Name Awards

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.

Water in a box! And just call it H20. Brilliant.

Never mind all the great sessions and private discussions, I took personal delight at the recent Sustainable Brands conference in discovering the free samples of H2O – water in a cardboard container.

How come I never thought of that? We have all made enough comments about wine in a box, so why not water in a box? It is a much improved packaging source to keep all those millions of plastic bottles out of landfills and the ocean.

As to whom has the registered trademark on H2O (without modifier), I am not sure, but it seems like it is now adjudged generic. In other words, anyone can use it and no one can own it.

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.

Remember when fossils were old and yucky?

For a brief moment as I unwrapped my gift, I thought I really don’t care for fossils. Why on earth would anyone buy me one…  I prefer they be left in their natural habitat.
Oh boy, aren’t I out of date and forgetful.  Fossil does not mean fossil when it is the watch and gift brand. It means high class, even avant garde, with a touch of travel whimsy and humor. Yes, this word has taken on a whole new meaning as a brand.

That in itself is not unusual. But a brand that is the complete opposite of the original meaning of the English word?  That takes skill and class. What a great example of the power of branding when your brand values are clearly known…. and your name is but a unique handle for that brand promise.

Damn, aren’t names fun!

One final product name caught our eye as we left Barcelona airport. Yes, Damm Lemon is a beer and lemonade drink. When they take all the alcohol out it is called Free Damm.

Damn, it sure brought a smile to our face early in the morning, especially as we were only looking for orange juice or coffee.

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.

The exception that proves the rules of naming

Every week I hear from top executives and branding professionals about how a name should be simple, clear, easy to pronounce and evocative of some key value or characteristic. And then there is the international men’s fashion chain and clothing line called Ermenegildo Zegna.

Of course it is Italian. And I know it is the founder’s name. But unlike Armani and most other famous designers, he chooses not to be simply Zegna (except for the website domain). First time I saw this beautifully painted on a high class store window I stopped and stared. In that sense it worked, since it sure had my attention. But this namiac still had to write it down to make sure he could remember it by time he got back online.

Do you think this type of name takes courage or is it a stupid move? Is it simply an international language error? Or is it  a shrewd and clever move to stand out from the crowd?

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.