Name Awards

As predicted, Aulani shows the Hawaiian names are coming.

A reporter once scoffed at me when I said we would see more Hawaiian names abound because of the shortage of English words that can be owned and trademarked. She thought Akamai was a big exception. Of course, they have since grown to be a major internet infrastructure player.

Now Disney is launching its Aulani Resort in Hawaii.  Being in Hawaii, it is much more natural to use such a name… but it is a rare word that has them explaining its meaning and pronunciation. And, of course, with their money and marketing mojo they can brand anything, you might argue. Still, it takes courage to really bring a new word to life. The baby naming books say it is female for a god’s messenger. After the Disney spin is added, it supposedly means “the place that speaks for the great ones”.  And no, it does not rhyme with aura. Like in Wow or Maui, it is a loud Au.

Sign up now for your timeshare at Aulani.com. It will be ready for you and Mickey to don your flowery shirts next year.

Stion is a great new name for a promising company

After all my recent public criticisms of the sound-alike solar company names popping up everywhere, it is very refreshing to come across Stion so I can praise a great name.

I still don’t know what Stion means, but nevertheless everyone will intuitively know it is a good phonetic name and have great recall of it. So that will then give them a natural hook back to what they do – especially large, unique and efficient solar panels if I read it right.

And with a recent $70million in new investment capital, they must be doing something impressive – apart from growing into their eloquent, sharp, short name. They deserve a big name award.

Green names for great brands? Or green grammar?

At the Sustainable Brands conference this week in Monterey, I will be co-presenting on naming and grammar to describe sustainable brands. I know not everyone gets a choice, but I keep coming back to how the name and the product make for a more complete brand promise and experience.

So a uniquely new styled car like the Nissan Leaf, and before that the Prius and Tesla, make for so much more of a powerful market brand statement than something like Civic Hybrid or Lexus Hybrid – which don’t look different and don’t have unique names for a unique share of mind.

Despite the braking woes at Toyota, Prius has over 60% of the hybrid market, and Leaf is already sold out for this year.. before they even ship the first US model! Believe me, the writers over at Huffington Post are very misguided when they voted these names as being in the top 10 worst green names. Has anyone at Huffington ever been out of the city? They need some fresh air.

Intel back to numbers – but model years?

Ever since the Pentium came out it has been no big industry secret that many engineers at Intel harked for the days of the 486 and similar number nomenclatures. Well finally Intel is back to numbers.. but what an extreme tactic!

They are promoting their 2010 Core Processors widely right now. Maybe, just maybe, they will get some significant market share to notice before all the big auto companies start promoting their 2011 models starting Labor Day (first weekend in Sept).

Then who will want a 2010? Maybe get one on a dealer incentive fire sale day just like the older car models?  Will we have a Blue Book for chip values? And since no one owns a date, we are looking forward to the AM 2010 (or better still, with perfect vision, the AM 2020 or similar name from competitors).

PS Yes, it comes in 3 flavors. But would you buy a product with only a 3 Star Rating? (See graphics). Maybe that is their trick to push you to the i5 model. Grrrrr.

How many ways can you create eco and green names?

At the upcoming Sustainable Brands conference (June in Monterey, Calif) I will be debating using good grammar and the right words to reposition a brand as green and ecological vs giving the product line (or even company) a whole new name. Since I am pro all new name, I am especially conscious nowadays of such new eco names. So darned if I didn’t practically trip over the display case of Ecolution cookware right in the middle of the aisle.

My debating colleague might argue that with this color scheme and graphics, any name can be made to look green and eco friendly, without having to introduce an awkward new word. True, but on the phone? And by Word of Mouth? Yes, it is slightly unusual, but the public can easily get used to anything.  In fact, there are a number of unrelated consumer lines, including shoes, that also have a trademark on Ecolution.

What do you think? Send me some great new green names I can use as examples.

I am going simply hyper in .cat country

Traveling in the Catalonian region of Spain (around Barcelona for a long way) can drive a namer nuts. The language isn’t Spanish or French, but this crazy mixture called Catalan. And they are very passionate about it. After all, what other province in the world could get its own country language specific domain code? It is .cat and a lot of fun to see it in professional usage here…  and no, cat lovers need not apply… you need a registered business in the region, and about Euro240 per year.

And there is not even any relief when we visit the large English like supermarket.  Yes, it really is called Hiper Simply.

Top 10 ways to find a free .com name in 2010

Every week someone cries on my shoulder about how hard it is becoming to find free .com domain names. Well they are disappearing at a rate of 1 million a month, and have been doing so for a while, so what do you expect if you are only waking up now?

Anyway, here are my professional suggestions. Let me know what you think or pass along the list, with due credit to Athol Foden of Brighter Naming.

1. Use a number in your name. e.g. 3Com, 2Wire, Tack360, etc. Works best if name is mostly seen online and not used much on the phone.
2. Use a different form of a verb.  e.g  Learning Spanish instead of Learn Spanish say. Or Brighter Naming instead of Bright Naming. Non-English languages often have lots of conjugations of their verbs providing even more options.
3. Personalize or localize the name.  e.g.  iFly, MySpinnerTricks, YourBicycleTracks, OurFishingTrips, TexasBigGameSupporters, ScottishCurlingClub, CollegePaymentsUSA, etc.
4. Coin new words from classic or other roots:  Miradiance  (Mira is Spanish/Latin for view), Frito Lay (Frito is Spanish for fried), Verantis (From verity = truth and Atlantis)
5. Use initials as well:   PFChangs, PrintDNA, SugarCRM, NGMoco
6. Combine parts of words: e.g. Solyndra from solar and cylinder, Sony from sonus and sonny, Transcera from transcend and era. Or even combine languages: e.g. NeuStar  (German + English words), Tambrio (English + Spanish).
7. Go Hawaiian, or African, or …     Akamai, Wiki, Ubuntu, Zynga
8. Squeeze vowels in (to make smoother pronunciations) like Avidasports, Affinaquest, or out (aka IM speak) to make for very short names like Flickr, Loopt, VCTRY.
9. Go phonetic with something that just sounds good and create your own meanings:   Cisco, Kinkos, Zanitar, Jamba, Brivo, Ariba, Skype
10. Work with a professional naming agency or consultant that tracks free domains and can also quickly implement one of the above techniques.

Number 10 is probably the least expensive solution when you consider the management time and legal headaches they also solve, especially now that competition has driven prices down to $6000 for corporate accounts, and much less for individuals or small businesses.

Bloom Energy for your body or your building!

Just when I thought what a good name Bloom Energy was for the fuel cell company officially (and finally) launching tomorrow (Wed 23rd) – after getting a mega scoop preview on 60 minutes – I discovered other trademarks on the name Bloom Energy.

Now what would you do if you were the marketing team down at Del Monte Corp. with this great new energy drink blend that you have been so carefully cultivating and here comes the home and office energy story of the year with your same name?

Do you ignore them, knowing fuel cell energy companies are only in the spotlight briefly? Or do you play along and start talking about fuel cells for your body?

Exact match trademarks can be registered, of course, since trademarks are filed according to definite International Classes and these are in very different classes. As the supply of names continues to tighten, we will see lots more of this happening. I even recall last year seeing three different TV ads in the same week for 3 different products, all called Fusion. And none of them was one of the very popular fusion restaurants.

Kwik, is it Kewlr or Kewler?

Since I for one have been quoted in the press about new name styles that squeeze out the vowels becoming more popular, I should not be surprised to discover names like Kewlr ( a social bookmarking site) and Kewler (makers of Icy Hot balls) coexisting.

Maybe I will also need a copy of KwikEdit to get my site straightened out before I kew up to go to Kuwait.

Never lay your hands on the Neverland name.

Although it is a straight copy by Michael Jackson, and before that by Disney, of a mythical place name in the classic Peter Pan novels, today there are some big organizations and their friendly lawyers protecting the Neverland name. And, of course, Michael Jackson’s estate is probably worth a lot more now that he has passed on. So I was not surprised to read that a would-be tribute musical band had been sent one of those dreaded cease and desist letters for trying to use the name. In a smart move, they are now Foreverland. Much cheaper than fighting a lawsuit… but a positive implied connection nevertheless.

During Jackson’s passing, his Neverland Ranch gained even more immense worldwide coverage. Ironically, when he bought it originally from Sycamore Valley Ranch, he renamed it, but he had subsequently become a part owner of Sycamore Valley Ranch and taken over the ownership. So much of the public immediately recognized the brand as being associated with Michael Jackson – and would attest to that if asked for a common opinion – even though there are many trademark applications and fights over the name. Pity Jackson didn’t properly protect it earlier, instead of the slew of filings on his death (assuming he could get the rights properly from Disney or J.M.Barrie Estate author of Peter Pan).

Enough legal, more interestingly, why does the name have such power, such interest, such fascination? It is a negative right? Wow. Great example of where a negative has become a positive. How much more over the top brandable than Sycamore Valley Ranch? Immeasurable…  with maybe even a touch of genius behind it. Most corporations I know would get all analytical and say it is too negative a name for us – but most of them outside Hollywood are not paid to dream!

Eloquent and beautiful.. but in this day and age Neverland is taken as a name. RIP Michael Jackson… we will leave your place name to your lawyers and family.