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.
Am I overreacting?
We've all been through it before. We come across a personal issue, over-analyze the situation, and then respond with an unnecessary reaction (whoops...). Well, the same thing can happen to brands. We call it, over-branding. And it happens to the best of us...
Over-branding
Over-branding often occurs when a company recognizes an issue, tries to resolve the issue, but reacts excessively. To Netflix, this sounds all too familiar. Due to a rapid decline in stock prices, Netflix announced it was going to split its services into two brands: Netflix and Qwikster. Good move? Ask Netflix. After assessing the situation a bit more (and hearing the public’s reaction), the company “qwikly” learned that two brands aren’t always better than one. Shortly after the split was announced, Netflix decided to terminate Qwikster before its launch. Better late than never.
Sometimes over-branding might occur for reasons that aren't as clear. We are all familiar with Comcast’s rebranding as XFINITY. Looking back, it’s difficult to determine a clear motive for the rebrand. As one of the most successful media tech companies in the U.S., Comcast was (and is) a popular household name. Over its long history Comcast developed a strong and positive public image, so why would a company want to move away from a name that held an immeasurable amount of equity? And it is evident the rebranding effort has confused a number of customers. One of the FAQs on XFINITY’s website asks, “What makes XFINITY different from the service I currently receive from Comcast?” Good question.
Moral
Everyone can agree that branding is crucial for the success of a business. But it’s even more crucial to make sure it is done correctly. Here are a couple of things to consider when developing your brand:
- Keep it simple. A common obstacle with branding is over-complication (see examples above). As a brand advocate, it’s easy to get caught up in the intricacies of your brand - many companies want every detail to be showcased. Be sure to prioritize when addressing your audience. It’s important to keep things consistent, clear and concise.
- Seek out a pair of fresh eyes. Strong brands have passionate employees who often times see things through a company lens. It is always important to get a third-party’s opinion – someone unbiased, trustworthy and knowledgeable.
- Think it through. Over-branding is often a result of rushed decisions. A new brand name, design and/or strategy is something that will touch every piece of your business. Take time to make sure your decisions make sense from every angle.
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.
Same Product, Different Name
You're making a sandwich and go into your fridge to pull out a jar of Hellmann's Mayonnaise...or is it Best Foods? Well, it depends where you are making this sandwich. If you live east of the Rockies, you're spreading Hellmann's Mayonnaise on your bread. But, move west of the Rockies and you're using Best Foods.
Both brands have similar logos, websites and even taglines. Seems strange doesn't it? So, why would a company create or give a different brand name for the same product in a different geography? We've compiled some common reasons you may find identical products with differing names.
MERGERS and ACQUISITIONS: It is not uncommon for mergers or buyouts to occur. Despite an acquisition, many brands are well-known--sometimes even better-known than the new parent brand-- and retain strong brand equity. When the name of national brand is strong, the original name is often kept, even when an international visual identity is adopted. The same applies on local or regional levels. For example, when Richard Hellmann Inc. was acquired by Best Foods, Inc., Hellmann's Mayonnaise sold east of the Rockies and Best Foods Mayonnaise sold west.
LEGAL: Whenever you create a name, there is always the possibility that someone else somewhere else has already thought of it. Often a local brand already owns the legal right to use a name, forcing a multinational company to create another name. This is particularly true in the pharmaceutical industry, which is why the same medication may have a different name in France than it does in the United States.
LANGUAGE: Words and phrases translate differently into different languages. Sometimes a brand's name may be inappropriate or even misleading in a specific language, potentially hurting sales. Depending on the product it can be funny, or it can be horribly ironic; one example of both these instances is the Chevy Nova. “No va” in Spanish means doesn’t go…perhaps not the best name for a car.
How do you avoid any naming mishaps in different regions? Research is essential in developing a name with long-term staying power. Copyright and trademark screening will eliminate name candidates in existence and linguistic evaluations will ensure you not cursing out someone's mother in another country. Doing research ahead of time will save you the time and money early on if you find your name already exists, and may even spare you embarrassment overseas.
Brandverbs: The Highest Mark of Success?
When was the last time you said: "I'm going to go use a search engine to look up information on tonight's event." The answer to that is either never, or sometime circa the early 2000's, but since then it's more than likely that most Americans say "I'm going to go Google more information on tonight's event." And that is my friend is brandverbing.
Companies like Xerox, Hoover, and even Google have gone to great lengths to avoid their brands becoming verbs, but why? When a brand becomes a verb you know that it has reached mass market consumer recognition, so wouldn’t becoming so engrained in society that your brand becomes part of the language be the ultimate degree of success for a brand?
So while others have fought hard to keep their brand from becoming a verb others are spending a lot of time and resources to make sure their brand is used as verbs by consumers in everyday life and conversation. Enter: Vanguard; an investment company who in 2010 began a highly visible campaign to turn their brand name into a verb.
The move by Vanguard shows that they too recognize the significance and potential payoff for their brand to be used in everyday language just like Xerox or Google has now experienced. And unlike a brand becoming genericized like asprin, zipper, and escalator (yup, these were all trademarked brand names at one point) a brand that becomes a verb is more appealing than its generic counterpart and has less risk in losing its brand appeal. Seth Godin, American author and speaker, said: "people care much more about verbs than nouns. They care about things that move, that are happening, that change. They care about experiences and events and the way things make us feel. Nouns just sit there, inanimate lumps. Verbs are about wants and desires and wishes."
So if what Godin says is true, every brand should strive to be a brandverb when appropriate. After all a brand is more than a product or logo, a brand is about an experience and the expectations we have of that brand. So if becoming a brandverb will incite those feelings then what's the big deal? These days I believe becoming a brandverb is not a kiss of death but the mark of success.
3 Ways to Name Your Company
Naming a company is one of the most important and one of the most challenging tasks you may face. The name of your company is the first impression you make – it is what your company stands for, and what it offers. So where do you start? When naming a company there are several approaches you can take. From word combinations to new creations, the verbal branding experts at Addison Whitney compiled a list of three major categories you can use to build a company name.
Current Usage: These are words found in the dictionary
Examples: Quaker, Apple, Target
Hybrid: Two words are fused together to form a new word
Examples: PowerBar, Comcast (from communications and broadcast), Citigroup
Neologism: This is a coined or created word
Examples: Yoplait, Kodak, Kashi
Blogger, Picasa succumb to Google's rebranding
The media world has yet to stop buzzing about Google's intriguing new social network, named the Google+ project. It only seems right to follow up on our last post with recent news about some of Google's most valuable website possessions — and how Google+ plays into the equation.
Mashable.com announced this week that Google has plans to retire its Blogger and Picasa brands in order to rename them as Google products. The popular blogging and photo-sharing websites, respectively, are being rebranded under Google's initiative to integrate all of its brands for the launch of Google+.
Blogger will be renamed "Google Blogs," and Picasa will instead become "Google Photos." The changes will be implemented as soon as mid to late August, which many believe is when Google+ will be released for public use.
These initiatives are part of a slowly evolving rebranding process on Google's part that has been in effect since at least 2008, when Google renamed the newly acquired JotSpot as Google Sites. This time, however, the newly rebranded sites will be implemented as features of Google+, although the details of exactly how aren't clear yet.
Google's rebranding endeavor certainly has the potential for greater brand recognition and prestige. If you visit the current Blogger site, one of the top ten most visited sites in the world, it's not very clear that it's owned by Google (Picasa is a little more obvious, with the word "google" in its domain name). Rebranding each site under the Google umbrella not only eliminates any doubt about the site's brand, but also strengthens Google's image of versatility in the online world.
Of course, the payoff may not be worth the integration in the long run. Users may not utilize the new brands through Google+ at all, and Blogger and Picasa loyalists might be upset enough with the obvious commercialization of their favorite sites to choose different blogging or photo-sharing options. Additionally, although consistency is important for the Google brand (Google Maps, Google Images, Google News, etc.), it could erase the unique, image-conjuring identities formerly held by names like Blogger and Picasa.
Whatever the outcome, it will be interesting to see how the shelf lives of these popular sites fare when they are rebranded with the Google name. Do you think the initiative is a clever strategy or a step in the wrong direction?
Contributed by Allison Meeks
Why INN's are so Important to a Drug's Life
Every pharmaceutical asset begins with a nonproprietary, generic name, or an International Nonproprietary Name (INN). This name could potentially be the first strategic decision you make for the commercial life of your brand.
But what exactly is an INN name and why do they exist?
Since the inception of the INN naming system in 1950 it has been providing health professionals with a way to uniquely and universally identify each pharmaceutical substance. INN's are not only important in identifying a drug's pharmaceutical ingredients but in providing safe prescription and dispensing of medicines to patients, and communication between health professionals worldwide. The World Health Organization (who manages & issues INN's) issues INN's in English, Latin, French, Russian, and Spanish, and more recently Arabic and Chinese versions are also being issued.
Here Vince Budd, Senior Vice President at Addison Whitney, speaks of the importance INN's have on the success and lifecycle of a drug:
"Although INN’s aren’t actually considered intellectual property, developing an INN is without a doubt a strategic endeavor that many commercial, medical and regulatory officers take very seriously. First, the commercial team of an organization sees this as the first opportunity to put some sort of face or image to the asset. Although WHO would like manufactures to use trivial or fantasy letter strings when building generic names around INN stems, many approved INN’s are actually quite suggestive about the product. This helps some of the branding activities that soon follow. Also, many manufacturers must think about the life cycle of the asset and potential generic competition, which also impacts the type of INN name that is sought. The bottom line is INN development is serious business and the wrong or right name can certainly have an impact on the future success of a drug. "
According to WHO there are roughly 8,000 INN's listed today, and that number grows by approximately 120-150 each year. Every INN must be submitted to and approved by WHO, and must follow their general principles for developing INN's.
Source: World Health Organization