcomes of our projects are from collaborations with our client companies.
Utilizing the research correctly.
Good data was important to the Insperity team before making any decision. There is a difference between market research and good market research. Understanding key goals before creating questionnaires is important to getting the insight you need to make critical decisions. Having a skilled, outside agency interpret the data can be important so that you know exactly what the data is saying and corresponding key insights.
Often times, clients will conduct market research looking for the name. They assume that because a name tested high that it's the best choice for their product/service/company. Using the research or supporting data as a guide, not the final decision maker, is the best path of action.
Engaging senior leadership.
A successful project is also contingent on having a senior leadership team (CEO, SVP Sales & Marketing) that is heavily engaged in the process. Having a plan in place that fosters good communication and aligns with the business strategy and vision for the company is essential. A good process incorporates timely progress updates at key milestones with management leaders, board of directors, etc., and presents these updates as a team.
Consistent project team.
There is no quicker way to derail a project than to have 10 members participate in the initial meetings, and only half of that in attendance during the key milestones and touch points. Create a core team (5-7 team members is ideal), and engage them consistently in the process. Even though the core Insperity team did go through a few changes, key team members were consistent and diligent in communicating about needs and deadlines with other project team members.
Celebrating your success.
Often times, this step is skipped by clients. But, the effort it takes to engage in a branding process and the results of that can be a big change for many organizations. Once you have a result, it's important to celebrate and recognize the internal team that worked so diligently on the project. In addition, make a big splash about the new/re-positioned brand. There’s no better way to show the whole organization how important the results are than to celebrate it – no matter whether that celebration is in your board room or in a major league ballpark.
Again, congratulations to the Insperity team on a successful process, project, re-brand and launch. We have been honored and inspired to be a part of your success!
Happy St. Patrick's Day
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In honor of old St. Patty himself, here's an homage to some notably original 'green' brands. Enjoy!