From The Financial Times of London:
Only days after rebranding the DTI as the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry as part of his reshuffle, Tony Blair has caved in to universal derision by reverting to Department of Trade and Industry.
The prime minister was persuaded to retreat by Alan Johnson, whom he appointed on Friday to head the department.
In his first – and last – newspaper interview as secretary of state for productivity, energy and industry, Mr Johnson explained his insistence on becoming simply trade and industry secretary.
The Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry had attracted “various descriptions … penis and dippy”, Mr Johnson told the Financial Times. The CBI’s lambasting of the “old-fashioned corporatism” of the title had stung “and the unions weren’t keen on it either”.
There was also a serious concern that the loss of “trade” from the title would send a misleading signal that the department’s support for business overseas was “somehow part of the past”.
Less than a week into his new job, Mr Johnson concluded that the estimated six-figure cost of rebranding was not justified.
By reverting so quickly to DTI, the DPEI scheme involved no more than the use of “one screwdriver to take down three letters [and] screwing [them] back up”.
Insert your own joke here: ___________
I’m not dead and gone, just taking a rest. Carrion without me.
Here is a much better blog than the one you are reading now.
Here is an online focus group created by a naming company to get your input on what they should name their online focus group. We swear we don’t make this stuff up.
The choices are Decision Driver, Idiometrics or Proofpoint. If only they knew how fitting “Idiometrics” is….
A cornucopia of naming goodness. Enjoy.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug by GlaxoSmithKline for the treatment of restless leg syndrome (RLS). The drug, Requip, was first approved in 1997 for Parkinson’s disease.
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a common neurological disorder characterized by unpleasant sensations of the legs and an urge to move them for relief. Individuals affected with the disorder describe the sensations as pulling, drawing, crawling, wormy, boring, tingling, pins and needles, prickly, and sometimes painful sensations that are usually accompanied by an overwhelming urge to move the legs. Movement provides temporary relief from the discomfort.
Seinfeld fans might remember that Kramer’s girlfriend, Emily, had the jimmy legs.
KRAMER: Elaine. Uh, you got a moment?
ELAINE: Yeah, Kramer, come on in.
KRAMER: I, uh, need to speak to you about some lady problems.
Kramer sits in front of Elaine’s desk.
ELAINE: (unsure) Oh-kay.
KRAMER: (a little anxious) You know, after I have sex with Emily, uh, I don’t want her in the bed any more.
ELAINE: Ah.
KRAMER: Yeah, because she’s throwing off my whole sleep. She’s got the jimmy legs.
ELAINE: (confused) Jimmy legs?
Kramer raises one leg and judders it in the air, as illustration.
KRAMER: Jimmy leg.
ELAINE: (grasping the concept) Ohh.
KRAMER: So, uh, well, maybe I should just be honest with her, huh?
ELAINE: Tell her after sex, you just want her outta there?
KRAMER: Well, I’d say it nicely.
ELAINE: I don’t think so.
KRAMER: Well, you know, I really like this girl and I, you know, I think if I could just work out this one thing…
ELAINE: (interrupting) Yeah. I gotta be honest with you Kramer. You might be more than just a coupla tweaks away from a healthy relationship.
Irish Americans are on the warpath over the derogatory characterization of their native people by that insensitive Catholic university with the French name. Nobody seems to know for sure who was the politically incorrect hooligan that first used the name Fighting Irish to describe the athletes of Notre Dame.
The most generally accepted explanation is that the press coined the nickname as a characterization of Notre Dame athletic teams, their never-say-die fighting spirit and the Irish qualities of grit, determination and tenacity.
The term likely began as an abusive expression tauntingly directed toward the athletes from the small, private, Catholic institution. Notre Dame alumnus Francis Wallace popularized it in his New York Daily News columns in the 1920s.
The Notre Dame Scholastic, in a 1929 edition, printed its own version of the story:
“The term ‘Fighting Irish’ has been applied to Notre Dame teams for years. It first attached itself years ago when the school, comparatively unknown, sent its athletic teams away to play in another city …At that time the title ‘Fighting Irish’ held no glory or prestige …
“The years passed swiftly and the school began to take a place in the sports world …’Fighting Irish’ took on a new meaning. The unknown of a few years past has boldly taken a place among the leaders. The unkind appellation became symbolic of the struggle for supremacy of the field. …The team [name], while given in irony, has become our heritage. …So truly does it represent us that we unwilling to part with it …”
Notre Dame competed under the nickname “Catholics” during the 1800s and became more widely known as the “Ramblers” during the early 1920s in the days of the Four Horsemen.
University president Rev. Matthew Walsh, C.S.C., officially adopted “Fighting Irish” as the Notre Dame nickname in 1927.
But times have changed. Henceforth, the athletic teams of Notre Dame should be named for the university’s official colors, the Notre Dame Gold & Blue.
To quote the doyen of political correctitude, “The perspective of time has shown us that our actions, intended or not, can offend others. We must not knowingly act in a way that others will believe, based on their experience, to be an attack on their dignity as fellow human beings.”
It won’t be easy for the administration at Notre Dame to explain the new name to the student body, which will surely be the laughingstock of college sports. But it seems to be the only way to go, now that a lesser-known Catholic university, with an equally French name, recently took the politically expedient high road and refused alumni requests to restore the honor of their traditional team name, the Marquette Warriors, choosing instead to be known simply as the Marquette Gold.
Update 05/08/05: “This is not something that is going to just blow over,” says one alum who’s really upset about the Name Change at Marquette.
Check out this enigmatic press release from the naming company with the longest name in the naming business, Zenmark Brand Engineering, Inc.:
Zenmark Brand Engineering, Inc. announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has received and acknowledged the company’s patent application filing for its invention of a unique and innovative creative development process in the area of product, service, and company naming. Zenmark’s Verbal Identity Engineering (Patent Pending) process has proven to revolutionize the naming industry by applying a rigorous and repeatable methodology to the often unstructured and undisciplined process of brand name creation.
Here is a quick comparison of the results Zenmark Brand Engineering, Inc. has harvested from their “Verbal Identity Engineering (Patent Pending Process)” and the results of their competitors. The names of the naming companies are in bold; the names each has created using their own process are not so bold:
Zenmark Brand Engineering, Inc.: Amicore, Afaria, Applimation, Azenity, Certiport, Coalogic, Palaterra, Phyve
Interbrand: Certance, Lumiq, Syngenta, Xignux
Brighter Naming: Cataligent, Concuity, Epizon
Master McNeil: Activant, Contivo, Covigo, Covansys, Comergent, Conexant, Omniva, Optivo, Optimos, Spansion
NameStormers: Adeptra, Arconix, Asurent, Calibria, Cambium, Ledgent, Resilien, Solidium, Vyzo
Nambase: Decise, Evolutia, Praxi, Primaxis, Prinergy
Catchword: Cysive, Delinea, Tavant
Idiom: Encysive, Predicant, Qorus, Theravance, Stratify, Wherify, Vivera, Viterion, Vivonic
Lexicon: Geneer, Generon, Luxeon
Metaphor: Actional, Anadigm, Diversa, Enlight, Optis, Sageo, Viador
NameLab: Cognos, Equant
Landor: Acterna, Agilent, Astrium, Avolar, Calibrus, Cendian, Certegy, Clarica, Innovene, Onity, Midea, Paxonix, Solekia, Solutia, Spherion, Uniqa
On what evidence will the patent office decide that Zenmark Brand Engineering, Inc. has a process that is uniquely different than its competitors? By asking all of the naming companies listed above to supply their processes for comparison? Unlikely. Surely not from comparing the resulting names, as that would lead anyone to the conclusion that all of these naming companies have exactly the same process in place.
If Zenmark Brand Engineering, Inc. is granted a patent on this revolutionary naming process, where does that leave its competitors? Out of business.
Such are the perils of morpheme addiction.
A while ago, a post here made a sweeping generalization about the branding of law firms. The point of that post was that branding is not about advertising legal services, but about the law firm approaching its clients in a way that engenders trust. This was key:
Lawyers, as a profession, will never gain the trust of the public as long as they continue in their business practices to advertise like car salesmen and political candidates and talk like pirates.
The post contained a grain of salt, and maybe I rubbed it in a bit. Some lawyers pointed out that not all lawyers are clueless when it comes to branding. For sure—I was generalizing to make the point. I’d be the first to recognize that there are a few amazing firms, amazing practices, when it comes to law firm branding.
Case in point: the law firm of ShuffieldLowman, in Orlando, Florida.
Ice cream may not be the first thing most people associate with a law firm. But that’s the image the marketing team at ShuffieldLowman pitched for the Orlando firm’s first ad campaign.
The print ad consisted of five single-scoop ice cream cones in a row followed by a triple-scoop cone and the words: “Expect more from your law firm.”
No courthouse pillars. No scales of justice. No stern-faced partners in suits standing in front of bookshelves filled with law volumes.
ShuffieldLowman’s marketing director, Mellanie Bartlett, wanted an ad that would communicate the 18-month-old firm’s core values while illustrating its personal approach to the practice of law.
The firm’s lawyers and staff bought it. But The Florida Bar did not — at least not at first. Still, the firm persisted and, in what amounted to a long-shot attempt to save the ad, got the Bar to overturn its rejection on appeal.”This ad is very creative, and that’s very unusual in lawyer advertising,” said Charles “Skip” Sells, one of the firm’s commercial litigators. “The advertisement uses humor to point out that not all firms are the same and prospective clients could or should expect more from any and every attorney relationship.”
As remarkable as the advertisement is, from a branding perspective, it’s just stunning that The Florida Bar’s ethics counsel, which must approve every ad by every lawyer in the state, completely missed the point. Lawyers who do understand branding are going to have to lead their profession by example, and it’s not always going to be easy.
We couldn’t think of anything funny to say today, but then this press release came in :
Zero-Knowledge Systems Inc., a provider of managed Internet services to broadband providers, announced today that it has changed its name to Radialpoint.
“Radialpoint is a name and brand that reflects our business today and the unique vision we have for managing and delivering future Internet services,” said Hamnett Hill, President & CEO of Radialpoint.
“Zero-Knowledge was a name that served us well for many years, but no longer fits the company or its products. As we continue to add leading broadband providers […], it is important that our name and brand accurately reflect what we do and the market leadership we have achieved in the managed Internet services industry.”
The name change was approved by Zero-Knowledge’s board and shareholders in late February 2005.
Radialpoint retained Idiom, a firm that specializes in naming, to assist its re-branding efforts. Pentagram developed the look and feel of Radialpoint’s name, logo and brand.
Posted: May 13th, 2005 |
Category: Uncategorized 