Archive for the ‘Naming’ Category

Some tips for finding the right brand name

Often, a new name for an entity (product, brand, company) is hard to agree on because the solution is too new, too unfamiliar. Brand owners can reject ideas without giving them time to catch their imaginations. How can we help brand owners see the potential in a name?

Any name you like, as long as it’s black

“What I’ve learned in my career is it’s product that matters, not the name.” This is a big gauntlet thrown down by Ford marketing chief Jim Farley in a recent USA Today article; a whole chicken and egg debate about the place in marketing of the brand name. Surely, no one would doubt the importance of a brand name? Would they?

Posted on Jan 19th 2012 by Andy K · Permalink · Leave a comment
In: Brand Strategy, Naming, Viewpoints · Tags: , , , ,

The Apostrophe is dead. Long live the Apostrophe.

Waterstones has lost something. The once definitive bookshop is moving ahead without its apostrophe (and yes, I did have to think twice about whether to use one there) and this has set up a media storm of Biblical proportions. What does this mean for a brand name?

A Review of new brand names in 2011

Here are a few contenders for best or worst name of 2011, although there can never really be a truly bad name – just names that get you noticed, those new ideas we all dislike at first, but which grow on us eventually…

Will a new brand name dilute your Staines?

Our naming expert Andy Kirk responds to the renaming of Staines, as Staines-upon-Thames. Will it be credible?

Posted on Dec 19th 2011 by Andy K · Permalink · Leave a comment
In: Brand Strategy, Naming, Viewpoints · Tags: ,

What should Apple’s new TV be called?

Pundits are already calling the new Apple TV the i-TV, which, certainly in the UK, is raising as smile because one of the major broadcasters is ITV. Maybe this is a chance for them to out-do everyone and surprise with a new style of naming. If Amazon can do it with the Kindle, why not the beloved Apple?

What does a Qwik-fix name mean for a brand?

It was interesting to hear that Netflix have split their film streaming business apart from their DVD-by-mail business, and called the latter offering Qwikster.

Retail branding n’that

Branding Agency Design Bridge are delighted to announce that they had nothing to do with this retail branding proposition. It must be said that whilst truth and personality are clearly at large within the proposition, it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi.

Managing the shift from Rx to OTC

Pharmaceutical brand marketing is a challenging business. Creating an engagement with your target consumer is the key to successful brand development within any arena – consumer facing or B2B – but making the shift from a professional to consumer audience is a particular challenge that not many sectors, other than perhaps retail banking, have to contend with.

Naming the iCloud

If the best ideas are the ones that seem the most obvious when you hear them, then perhaps the best products are the ones which consumers have already started to expect or create for themselves from fragments of others. Watching Apple’s keynote revealing iCloud, I was struck by two things:

Posted on Jun 16th 2011 by Chris Charlton · Permalink · 3 Comments
In: Digital, Naming, Technology, Viewpoints · Tags: ,