whats in a name

What’s in a NAME?

“If I had a great name for a product, I’d build a business around it”

- Maurice Kanbar (Inventor) Author of ‘SECRETS FROM AN INVENTORS NOTE BOOK’

“Was Dirty Dancing a successful movie, because it was a great film? No. The title brought the people into the theatre. I doubt they would have come out if it were called “Weekend at Catskills”

Categories of names…

• Names can be broadly categorized into the following:

• Source names:– Ascribe a person or place in connection with them

• Descriptive names:– Describe a characteristic, ingredient, purpose, function or appearance

• Suggestive names:– They operate through connotation working, within the brain as a simile or a

metaphor

• Random names :– Appear to have no connection with the referents

Source Names

• Ascribe a source or origin…

– Indian Airlines, Air India

– Canada Dry

– Salem

– Ford

– Godrej

– Tata

– Hewlet-Packard, Dell

‘Identify who founded or owns an enterprise, or where a product

may be found or what market territory it covers’

Ideal when the group has established credentials or the geographical location can add value

ESSARWAY

ESSARTEL

ESSARSPEAK

ESSARONE

WOW-ESSAR

Source

• ESSARWAY

• ESSARTEL

• WOWESSAR

• ESSARSPEAK

• ESSARONE

BSNL / TATA

Descriptive names

• Affirms some attribute by which the product, service or company wishes to be known…

– General Motors

– Newsweek

– Radio city

– Big Bazar

– Coca-Cola

These names describe the product or service,

using straight forward language and words

Ideal for establishing strong associations with the category

SPACETEL

ORBIT TELECOM

FLASH CELLULAR

TELEPATHY

EASYTEL

EXPRESS-CEL

Descriptive

• Spacetel

• Orbit Telecom

• Flash Cellular

• Telepathy

• Easytel

• Expres-cel

Aircel / Airtel

Suggestive Names

• They operate through connotation & allusion, working within the brain as a simile, metaphor and cultural reference

• Examples..– Eden: A brand of dried fruits

– Garrison: Brand of dead bolt locks (Military post)

– Sprint: Suggests speed

– Bible Bar: Has the seven foods from the promised land

– SUVs’: Explorer, Forester, Escape…

– Hush-Puppies

Pigeon

Vibe

Easy

Swing

Ozone

Matrix

Suggestive

• Pigeon

• Vibe

• Easy

• Swing

• Ozone

• Matrix

Idea / Reliance

While most of these options are workable, relevant and effective at some level…

Our competitors seem to be in the same space…

• Will they help us stand out?

• Will they maximize our recall?

• Will they break through the clutter?

• Will they help us carve out a niche?

• Will they optimize our monies?

Therefore…

We are the Challenger Brand!!!

The power of thinking out of the circle

• Orange• Yahoo!• Google• Apple• Manhattan• Virgin• Mirchi/ Red• Spice• Pogo• Yes Bank• Onida Candy (14 inch TV for

youngsters)• ShareKhan• Oxygen (cellular service in Canada)

Our approach

• Out of the circle

• Do not describe but DISTINGUISH

• Young, friendly, hip

• Breaking Rules!!!!

Mercury

Heat

Gene

Protein

Fox

Buzz

Gipsy

Rain

Neon

Ozone

Boom

Tadka

Gupshup

Tassan

Maybe push the envelope even more…

Distinguish ourselves even more ??

Hormone

Tiger

Josh

Next

Pulse

Ice

And even more cutting edge???

Kiss

Wink

Zone

Lips

Hug

4Play

Adda

69

The makings of a good name

• A good name delivers an idea, concept or benefit.

– Can’t believe it’s not butter, No more tears, Safari

• ‘Word names’ usually are superior to ‘name names’

– Orange v/s BPL or BSNL

– Budget v/s Avis

– Apple v/s Dell

– Sprint v/s MCI

‘Unless of course the name already has established positive values and heritage’

• Names work harder when they have tangible sensory referents

“Memory for picture/ sound is superior to memory for words”

• Kim R. Robertson, professor at Trinity University – Texas, has extensively studied brand names as a marketing tool.

– Concrete names with tangible visual/ sound referents work better than abstract names• Examples: Dove, Mustang, Rabbit, Apple V/S Pledge, Tempo, Premier etc.

• Ferrari, Zoom…

• A good name has the ability to uniquely distinguishes a company or service from its competition

– Vergin, Go, Spice

– Java

– Apple

– Axe

– Google

– Manhattan

– Yes Bank

– Pogo, Aaj Tak

– Mirchi

• A good name is short crisp and concise…

– Chevrolet became Chevy

– FedEx

– Coke

– Jag

– Advil v/s Ibuprofin

Harvard psychologist, George Miller found that only seven pieces of information like, seven brands in

a category or seven digits in a phone number – could easily be held in short term memory, this may

be why consumers instinctively simplify names

• A good name bundles associations and is rich in implications

– Example: Viagra• The older drug for in this category was called “VASOMAX”. The new wonder drug –

Viagra, combines ‘Vigor’ and ‘Niagara’ (Falls) and thus suggests vitality, strength and natural force

An interesting trend

• New entrants in categories tend to break the clutter with their names…

– HDFC, ICICI, HSBC, CitiBank, SBI…and then there is “Yes Bank”

– AI, IA, Jet Airways, Sahara… Go, Spice

– Star News, Zee News, BBC… Aaj Tak

– Credit cards… Manhattan

“Relevance to consumer is critical”

Re-visiting our consumer

• 18 – 25, male

Our approach

• Source – Leveraging the ESSAR legacy

• Making it young

• Specific to Mobile services

Random Names

• Appear to have no relation to the referents

– Yahoo!• Jery Yang and David Filo first named the protal ‘David and Jerry’s Guide’.

Realising that it was pretty ungainly, they searched further. They began looking for words beginning with ‘ya’ (the universal computing acronym for ‘yet another’) David Filo then stumbled upon Yahoo! And took it, also because his father use to cal him ‘little yahoo’ when he was a boy.

– Apple:• Steve Jobs, was visiting an orchard and concluded that the apple was the most

perfect fruit and he wanted his company to be perfect too. Apple capitalized on being different from other computer makers, as fresh and uncomplicated as a fruit

Orange