Name Awards

Cutting through the noise like Kinko’s does.

If you look at how people have traditionally named their copy shops, you see names like:

• Quick Copy
• Express Copy
• Kwik Copy (yuk)
• University Copy
• Copy Express
• Main Street Copy
• My Copy Shop
• Copy and Print
• Print & Copies
• Day and Night Copies
• etc.

And then there is Kinko’s® . What the heck is a Kinko anyway?

Well Kinko’s also started as a copy shop, and all initial locations were close to a major University campus and they specialized in express service. But instead of trying to describe the initial business, the founder named it, and used the rest of the marketing taglines and messaging to position the business.

And the business grew and grew, and everyone knew the name Kinko’s (and remembered it because of the great stickiness and phonetics), until today they barely do copying. But so what. They sold out to Fedex for $1.3+ billion and their name was strong enough for a major brander to retain it. Today they are Fedex Kinko’s and no one asks what the name means. It is simply shorthand for quick, quality, office services.

PS See an analysis and rating by the name critic prior to the Fedex take over. How a college nickname became a memorable nationwide brand.

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