Name Awards

My oh my, I would love a mylo®

As personal mobile devices start to proliferate beyond the leading edge technorati, there is also a need for names for them. Preferably short and personal sounding in keeping with their style and positioning. Maybe even warm and comforting like those mugs of Milo I had as a kid. Sure you can call it a NetBook or a CommNote or something boring and long and descriptive.. but while calling it a network device or appliance might work internally.. it will never fly with the consumer audience.

So our award today goes to Sony (and their naming agency) for calling their’s by such a short, sweet and cool sounding name. I don’t agree with the small “m” spelling, but that might be simply because I am over 29.

Please don’t write and tell me you can’t name your products in such unique styles, because you don’t have Sony’s branding dollars. Au Contraire, you will hardly get heard through the noise without such a name. Plus you can get stuck in legal. Plus you will not be giving the consumer a great shorthand handle to use for your brand. So such a unique name is usually a much better ROI, regardless of branding dollars. Just ask Blackberry for one.

PS And then the brand aura lasts for years. You own the name. Technology will change for sure.. don’t get caught next year trying for another common English word name just because your management do not realize the power of coined names – even though they drive down the freeway in their Lexus, eating an Oreo, looking for a Starbuck’s while listening to their iPod or Sony and waiting for a call from Motorola or a text on their Nokia.

Oh how we loved you Kinko’s

Before the signs finally change, just like the original founder, let’s all shed a tear for the passing of a great name. When everyone else was Main Street Copy, or Quick Copy, or Data Copy, or University Copy, or Business Copies, there emerge Kinko’s. It will forever be a great name that cut through the noise despite the fact they did not have big branding dollars. At least not until they sold out to Fedex for $1.3billion or so.

Now Fedex is going to only use their own megabrand going forward. We understand. And I hope many have learned from how powerful an abstract name can be, especially when it has a good sound. We have previously honored the name with a big award – today we reiterate that fact.

The fate of the Phaeton

Some elegant and educated words just do not fit for product lines. Especially mass market consumer product lines. Naming your car the Phaeton has surely doomed its fate to some extent or other, especially in the US.

Wikipedia explains the origins as “The name Phaeton derives from Phaëton, the son of Phoebes and Helios in Greek mythology — and also a type of horse drawn carriage. So intellectually speaking, very smart. But try spelling it or saying it. Ouch.

I therefore award this name two bombs. One for spelling and one for pronunciation. Not to mention how it definitely does not sound like it belongs in the friendly family name collection of VW.

Tarred by the wrong color of branding brush

Quixtar is currently running a broad awareness campaign to associate themselves with their real Amway Brand. But many people (including me) thought that Amway somehow became Quixtar to get rid of some of the negative brand baggage of the old Amway name, especially when they went online. So then the question that begged to be answered was if you were going to tar yourself with a brush of a different color, why not keep it very separate and distinct?

Turns out that Quixtar actually was a separate e-initiative originally kept at arms length from Amway – presumably while they learned and saw how it affected their independent business operators and their traditional MLM marketing programs. Of course, it took off like a rocket and has now been fully embraced (if I read their official releases properly), so they want to fold it back in and next year call everything Amway Global. A strange, slow- change strategy that makes my head spin… why advertise who you are now if soon you won’t be?

Could it be that a big agency is calling the shots, and they make more money if it is dragged out to the max? Or does it take the IT guys that long to do the integration?

But in the meantime, those clever names where there is a play on the English language often backfire, especially for the foreigners, the young and the half educated. Especially when you let your graphics designer break the word so it does look like Quix Tar. Don’t blame me if some people miss the implied Star sound.