10.11.07

GoDaddy cuts through the noise.. and brings a smile to all

Posted in Language Fun, Great Names at 4:04 pm by Athol

I have previously written posts about names that cut through the noise, but in the domain name registration space there is one that stands head and shoulders above the crowd. Here are some of the boring sounding ones:

Register.com
Network Solutions.com
Register Fly (that turned out to be a bit of a Fly by night)
RegNow
Registration Technologies
Domain Name
…and 50+ others starting with the word Domain!

And then there is GoDaddy! I have seen staid business people literally do a double-take when this name is mentioned, either because of the shock of the name for a very serious and important business, or because they have seen some of GoDaddy’s fun marketing campaigns.. and don’t realize it is a business site, not a consumer one.

This name obviously did not come from the boardroom. What magic one man can do (Bob Parsons), with the right personality… even though he is backed up by a staff of thousands, all of whom understand the concept of customer service - with a smile. Go Daddy Go - even if you are already number one!

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09.25.07

Award to all namers who endure no-coined-name execs

Posted in Language Fun at 7:54 pm by Athol

Today’s award goes to all namers who have had to endure the rants and raves from corporate executives about how they hate us for making up coined names.

They say how they will never embrace such names - even as they drive down the street in their Camry’s, talking on their Verizon phones, munching on some Oreos as they stop for Exxon gas, before heading over to Kinkos to send a Fedex parcel. Sigh.

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09.15.07

Will Palm show their hand?

Posted in Language Fun at 11:32 am by Athol

With Palm politely announcing they are canceling their $10 million Follyo (I mean Foleo) it got me to thinking about their name and logo again. Doesn’t the name Palm seem a bit naked standalone, but powerful when coupled with a product name? In fact, that was the original idea for Palm Computing and the great name Palm Pilot. Of course, that was until Pilot Pens stood up and said “Hey wait a minute. That is our name and brand.”

So today we have the Palm Treo instead. How come their hand only has 3 fingers? Are they slightly handicapped? But I’m OK, as you can see in the logo here, My Palm has 5 fingerprints.

And shouldn’t they have named the company Palms? Especially for a high volume product they are trying to get into the hands of many consumers? Then the casino in Las Vegas could have been at Palm.com instead. After all, there is only one, even though it has a trio of leaves. Must be the same 3 fingered designer!

While Palm was the first commercially successful PDA (Personal Device Assistant aka Pretty Darn Awkward) product company, somewhere along the line as they went through yet another management change, they came up with a new logo. In high resolution and properly rendered it has a nice orange 3D look. But what were/are they trying to tell us. Oranges grow on palm trees. No? Must be to caution investors. Not yet red, but not green either. And nothing to do with hands anymore.

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09.02.07

Inc 500 Name Fun and Tragedy

Posted in Language Fun at 9:02 pm by Athol

Inc magazine has just released their annual 500 fastest growing private companies list. As usual, this makes great reading for business and financial and entrepreneurial types, but it is also a lot of fun for some potential name awards. At least on this list you get some imaginative and distinctive names, not like all the boring ones on the Fortune 500 list.

There was still the usual cadre of boring names that will never be household brands, like Hospital Partners of America at number 3, all the way down to Image Solutions at number 500. But for some fun, how about Red F Marketing at number 106 which they say is short for Redefining the Future .. not the Red F you got in class? (Their logo is as boring as they come so we do not show it here). Now we can’t but wonder if 5W Public Relations will move up from number 153 and one day become 10W 50 P.R. say?

Solid Cactus from Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania came in at 255, (Hex FF for you computer propeller heads) making us wonder if an Arizona cactus was perhaps hollow. Leading the real strange and weird name award category though is Urooj at number 399. Imagine being a sales or marketing exec and having to call fifty people a day - and tell them you are from Urooj!

But the big disaster is at number 422. Coolibar is a rude and offensive name to a large ethnic group. We are staggered that no one recognizes this. The C word to most Indians is as bad as the N word to most African Americans. Double ouch disaster!

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07.03.07

Arsene coaches Arsenal

Posted in Language Fun at 3:24 pm by Athol

Every time I watch “the gunners” play soccer, it fascinates me that Arsenal, one of the big major clubs of Europe, have a long time coach with the first name Arsene. Talk about being made for each other. Such naming coincidences are very rare in nature, yet very common in product and company naming.

Of course my software name checkers wouldn’t like any of these names, since they both have “arse” in them, the very English pronunciation for your rear-end! Luckily, we have humans running the asylym.. I hope.

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06.30.07

Historic iPhone arrives.. from the name bully

Posted in Language Fun at 9:37 am by Athol

First there was the Newton, then the Palm (after they were legally forced to drop Pilot from the name), then the Blackberry, Razr, Chocolate, UpStage, and finally the iPhone. Compared to normal naming sequences this is all backwards. Usually an industry first jumps on the direct and common names, then evolves into using real brand names.

If you hadn’t heard of the biggest coming attraction since Windows 95, then you surely have today now that people actually can buy an iPhone. Of course, it is not just a phone, and it is a lot more than a PDA or wireless email. But then again, the iPod is not a pod (though Apple originally had the name for internet kiosks, which were pod-like).

This time, Apple managed to bully (OK, bribe, cajole, tease, entice) Cisco into letting them use the name iPhone, because its structure satisfied Apple’s naming architecture. But folks, please don’t try this bullying others in your home office, unless you have the power and charisma of Steve Jobs, and a big bank account to fund your takeover name actions.

Thank goodness we are not hearing those dreaded PDA initials anymore. Of course, it is a Personal Digital Assistant, (or Pretty Darn Awkward as I always called them), but Apple understands branding big time. So they use real names… just like the iPod beats the life out of all those other devices that have MP3 in their title. How do those names evolve to also be video players, web browsers, organizers and telephones?

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