About BrandSolutions Blogs

Every month I read many newspapers and magazines, focusing on those publications reporting trends in Branding. My goal is to identify branding trends in America through a study and analysis of the reporting of the best publications I have found that cover branding news. I also input my personal commentary and branding observations.

The publications I read and recommend are:

AdWeek Magazine - http://www.adweek.com/aw/index.jsp

Advertising Age Magazine - http://www.adage.com

American Demographics - http://www.demographics.com

BrandWeek Magazine - http://www.brandweek.com/brandweek/index.jsp

Business Week - http://www.businessweek.com

Newsweek Magazine - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032542/site/newsweek

The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com

The Seattle Times - http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/index.html

The Wall Street Journal - http://online.wsj.com/public/us

I hope you'll enjoy reading about brand naming. I certainly enjoyed putting this "blog" together for you.

A quick note regarding the format of this blog. Read the following sections and commentaries as stand-alone stories.some short, some longer. At some point in the future, I may integrate all the stories into a "best practices" paper on brand naming.

An effective brand name will be appropriate for the category, memorable, and "available" as a trademark and domain name. Here are a few brand name strategies:

• The shorter the name, the better. Example: Apple.
• Keep the name simple. Use fewer letters of the alphabet by repeating letters. Example: Google.
• Be suggestive of the category. Example: PlayStation.
• Use alliteration (the recurrence of the same letter and sound in accented parts of words). Example: Volvo. Note: a repeated sound is more effective and memorable than repeated letters.
• Be easy to say and read (spoken as spelled). Test: do you have to spell the name over the phone?
• Be shocking! Examples: Yahoo, Virgin.
• Personalize the brand name. Example: Craigslist.org.
• Avoid negative connotations. People often associate inappropriate ideas and things with names. Do market research to make sure that there are no negative connotations with your name.
• Use a name, not an acronym (a word formed from the initial letters of a name). "Names" are 60% more memorable than an acronym. Comments from a recent BrandSolutions survey on acronyms: I do not like names with abbreviations in them. I prefer the name written out, rather than an acronym. I like names that are not abbreviated. They are simpler to understand.

The brand name is usually the most emotional component of brand identity. I advise clients not to get too attached to any one name during the brand naming process because trademark and domain name conflicts will probably eliminate most potential brand name candidates. Testing of the final names is essential to find the name that is most compelling and credible to customers

Brand naming is a specialized expertise. BrandSolutions recommends and refers clients to Namestormers. Contact Mike Carr of Namestormers at (512) 267-1814 or at mike@namestormers.com.

A trademark is the most powerful form of intellectual property because if you manage the trademark, you can keep it forever. Patents and copyrights have a time limit. With this in mind, be sure to do both a legal and linguistic screening of your brand name finalists.

Many thanks to the editors and reporters that wrote all the great stories and articles below.

I welcome your own comments, insights and wisdom. Email me at cpettis@brand.com
   - Chuck Pettis

Study: New Brand Names Not Making Their Mark
BRANDWEEK Magazine, December 8, 2003

With 80,000 words in the dictionary and more than 280,000 U.S. trademark applications a year, no wonder it is difficult to come up with a meaningful brand name for anything.

Many companies and organizations think that once you get a new brand name, then the "brand" problem is solved. Brand names are taken very seriously and emotionally inside the organization, yet once a "name" becomes a "brand name," the impact of the brand name on brand equity is much less than the associated purchase factors and imagery. That is why major companies like Microsoft are prohibiting new brand names unless absolutely necessary. The current trend is to use the company name as the "brand name" followed by a generic category descriptor, e.g. Microsoft Customer Relationship Management software.

Get Out of My Namespace
The New York Times Magazine, March 21, 2004

There aren't enough brand names to go around - globalization and the Internet have seen to that. The United Stated registered around 30,000 trademarks in 1980. Registrations last year were at an all time high of 185,182. The resulting volume of trademarks has increased litigation. Frivolous cease-and-desist letters are sent to small-business owners daily. The Fox News Network was ridiculed for attempting to control the words "fair and balanced," yet still owns the trademark rights for those words in two categories: television news programs and neckties.

Call It Viagra
The Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2004

Wordcraft: The Art of Turning Little Words into Big Business by Alex Frankel (Crown, 241 pages, $24) gives an inside-look into the brand naming process for five brand names: BlackBerry, Accenture, Viagra, the Porsche Cayenne, and IBM's e-business. Mr. Frankel, a journalist in San Francisco, researched the topic after being a "naming consultant" for companies during the dot-com boom. Wordcraft is a look into the different and various ways that companies and products are named.

(Sherpa) Rebrand Without Risking Sales or Profits
Marketing Sherpa - Business-to-Business, December 9, 2003

Many companies have too many brand names or have a group of acquired or merged companies, along with their unique names and logos. The smart thing to do in most of these situations is to switch to one master brand name and, if necessary or beneficial, use the previous brand name as a secondary name, as in JELD-WEN Pozzi® Custom Collection (a BrandSolutions client).

A UK company, Hanson Brick, bought seven US and Canadian brick manufacturers in 1999. Each company was very unique with its own customers loyal to their particular brand. In some cases, the local brand was nearly 100 years old. The new owners decided that rebranding was needed as part of the consolidation process.

In Step One, Hanson Brick became Hanson Building Products and each region's brick identity was converted to a regional "collection" identity:

• Canada Collection (English-speaking Canada).
• St. Laurent Collection (French-speaking Canada).
• Carolina Collection (Southeastern US).
• Texas Collection.
• Heartland Collection (rest of US).

Each collection was given its own graphic logo of a leaf native to that region.

In Step Two, the new brand was packaged and first announced internally to its 2,000 employees. Before announcing the new brand to customers and outside audiences, company president, Richard Manning, made trips to 40+ plants and sales offices to present the new image. Following the presentation, a "Brand Ambassador" was selected for each locale who was trained on the new brand and provided a video to provide staff with the information.

In Step Three, customers were informed of the new brand. Hanson presented the new brand to media at the annual Brick Show. Key customers had been informed personally by the account rep one week prior to the show. In each area, the marketing department selected a local artist in each area to paint a beautiful picture of a local brick landmark. High-quality posters of the artwork were given to the region's key customers. In addition, a website was created which included a selection of a "pick your brick" link that a potential client uses to view a possible house using that brick.

The results were a smooth transition resulting in increased sales volumes over the prior year. The recommendation from US Commercial President Simon Bates for others considering a rebranding campaign: "Plan, plan, plan and communicate times three."

Say 'Tillamook' and You Could be in a Vat of Trouble
The Seattle Times, February 6, 2004

Tillamook, the "Land of Many Rivers," is a county, city, avenue, forest, river, and bay on the northern Oregon coast. As you might guess, a number of businesses use this place name in their company name. Three years ago Tillamook Cheese claimed trademark infringement by Tillamook Jerky. The result: the company could keep its name, Tillamook Country Jerky, but couldn't use the product brand name, Tillamook Jerky.

Moral: Battling over brand names is expensive! Manage your brand names very carefully. Keep all trademark records and dated proof of use trademarks samples in case they are ever needed.

Two Famous Camps, Into Locking Horns, Fight Over a Name
The Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2003

One Letter Costs Camp Its Old Name
Concord Monitor Online, May 6, 2004

Trademark disputes can be very costly. Interlocken International Camp, a 43-year old camp in New Hampshire offering cross-cultural experiences and travel, was forced to take on a new name (Windsor Mountain) and identity as a result of a legal suit by similarly named Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, also known as the National Music Camp. After suits and countersuits, the dispute was settled when both educational institutions agreed to drop their respective lawsuits and signed a binding agreement.

Moral: do a very careful legal screening before committing to a new name.

Battle Cry Equals Brand Success
Advertising Age Magazine, November 17, 2003

There is a myth that the right short catchphrase can help capture customers and motivate employees. For example, "Information at your Fingertips" and "Your Potential. Our Passion." help explain Microsoft's product development strategy. Seeing taglines and slogans from companies like Microsoft and Nike ("Just Do It") motivates other companies and organizations to want a tagline or "battle cry." And many companies are more than happy to oblige by creating one for them.

Here's the problem. Most companies and organizations do not have the creative talent to devise an effective short and "sticky" catch phrase. They also do not have the communications program to promote and advertise the tagline or slogan enough so that it is actually remembered and associated with the brand. Research proves that most people are unable to identify even the most familiar slogans. Therefore, with few exceptions, BrandSolutions considers the creation of a slogan or tagline a waste of time and money.

New Stocks Use the '.com' Ending Again
The Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2004

After shunning the .com suffix when the dot-com bubble burst, IPO's no longer seem to feel the suffix is a curse. Several companies including salesforce.com Inc., Shopping.com Ltd. and Advertising.com Inc. are presenting solid revenue and profitability. As an example, Salesforce.com most recently announced total revenue of $46.4 million and net income of $2.2 million in its third fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2004.

Every name has its price. Interested in Brand.com? It's available for $2,500,000. Contact Chuck Pettis at 360-331-6667 or cpettis@brand.com.

Naming the Baby: Parents Brand Their Tot With What's Hot
The Wall Street Journal, December 26, 2003

More parents are now giving their babies names of popular designers and luxury products. A long-time lover of Chanel perfume and handbags, Alice Hunter named her first child "Chanel." In honor of their daughter, Alice and her husband have the Chanel logo tattooed on their neck and chest, respectively.

The Social Security Administration tracks popular names given to babies. In 2003, there were 2,267 Tiffanys, 936 Mercedes and 270 Lexuses. The top boy names in 2003 were Jacob and Michael. The top girl names were Emily and Emma.

My grandfather, Charles R. Pettis, Sr., was very proud of the Pettis genes. He researched our family tree back to 600 AD and named his son, Charles R. Pettis, Jr. My full name is Charles R. Pettis, III (this name stops with me!).