The Pollywog Blog

The reliably clear-thinking Laura Ries goes off on a tear in her blog today over the positioning and naming blunders of the company that makes her favorite athletic shoe. MBT shoes are a classic example of a marketing myopia. It’s a condition found in clients who are far too close to their own product–and by close, I mean not only too immersed in the product’s most minute details, but also truly madly deeply in love with it.

As a result, they’re unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices in messaging that lead to a focused positioning. Positioning is the art of sacrifice. Effective positioning requires a crystal clear, single-minded, simple idea. MBT’s “Physiological footwear” ain’t it. Ries suggests, “Makes every walk a workout.” Much clearer, dontcha think?

Regardless of the complexities inherent in any product or service, its message needs to be simple. Creating a brand name is the acid test of the clarity of product’s positioning. If a positioning is too broad and/or complex, you will never get to a strong brand name.

The company that makes “physiological footwear” named itself Masai Barefoot Technology, which is so long and cryptic that it was shortened to MBT, effectively stripping away all meaning from the name.

As Ries says, it’s a great product. But between the brand’s ineffective positioning and terrible name, the loss of potential brand impact is incalculable.

All because they were too close and too in love.

The UK’s Daily Mail reports “More parents using txt language to make their child’s name gr8.”

Abbreviated versions of traditional Christian names are appearing on birth certificates along with “original” ways of spelling which even include punctuation marks.

Anne has been changed to An, Connor to Conna and Laura to Lora.

There were reportedly six boys who were named Cam’ron instead of Cameron, and according to the online parenting club Bounty, one girl born last month was born Flicity.

Child development experts aren’t happy about it. University of California psychology professor Albert Mehrabian says that deviating from conventional spelling when naming your kid carries some risk: “Unconventional spelling connoted less masculinity for men and less femininity for women [and] more anxiety and neuroticism were attributed to those with less common names.”

The article attributes the wacky SMS spelling as an extension of the trend started by celebrities toward “original” baby names. Bounty spokesman Pauline Kent explains:

“Some of these new and different names are a way for parents to give their children a unique identity.

“It is similar to the thinking that goes in to naming a new brand of product for example - something to make them stand out from the crowd.”

Maybe so. But a can of peas with a stupid brand name won’t be seeking psychotherapy 30 years from now.

The Ford Fiesta is making a return to the American market. Company officials announced that a new version of the Fiesta, which has been selling well in Europe, Asia and Latin America for the past 30 years, will be launched globally within the next two years.

And in a move that has some Ford execs nervous, the car will have the same name in every country, rather than allowing regional marketing teams to develop names that leverage the local culture.

Ford is going for efficiencies, despite the risks associated with the one-name-fits-all approach.

The company needs just one logo for ads, one set of nameplates for products; and online content and film for TV commercials can be shared. Branding experts say using one name can save a business tens of millions of dollars a year in marketing costs.

“Branding experts” also say it’s expensive and difficult to change a negative brand perception. But that’s what Ford is up against here in the States.

When Ford introduced the Fiesta in the U.S. in the late ’70s, though, the car was so unpopular it was pulled from the lineup after two years. Recently, some of those questioned in focus groups said “Fiesta” sounded cheap.

Yes, that’s how I remember it, too. It was right in there with those boxy little Chevettes, Vegas, Pintos and the rest of their ilk–Detroit’s late-in-the-game answer to our collective shock when gas prices rose to A DOLLAR A GALLON late in the decade.

Granted, today’s Fiesta looks nothing like the uninspired model from the 70’s–and it had better not. The new Fiesta had better be as differentiated as possible from the Fiesta that many Americans still think of as “cheap.” And Ford would do well to market this Fiesta to an audience too young to remember the first one.

It’s a gamble. Will Ford save enough in marketing efficiencies to cover the costs of the full-barrel PR and advertising blitz needed to re-map the Fiesta brand name to this (hopefully) superior car?

And even if a younger audience doesn’t remember the first Fiesta, is the “Fiesta” name itself cool enough to attract them?

We’ll see if this Fiesta lasts longer here the second time around.

Sometime in the past few weeks, I read about an Intel processor platform codenamed “Skulltrail.” This bad boy has two quad-core microprocessors, resulting in a total of EIGHT processing engines running at 3.2GHz on a 1600Mhz system bus.

The result? Blinding speed and incredible graphics quality, which Intel rightly understands that gamers will pay dearly for. (A fully equipped PC gaming system will run between $4,000-$5,000.)

While most of the technical details went in one brain cell and out the other, the name “Skulltrail” stuck in my head, making random appearances in my thoughts from time to time. Its energy, memorability, and hand-in-glove fit with its intended audience of young male super-soldier-wannabes had me mentally high-fiving Intel for their brand naming chops.

And then comes a press release from Intel:

Intel Corporation has introduced the Intel® Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform. Formerly codenamed “Skulltrail”…

Oh no they didn’t! Tell me they didn’t broom “Skulltrail” for “Intel Dual Socket Blah Blah Blah!” Aughhhhhh…. If you’re lucky enough to come up with a great codename during development, why not go to market with it?

Sadly, Intel has sucked the life out of a potentially great brand name and left an empty husk. They’ve traded a lusty brute of a name for a poseur from a corporate cubicle.

There has been enough pre-launch buzz about “Skulltrail” that I predict gamers will continue to use the name when referring to their systems. Unlikely anyone in that crowd will ever say, “Dude, this Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform is wicked cool!”

I’m always bemused by corporate America’s faith in Latin roots–as if these meanings are burned into customers’ DNA and, if people just thought about it (which they don’t), they’d get what their brand name means.

Microsoft is just the latest to fall into this trap. They recently completed a renaming project around their healthcare information technology. Originally purchased in 2006 as “Azyxxi”, the product is now called “Amalga.”

Microsoft health unit general manager Steve Shihadeh said in a statement. “Microsoft’s Amalga products offer proven solutions that bring together information from across the health care enterprise into one, easily accessible view. In fact, the name ‘Amalga’ is based on the Latin word ‘amalgama,’ meaning to bring together different elements.”

On the other hand, if people do have a vague understanding of Latin roots, how many see “mal” in the middle and associate it with “bad” or “sick?”

Live by the sword, die by the sword, people. Why not create a brand name using words from a living language actually spoken by your customers?

This is a disappointing development, given the promising mini-trend of better brand names from Microsoft: Silverlight and Popfly.

Today’s Guardian features a story that serves as a Rosetta stone unlocking the secrets of Ikea’s cryptic naming system.

Sofas, coffee tables, bookshelves, media storage and doorknobs are named after places in Sweden (Klippan, Malmö); beds, wardrobes and hall furniture after places in Norway; carpets after places in Denmark and dining tables and chairs after places in Finland. Bookcases are mainly occupations (Bonde, peasant farmer; Styrman, helmsman). Bathroom stuff is named after lakes and rivers.

Kitchens are generally grammatical terms, and kitchen utensils are spices, herbs, fish, fruits, berries, or functional words such as Skarpt (it means sharp, and it’s a knife). Chairs and desks are Swedish men’s names (Roger, Joel); materials and curtains are women’s names. Children’s items are mammals, birds and adjectives (Ekorre is a set of children’s toy balls; it means squirrel). So now you know.

Sort of takes all the fun out of Fartful…

Fortunately, the confusion over forgettable, unspellable domain names has helped usher in a new behavior that will, Google willing, cause a trend back to comprehensible brand names.

In short, we’re seeing less direct input of URLs into the address window of a browser, and more navigation by way of search engines. In 2006 “Yahoo” was the most popular search term in Google. Imagine that. Instead of entering yahoo.com into their browser’s address bar, countless users chose to enter it into Google’s search window instead, then click from the results.

There are several explanations for this growing trend.

1. People have learned not to trust their spelling. Unlike direct URL input, in which a misspelled address will most likely result in a visit to a domain squatter’s site or 404 page, a good search engine will suggest related spellings.
2. Pure habit. People are used to using a search engine to find things, so that’s where they turn first.
3. Using a search engine for navigation won’t leave incriminating URLs in a browser’s dropdown history.
4. More people are installing the Google Toolbar and similar search widgets into their browser, making it quick and easy to perform a search.
5. It’s quicker to type “ebay” than it is to type “www.ebay.com” or worse, “http://www.ebay.com”. Many users don’t know that Firefox automatically adds the .com, nor do they realize that “www” is seldom needed.

Regardless of why users are now navigating more via search engines, this is good news for branding. Why? Because it means the prima facie name is no longer as important. Most users understand that there are too many Web sites with similar names. Rather than waste time entering an URL that may turn out to be the wrong address, they’ll use a search engine instead and find the site they’re looking for by way of the meta description.

So now, it’s more important for a brand name to be memorable, distinctive and relevant than it is for it to have the prima facie dot com address. If I remember the approximate brand name and the category, I can find anything as long as the brand name is unlike anything else in its category. Case in point: Fuze, my current beverage of choice. I won’t find it at fuze.com. I would never think of accessing it at drinkfuze.com (its actual address). But I can find it on the first page of results by entering “fuze” into a search engine.

If I misspell it “fuse”, one glance at the search results tells me I’m not even close. So I enter “fuse” and “drink”–and there it is. Even misspelled, I can find it on the first page as long as I know one other obvious, pertinent term.

I hope we will soon see the end of nonsense names and made-up words spawned by the fever to secure the prima facie dot com domain name. The gold standard for brand naming can and should return to the basics: A name that fits the brand positioning, that’s memorable, that’s easy to say and spell, that’s provocative and distinctive and trademarkable.

Remember: You’re naming a company or a product, not just your Web site. Always do what’s best for the brand, not the URL.

BEST BRAND NAMES OF 2007

1.Wii - With a name that sounds small and childish and makes an easy target for potty humor, the Nintendo “Wii” created a media firestorm when it was introduced. There were dire predictions of failure, and the brand name was nearly universally panned.

But it was a name that you didn’t forget. Phonetically, it sounds like “we,” a nod to its multiplayer design–or “whee,” the sound of people having fun. Graphically, the lower-case i’s resemble two little people, which has been used to great effect in the Wii’sTV commercials.

Despite the negative press surrounding its introduction, the “Wii” quickly outsold the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3 and continues to lead the category as of this month.

2. FUBAR - Could there be a better name for a demolition tool? Stanley scored a home run with this extreme name for its extreme redesign of the lowly crowbar. The name’s acronym (”F*cked Up Beyond All Recognition”) aptly describes “FUBAR’s” end result. Having “bar” in the brand name helps define the tool, while the profanity embedded in the acronym gets the brand down and dirty along with its customers. And heck–it’s just fun to say.

3. Jawbone - A Bluetooth headset, whose brand name resonates with multiple layers of meaning. In addition to describing where the headset is worn, “jawbone” means to verbally persuade, and isn’t that what you’re doing most of the time you’re on a cell phone?

4. Obsidian - Caribou Coffee’s dark, smooth roast maps nicely to the black, glossy stone created by molten lava.

5. Twitter is a Web site where people share what they happen to be doing at the moment, no matter how trivial. Imagine millions of cheeping chickadees and you won’t be far off.

6. Blackbird - This sleek desktop PC is Hewlett Packard’s answer to such high-powered computer gaming system rivals as Alienware, Overdrive PC, and Dell’s XPS series. Inspired by the famous Lockheed reconnaissance plane, the name perfectly suits the contoured black wedge-shaped CPU that appears to hover a few inches above its aluminum stand.

7. First Blush - All-natural grape juice sold by Whole Foods. The name evokes the blush of the grape as well as a feeling of youthful innocence and purity–an attractive combination for a natural food product.

8. Chevy Volt - Electric concept car. The name is short, friendly and perfectly fits the product. Now if they would just put it on the market.

9. RoughRider Wheelchair - Designed for use in developing countries, this inexpensive and easy-to-assemble wheelchair has a name that says it can handle less than optimal conditions.

10. Hint - A great name for a bottled water containing no sweeteners, no preservatives and no calories–just ahint of natural flavor. And it’s fun to order, too. “Can you give me a Hint, please?”

WORST BRAND NAMES OF 2007

1. Windows Vista - Microsoft’s most important product launched in 6 years, Vista hit the shelves with much fanfare. Curiously, the name already seemed familiar. Did no one at Microsoft ever hear of the venerable AltaVista, a search engine dating back to 1995 and still in use today?

Not only does it overlap a name that’s already firmly established in the audience’s psyche, “Vista” is just plain anemic. With all that Microsoft spends on branding, surely they could have come up with a sexier name than “Windows Vista.” Sounds like a high-rise assisted living facility.

2. Diet Coke Plus - Hard to imagine a more generic brand name for Coke’s foray into the brave new world of vitamin-fortified soda pop. Whether Diet Coke Plus is a brilliant innovation–or the branding giant’s biggest blunder since New Coke–this new soda should have had a brand name that wasn’t so, well, “flat.”

3. Kindle - Amazon’s new e-bookreader is another name that makes the list in part because of unfulfilled potential. Amazon had plenty of money to spend on creating this brand name. And Amazon itself is a fantastic name, evocative and rich with multiple meanings. “Kindle,” on the other hand, really has only one meaning to most people: to start something, especially a fire. It lacks the depth of a name like Amazon, and the idea of burning combined with books stirs up a negative image that’s most likely the opposite of what Amazon intended.

4. Joost - Internet TV service. “Joost” is one of those trendy nonsense brand names so common right now, especially for technology companies. Apparently the idea is to create a word that has not yet been taken as a domain name, then spend half your venture capital getting it to mean something.

Joost made our list because of its high visibility, but so could any of these recently created brands: “Tagtooga,” “Bebo,” “Meemo,” “Qoosa.” “Xobni,” “Thoof, “Lala,” “Wufoo,” “Kijiji,” “Zoogmo,” “Faroo,” “Ponoko,” “Qoop,” “Ceedo,” “ZocDoc,” “Doostang,” “Zixxo,” “Mego,” “Wixi,” “Meebo,” “Wakoopa,” “Qosimo,” “Hulu,” “Raketu,” “Viiv,” “Woomp,” “Bliin,” Qumana,” “BooRah,” Yoomba,” Sporge,” Joomla,” “Argoo.”

5. Cocaine Energy Drink. You know you’ve made a branding boo-boo when the FDA yanks your product off the shelf.

6. Learnia - Educational assessment software from Harcourt Assessment. And a painful condition caused by thinking too hard.

7. dimdim - A free Web conferencing service. Memorable and simple to spell, but why would you imply that the service or your customers are not so bright? Unlike the “Wii,” this name doesn’t convey any meanings other than the negative one. It’s just dumdum.

8. Honda Fit - What a boring name for such a snappy little car! In Europe the same model is known as the Jazz. Honda’s naming decisions are all the more puzzling when you consider that Europeans are more fit than Americans and America is the birthplace of jazz.

9. EasyShare All-In-One Printer - This new inkjet printer from Kodak boasts disruptive technology that combines high print quality and inexpensive ink. But instead of launching it with an appropriately new and dazzling name, Kodak saddled its printer with its tired “EasyShare” brand name, which has been around since 1994 and has been applied to everything from cameras to software.

If consumers don’t yet understand that they can get great print quality and spend practically nothing for an ink cartridge, perhaps it’s because “EasyShare” doesn’t quite say it.

10. HYmini - An unfortunate name for a very cool little device that absorbs wind and solar energy and converts it to electricity for cell phones, MP3 players, and other such gadgets. How could they not have realized how close this name sounds to a part of female anatomy? Criminy.

This week, the New York Times featured a story on the befuddlement among furniture executives (*) over what to name their furniture collections. Furniture styles no longer have clear-cut delineations–eclectic tastes and mix-and-match designs have blurred the lines between categories.

What do you call a collection includes an old-fashioned wooden-legged sofa upholstered in wasabi green? Or a wingback chair in curry-yellow leather?

Naming matters. According to the story, “Describing a collection in a way that is compelling, evocative and clear can mean the difference — at least to those charged with doing it — between attracting an entirely new group of customers and repelling existing ones.”

Names and slogans are now “the hardest part of my job,” said Edward M. Tashjian, vice president for marketing at Century Furniture in Hickory, N.C., who oversees the naming of individual pieces and entire collections. “Literally, every time I do it I want to quit and find a new career.” Coming up with a name for one of the new collections “that’s descriptive and engaging — not to mention hasn’t already been used, isn’t completely banal and meets the approval of the rest of the management team — is a nearly impossible task,” he said.

We understand, Mr. Tashjian. And we’re here to help. Contact us.

*Link goes to the same story in the Herald Tribune to avoid the NYT log-in.

The dotcom bubble burst in the late 90’s, of course, and many of these generically named companies went down with it. (Interestingly, many of these generic names are now owned by branded companies. Pets.com, for example, was purchased by PetSmart.)In the year 2000, other TLDs were released (.us, .info, .tv, .biz), but by that time, people were pretty much conditioned to think of the .com extension as the most important, most credible type of domain name to have.

The tidal wave of companies that emerged in the new century began plundering available .com names at a frenetic rate. Also significant were the domain name speculators, who have purchased–and are sitting on–tens of thousands of valuable one-word “dictionary” names. Today there are more than 64 million domain names. According to some experts, every prima facie, properly spelled word of up to six characters is now unavailable with a dot com extension. Or, perhaps even more alarming, others say that 98% of all dictionary words are now unavailable as dot com names.

Like any property in finite supply, prima facie domain names have become extraordinarily valuable. Business.com sold for $7.5 million. Sex.com traded hands for $12 million. Not every one-word domain name will command that kind of money, but companies who need to buy a one-word dotcom domain to match their company brand name will likely shell out tens of thousands of dollars, if not more.

So what’s a company to do?

Choose a word and tweak the spelling (Flickr). Frankenstein a brand name (Agilent = agile + -ment). Or just make up a word. Any word will do. The goofier sounding, the better.

As long as we can get the .com domain name, they think, it’s all good.

Except now there’s such a proliferation of made-up, incomprehensible, misspelled and vapid brand names, the potential distinctiveness of each individual name is largely lost. Every new gibberish name is just another drop in a great big bucket of twaddle.

But there’s hope for companies seeking a memorable brand and a strategic domain name. Our oversaturated, overmarketed collective consciousness has created opportunities for naming by companies too smart to go down the road of meaningless brand names.

To be continued.