Whenever a business names itself or is tasked with product naming, it is essential to chart the playing field of competitive names. Creating such a document helps your naming team decide where they need to go with the positioning, branding and naming of your business or product. It also keeps the naming process focused on creating a name that is a powerful marketing asset instead of producing an anemic name that is the result of political compromise distilled from the personal likes and dislikes of the individuals involved.
Airline Name Taxonomy Chart–Here is an example chart in which we’ve classified some major airline names by category and by level of engagement.
Your Name Taxonomy Chart–Here is a blank name taxonomy you can print out. Try plotting your competition’s product or company names on this chart and see how they sort themselves out.
Please use these tools only where local law allows. Taxonomy is still a crime in many a county and parish.
Next year, Yahoo!, one of the first and arguably most successful Internet brands, will celebrate its tenth anniversary. Says the official corporate history:
The Web site started out as “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web” but eventually received a new moniker with the help of a dictionary. The name Yahoo! is an acronym for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle,” but Filo and Yang insist they selected the name because they liked the general definition of a yahoo: “rude, unsophisticated, uncouth.”
What the name Yahoo! also did very successfully was to set the company apart from a sea of clones that came before or would come soon after: Infoseek, LookSmart, FindWhat, GoTo, etc.
Yet some professional naming companies begrudged Yahoo! its good sense, even going so far as to predict they might not last a full decade with such an “amateur” name, as noted in today’s time capsule find, Ruth Shallit’s very informative and entertaining The Name Game, originally published on Salon way back in 1999:
…For some, the fact that they came up with their names all by themselves, without recourse to professional help, has become a point of pride. “I love our name,” Jeff Mallett, president and CEO of Yahoo, recently told an industry newsletter. “It’s fun, irreverent and consumer-focused. And it wasn’t conjured up by Landor, or some huge naming agency.”
It’s this sort of chutzpah that makes the namers at Landor see red. “The Internet is filled with arrogance,” says Amy Becker coldly. “You might have a provocative, fun name. But do you have the basis for a lasting brand? We still don’t know how compelling a brand Yahoo will be 10 years from now. I sense a real missed opportunity.”
Fortunately, Landor’s “lost opportunity” was Yahoo!’s — and the Internet community’s — gain. Sometimes “amateurs” intuitively grasp what makes brands work, and come up with names like “Yahoo!” and “Google.” For a professional comparision, check out Landor’s Portfolio and read how they made the most of high tech and Internet naming opportunities by crafting names like Tality, Solekia, Certigy and Qarana.
The roots of Qarana are most enlightening, according to its creator: “The name ‘qarana’ originated from an Indian language called Jain, which means ‘to cause.’ The Brand Driver, ‘Beginner’s Mind’, signifies that Qarana is not the end but rather the beginning of a whole new experience.”
If you’ve been to an international auto show this year, or read a car magazine lately, you’ve probably seen DaimlerChrysler’s new smart car. Retro revival is the name of the game. The trendy smart car reminds us of the BMW Isetta of the fifties, only, well … smart.
There’s little doubt that this car is, technologically, an expression of a lot of really smart ideas. Not longer than the width of a typical car, the smart car can back into a curb where there’s not enough space to parallel park even the smallest compact cars. It parks in a space not much larger than needed to kickstand a motorcycle. It’s a pint-sized car powered by a three cylinder engine that sips gas by the pints not gallons.
But what really captures our imagination is the smart naming and branding. Most other car manufacturers distinguish between their various branded models with monikers of numbers and letters: CJ, YJ, TJ, DX, LX, CX, Si, i, iL, e, Q, M, 300, 400, 500, 600 … ad nauseam. The smart car has smart branding, too, offering three smart choices: pure, pulse or passion. Pure is simply what less inspired automotive marketers call a base model. Pulse gets your heart beating with exciting features like sunroof, alloy wheels and touches of black leather. Passion is head out on the highway with her top off.
Originally posted by Abnu to our sister-site, Wordlab.
Posted: July 24th, 2003 |
Category: Uncategorized