Name Awards

How refreshing is that little “e”?

After recently writing and blogging about new name trends where vowels are squeezed out to make IM/SMS like names, it suddenly dawned on me that sometimes we go the other way. Here is a great example. Adding that little “e” to the end of the name doesn’t even change the pronunciation. But what a difference!

Suddenly the name is not generic and boring. Suddenly the name is unique and trademark protectable. And at the same time, a touch of class is added to a simple word that everyone knows - without going French with an accent.

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.

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.

Invictus breaks through noise of film names

I had the pleasure of spending Xmas dinner with a Hollywood insider who was pointing out to me how bland and descriptive the titles of movies had become. Even Avatar borrowed a popular online gaming term.

And then there is the exception: Invictus.  Fancy naming a movie after an old poem. But also how clever and inspiring. Because while this movie is about Mandela and his first days in office in South Africa, it is also about many other things as people wrestle with massive sociological change. So much more than a specific story. I especially liked all the little vignettes that Clint Eastwood added to the movie so you never get bored (I only just managed to stay awake in Avatar as it is so predictable).

Like many books, the title is taken from one small key episode in the whole work. Now don’t you forget the great last paragrah of William Ernest Henley’s epic poem:

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

When the obvious is simple and bounces right along.

Now that we all know the Apple lawyers were laying a false trail (or there is more to come), isn’t it refreshing that the marketing geniuses there kept the new naming architecture clean and simple too. So now we can look forward to iPad, iBooks, etc.

But we expect that of Apple. Historically Polaroid has been a different story though, often falling over all their own wasted ink papers. Not now. The new consumer camera contains their instant print magic as well as being a digital camera. And it has the hip, sweet, simple and obvious name PoGo.

Congratulations. But the fun is only just starting. They have announced a co-branding deal with Lady Gaga of all people. Talk about moving from stuffy to hip and relevant! Will that be the Lady PoGo or the GagoPo or PaGoGa or PoLady…  ?

How far can you, or should you, stretch a brand?

Well it had to happen sooner or later.  But it was a bit disconcerting to have to stop and think so hard about branding right as we were launching our new eBook Brighter SEO: Organic search engine optimization last week. For those of you who don’t know me, I am also the president of Brighter Naming®, and have previously released titles like Brighter Branding and Brighter Names. Not all titles have Brighter in them (eg Spreadsheet Marketing and Emergency Golf) but we do often refer to our full team as the Brighter Team and of course we put out Brighter Proposals, etc. etc.

Problem is, the publishing company for these books is called Foden Press and people ask why not Brighter Press or Brighter Publishing or similar. Yes, we have one product name mini-franchise spread across two different company names. And we are small and only have very limited branding dollars.

And the funny part is, I personally set it all up and even I was stumped by the question. I mean it is not rocket science after all. Then I thought about how I could have been so dumb until I realized that like a lot of brands, I wasn’t remembering that there is history involved here as well. In fact, Foden Press and Spreadsheet Marketing came along at least two or three years before the first Brighter anything, and at the time I didn’t want to register another business so I simply used my last name.  And I had never bothered to go back and fix it - always being too busy to redo the whole image set and marketing that goes with a company name.

Zynga sings a different tune

The big branding agencies usually say that unless a brand is really broken, don’t change it. In fact, many brands have become better known after a disaster, provided that the situation was properly handled by management. To which I might add, or the problem was real but long ago, and now we can sweep it under the carpet.

Zynga made a lot of its money originally by being the US king of spam. Today they are perhaps still not that well known, but their games are all the best sellers on Facebook. Games like FarmVille, FishVille, PetVille, Mafia Wars, etc.

But how did they get their own interesting name  - that is both short and musical, as well as strong and dynamic? As you may have guessed, it is from the name of the owner’s dog.. hence the logo.

And, according to their website, the dog’s real name was Zinga, which is Swahili for Princess. How come so many people use Swahili as the excuse for any strange African word? They should be more careful. The AfricanLanguages.com online dictionary gives these results for Zinga:

zinga verb

1 roam, wander, rove

2 turn the other way

3 to prostitute

Fancy having to market an airline with a backwards name like Etihad!

As if marketing and promoting a new airline isn’t hard enough, imagine having to do it when you are stuck with a name like Etihad! Yes, they might have recently been awarded some best airline of the year prizes, but obviously they weren’t measuring the name qualities. And across the runway from you stands Emirates making life even harder - another name that was foreign to us, but at least we had heard of it or could pronounce it.

I feel better riding with this airline now that I see their all very experienced British and Australian management team, but I guess the owners are never going to let them have a nicey friendly name. I wonder if they realize their name looks like someone cleverly spelled their name backwards to make a unique email or forum name - at least to western ears and eyes? I choke on enjoying my English premier league soccer everytime this awkward name shows up on the ad boards.

Mogi is confused… maybe Nogo is better.

Far be it for me to critize strange and unusual names like Mogi … but then again it takes a lot of branding dollars to promote such a Star Wars sounding name as being a trustworthy car maintenance service plan provider.

So why shoot yourself in the foot with a logo that makes your name appear to be Amogi?

Are they trying to add a little love?

Get it?  No, well go over to GetMogi.com just to add to the confusion.