NAMING THAT THING AGAIN?

Most corporations, when giving birth to a new product, behave just
like parents jumping in frenzy in a maternity ward. This typical
hysterical hoopla of the incubation wing is often replaced by a
subtler, cubicle behavior and at times becomes a subdued Dilbertish
style revolution. Objects do fly, even though they are memos or
sometimes, sharp yet harmless, foamy projectiles. Everyone shares the
excitement and all fights are well intentioned. Everyone wants a
successful launch. There is always a good feeling and everyone is
happy.
Naming that new THING is the most critical and extremely controversial part of the innovation cycle.
Every
participant passionately displays sets of arguments and opinions,
molding and changing each time in every other round, while that new
object of attention behaves almost like an alien, projecting strange
vibes, lights, and humming sounds. This isn't a sci-fi project, ask any
technology company or a bank creating a new credit card, they each have
similar out-of-body, extra-terrestrial types of experiences. This is
normal when logic leaves the body and the brain drifts in creative
space. There's nothing to fear, these attacks of mild lunacy is what ad
agencies are made of. Wow, this means there is now an open season for
hunting down a new name.
Without a name, there is no
calling-device. No customer will ever refer to it or even talk about
it. Basically, no name, no story. No story no ad-campaign. No
ad-marketing no business. Get it? It seems what to call that thing
is the most critical issue behind this total incubation strategy,
startling romance with the initial idea leading all the way to final
delivery. So push. The reason why corporations want to do this
internally is no different than having mother-in-laws team up with
distant relatives to name a set of twins. But wait, this time, let's
just go and get them some external naming. Here, we will send in the
clowns. Big and small teams are hired to pool names. Thousand of
choices later, that thing become the thing. Now we're getting somewhere.
No
matter what the complexity of the innovation or what the size of
corporation, this naming issue always has four critical sides. Only
questions?
1 - Character: What is this new thing? How and why does it work and why will it
change or overcome a hurdle? What are its characteristics and possible personalities?
2 - Customers:
Who are they and why will they buy it? What are they thinking and how
will you attract them? Why will they respond to your name and grasp
this innovation?
3 - Competition: How will they attack?
What are the other confusing names in the market place? How do you get
a unique and a distinct name identity to secure a market position?
4 - Delivery:
How will you tell your side of the story? How will you deliver this
message? What must they remember in a name? Why should you protect the
name?
This may sound simple and almost boring, so let's go to the danger zone.
Most
new innovations simply die of quick exhaustion as they fail to deliver
the precise message of their story. Either the lack of clarity in a
name or sending multiple messages that confuse customers will do just
that. Sometimes, this is done to please different interests and
sometimes-in total oblivion to the customer's perceptions and
realities. Promoting totally irrelevant aspects of the name identity or
the missing of a distinct name altogether without any logical
association with the product itself will never help.
The
general perception that expensive branding will always fix the entire
name image problem is way off line. Branding is an art; however, the
term is loosely used by far too many as a cure for all. Without a
proper placement of a clear name identity and a sophisticated naming
strategy, branding is a lost cause. A buyer not only needs to
understand the message but also must remember the name and be happy to
talk about it. Otherwise, the entire promotion is just an expense. This
is how popularity is lost, case studies are shelved, agencies changed
and nothing gained.
True, there are thousands of great
success stories, and we always start with Yahoo, Ebay, and Amazon of
the recent past or Microsoft, Intel of distant past. IBM, GM of the
hinder years. Ah, what about the millions that came so close to success
before they ran out money, who just couldn't finish telling their
entire story?
Telling stories is what advertising and
branding does. Some are good, but are more than often plain stories,
wrapped only in a short-lived promotional hoopla and without properly
structured memory recall devices. Is this the reason why all car
commercials look the same? Why are almost all logos and names so
similar? The toll of innovation on the human mind is enormous as every
second; some new product is being introduced with a spinning logo and a
weird name. Does it matter if it's coming from some foreign,
unpronounceable land? Irrespective, it's sitting in front on our
screens. The bottom line is, telling an expensive story at the cost of
a poor name identity is a disaster in the making. The dilution of name
identity is the number-one killer of good innovation, corporate images,
websites or new services.
The global competition is forcing
executives for a deeper understanding of cyber-branding as an art of
telling stories, rather than plastering billboards. The power of
e-commerce can only be harnessed by designing digital name identities,
ready to circumnavigate without language or trademark problems. The
reason why these issues aren't being discussed in detail at branding
conferences or being taught at major B-Schools is still a mystery.
If
a good name only costs a fraction of the whole storyboard, then why is
it ignored? A corporation will clearly lose its navigation without a
solid naming strategy designed under professional guidelines.
Today there are five critical questions that management must ask itself:
Is the name global? Prove it.
Is the name yours? Own it.
Is the name with an identical Dot Com? Show it.
Is the name easy? Say it.
Is the name in trouble? Change it
Ah, so would this mean naming that thing again?
About Naseem Javed
Naseem Javed, author of Naming for Power and Domain Wars, is recognised as a world authority on global Name Identities and Domain Issues. He introduced The Laws of Corporate Naming in the 80's and also founded ABC Namebank, a consultancy established in New York & Toronto a quarter century ago. Naseem conducts exclusive executive workshops on image & name identities issues via web conferences.