Name Awards

Do you care a fig about the new Figo?

So the official story is that the name for this new car from Ford of India, the first small model wholly designed in and for India, is Italian slang for Fico = cool.

Sure it is. But don’t tell me the Americans and the Indians were sitting around thinking of cool Italian names while enduring the monsoon heat of India! I rather think they came up with a clever abbreviation from Ford India On the Go – thought it was cool – checked with their lawyers – then adopted it and the marketing department (playing catch up as usual) came up with the official story.

The fact that a Fico is an Indian fig tree (or prickly pear) is probably purely coincidental. The fact that Ford uses Figo, a non-dictionary word, is very rare, other than for their small international cars. Anyway.. great name. Job 1 is done.

Naming on the All Business radio show

Sheryl Parks, one of the business reporters and hosts on KBZNZ, has a great play on her own name:  Sparks to Flame. She has also been an entrepreneur in previous lives so was a very smart host when interviewing me about naming your startup.

Listen in tomorrow (Wed 23rd) at 6:00am or 6:00pm (PST) when we will be on the air together on KZBNZ internet talk radio.

The good, the bad and the ugly of new auto names.

In the automobile world, new years come earlier than the calendar shows. And each year brings a crop of new models, along with names for us to review. A vehicle’s name is a major part of its branding and positioning – and outside of real estate – the biggest consumer purchases for most families. So they have big marketing programs that we can all use for learning and teaching.

The new Panamera from Porsche might look ugly (don’t all Porsches – until you get used to them?) but it has a very good, cool name. More than that, the name has a story of a heritage and races behind it, evolving from the Panamericana – a one off special built for Ferry Porsche himself for his 80th birthday – and named after a famed race in Mexico.

I was impressed with the name Forte for the new Kia model after hearing it on TV commercials, until I visited the website to get more data. That is when I discovered it is listed as Cerato/Forte and often Cerato only. Guess they don’t have Spanish dictionaries in Korea, and that someone only woke up once the car was brought into Southern California and politely asked if they really wanted to name a car “wax ointment”. Now they have to deal with the mess of one model worldwide with two different names.

Then there is the Suzuki Kizashi. Japanese names have been accepted worldwide for cars, but I really don’t think these names fit together. They are hard to say, and in any language, ending a word and starting the next (in a name) with the same syllable (or phonetic sound as is the case in Japan), makes for awkward pronunciation and spelling confusion. My local paper says the name (pronounced Kee Zah Shee) means something great is coming. Boy, did they swallow some marketing spin or what.

A peaceful smile.. from a law firm!

Yesterday a law firm brought a smile to my face. No, I did not win a judgment. I simply met a new small business law firm  that had the courage to not name themselves in the usual Stuffy, Traditional and Heritage style! Being the namiac that I am, I was impressed the minute I saw Jennifer’s business card (logo scanned here).

Playing in different technology sandboxes is very “in” speak in Silicon Valley. Visiting a law firm called SandGarden Law plays off that plus much more as implied by the whole garden concept. It makes me feel more at peace already.

Lawyers and clients are people too. I am sure you will interact well with this startup when they make you comfortable on first contact. And no, it is not an Asian zen firm.

P.S. And with a name like that, no tagline is needed.

Carbonite will copy your PC all night

Carbonite’s great and topical TV ads caught my ear before my eye…  a sure sign of a great TV commercial if it works with the visual switched off.. (or visual only, no sound). The name just has a great strong sound to it, even though analysis might show it is close to reminding one of dynamite or kryptonite.

Anyway, a great new service for many, many PC owners who aren’t smart enough to run their own regular backups (which means most of us). But how unique is the name? A check of USPTO trademark database shows there are many other Carbonite registered trademarks. Of course, they are for other categories of products, like industrial, metallic coatings, building materials, medical, etc.

Interestingly enough… and a big caution to trademark checkers everywhere.. the USPTO flags Karbonite as a similar trademark too. Indeed it should, since it is phonetically equivalent, and therefore the same. But they do not flag Carbonyte, which is also phonetically equivalent, and even has some registered trademarks in their database. As usual, the USPTO online search is one of the world’s worst for equivalency checks of trademarks. Be careful, or use a professional naming agency and a good trademark lawyer to be sure.

PS The close integration of the logo and tagline make for instantly clear messaging for Carbonite. Well done.

Naming trends as big movie download players line up

In some industries, there is little or no room for the small guy. One such industry is the emerging video download business because you need to be big to get legal rights to the major release movies and shows. (An exception is in the porno industry, but that is another story).  As Hulu, Joost, Amazon, Walmart, Netflix, Blockbuster, and Apple (iTunes) line up to be our primary suppliers, it is fun to examine their name styles as a group.

The two companies set up specifically to address this market as their primary focus, Hulu and Joost have abstract names (and have been covered in earlier blog postings), while the two traditional “old timers”, Netflix and BlockBuster, have more descriptive (but still unique) names. Apple is using its iTunes service to deliver video, and everyone accepts that…. without even thinking about the word and what it means. Shows that it has become just a brand handle….shorthand for the brand promise.. not a descriptive name anymore.

Similarly of course for the mass merchandisers Amazon with their jungle full of online offerings, and Walmart with their relentless wall to wall offerings of everything imaginable to sustain a human and his pets. In due course, will we shop at one of these megastores, or be more particular in our movie tastes and get a specialized service connection from someone new? Only time will tell if the younger smaller brands can catch up, but don’t bet against them as they have big backers like CBS.

In the meantime, iVideo.com leads to Ohio’s biggest integrated video dealer, and not a download service from Apple or anyone else. And YouTube, that is educating the world on American slang, may be a player too – if they can be both the low quality video snippet site as well as the professional full length movie download company.

PS See what the namiac name critic had to say about Netflix recently.