Name Awards

How to ruin a great name.

Last night I saw a TV commercial (on the internet) for the new OnStar system, but the words that I were reading kept saying OnStar FMV. My first reaction was “what the F… ” is FMV.  My second reaction was oh no, they have broken a great brand name and promise.

Why? Why can’t people leave well enough alone? Or control their ad agency instead of paying them for updating and fixing something that isn’t broken. Sure the agency has to do something to get paid. But breaking the brand should not be it.

Now it is 24 hours later and I finally go to the Onstar.com website and look it up.  Guess what..  FMV stands for For My Vehicle. Really? No go on? What was I going to use it for? My cat? Wasn’t that a vehicle in every picture in every ad. Is someone else usurping OnStar for something else? Their private satellite perhaps?

Grrr.  What a big error. What a waste of brand brain time. F…Moth.. of V…

Was Apple the most expensive name to preserve California?

In the rush to eulogize Steve Jobs, some articles are not portraying the correct origins of the Apple name, nor are they pointing out the massive legal mistake they made that cost the company millions.

The company was NOT named after the Beatles record company. I believe this is the true story: Steve Jobs simply told his fledgling team one day in the Bay Area that they needed a new name for the company. And in frustration with their lack of suggestions, he said if they didn’t come up with a name by five o’clock, he was going to name it Apple. And so it came to be.

But later as they grew and registered their trademark around the world, Apple Computers Inc (as they used to be) signed a bilateral agreement with Apple Records Ltd (of the Beatles) that Apple Computers would never make music and Apple Records, in turn, would never make computers. This was all fine and good until Apple unveiled the Mac line of computers, with their built-in sound and music capabilities. Luckily by then the Mac was selling well and the company was very wealthy, because when Apple Records sued them, the case eventually ended up in British High Court and Apple Computers lost to the tune of approximately $46 million! I still remember the positive spin they put on it for their shareholders: they had been expecting to have to pay more, and secondly, they were insured.

Well the insurance company refused to pay up and it went to court. And Apple Computers lost again, so it cost them about $10 million more when all the legal costs were added up. For a grand total of about $56 million – to legally keep their own name! WOW. Let this be an expensive lesson for all company founders who would like to name their company without checking trademarks properly.

PS As for the logo, which used to have kiddy candy stripes on it I don’t think there was a bite taken out of the Apple because of some connection to Adam and Eve. I heard (but may be wrong) that it was done to make it clearer that the logo really was in the shape of an Apple, and nothing else.

Talking of long names: Silicon Valley Code Camp returns

Sometimes a function just gets the right name from the outset. Such is the magic of Silicon Valley Code Camp. Nowhere else would a code camp be so appropriate. After all, where else would so many propeller head geeks (as I call them because I was one) get together for a whole weekend and take over a whole junior college just to share information about the latest and greatest in software? Not a corporate function. Just some keen volunteers who now have some big corporate sponsors so even the pizza and sandwiches are free.

Peter Kellner and his team do a great job of this and close to 2000 attendees are expected this year to partake in the 150 or so sessions. All the news is just spread by blogs and word of mouth.

Since I was Peter’s tech support friend over 25 years ago, I was one of the first marketing guys ever to present at the camp. This year I will have two sessions: From Code to Product to Market to Company where I help software types understand what it takes to transform some code into a business, and Pragmatic Naming for Product Managers where we help teach the basics of naming in a very crowded trademark category.

Please join us or follow along online.

Not all great names are short and sweet

I have recently had a chance to discuss what makes a good name with a number of writers, in addition to my usual discussions with clients, and an interesting fact comes to life: Not all great names are short and sweet.  We have a top 10 list of ideal factors for your new company, product or brand name, and these points are mirrored more or less on many other linguists and branding lists.

But what about National Geographic? Or The Smithsonian Institute? Or Architectural Digest? Or Wikipedia? For most of these you couldn’t find a better name. And even though many people struggle to spell encyclopaedia, I can’t imagine there is a better name for Wikipedia, even though most people don’t know what a Wiki is or what the Hawaiian word means. Hint: Look it up in Wikipedia – one of the most trusted sources on the internet.

So we must conclude that for every rule about a great name, there is an exception. And, as usual, nothing matters if the boss doesn’t like the name anyway.

UPDATE: Since we no longer spell encyclopedia as encyclopaedia, care needs to be taken with the root tail here, as it is also often used for pediatric or even pedophile names. If it wasn’t better know, Wikipedia could be a list of pedophiles or a list of kid’s problems.

When you are naming a series of Nordic longboats…

Viking River Cruises is introducing a whole new series of long ships in Europe. They sure look like they will take up at least two jetties each time they dock, plus could get out of kilter going through some bridge arches and wrap themselves around one of the pylons.

But I am only criticizing because I can’t get away for a trip in short order. Must say I am impressed with how they are using Facebook too. One of the better consumer marketing efforts. Of course I liked the ship christening ceremony.

And, as for the names of the new long boats: Viking Embla, Viking Aegir, Viking Freya, Viking Idun, Viking Njord, Viking Odin. Don’t worry, after one cruise and some wine from their own Viking winery, your ship’s name will roll off the tongue and never be forgotten.

Plus these names really add a touch of Nordic class and separate the boats from their sister Princess Cruises with their English party names.

Venza is a great car with a rotten name

If Toyota’s usual US based naming agency came up with this name, then I apologize in advance and clearly need educating on something. What a stylish new cross over vehicle… really moves Toyota out of the boring box category.

Then they go name it Venza. What is that? And their direct competitor has the hot selling Versa! Even Wikipedia has a note: Not to be confused with Toyota Avanza.

All I know is that it feels very pedantic and something that got lost in committee. Will go down well in Africa though, especially with the Venda tribal people. Or are they expecting the Italians to think they are replacing the iconic Vespa line?

Is LawPivot pronounced “Law Pee Vo”?

Earlier this week a friendly young gentleman called me to see if our company needed occasional legal services, or at least the chance to post some questions to a large panel of lawyers. When he introduced his company I couldn’t catch the name.. but it sounded a lot like Law Penis to me.

I was so shocked, I asked him specifically what was the company name, and he slowly said “Law Pee Vo“. If Ihadn’t been in a good mood, I probably would have been pee’d off. But instead, 10 minutes later I called him back. Got the answering service which at first didn’t know which of their many clients had been calling me. But I persuaded the well-spoken young lady to work down the list of her clients with Law at the beginning.

That is when I discovered a company called Law Pivot was actually using telemarketers (on shore incidentally) that were badly mangling their name! I also discovered that they were probably using this marketing tactic because they are not showing up on the first 25 pages of a Google search for Ask a Lawyer a question.  What a pity for an apparently good service that has had some big PR coverage in the past.

Many people use any service they prefer. Me, if I can’t get past the name, I move on to another supplier. And I hope this reminds more of you to listen yourself to the verbal branding messages your hired flunkies are putting out….so they don’t pee all over it.

Magnum is a strong name for a strong taste of chocolate

I am not sure how I missed it growing up, but now I discover Magnum chocolate and ice cream has been around for a while. And  you thought Magnum was a gun, right? Shows how broad thinking can lead to great cross over names.

But you still have to get the word out. There current ads in the form of movie trailers are brilliant. Now if only I knew where to buy some!

Virgin America is a breath of fresh airline

Imagine the fun you could have explaining the name Virgin America for a new airline if your audience did not know the history of Virgin Airlines.  Regardless, this is a great example of how a name influences the brand personality. Every step they take is somehow subtly different to their competitors.

From using ad pictures like the one here, to having an appropriate tagline: A breath of fresh airline they always stand out from the crowd. What great brand value is that? And it all started with the name.

Tags: brandnames, slogans, taglines

Drobo is a great new name… abbreviations can be winners

Data Robotics was a practical name, if somewhat long in the tooth namewise. But this week we offer our name of the week award to them for picking their already used abbreviation of Drobo as the product line name as well as the new company name.  Not Dr Obo, not DatRob, not Datarob, not dRobotics…. just simply Drobo.

So now Drobo can go go… not that they appear to need much help from us.. they are already zooming along in the small business add-on storage marketplace.