Branding Igor Naming Guide
Branding Igor Naming Guide
Branding Igor Naming Guide
Everything you've always wanted to know about naming companies, products and
services. Compiled from the Igor website into one handy guide.
Version: 5.6
Date: November 13, 2008
This document will be updated regularly with new content. Please check the Naming
Guide Download Page of the Igor website for the latest version:
http://www.igorinternational.com/guide
Igor
177 Post Street,
Suite 650
San Francisco, CA 94108
415.248.5800
[email protected]
www.igorinternational.com
Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Contents
I. Overview | 2
Creating Great Product and Company Names | 2
V. Studies in Branding | 56
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I. Overview
The best product & company names require the least advertising. They are
advertisements.
Great names are a powerful force in the branding, marketing and advertising campaigns
of the companies they work for. They differentiate you from competitors, make an
emotional connection with your audience, and help to build a brand that ignites the
passions of your customers.
At Igor, we believe that a powerful name is the result of a powerful positioning strategy.
The key is to find a fresh way into the hearts and minds of your customers, redefine and
own the conversation in your industry, and engage people on as many levels as
possible. The best product and company names represent the ultimate process of
boiling these ideas down into a word or two.
Successful product and company names may appear to have been created by magic,
but it is possible to develop names that are dynamic, effective and fully leverage a
brand's potential if you have the right process in place. A process that is clear, insightful,
logical and focused will lead to a name and tagline that are powerful components of
your brand strategy, and pave the way for buy-in throughout your organization.
Before you begin, it is essential to decide what you want your new product or company
name to do for you. To make that decision, you need to understand the possibilities. A
name can:
Every naming project is unique and our process is customized for each of them. We
make sure that all aspects of a work plan are designed to complement your naming
project, corporate culture, approval process and timeframe.
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While we hold fast to the belief that every one of the six steps outlined in our process,
from an initial competitive analysis to final product or company names and taglines, is
vital to all naming projects, we understand that your marketing people may well have
worked through some of them before contacting us. Consequently, our process is
flexible enough to be tailored to the specific needs of your company.
Whether we are developing product or company names, the six steps outlined below
are what gives us the ability to create powerful and lasting brands:
2. Positioning – The next step is to help you refine and define your brand positioning.
The more specific and nuanced your positioning is, the more effective the name will be.
All great product and company names work in concert with the positioning of the
businesses they speak for.
6. Name and Tagline – Final names and taglines, along with a well-defined positioning
strategy, are the outcome of our process.
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A competitive analysis is an essential first step of any naming process. How are your
competitors positioning themselves? What types of names are common among them?
Are their names projecting a similar attitude? Do their similarities offer you a huge
opportunity to stand out from the crowd? How does your business or product differ from
the competition? How can a name help you define or redefine your brand? Can you
change and own the conversation in your industry? Should you?
Quantifying the tone and strength of competitive company names or product names is
an empowering foundation for any naming project. Creating such a document helps
your naming team decide where they need to go with the positioning, branding and
naming of your company or product. It also keeps the naming process focused on
creating a name that is a powerful marketing asset, one that works overtime for your
brand and against your competitors.
We display the results of a given sector of names in the form of taxonomy charts (see
below).
STEP 2: Positioning
Our next step is to help you refine and define your brand positioning. The more specific
and nuanced your positioning is, the more effective the name will be. All great names
work in concert with the positioning of the business or product they speak for. The best
positioning finds a way to reinvigorate or change the conversation that an industry has
been having with its consumers.
While it's important to understand what competitors are doing in order to act in a
distinctive and powerful way, it's also useful to learn from their mistakes and successes.
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For instance, the company that became Apple needed to distance itself from the cold,
unapproachable, complicated imagery created by the other computer companies at the
time that had names like IBM, NEC, DEC, ADPAC, Cincom, Dylakor, Input, Integral
Systems, Sperry Rand, SAP, PSDI, Syncsort, and Tesseract.
The new company needed to reverse the entrenched view of computers in order to get
people to use them at home. They were looking for a name that was unlike the names
of traditional computer companies, a name that also supported a brand positioning
strategy that was to be perceived as simple, warm, human, approachable and different.
Of course, once they had a clear positioning platform in place, there were still hundreds
of potential names for the new company to consider. The process for finding that one
perfect name is detailed in the next section.
The first step in name development is deciding what you want your new name to do for
your marketing, branding and advertising efforts. Making this decision allows you to
narrow your name search to a certain category of name.
The relative strengths and weakness of the four major categories of names are
discussed in this section:
When descriptive names work: When a company names products and their brand
strategy is to direct the bulk of brand equity to the company name. Examples of
companies that follow this name strategy are BMW, Martha Stewart and Subway.
When descriptive names don't work: When they are company names. Company
names that are descriptive are asked to perform only one task: explaining to the world
the business that you are in. This is an unnecessary and counterproductive choice.
The downside here is many-fold. This naming strategy creates a situation that
needlessly taxes a marketing and advertising budget because descriptive company
names are drawn from a small pool of relevant keywords, causing them to blend
together and fade into the background, indistinguishable from the bulk of their
competitors - the antithesis of marketing.
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As an example of the "brand fade out" caused by choosing descriptive company names,
consider the names of the following branding and naming companies:
These kinds of company names are easily avoided if a thorough competitive analysis
is performed and if the people doing the naming understand the following basic concept:
The notion of describing a business in the name assumes that company names
will exist at some point without contextual support, which is impossible. Company
names will appear on websites, store fronts, in news articles or press releases,
on business cards, in advertisements, or, at their most naked, in conversations.
There are simply no imaginable circumstances in which company names can exist
without contextual, explanatory support, which means they are free to perform more
productive tasks.
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There are basically two types of invented names for products or corporations:
1) Names built upon Greek and Latin roots. Examples: Acquient, Agilent,
Alliant, Aquent.
The upside:
• These names breeze through the trademark process because they are
unique, eliminating the potential for trademark conflict.
• For companies looking for a hassle-free way to secure a domain name
without a modifier, this is a fairly painless route to go.
• They are free of negative connotations.
• Because these names are built upon Greek and Latin morphemes,
they are felt to be serious sounding.
• For the above reasons, these are the easiest names to push through
the approval process at gigantic global corporations.
The downside:
The upside:
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The downside:
Experiential names offer a direct connection to something real, to a part of direct human
experience. They rise above descriptive names because their message is more about
the experience than the task.
For instance, in the web portal space, descriptive product names include Infoseek,
GoTo, FindWhat, AllTheWeb, etc. Experiential names of web portals include such
product names as Explorer, Magellan, Navigator, and Safari.
The upside:
The downside:
• Because they are so intuitive, experiential names are embraced across many
industries with high frequency, making them harder to trademark.
• These are names that tend to be historically common in the branding world.
• Their over-usage makes them less effective in the long run. For instance,
while Explorer, Navigator and Safari are web portal names, they are also the
names of SUVs.
• The similarity in tone of these names across an industry is indicative of
similarities in positioning. As web portal names, Explorer, Navigator, Safari
and Magellan are all saying exactly the same things in exactly the same ways
to exactly the same people. Consequently, they aren't pulling any weight
when it comes to differentiating a brand.
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One important way that evocative names differ from others is that they evoke the
positioning of a company or product, rather than describing a function or a direct
experience.
The upside:
The downside:
• When created out of sync with brand positioning, it's an ugly mess.
• Because evocative product and company names are created to compliment
positioning rather than goods and services, they are the toughest type of
names to get corporate approval for, being a bit of an abstraction for those
outside the marketing department.
For advice on how to create and secure buy-in for evocative product and company
names, see the Naming Process Filters- Evocative Names, in the Naming Tools section
below.
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During a naming project, we prescreen all names we present to clients against the
USPTO trademark database, to make sure no time is wasted considering names for a
project that do not have a good chance of being available for registration.
We also engage the services of several fine trademark attorneys, who can screen
names with greater precision and offer their professional feedback as well.
We do this in order to feel confident that the names your attorney submits for final
trademark screening and application have been deemed by an attorney as likely to pass
muster for registration. If not, valuable time is lost.
These are tasks that are constantly performed throughout our process. However, near
the end of every project it comes time decide which of the leading name candidates will
best serve our clients.
At this point, the job is to exhaustively and specifically flesh out the relative strengths of
each name. We present names with a range of taglines and contextual positioning
support in the form of print ads or commercial treatments. This presentation is key to
helping everyone involved understand how a given product or company name could
work in your marketing and advertising campaigns. It lifts the naming process out of the
realm of theory and breathes life into the names, a vital step in the decision-making
process.
These same materials are designed to work seamlessly for any focus group testing or
market research that you feel is necessary. We can advise you and/or run the testing
phase for you if you wish. And we have extensive experience presenting positioning,
brand strategies, names and taglines to boards of directors.
Here is a sampling of some of the many contextual support images created during the
course of Igor's Tickle project (images blurred to respect photo rights):
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Once a name is chosen, we more fully develop a range of taglines, images and
language that help you pinpoint the most effective, perfectly nuanced personality with
which to present your name.
A key point at this stage is exploring how different taglines and collateral can shift and
enhance the efficacy of your name and brand. For example, here are a few ad lines and
taglines that the name Igor brings to the table:
And on and on and on. When deciding between names for your own project, go ahead
and make a list of taglines for each potential name. It will make the decision-making
process crystal clear, because if you can't get inspired by a particular name, your
customers aren't likely to.
One of the most important things that the best brands accomplish is being thought of as
greater than the goods and services offered. Nike's "Just Do It" helps them rise above
selling sneakers. Apple's "Think Different" is bigger than computers. Fannie Mae's
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"We're in the American Dream Business" elevates them from mere mortgage brokers.
Like names, taglines come in four flavors. Sometimes it makes sense for an evocative
name to be launched with a functional tagline, migrating to an evocative tagline over
time. The specifics of your business, where it is going, and the state of your industry will
define which of the many different combinations of types of name and types of tagline
will be most effective.
One of the keys to successful company and product naming is understanding exactly
how your audience will interact with a new name. Creating a filter that evaluates names
in the same way that your target market will is essential to both creating the best name
possible and to getting that name approved and implemented by your company. Since
an evocative name is one of the toughest to develop and obtain buy-in for, we've
detailed one of the necessary filters here.
The biggest challenge that evocative names (see page 7 above) face in surviving a
naming exercise is the fact that they portray the positioning of a company or product
rather than the goods and services or the experience of those goods and services.
Unless everyone understands the positioning and the correlation between it and an
evocative name, this is the type of feedback that evocative names will generate:
Virgin Airlines
Caterpillar
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Banana Republic
Yahoo!
Oracle
• Unscientific
• Unreliable
• Only foretold death and destruction
• Only fools put their faith in an Oracle
• Sounds like "orifice" – people will make fun of us
The Gap
Stingray
• A slow, ugly, and dangerous fish – slow, ugly and dangerous are the last
qualities we want to associate with our fast, powerful, sexy sports car
• The "bottom feeding fish" part isn't helping either
Clearly, the public doesn't think about names in this fashion, but internal naming
committees almost always do. Getting a committee to acknowledge this difference and
to interact as the public does is step one.
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Having the naming committee evaluate evocative names based on their positioning is
the next step:
Virgin
Oracle
B. Name Evaluation
When considering potential names for your company, product or service, it is vital that
the process be kept as objective as possible, and that subjective personal responses to
names, such as "I like it" or I don't like it" or "I don't like it because it reminds me of an
old girlfriend/boyfriend" are exactly that – subjective and personal, and have no bearing
on whether or not a potential name will actually work in the marketplace as a powerful
brand that supports all your positioning goals.
All well and good, but clients often ask us to be more specific, to explain objectively just
what makes a name work. With that in mind, we created a straightforward way to
dissect potential names into the following nine categories to make it easier to
understand why name work or don't work, and to more easily weigh the pros and cons
of one name versus another:
Appearance – Simply how the name looks as a visual signifier, in a logo, an ad, on a
billboard, etc. The name will always be seen in context, but it will be seen, so looks are
important.
Distinctive – How differentiated is a given name from its competition. Being distinctive
is only one element that goes into making a name memorable, but it is a required
element, since if a name is not distinct from a sea of similar names it will not be
memorable. It’s important, when judging distinctiveness, to always consider the name in
the context of the product it will serve, and among the competition it will spar with for the
consumer’s attention.
Depth – Layer upon layer of meaning and association. Names with great depth never
reveal all they have to offer all at once, but keep surprising you with new ideas.
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Energy – How vital and full of life is the name? Does it have buzz? Can it carry an ad
campaign on its shoulders? Is it a force to be reckoned with? These are all aspects of a
name’s energy level.
Positioning – How relevant the name is to the positioning of the product or company
being named, the service offered, or to the industry served. Further, how many relevant
messages does the name map to?
Sound – Again, while always existing in a context of some sort or another, the name
WILL be heard, in radio or television commercials, being presented at a trade show, or
simply being discussed in a cocktail party conversation. Sound is twofold – not only how
a name sounds, but how easily it is spoken by those who matter most: the potential
customer. Word of mouth is a big part of the marketing of a company, product or service
with a great name, but if people aren’t comfortable saying the name, the word won’t get
out.
"33" – The force of brand magic, and the word-of-mouth buzz that a name is likely to
generate. Refers to the mysterious "33" printed on the back of Rolling Rock beer bottles
from decades that everybody talks about because nobody is really sure what it means.
"33" is that certain something that makes people lean forward and want to learn more
about a brand, and to want to share the brand with others. The "33" angle is different for
each name.
Trademark – As in the ugly, meat hook reality of trademark availability. Scoring is easy
here, as there are only three options, and nothing is subjective: 10 = likely available for
trademark; 5 = may be available for trademark; and 0 = not likely available for
trademark. All of the names on this list have been prescreened by a trademarked
attorney and have been deemed "likely" for trademark registration.
These are the categories we scrupulously consider every name we present to clients,
and we've done it so much that it has become second nature to us. But for those just
stepping into these confusing brand waters, it often helps to rate names in each of these
categories and compare the rankings. In the table below, we have attempted to quantify
our impressions of several brand names in the music / media downloading sector by
assigning up to 10 points in each of the nine categories; the more points, the better (90
maximum total points):
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1. We can't know the actual positioning of established brands, so we're treating these names as
if they hadn't been used yet and are under consideration for a product which has the primary
positioning goals of being a very unique, energetic name that has the potential to become a
powerful brand that is lodged in the heads of millions of consumers.
2. Since these are all established brands that all own their respective trademarks, they each get
an automatic score of "10". For names under consideration during an actual naming project,
for simplicity you may choose one of three options: "10" = likely available for trademark; "5" =
may be available for trademark; and "0" = not likely available for trademark (at which point the
name should be removed from consideration).
The point of this exercise is to break the names down into relevant components to
better understand what makes some names better than others and why, and it should
give you an understanding of how we arrive at the rankings you see in our name
taxonomies, such as the one for music and media downloading services. Rarely will a
name score the highest across every category, but the best names score consistently
well. Ultimately, it's about defining "like" and "don't like" not in personal, subjective
terms, but in terms of how names support the brand positioning.
Now you should have a clear idea about why certain names work better than others. But
this exercise is also about feeling confident that you chose the best name for your
company or product by understanding why certain names work best when all factors of
name, positioning, and competitive context are taken into consideration.
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Blank Chart
Here is a blank chart you can use as an exercise to evaluate names you are consider-
ing for your own project and see how well they support the positioning of your brand. Be
sure to add some of your most successful competitors to this list, so you can accurately
gauge how well your names can compete in the marketplace. Assign up to 10 points in
each of the nine categories; the more points, the better (90 maximum total points):
1. How well a given name supports your core positioning for the brand you are developing.
2. For names under consideration during a naming project, for simplicity you may choose one of
three options: "10" = likely available for trademark; "5" = may be available for trademark; and
"0" = not likely available for trademark (at which point the name should be removed from
consideration).
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On the pages below are name taxonomy charts for the following sectors:
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As usual, and as you might expect, most of the accounting firms, tax accountants, CPAs, accounting
software products, payroll and business services companies on this list have lower-level functional
names. Which was fine for us, because once again here was an industry with few names or primary
messages that stood out from the pack, allowing for our work to differentiate itself all the more powerfully.
5 Vanilla 5
4 Quicken 4
3 Quickbooks Peachtree 3
Fidelity
2 Paychex 2
Intuit
Intaact
Interacct
1 By the Book 1
Invisible Accountant
Real Tax
ADP (Automatic
Data
Processing)
AmeriPay Advantage Payroll
0 H&R Block Services 0
Intax Exult
KPMG
Mellon
TedTax
Arthur Anderson
BDO Seidman
Bhatia & Co.
Deloitte Touche
Tohmatsu
Ernst & Young
Co-Advantage
GMN International Accounta
Resources
Grant Thornton Advanco
-1 Precise Accounting -1
Harrod CPA Ceridian
Smart Pros
Group Perquest
Accounting
Hewitt Associates
LOR Management
Services
Mazars Group
Moss Adams
Pricewaterhouse
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Coopers
Simmons &
Assoc.
Wertz & Co.
Wright, Ford,
Young & Co.
Accounting Group
Cyber Financial
Solutions
On Line
Accountant
PayMaxx
-2 Payroll 1 -2
Payroll Online
Small Business
Solutions
SurePayroll
Tax-Ease
US Tax Help
Levels of Engagement: These eight levels (y-axis levels from minus 2 to plus 5) represent the amount of material (meaning,
stories, associations, imagery, multiple layers) in a name the audience has to play with and personalize – and how "engaged" they
are by a name. Names in the minus 2 level are the least engaging, and likely to be quickly forgotten; the higher the number the
better, with level 5 being the best.
Functional Names: The lowest common denominator of names, usually either named after a person, purely descriptive of what the
company or product does, or a pre- or suffixed reference to functionality. (Infoseek, LookSmart)
Invented Names: "Invented" as in a made-up name (Acquient, Agilent, Alliant, Google) or a non-English name that is not widely
known.
Experiential Names: A direct connection to something real, a part of direct human experience. Usually literal in nature, but
presented with a touch of imagination. (Netscape, Palm Pilot)
Evocative Names: These names are designed to evoke the positioning of a company or product rather than the goods and
services or the experience of those goods and services. Removed from direct experience, but relevant – evoking memories, stories,
and many levels of association. (Virgin, Apple, Cracker Jack)
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5 Virgin 5
Ted
4 JetBlue 4
Jazz
Hooters
3 Aloha 3
Olympic
Go Song
2 Qantas* 2
Zip Frontier
Midway
Trans World
Pan American
Delta
Continental
0 United 0
American
Alaska
AeroMexico
Air France
British Airways
Northwest
Southwest
U.S. Airways
-1 -1
Eastern
America West
World Airways
Express Jet
ValueJet
-2 -2
AirJet
EasyJet
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* Qantas is actually an acronym for "Queensland And Northern Territory Air Service." However, we're
classifying the name as Invented rather than Functional because most people do not know what Qantas
stands for, it is not written all in upper case as most acronyms are, it is longer than most acronyms, and
indeed, it has been successfully branded as an entity in itself, not for what it may stand for, which in fact
is never even mentioned.
The Biotech / Pharmaceutical industries are ripe for a great, high-level evocative name to surge to the
head of the pack. As you can see by the taxonomy below, most companies in this space are clustered
together with either functional (Amgen, Biogen, Curagen) or Experiential (Incyte, Xcyte, Paradigm,
Aradigm) names that offer very little in the way of audience engagement.
The names that rise to the top of this chart do so because they are different, but most importantly
because they are different for a good reason. These companies are using their names to distance
themselves from the negative baggage that exists in their industry in the same way that Merck and ADM
are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to assure the public that they are not cold and uncaring, that
they and other big pharma companies are working with nature rather than against it.
In our view, the standout so far in this sector is Radius, an Experiential name created by Igor to replace
the company's original and all-too-forgettable name, Nuvios.
5 5
4 Radius 4
3 3
Blue Heron
Cypress
Guava
2 Life Technologies 2
Nektar
Orchid
Torrent
Cubist
Discovery Labs. Argonaut
Evolutionary Copernicus
Genomics Isis
The Great American
1 Daji Biosciences Icon Lynx 1
Gene Company
Lexicon Onyx
Pilot Titan
Quantum Trinity
Biotechnologies
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Affinity BioReagents
Bayer
Arena
Berlex
Caliper
Bristol-Myers
Chiron Cor
Squibb Keystone
0 Idexx LifeSpan 0
GlaxoSmithKline Laboratories
Irazu BioSciences
Lilly
Memory
Merck
Pain
Pfizer
Panacea
3-D Pharma.
Abgenix
Albany Molecular
Adolor
Research
Affymetrix
Aradigm
AGY
Array
Alios
Avant
Arcaris
Boston Life
Arqule
Sciences
AstraZeneca
British Biotech
Aventis
Collateral
CHIMERx
Connectics
Corixa
Diversa
Cygnus
Elitra
Applied Molecular Cytrx
Ergo Science
Evolution Dyax
Essential
Bio Science Elitra
Hawaii Biotech.
Contract Production Exiqon
Illumina
Human Genome Embrex
Incyte
Sciences Enzon
-1 Inspire -1
Large Scale Biology Hyseq
Integrated
Molecular Devices Icos
Biomolecule
Pharmacia Idun
Integrated DNA
Protein Design Labs Nabi
Technologies
Protein Pathways Nobex
Kinetix
Protein Sciences Novex
La Jolla Pharma.
Novartis
Matrix
Oxis
Millenium
PanVera
Myriad Genetics
Promega
New Century
Telik
Northwest Bio.
Tanox
Paradigm Genetics
Tripos
Prototek
Tularik
Texas
Valentis
Biotechnology
Vistra
Triangle
Vysis
Visible Genetics
Xoma
Xcyte
Alpha Diagnostic
Alpha DNA
Amgen
-2 Avigen -2
Bio Tech. General
Biocryst
Biogen
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Biogenex
Biomarin
BioMedicines
Biomira
BioNumerik
Biopure
Bioreliance
BioStratum
Bio-Synthesis
Biotime
Biotransplant
Biotrin
Celera Genomics
Celgene
Cell Genesys
Cell Pathways
Cell Therapeutics
Cellegy
Cholestech
Ciphergen
Clontech
Collagenex
Curagen
Cyanotech
Cytogen
Deltagen
Depomed
Digene
Ecogen
Entremed
Envirogen
Exegenics
Galagen
Genaera
Gene Logic
Gene Tools
Genecor
Genelabs
Genentech
Genetics Institute
GeneTrol
Genetronics
Genome
Genomic Solutions
Genosys
Genox
Genset
Genteric
GenVec
Genzyme
Geron
Igen
Imclone Systems
Immtech
Immucell
Immucor
Immunex
Immunogen
Immunomedics
Imune Response
Insmed
Intracel
Introgen
Invitrogen
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Lifecell
LigoChem
Maxygen
Medarex
Medimmune
Meiogen
Metabasis
Metabolex
MetaMorphix
Microbia
Millipore
MitoKor
Myogen
Nanogen
Neopharm
NeuralStem
Neurocrine
Neurogen
Neuron
Nexell
Nitromed
Novagen
Orapharma
Origen
Otogene
Oxigene
Pepceuticals LTD
Pharmacopeia
Pharmacyclics
Pharmadyne
Pharmasset
Pharmos
ProdiGene
Progenics
Repligen
Research Genetics
Supergen
Synthegen
Transgene
Transgenomic
Transkaryotic
TransMolecular
TransTech
UroGenesys
Vaxgen
Virologic
Viropharma
VistaGen
Zonagen
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Behold the companies in our very own industry, naming company names in the company of the names of
other naming company names.
Are we biased in our opinion? Absolutely. We believe strongly that the name a naming company names
itself is a clue to the kinds of company names they believe in. And if a naming company cannot manage
to give itself a distinctive, memorable name that sets itself apart from the slew of competitors you see
below, a company name that can evolve into a strong brand within the industry and come to represent
more than just the goods and services being offered, how can they possibly convince others that what
they fail to do in their own company name they can somehow magically do for their clients?
So a call to arms is in order: Namers, name thyself well! Because you've got company.
4 4
Catchword
Good Characters
Idiom
3 Lexicon
3
Metaphor
Word for Word
Applebaum
Addison
Ashton Brand Group
Hayden Group
Landor
Lippincott Mercer Bizword
1 Master McNeil Mnemonic
Tungsten 1
Rivkin & Associates
Russell Mark Group
Siegel & Gale
Wolff Olins
Comspring
0 Cintara Logoistic Capsule 0
Macroworks
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Brand-DNA
Brand A
Brand 2.0
Brand Channel
Brand Design
Brand Doctors
Brand Evolve
Brand Evolution
Brand Fidelity
Brand Forward
Brand Institute
Brand Juice
Brand Ladder
Brand Link
Brand Maverick
-2 Brand Mechanics
Blue Taco -2
Brand Meta
Brand People
Brand Positioning
Brand Salt
Brandscape
Brand Scope
Brand Sequence
Brand Slinger
Brand Solutions
Brand Spark
Brand Vista
CoreBrand
Future Brand
Independent Branding
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Interbrand
Not Just Any Branding
The Better Branding
Company
The Brand Company
The Brand
Consultancy
Trading Brands
*Tipping Sprung: Yes it does sound like a random invented paring in the Bearing Point mode, but it's
actually the names of the two founders, so it goes into the Functinal category, where it rates higher than
the rest for being a little more unique and memorable.
Levels of Engagement: These eight levels (y-axis levels from minus 2 to plus 5) represent the amount of
material (meaning, stories, associations, imagery, multiple layers) in a name the audience has to play
with and personalize – and how "engaged" they are by a name. Names in the minus 2 level are the least
engaging, and likely to be quickly forgotten; the higher the number the better, with level 5 being the best.
Functional Names: The lowest common denominator of names, usually either named after a person,
purely descriptive of what the company or product does, or a pre- or suffixed reference to functionality.
(Infoseek, LookSmart)
Invented Names: "Invented" as in a made-up name (Acquient, Agilent, Alliant, Google) or a non-English
name that is not widely known.
Experiential Names: A direct connection to something real, a part of direct human experience. Usually
literal in nature, but presented with a touch of imagination. (Netscape, Palm Pilot)
Evocative Names: These names are designed to evoke the positioning of a company or product rather
than the goods and services or the experience of those goods and services. Removed from direct
experience, but relevant – evoking memories, stories, and many levels of association. (Virgin, Apple,
Cracker Jack)
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Comparing the names of computer networking technologies, peripheral device ports and the devices that love them.
Airport
5 5
FireWire
4 Wi-Fi 4
3 Bluetooth * 3
Bullet Drive
Aerocard ClipperCom
1 JumpDrive 1
iLink Credit Card
Star Card
CompactFlash
Linx
Memory Stick
Cruzer
0 Micro Vault Pyro 0
ExpressCard
Microdrive
Turbo Flash
USB
Aopen
Busport
Easidock
Easyshare
Linear
Hi-Phone
-1 Navman -1
Megahertz
RealPort
PCI
PCXpocket
SmartSwitch
SwapSmart
802.11a
802.11b
802.11g Cyber
-2 Netelligent -2
CARDport CyberExpress
IEEE 1394
PCMCIA
* Bluetooth: Harald I Bluetooth (Danish Harald Blåtand) was the King of Denmark between 940 and 985 AD.
However, since most non-Danes probably aren't familiar with this bit of history, we are treating the name as Invented.
The history behind the name does provide a story to tell, giving the name greater depth, and thus a higher ranking,
than it would if it were just a random pairing such as Blue Martini.
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Most Continuing Medical Education (CME) companies have chosen very descriptive Functional names,
which tend to cluster around a few key words: center, continuing, health, medical, medi, education,
communications, or institute. Even attempts at Experiential names have lead to clusters around such "ad"
words as ad/advance/advanced/advantage.
We created the Antidote to all this brand boredom with a truly engaging, evocative name.
5 Antidote 5
4 4
3 3
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
5 Primordial 5
4 4
Aspen Systems
Black Forest
Engineering
Chi Systems
Aimpoint
Eclipse Energy
Alliant Techsystems
Golden Season
Azimuth
Armor Holdings Hurricane Comm.
QinetiQ Technologies
2 Gray Research Luna Innovations 2
Raytheon Dyno Nobel
Imperial Sword Mohawk
General Dynamics
Nascent Technology
Soar Technology
Nova Engineering
Trident Systems
Tao Systems
Time Domain
Touch Of Life
Technologies
Arrow Tech
Challenge Carbon
Technology
Ingenuity Research
Intelligent
Automation
Four Brothers Land Rover
1 1
Soldier Vision Microwave
Dynamics
Nomadics
Park Air Systems
Phase IV Systems
Pivotal Power
Points North
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Altay Group
American GNC
BAE Systems
Bird Enterprises
Boldon James
Bruhn NewTech Amphenol
Carlyle Group Arpege Defense
Crye Associates Astronautics
Digicomp Research Barco
EaglePicher Comrod
Elbit Systems Creare
Elron Electronic Dometic
Industries Enertec
Esterline Frequentis
Technologies Nurad Technologies
Foster-Miller Ontic Aerospace
Giat Industries Omnisec
-1 Heckler & Koch Phoenics -1
Humphrey Saalex Solutions
ITT Industries Sabtech Industries
Kollsman Sentel
Kongsberg Defence Sypris Data Systems
L-3 Communications Tadiran Comm.
Marlborough Comm. Theon
Meggitt Telindus
MESH Tenix Group
Milbert Engineering Textron Systems
Santa Barbara Vipac Engineers &
Focalplane Scientists
SDT Sustav ZAI/AMELEX
Shoghi Comm.
Simrad Optronics
Sonatech
Top I Vision
ABRO
Advanced Simulation
Technology
EDO
-2 EID -2
Electro-Optical
Imaging
Infrared1
Medical Coaches
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Micro Systems
Microwave Solutions
Mission Critical
Eyewear
NavCom Defense
Electronics
Object Video
Pacific Noise &
Vibration
Physical Optics
Rotating Precision
Mechanisms
Sound Innovations
Spectra Systems
Spectrum Sciences
& Software
Systems
Engineering Group
Ultra Electronics
Video Scoring
Levels of Engagement: These eight levels (y-axis levels from minus 2 to plus 5) represent the amount of
material (meaning, stories, associations, imagery, multiple layers) in a name the audience has to play
with and personalize – and how "engaged" they are by a name. Names in the minus 2 level are the least
engaging, and likely to be quickly forgotten; the higher the number the better, with level 5 being the best.
Functional Names: The lowest common denominator of names, usually either named after a person,
purely descriptive of what the company or product does, or a pre- or suffixed reference to functionality.
(Infoseek, LookSmart)
Invented Names: "Invented" as in a made-up name (Acquient, Agilent, Alliant, Google) or a non-English
name that is not widely known.
Experiential Names: A direct connection to something real, a part of direct human experience. Usually
literal in nature, but presented with a touch of imagination. (Netscape, Palm Pilot)
Evocative Names: These names are designed to evoke the positioning of a company or product rather
than the goods and services or the experience of those goods and services. Removed from direct
experience, but relevant – evoking memories, stories, and many levels of association. (Virgin, Apple,
Cracker Jack)
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
If you're looking for a juicy name taxonomy, you've come to the right page. Here is our competitive
analysis name taxonomy of juice brand names. Fresh squeezed, and all the usual metaphors.
For more juicy branding material, see our article about Juice Branding.
5 Snapple 5
Odwalla
POM
4 Sunkist Naked 4
Tropicana
V8
Apple Time
Florida's Natural Capri Sun
Qoo
1 Hawaii's Own Sunsweet Northland 1
Vruit
Santa Cruz Tree Top
Texsun
Hansen's
Kerns Freshers
0 Langers Kedem* 0
Martinelli's Treesweet
RW Knudsen
-1 Good Day -1
-2 -2
* Kedem is a transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning: old, ancient, traditional. Kedem is a company that sells
kosher wine and grape juice primarily to the American Jewish market.
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
If you thought that margarines -- aka "butter substitutes" -- existed in a parallel universe, you were right!
Here is our competitive analysis name taxonomy of margarine brand names. Eat your heart out.
5 5
4 4
Blue Bonnet
3 Parkay 3
Land O Lakes
Chiffon
Canola Harvest Earth Balance
1 Saffola Country Crock 1
Soy Garden Smart Balance
Imperial
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
AKA the iTunes space, but here including movie as well as music download services, plus tangential
services such as NetFlix and TiVO that offer different combinations of online, offline, broadband, cable or
satellite delivery of multimedia content.
As usual, the overwhelming mass of media download services are clustered in the lower left corner of the
chart, representing the least engaging functional names, and this sample is probably but a mere fraction
of all that is our there. Why do they do it? Perhaps in this case they are spurred on by the success of
iTunes and how it has entered the public consciousness. However, what they fail to realize, is that iTunes
is propelled by the iPod phenomenon and both are byproducts of the Apple branding juggernaut, not to
mention being one of the first to market with a service that gets it right.
Woe to the iTunes followers who believe that names such as emusic, imusic, Musicnet and Netmusic will
ever get noticed in this sea of similar services.
Amazon.com
4 4
Yahoo! Launch
Atom Films
3 Napster 3
MusicGremlin
Epitonic Rhapsody
2 Vitiminic Sirius Satellite 2
XM Satellite Radio Radio
Audiogalaxy Connect
1 1
Soundbuzz Glide Magazine
Ampcast
Disclogic
Hear Music
iRATE radio BeSonic
0 Like Television Kazaa purevolume Akimbo 0
ReplayTV zerophase
SHOUTcast
Smithsonian Global
Sound
AllCoolMusic
AOL Music
ARTISTdirect K-Lite
-1 download.com Lycos Music Mindawn -1
IFILM Partners In Rhyme
iTunes
IUMA (Internet
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Underground
Music Archive)
MovieAdvanced
MSN Music
PeopleSound
Wal-Mart
123MovieDownload
Cinema Download
DivX Movies
DownloadShield.com
easyMusic.com
emusic
ezMP3s.com
FileSharingCity.com
Free Movie Now
IC-Musicmedia
imusic
iMusicShare
Internet Downloads
InternetMovies.com
-2 MovieDownloadWorld -2
MP3.com
MP3DownloadHQ.com
Mp3Downloading
MP3Must
Musicload
Musicnet
MyFreeTunes.com
Netlabels
NetMusic
Safe-Share.com
Shared Movies
SoundClick
Ultimate Movie
Downloads
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Here are some names you may be familiar with in the Internet industry. Note how many search engines
went with Functional names that include the words "search/seek" or "crawler/spider".
5 Yahoo! 5
4 Google 4
Magellan
3 3
Safari
Explorer
2 Firefox Northern Light 2
Navigator
Ask Jeeves
Excite
1 Mozilla Camino 1
Netscape
Snap
Altavista
Mamma
Cyberdog
0 A9 Opera 0
Dogpile
Overture
Fathead
AOL Alexa
GoTo Inktomi *
HotBot Lycos goHip iCab
-1 -1
ICQ Teoma mySimon Rex
MSN Thunderstone
Open Directory WiseNut
AllTheWeb
Cyber411
FindWhat.com
InfiniSearch
Infoseek
InfoTiger
LookSmart
MegaSpider
-2 -2
MetaGopher
MonsterCrawler
Planet Search
QuestFinder
SavvySearch
Search King
SearchPort
SuperCrawler
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
WebCrawler
What-U-Seek
* Inktomi: In Lakota mythology, Iktomi is a spider-trickster god and a culture-hero for the Lakota people.
But since most people don't know that (or care), we are treating it as an Invented name. And besides, the
"spider/crawler" metaphor has been pretty thoroughly mined by search engines.
Social networks have existed on the web for some time in the form of discussion groups, online
communities, bulletin boards, webrings and matchmaking services. This chart is confined to rating the
names of the new breed of social networks, those that leverage many levels of relationships in the form of
"a friend of a friend."
5 Tickle 5
Ringo (purchased
4 by Tickle) 4
Tribe
2 Live Journal 2
ICQ
Match.com
1 Meetup Ryze Spoke Software 1
Spotme
Visible Path
Craigslist
Lunch Partners
0 Sona 0
RealContacts
Upcoming.org
CAN (Community
Action Network)
Classmates Alpha3 InCircle
Affinity Engines
Ecademy Orkut PlanetAll
itsnotwhatyouknow
-1 EveryonesConnected Plaxo POP (People on -1
WhizSpark
Evite Squiby Page)
ZeroDegrees
Friendspot Yafro TheSquare
FriendSurfer
Friendzy
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
LinkedIn
myspace
PayDemocracy
RealContacts
2ofaKind.com
AnotherFriend.com
Contact Network
Huminity
-2 Corporation -2
Semaview
ManyOne
people2people
PeopleAggregator
This chart of SUV names reveals a singular positioning strategy that permeates most of the brand names
in this industry, resulting in the bulk of these names being assigned low marks on this scale. It's not that
the names themselves are poor. Rather, it's because the names don't help to differentiate one vehicle
from another; many of them are variations on the same theme (rugged, outdoorsy) and not pulling any
marketing weight. Why does Suburban rate an elevated position? Because it's the most refreshingly
different and honest name in the Experiential category.
5 Jeep 5
4 4
3 Suburban 3
Hummer
2 Jackaroo Element 2
Jeepster
Amigo Avalanche
1 Xterra Aviator Cayenne 1
Sidekick Safari
Blazer Armada
Land Cruiser
Discovery Frontier
Overland
Defender Highlander
Range Rover
0 Unimog Escape Matrix 0
Pathfinder
Excursion Passport
TrailBlazer
Expedition Samurai
Travelall
Explorer Silverado
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Forester Tundra
Freelander Typhoon
Mountaineer
Navigator
Scout
Tracker
Trooper
Wrangler
Aztek
Bordeux
Bronco
Cherokee
Comanche
Durango
Kahuna
Montana
Montero
Envoy
Murano
4Runner Grand Vitara Liberty
-1 Navaho -1
Rav4 Korando Rendezvous
Rainier
Tribute
Rodeo
Santa Fe
Sequoia
Sonoma
Sorento
Tacoma
Tahoe
Touareg
Yukon
CR-V
EVX
EX
LX 470
MDX
Bravada
ML55 Terracross
-2 Escalade Axiom -2
QX4 VehiCROSS
Sportage
SLX
SRX
X5
XC90
XL-7
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
The names of snack foods are tough to rank in an unbiased way. Our perceptions of snack food
names are deeply influenced by emotional connections to the products formed at an early age.
Cool Whip
Fiddle Faddle
Ding Dongs
Fig Newtons
4 Pop Tarts Hobnobs 4
Nutter Butter
Pinwheels
Twinkies
Sweetie Pie
Cameo
Cloud Nine
Grasshoppers
3 Spotted Dick Chips Ahoy! Honey Maid 3
Little Schoolboy
RingDings
Sno Ball
Barnum's Animals
Hit Pepperidge Farm
Nilla Vanilla
2 Krispy Kreme Suzy Q's 2
Wafers
Mystic Mints Zebra Cakes
Zoot Fruits
Chewly
Chippy Chips
ChipsChoc
Crispin
Cookie Stix
Grandma's Little Debbie
0 Cup O' Jelly 0
Lucky Rolls Lorna Doone
Fruit By The Foot
Pecan Passion
Pecanz
Pop'ems
Snackin' Grahams
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Twirls
Mini Butter Puff
Peanut Puff
Soft Batch
Sugar Wafers
Toaster Pastries
Wafer Rolls
Hydrox
-2 -2
Droxies
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
When you Reach for those Pearl Drops to give your mouth an Ultra Bright Super Smile, is your Sure
Choice based solely on what will make you the most attractive Close-Up, or is it Ultrabright branding
that's taking Aim at you as if yours were the First Teeth to Crest the tide of Oral-B(eauty)?
Here are some toothpaste brand names that put their branding money where your mouth is. This list does
not include all the large brands that have many different health and beauty products of which toothpaste
is but one.
5 5
4 Pearl Drops 4
3 Aquafresh Crest 3
Sensodyne
1 Close-Up 1
Topol
Aim
Auromere NutriSmile
Colgate Janina Power Smile
0 0
First Teeth Peelu Reach
Vicco Super Smile
Ultrabright
Homeodent
Listerine
Mentadent Sure Choice Apothecary
-1 Plus+White -1
Orohyi Complete Care Kingfisher
Viadent
Zooth
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Here is a blank name taxonomy chart you can print. Try plotting your and your competition's product or
company names on this chart and see how they sort out.
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
-1 -1
-2 -2
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
In mid-2003, AT&T Canada changed its name to Allstream. The new company name is
explained on the Allstream website:
Allstream is a new beginning for a new company. Our name change from AT&T
Canada signals our new status as a fully independent company with a fresh new
outlook. We understand that the continuous flow of information that travels
through networks is more than just data - it's the value people create.
We are now focused more than ever on providing communication solutions that
enable your company to communicate, collaborate and compete more effectively.
The use of words such as "stream" that have already reached saturation in the culture
illustrates why we begin all projects with a thorough competitive analysis, to not only
understand which potential product or company name directions have been mined
already in a given sector, but to quantify the language usage in all relevant messaging.
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Viagra's successful sexual conquest of the male organ has spawned a flood of products
designed to spread the joy in the opposite direction. The best-named Female Sexual
Dysfunction remedy by far is Niagara – it's powerful, wet, and funny, just like good sex.
And it obviously parries well the thrust of the name "Viagra."
But now there's a new girl in town, and she is taking a far more clinical approach to
seduction. Her come-hither moniker? Avlimil. Sure it's cold, inhuman and unmemorable,
but then we've all "dated" someone like that.
Actually it's part of a unique strategy erected to whet your appetite for Avlimil and
elevate it above the others vying for your attention.
You see, Niagara and Avlimil are both herbal remedies. But while Niagara is proud and
confident of who it is, Avlimil is trying to sound like "serious" prescription medicine. And
it's not just the name. In the TV commercial the fidgety female spokesperson – in a clear
reference to the drug Viagra – says, "Men have their little blue pill, and now we have
ours." The illusion is furthered in the packaging:
And what does the mysterious descriptor "(salvia rubus) tablets" mean? Salvia comes
from the Latin salveo, meaning "I am well," and an herb, Salvia, used for healing, while
rubus is Latin for bramble or berry. It's apothecary-speak for sage and raspberry leaf,
Avlimil's main ingredients. The whole campaign is well thought out and deftly executed
to fully leverage the success and mind-share of Viagra.
Chrysler's hot new sports coupe, the Crossfire, has a name that does justice to the car's
edgy, explosive looks. Clearly, the marketing department had an extraordinary naming
process in place, as well as the insight and fortitude required to get such a controversial
name approved in an organization as large as Chrysler.
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Imagine the feedback when the name was tested: Isn't it dangerous to get caught in a
crossfire? Don't people get killed in a crossfire? Don't we want people to think our car is
safe? It's the name of a TV show, why not pick something unique?
Chrysler understood that consumers don't participate in this kind of literal, negative
deconstruction, but rather accept things in the context provided. The failure to recognize
this simple truth is what dooms other automakers to give sexy sports cars androgynous
names like; M5, S4, 28O Z, SC 430 and C32 AMG.
Bang a Gong? Maybe. In May 2003 IBM announced a new mainframe computer. As is
often the case with high-tech products, the computer has a great code name and a less
than inspiring official name. Time will shortly tell which name prevails. From Geek.com:
IBM is set to unveil T-Rex, the code name for its latest and greatest mainframe
computer. The new system will boast more powerful processors, new memory, and an
updated operating system. This is the first major upgrade to IBM's mainframe system
since 2000.
T-Rex's official name is the eServer zSeries 990, and it boasts up to 32 processors, all
of which can be added to the machine's processing capacity on the fly. With an almost
tripling of capacity over its closest sibling, T-Rex can "process 450 million e-business
transactions a day, or can manage hundreds of virtual Linux servers," according to IBM.
T-Rex will start at US$1 million, but there will be four available models by the beginning
of November 2003.
Though even the word "mainframe" sounds outdated, the systems comprise over 40%
of IBM's profits. The target companies for the machines are large banks, retailers, and
insurance companies whose current code will only run on mainframes. These usually
older companies have complex systems built on the old code that simply can't be
replaced. T-Rex is expected to go on sale in June.
T-Rex is a great name, given the fact that it will be the biggest baddest mofo on the
block. It's especially provocative since both the concept and the term "mainframe" are
seen as dinosaurs. T-Rex would be an enormously bold, confident and effective stand
to take.
So, what'll it be? T-Rex or eServer zSeries 990? History offers no comfort here. AMD's
chip, code named "Sledgehammer," became "Opteron," while Intel's "McKinley" chip
became the "Itanium 2."
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
Mercedes has long named their car models using alphanumerics. It's a system used by
most luxury automotive brands (save Rolls Royce) designed to direct the bulk of brand
equity to the Mercedes brand name rather than to a particular model. It's very effective
when you need consumers to remember three basic concepts and one or two specialty
offshoots. Audi and BMW get there with the 4|6|8 and 3|5|7 designations, respectively.
The bare basics are: C-Class, E-Class, S-Class, CLK-Class, CL-Class, SLK-Class, SL-
Class, M-Class, G-Class, with a sprinkling of AMGs, SLRs, CDIs and MLs tossed-in
where needed for greater obfuscation. And those are just the alpha vegetables in the
alphanumeric soup.
Here is the whole 36-car pile up: C230 Kompressor Sport Coupe, C230 Kompressor
Sport Sedan, C240 Luxury Sedan, C240 Luxury Wagon, C320 Sport Coupe, C320
Luxury Sedan, C320 Sport Sedan, C55 AMG, E320 Sedan, E320 CDI, E320 Wagon,
E500 Sedan, E500 4MATIC Wagon, E55 AMG, S430 Sedan, S500 Sedan, S55 AMG,
S600 Sedan, CLK320 Coupe, CLK320 Cabriolet,CLK500 Coupe, CLK500 Cabriolet,
CLK55 AMG Coupe, CLK55 AMG Cabriolet, CLS500 Coupe, CLS55 AMG, CL500
Coupe, CL55, AMG CL600, Coupe, CL65 AMG, SLK 350 Roadster, SLK55 AMG
Roadster, SL500 Roadster, SL55 AMG, SL600 Roadster, SL65 AMG, ML350 SUV,
ML350 SUV Special Edition, ML500 SUV, ML500 SUV Special Edition, G500 SUV, G55
AMG, and SLR McLaren 4MATIC.
The vehicles are priced between $25,850 and $452,750, and the names do nothing
towards differentiating one from the other; so bye-bye "envy" sales factor. Why pay a
hundred and fifty big ones for a car that everyone thinks cost thirty? That's no fun.
Cadillac, in its quest to muscle Mercedes aside has jumped into the fray with the vehicle
"names" ESV, EXT, ETS, SRX and XLR, basking in the image mingling.
The only people crazy enough to learn and love the distinctions between the Mercedes
C-Class, E-Class, S-Class, CLK-Class, CL-Class, SLK-Class, SL-Class, M-Class, G-
Class, AMG, SLR, CDI and ML spend the remainder of their time playing "Prince of
Persia, Warrior Within" on the Xbox and aren't likely to purchase a car without parental
consent.
C-Class Overview
The Mercedes-Benz C-Class offers more value and choice than ever before with the
most models and body styles to choose from, and MSRPs starting under $30,000.
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
E-Class Overview
S-Class Overview
The premier luxury sedan in the world, the S-Class is the unparalleled expression of
elegance, technological innovation, charismatic styling and pure driving pleasure.
CLK-Class Overview
Available in both luxury convertible and pillarless coupe models, the CLK-Class is one
of the world's most desirable and exhilarating forms of pure driving pleasure.
CLS-Class Overview
The CLS-Class redefines what a coupe can be. It offers expressive style, poised
performance, a 4-seat cabin, but with four doors.
CL-Class Overview
The CL-Class is not just a distinctive and exclusive leader in the luxury coupe market.
With its intense performance and refined style, it demands to be driven.
SLK-Class Overview
From its muscular stance inspired by Formula One racing to its athletic performance,
the SLK-Class roadster delivers aggressive sports car styling and an exhilarating driving
experience
SL-Class Overview
M-Class Overview
On the edge of your seat for the Mercedes definitions behind G-Class, AMG, SLR, CDI and
ML? Of course not -- it's too much work and there's no reward -- two things luxury should never
be.
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Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide ©2008 Igor
"Get Milk" and lift it high for Pepperidge Farm in honor of their branding smarts. Here is
a look into how and why their cookie naming architecture works.
Below on the left are the names of their chocolate chunk varietals. In the right hand
column, in mixed up order, are the distinguishing ingredients. See if you can match the
names with the cookie variety:
Name Variety
Sausalito Oatmeal Raisin
Santa Cruz Milk Chocolate w/ Walnuts
Tahoe Dark Chocolate w/ Toffee and Pecans
Chesapeake Dark Chocolate w/Pecans
Nantucket Milk Chocolate w/ Macadamias
Sedona Dark Chocolate
Montauk White Chocolate/ Macadamias
The reason you can't guess the correct matchups is at the heart of why the names work
so well. A less savvy marketing department would have pushed for a direct correlation
between geography and ingredients. That would have resulted in the name "Kona" for a
cookie with macadamias and milk chocolate, because that is where the exotic nut is
grown.
Well, the milk chocolate with macadamia nut version is called "Sausalito," a foggy little
peninsula that could never support the growth of macadamia trees. The same goes for
the nippy mountain lake of "Tahoe," the name of the white chocolate and macadamia
cookie.
Had Pepperidge Farm gone down the literal road, they would have named the cookies
after towns and regions that best represent oatmeal, toffee, pecans, raisins, chocolate,
and so on.
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Instead, they chose the names for the positive images, evocations, and aspirations that
they conjure from our collective consciousness.
That makes it "bigger" than the ingredients and "bigger" than cookies, much like Nike's
"just do it" and Apple's "think different" elevate them beyond sneakers and computers.
When a brand can rise above the goods and services they offer and create a loftier
connection with their audience, they indeed have found a recipe for success.
Name Variety
Sausalito Milk Chocolate w/ Macadamias
Santa Cruz Oatmeal Raisin
Tahoe White Chocolate/ Macadamias
Chesapeake Dark Chocolate w/Pecans
Nantucket Dark Chocolate
Sedona Dark Chocolate w/ Toffee and Pecans
Montauk Milk Chocolate w/ Walnuts
Oompa Loompa Doompadeedo, Roomba's the perfect product name it's true. iRobot
has a winning name with Roomba. They get extra points for doing it with a made-up
name to boot.
Roomba ranks right up there with Snapple, which is not surprising as the two names
follow the exact same strategy and construction. Roomba is a disc-shaped robotic
vacuum about twelve inches across and three inches high, which quietly and effectively
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navigates and vacuums a room all on its own. The mind-bender is that when finished,
the Roomba finds its charger and plugs itself in.
We've tested two different Roomba models and can tell you that the implied "room
dance" in the name is an accurate take on the performance art that takes place when
you switch one on. It's a perfect name: fun, rhythmic, original and relevant, just like
Snapple.
Soy Joy: When naming consumer products, few companies get it just right. Silk, a
product brand name for soy milk from the folks at White Wave, is a category killer,
meaning that competitors will never be able to find a name that is more effective. Silk is
a contraction of Soy + Milk and plays into the positive characteristics of high quality,
smooth, pleasurable, and sensual. They've taken an existing word and all of its inherent
cultural and experiential qualities and transposed it to an entirely new context.
While names typically fall into one of the four categories described above, Silk manages
to straddle three of them: Descriptive, Experiential and Evocative.
Cheerios is one of the best cereal product naming results of all time and follows the
same strategy. The name is descriptive, yet has the secondary meaning of a happy
greeting. Both names work on multiple levels in the consumer's mind, and are therefore
very engaging and tough to beat.
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V. Studies in Branding
A. Juice Branding – Simply Orange, Tropicana and POM Wonderful
B. Verizon's Tagline – a positive negative
C. Yahoo! Personals: Believe – a tagline creates brand engagement
D. Yellow Freight – the friction between a color and a name creates engagement
A. Juice Branding
Since Coke owns MinuteMaid and Pepsi owns Tropicana, it's not surprising that the
orange juice battle between them is being fought in the same way as their long-standing
cola war, which is further identical to the marketing skirmish between Dasani (Coke)
and Aquafina (Pepsi) bottled water. Both companies are committed to shadowing each
other's moves, resulting in products and brands that are virtually indistinguishable. The
dueling carafes below were predictable:
Simply Orange, by MinuteMaid, has a cleaner, more effective label. The messaging on
the Tropicana carafe is too busy; watch for it to get cleaned-up and for the illustration of
the orange on the label to increase in size. Since MinuteMaid has perhaps half the
market share of Tropicana in the non-frozen category, they will be "taking chances" and
Tropicana will be reacting.
POM Wonderful
An interesting new player in the juice business is POM. The pomegranate juice is called
POM Wonderful after a variety of pomegranates. Other blended varieties are just called
POM, but "Wonderful" is carried over throughout the messaging. The packaging is
unique, and the sales pitch is anchored in the health benefits of antioxidants. At 26
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cents per fluid ounce, POM is 3 to 4 times more expensive than national orange juice
brands.
POM is leveraging several points of contact in differentiating its brand. The name "Pom"
gives consumers a short and sweet way to get a handle on the rather awkward
mouthful, "pomegranate juice." It also helps make the idea of trying it less scary. Don't
be surprised if "pom juice" is adopted by the public as shorthand for all pomegranate
juice, giving POM a big advantage over their inevitable competitors. POM's tagline,
DRINK TO YOUR HEART'S CONTENT™, works on two levels: It reinforces the health
benefits of the juice and plays off of an emotional idiom.
Loud and Clear: Full points to Verizon for redefining and taking ownership of the
phrase "Can you hear me now?" Most corporations would have missed this opportunity,
arguing that "Can you hear me now" is the question most often muttered in frustration
during cell phone calls gone bad. Why run television ads in which a Verizon user asks
this highly negative question over and over? Doesn't this portray the Verizon experience
in a bad light?
Au contraire, mon ami. The tagline "Can you hear me now?" works for many reasons:
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Extra points to Verizon for understanding that a negative can be more positive than a
positive (i.e. "The clear alternative to Cellular") when it comes to branding. Minus a few
points for having the anemic corporate tagline, "Make progress every day," which is
more of an aspiration for someone in physical therapy than a convincing argument in
favor of Verizon's service.
The Yahoo! Personals new tagline, "Believe," is a masterful example of how to achieve
the brass ring of branding: Engagement. A less savvy tagline might have been "Find
that special someone you have always dreamed about," but that approach would be far
less effective because it:
• is exactly what people would expect to hear and would pass through them like
white noise.
• narrowly defines the Yahoo! Personals as merely a service offering.
• tells the audience how to think about it, with no room left for mystery.
• causes people to pause and ask themselves "Believe in what?" and to actively fill
in the blanks and personalize the connection, which is the most effective form of
engagement.
• elevates the Yahoo! Personals brand above the goods and services they offer
and taps into a positive aspirational philosophy.
This same strategy is demonstrated by these taglines: Nike's "Just Do It," Apple's "Think
Different," Fannie Mae's "We're in the American Dream Business," or Guidant's "It's a
Great Time to Be Alive."
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D. Yellow On A Roll
For more than seventy-five years, Yellow Freight Lines has stuck with one of the
simplest and most engaging color schemes ever devised. Their trucks and logo are
orange, and their logo consists only of the word "Yellow," with no additional information.
When you stop and think about it (we all have), that's engagement.
Another shipping company, UPS, is currently promoting its corporate color, brown, as its
new nickname: Brown. They are attempting to make a virtue out of a color that doesn't
usually generate much enthusiasm by turning it into a virtuous character.
Whether UPS' very tricky strategy will work remains to be seen, but Yellow has
demonstrated a startlingly simple and effective way to create a little friction with their
name, and from that a whole lot of brand engagement.
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Igor was hired to create the new name for Court TV, which is… truTV. This excerpt from
the official press release tells the story best:
As part of an extensive branding initiative that will also include a new look, new
logo and expanded line-up, COURT TV® is about to become truTV. This new
name reflects the network’s popular line-up of series that offer first-person
access to exciting, real-life stories, according to the announcement today by
Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks, and Marc Juris, the
network’s general manager. Through a dynamic original programming line-up
that has been providing the network with strong and consistent audience growth,
truTV will target a highly coveted psychographic known as "Real Engagers"….
The complete re-branding will launch Jan. 1, 2008.
Developing the truTV network name is the latest step in a nearly year-long
process of rebranding the network. The process began with extensive research
into who the network’s prime-time and late-night viewers are and what kind of
programming they desire. The compiled data showed that the line-up attracts a
dual-gender audience that loves programming with real people in exciting real-life
situations and a strong interest in compelling stories and characters.
"Early in the rebranding process, we realized that the current network name
doesn’t reflect the direction of our programming or our growing target audience of
Real Engagers," said Juris. "In truTV, we now have the ideal name that fits both
the programming and the target audience. The network will be top of mind for
Real Engagers seeking real-life action programming, real-life emotion and
access to places they can’t normally go."
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There's revolution in the air. No, we're not talking about Apple's skinny laptop, but the
air higher up in the atmosphere, above the clouds, where the big jets fly and airline
passengers are separated from email and the Internet for hours on end.
Not anymore.
In mid-2008, Aircell will debut a new wireless Internet service available on the entire
Virgin America fleet and select American Airlines routes. Passengers on these carriers,
and eventually many others, will have wireless broadband access to email and the
Internet anywhere over the continental United States and above 10,000 feet. Explains a
company press release:
When Aircell was ready to name this revolutionary new service, they hired Igor to make
it happen. The name had to be memorable, fun (kids will use it to play networked
electronic games), short (to be printed on and in the planes and airline collateral
material), universally known, easy to pronounce, and map if possible to both the travel
experience and the Internet connectivity experience.
After project takeoff, we carefully considering hundreds of names, and boiled the
positioning of the service down to its essence: mobility (email at 500 mph!), connectivity,
and fun. When we landed we had the perfect name: Gogo.
The Internet on a plane, the airline mainline, wi-fi in the sky, or as Aircell calls it, "wi-fi
with wings". Coming soon to a troposphere near you.
http://www.gogoinflight.com/
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"Web 2.0" is the buzz du jour in media and technology circles, but when Radar
Networks hired Igor to name its revolutionary new personal and group information
manager web application, they were touting their product as "Web 3.0". What?
Web 3.0, AKA the Semantic Web, promises the next generation of web intelligence and
advanced data mining, connectivity, and meaning. As Wired explains it, while Google
may organize the universe of public information, Radar's new service will organize your
personal information:
The mission of gathering all this information and "tying it all together" led Igor to the
perfect name for Radar's new kind of personal and group information manager product:
Twine. An elegant word for a deceptively simple physical object, Twine also contains
the verb form, meaning "to twist together; intertwine; interweave." Wired continues:
Twine is a sort of knowledge management tool for the masses. Each user's
Twine home page is a sort of personal dashboard—its central feature is a list of
updates not unlike the Facebook News Feed—that allows a user to import any
memo, website, video, or photo from anywhere on the desktop or internet. Twine
then uses semantic web technology to organize automatically all of your
information by theme and then infer what other information might also interest
you.
While one can do this for private information, the shining hope for the application
is that groups can use it to collaborate on a project or keep tabs on a certain
subject of interest by each contributing to a communal information bucket
called—get this—"a twine."
Tim O'Reilly, in his O'Reilly Radar (no relation) blog, goes even deeper into the nuts and
bolts that make Twine tick (are you tallying the metaphors here?):
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OK. So what, you say? The magic doesn't happen until you -- or a group of
people -- have collected a large set of documents. Now, you can use the tags
associated with any given document to pivot through everything else your
collection, or twine, contains about that tag.
… The key point is that because each entity in any of the documents becomes a
meaningful tag, that extracted meaning becomes a semantic layer tying all of the
documents together. What's more, twine has its own built-in semantic taxonomy,
based on concepts mined from wikipedia, and…can make connections between
documents using tags and concepts that are not actually in the documents
themselves.
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/10/radar_networks_twine.html
For any of you who have ever joined a social network only to ask yourselves afterwards,
"Now what do I do with it?", your answer is finally here: Twine!
http://www.twine.com/
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iN DEMAND Networks hired Igor to create a new name for a high-definition television
channel to feature original programming for men that would eventually replace the
company's flagship INHD channel. We convinced them that the prefect name for the
channel is MOJO:
MOJO - the new 100% hi-def channel is tailored to fit your interests from
exceptional food to extreme locales, from high tech toys to high stakes antics,
from Wall Street to easy street and the best of sports, music, movies and more.
It's 180° from ordinary and 100% high definition, because life is how you see it.
One consideration was keeping the name short so it could work easily as a "bug", the
logo that TV networks place in the corner of the television screen, yet be differentiated
from the plethora of be-acronymed WETVs, METVs MTVs and BETs that saturate the
TV Guide. And having the name of this men's channel start with the letter "M" would be
a nice bonus.
Of course, the word "mojo" means personal magnetism, life force and magical power. It
came to the English language from Africa over one hundred years ago, but reached the
status of pop culture phenomenon as the source of Austin Powers' manly powers.
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The EA SPORTS division of Electronic Arts hired Igor to name a new sub-brand aimed
at a growing, more casual sports gaming audience. The new brand will feature games
that, while based in sports, will be playful, inclusive, casual, and easy to pick up and
play for kids and parents, women and men, and casual and hardcore sports fans of all
ages. From an article about the new brand in Adweek:
Known for its realistic sports games -- thus the tagline "It's in the game" -- EA
Sports has a rabid following with core gamers. However, as the gaming audience
has widened, EA Sports has realized so must its title offerings.
At Igor, we firmly believe that for all projects, we are never naming a company, product
or service – we are naming the positioning of that company, product or service. And for
EA SPORTS, Igor created the perfect name to fulfill the positioning requirements of this
brand: Freestyle. From the EA SPORTS press release:
Jump in, have fun, anybody can play, express yourself, and bend all the usual rules.
That's what it's all about. Freestyle will take sports gaming to a whole new level, for a
vast new audience.
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When a company called Xosphere hired Igor to re-name them, it was clear to us from
the very beginning that here is a company that "gets it", as in truly understanding where
their invented start-up name fell short as a brand, and what a great name could do for
their business.
Xosphere had created a powerful new mobile content platform that was truly phone and
carrier agnostic, and they wanted an exciting, exuberant name that would match their
vision and serve as a lightning rod for companies and the public to adopt this content
platform. The name ideally had to be a short verb, as well as exciting, inspiring, fun to
say, memorable and extensible.
Naming a groundbreaking new company, product or service is always the most fun, and
this project was certainly no exception. The name Igor created for this amazing new
content platform is Whoop:
…Whoop wants to be the verb that means "everything mobile." That’s all.
Whoop wants to be your Mobile Coke or your (unused) Mobile Kleenex. Whoop
me. Whoop it. Whoop Us. Whoop the world. Whoop.
Whoop’s mission is just as concise: Help companies and individuals easily share
mobile content.
Whoop is still in development, but when it launches it will redefine the conversation in
the mobile content space. Just as many of Igor's clients have done in other industries,
from Wi-Fi in the sky and the semantic web (Web 3.0), to green mobile phones, hi-def
television broadcasting, continuing medical education, interactive advertising, IT
training, sales support and more.
Whoop it up at http://www.whoopmobile.com/
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Igor has been working with Nokia business units all over the world to name new mobile
phone models for various global markets. For their breakthrough new eco-friendly
phone, Nokia wanted a name that would describe the environmental benefit of this
particular model, but also serve as a rallying cry for enviromental awareness both within
the company and among consumers. Igor created the name Evolve to perfectly express
this dual mission as a phone name and a call to action.
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Nokia also outlined its long heritage in addressing environmental issues and
commitment to driving new initiatives in the mobile industry in areas such as
energy efficiency, materials used in products, take back, recycling, and
packaging. This was against the background of the launch of the Nokia 3110
Evolve, a mobile device with bio-covers made from more than 50% renewable
material. The device is presented in a small package made of 60% recycled
content and it comes with Nokia's most energy efficient charger yet, using 94%
less energy than the Energy Star requirements*.
The Nokia 3110 Evolve is the latest in a series of environmental initiatives from
the company. For example, Nokia was the first manufacturer to put alerts into its
devices to encourage people to unplug their chargers. The power that could be
saved globally by all Nokia phone users unplugging their chargers when no
longer needed is equivalent to enough energy to power 100,000 average-size
European homes. In February 2006, Nokia also introduced new compact
packaging that reduced materials used by 54%, a move which by the end of this
year will have resulted in 5,000 fewer trucks needed to distribute products,
reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions, and savings of EUR 100
million.
Nokia's Evolve mobile phone is a beautiful marriage of form, function and environmental
awareness that sets the stage for the company's continued push toward more
sustainable products and manufacturing.
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One of the most successful online retailers for blinds and window treatments hired Igor
to name a new brand of upscale online window treatments. The new brand would go
after a more affluent, less price sensitive, consumer with a higher quality product; it
required different positioning, and a much better, evocative name to stand out from the
crowd.
To illustrate that crowd, here are just some of the companies in the online window
treatments space that have "blinds" in their name:
When branding in such a crowded field, is of vital importance to carefully define your
positioning. The goal should be to position yourself in a way that rings true in a fresh
way – that cuts through all of the noise out there – and allows your audience
personalize the experience of your brand, to make an emotional connection with it, and
ultimately to take you in. To redefine and own the territory.
Here are the primary positioning objectives that the new brand had to accomplish, which
we developed with our client as part of this project; the new name had to:
• be evocative, and stand out from the crowd of boring, mostly descriptive names
in the window treatment space
• rise above "blinds" and change the conversation within the industry by creating a
brand that customers can have an emotional connection to, as well as allow for
product offerings among all types of window treatments and for potential future
expansion into other home décor and furnishings territory
• be charming and disarming – taking the fear out of purchasing window
treatments or furniture over the internet
• emphasize style – that the company has great taste and can help you consumers
get it. To be thought of as your online personal decorator.
• have some familiarity/meaning without sounding totally made-up
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As a bonus, if the name sounded vaguely like it could be both a designer's name and/or
evoke a non-specific sense of place, without being too obviously either one of those
things, that would be great.
Igor created the perfect name for this company in Jupiter Wells, a name derived from a
very small, very remote Aboriginal settlement in the Gibson Desert of Western Australia
by the name of Jupiter Well.
The name Jupiter Wells creates it's own mystery. It is very unique among the
competition, and people will naturally want to know more, which creates connection and
emotional engagement with the consumer.
Jupiter Wells demonstrates, rather than explains, a unique, entirely new perspective. It
is completely unexpected, which makes it intriguing, yet each word is grounded with
enough shared mythology, stories and associations so as not to be a disconnect. And
as the brand grows and more people experience it, the brand itself will become the
meaning – shorthand for a completely fresh experience of designing and purchasing
window treatments.
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Igor has been working with Nokia business units all over the world to name new mobile
phone models for various global markets. The first product to be released that we
named was the premium "intro to luxury" 8600 Luna. The latest gems from our ongoing
collaboration with Nokia are the new incarnations of Nokia's legendary top-of-the-line
8800, which Igor named Arte and Sapphire Arte.
Nokia takes pride in unveiling the Nokia 8800 Arte and the Nokia 8800 Sapphire
Arte - two brand new designs, which capture the essence of timeless beauty and
fine craftsmanship.
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Materials are of the finest quality. They include exquisite leather and precious
stones. The Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte contains both. The select key for example
is made from a single sapphire, which as one of the world’s most valued
gemstones has a strong heritage and coveted appeal.
Leather panels are crafted from the finest premium goat hides sourced in Eastern
India. By avoiding mechanical embossing Nokia ensures that each product is
totally unique and that the hide’s natural grain is preserved. Fine layers of coating
are applied to protect against everyday use and add an extra dash of finesse.
Arte translates as art. In creating the Nokia 8800 Arte and the Nokia 8800
Sapphire Arte, Nokia celebrate the art of individuality by way of natural light and
the intricate ways in which it reflects, flickers and glows. This can be seen in the
unique tap-for-time feature. Just two gentle taps are all it takes to illuminate the
clock screen, while living wallpapers move organically throughout the day to give
unique on-screen decoration.
Sound also plays an important part of the bespoke experience. The Nokia 8800
Arte and the Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte both include exclusive video ring tones
from DJ duo Kruder & Dorfmeister.
In addition to the 3G capabilities and 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera, the Nokia
8800 Arte and 8800 Sapphire Arte boast a stunning OLED display and 1 GB
built-in memory space. A unique silencing mechanism is activated when the
phone is turned over, screen-side down. Meanwhile, Nokia’s new anti-fingerprint
coating reduces smudges on metal and glass and unsightly outer seams are
hidden thanks to a unique all-in-one micro USB connector.
Nokia's Arte and Sapphire Arte mobile phones are truly works of art, among the most
beautiful consumber objects available.
Stay tuned for more exciting Igor product names for Nokia.
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Igor created the name URGE for MTV and Microsoft’s new online music and video
downloading service. Presenting an interesting naming challenge, the new name
needed to have a bit of the MTV edge, yet still welcome and intrigue all music fans, and
also lend itself to integration within Microsoft's Windows Media Player 11. MTV and
Microsoft also required a name with global trademark clearance and unmodified ".com"
domain name purchasability.
Well beyond the scope of iTunes, URGE pulls together the proprietary music and video
content and multicultural audience of MTV Networks' 100-plus global television stations,
not to mention their CMT and VH1 viewers. By integrating software, a media store, and
3rd party player hardware, URGE becomes the first serious threat to Apple's iPod +
iTunes music store. Satisfy your URGE at URGE.com.
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Our most interesting luxury brand naming job began on a Sunday when we retrieved a
voice mail from Steve Wynn, who left two cell phone numbers, a work number and his
home phone. Two days later we spent ten hours locked (literally) in the penthouse of
the Desert Inn with him – our longest kickoff meeting to date. He was seeking a name
for his newest hotel resort casino.
Mr. Wynn was open to using his last name for what would be his finest work, but had
several reservations about that strategy. A leading concern was that Donald Trump had
done this when naming his casino in Atlantic City. From a branding perspective, it
needed to be clear that Mr. Wynn's hotel was in fact a much higher-level experience
than Mr. Trump's. At issue was whether the same naming strategy would subliminally
convey that the two experiences were in any way similar.
We were convinced that Mr. Wynn should use his last name for the name of the hotel. It
became clear that within the resort casino sector, the two last names – Wynn and
Trump – conjured very different qualities in the hearts and minds of their audiences.
True to his famous reputation for attention to detail, Steve Wynn had called us in two
years in advance of the resort's opening, so there was ample time to work through all of
the possibilities and get it right.
During the initial meeting, an agent of Sotheby's had arrived with a multitude of iconic
paintings in tow, prompting talk of naming a hotel that was to be a timeless
work of art after an existing timeless work of art.
The new name was announced to the press as "Le Reve" ("The Dream"), after a
Picasso painting. As the opening of the hotel drew near, the actual name, Wynn Las
Vegas, was announced. Which is as it should be: a great work of art, signed by the
artist.
http://www.wynnlasvegas.com
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When the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer decided to begin aggressively
branding its products with evocative names in addition to the alphanumeric model
numbers they have traditionally employed in product naming, Nokia hired Igor to help
them out on a variety of projects.
On May 31, 2007, Nokia launched the first product named by Igor, the highly-anticipated
and much-touted premium slider phone now known as the Luna.
The melding of nearly opaque smoked glass with unique, soft-touch stainless
steel makes the Nokia 8600 Luna as enchanting to behold as it is a joy to touch.
Adding to its mysterious allure, a gentle keypad illumination pulsates from
beneath the glass case while the phone awaits a call. Combined with the warmth
of its glass and stainless steel body, this "heartbeat" transforms the Nokia 8600
Luna from an inanimate object into a trusted companion with an organic, virtually
alive form. When a call does beckon, the signature slide movement is carefully
balanced too smoothly raise the ergonomic keypad from within its glass cocoon.
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As Nokia's Senior Vice President for Mobile Phones, Heikki Norta, goes on to say in the
Luna press release,
"Even the name holds special significance. Much like the Nokia 8600 Luna that
we named in her honor, Luna, the goddess of moonlight, was often represented
by the Romans as a mysteriously captivating beauty encircled in a soft, yet
radiant light."
Add to its considerable physical beauty a 2-megapixel camera, a mini USB port and
quad-band worldwide roaming, and Luna is the ultimate fusion of beauty and brains.
Stay tuned in the future for other exciting product names born from Igor's work with
Nokia.
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Seagate hired Igor to name a number of new digital storage products, beginning with a
new external box optimized for recording high-definition movies and TV programs. The
name Showcase elegantly maps both to the experience of "showcasing" selected
content by recording and archiving, as well as the functional attributes of being a "case"
for holding "shows". From the Showcase product overview PDF:
Use the Seagate® Showcase™ storage solution to give yourself vastly increased
storage space for your favorite TV shows and movies. The Seagate Showcase
solution contains a hard drive like the one inside your DVR—only with lots more
room. And it’s easy to use. Capacities up to 1 TB mean you can store up to 200
hours of high-definition content or more than 40 days of standard-definition
television programming. So you no longer have to worry about running out of
space or having to delete shows you want to keep in order to make room for new
content.
DVRs are great—until you run out of space. And it happens more and more
frequently now that high-definition content is becoming the norm. You shouldn’t
have to make a decision on which programs to delete and which to keep. But the
truth is most DVRs simply don’t have enough space for today’s HD content. Until
now! Introducing the Seagate Showcase solution. It comes with up to 1 TB of
space so you can keep more of your programs and movies.
As an added bonus, the hard drive used in the Showcase box was also named by Igor,
and is called Pipeline HD. From the Showcase press release:
The new Showcase family will feature Seagate’s recently announced Pipeline HD™
Series of hard drives purpose-built for DVRs. Seagate Pipeline HD™ Series hard drives
are the gold standard in high definition performance and capacity with bedroom-quiet
acoustics, low power operation and the ability to support up to 12 simultaneous HD
streams. The drives are Windows Vista Certified, making them an ideal solution for
Home Media Centers.
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Showcase and Pipeline: a winning combination of media storage optimized for your
living room, and the first of many innovative Seagate products named by Igor.
Seagate hired Igor to name a new internal hard drive optimized for recording high-
definition movies and TV programs, which we named Pipeline HD. The drive will be
featured in Seagate's new Showcase external enclosure, which Igor also named, as
well as in OEM DVRs and other media center products.
The name Pipeline HD conveys the "fat pipe" of high bandwidth and massive storage
required by high-definition content, as well as evoking the legendary Banzai Pipeline
surf reef in Hawaii as a metaphor for "channel surfing". Adding the descriptive
appendage "HD" conforms to company functional requirements to clearly differentiate
this as a specifically high-definition product, which also conveys that it is designed and
optimized for home DVR and media center use. Notes the Showcase / Pipeline press
release:
The new Showcase family will feature Seagate’s recently announced Pipeline
HD™ Series of hard drives purpose-built for DVRs. Seagate Pipeline HD™
Series hard drives are the gold standard in high definition performance and
capacity with bedroom-quiet acoustics, low power operation and the ability to
support up to 12 simultaneous HD streams. The drives are Windows Vista
Certified, making them an ideal solution for Home Media Centers.
Soon you'll be able to surf your own Pipeline, either with an external Showcase box
attached to your TV, or installed by the manufacturer directly in your DVR. Dive in.
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Palm hired Igor to name a breakthrough new top-secret product, the flagship of an
entirely new fourth category of products for the company. This was to be an
ultraportable mobile computing platform running Linux with special hooks built in to work
seamlessly with the Palm OS, the Treo family of smartphones, and smartphones made
by other manufacturers.
Crucial to the naming process was Palm's mandate that the name convey the concepts
of "portability" and "book" (without saying "notebook"), and have a close connection to
the Treo. Igor delivered, and on May 30, 2007, Palm publicly announced the Foleo:
The Foleo mobile companion has a large screen and full-size keyboard with
which to view and edit email and office documents residing on a smartphone.
Edits made on Foleo automatically are reflected on its paired smartphone and
vice versa. Foleo and its paired smartphone stay synchronized throughout the
day or at the touch of a button. This powerful combination is for productivity-
minded business people who want a more complete mobile solution for email,
attachments and access to the web.
The Foleo mobile companion turns on and off instantly and features fast
navigation, a compact and elegant design, and a battery that lasts up to 5 hours
of use. Its applications include email, full-screen web browser, and editors or
viewers for common business documents such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and
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PDF files. The Foleo stays synchronized via Bluetooth® wireless technology and
uses the smartphone's radio or the Foleo's built-in Wi-Fi radio for general Internet
connectivity.
"Foleo is the most exciting product I have ever worked on," said Jeff Hawkins,
founder of Palm, Inc. and the visionary behind the Foleo's concept and definition.
"Smartphones will be the most prevalent personal computers on the planet,
ultimately able to do everything that desktop computers can do. However, there
are times when people need a large screen and full-size keyboard. As
smartphones get smaller, this need increases. The Foleo completes the picture,
creating a mobile-computing system that sets a new standard in simplicity."
...Skyrocketing use of mobile email creates demand for a new way of mobile
computing. By the end of 2007, an estimated 24.2 million wireless email
accounts will be in use worldwide, and by 2010 wireless email accounts will soar
to 199 million. The rapid growth of smartphone sales, the faster speeds of
wireless networks, and the increasing digitization of content make this the right
time for the introduction of Palm's first mobile companion product.
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Real friends Tickle: Emode, the premier web destination for personality tests and
matchmaking, hired us to name their new social network product. The fast emerging
and highly competitive social network sector is populated with mostly descriptive
names, such as Friendster, Friendspot, people2people, Six Degrees, Zero Degrees,
Everyone's Connected, ITSNOTWHATYOUKNOW and Visible Path. Other names
include Rhyze and Huminity, which defy rhyme, reason and classification.
As always, we were looking for the one name that worked on as many levels as
possible. Further, if the name we produced was well-loved, the plan was to migrate it
from a product name to the name for the entire company. So the name had to be able to
tie together all aspects of Emode's business, including the seemingly disparate activities
of IQ tests and romantic matchmaking. We had to develop a brand name that made
sense for intellectual pursuits, dating and social networking. Tickle works for all three:
Tickle you Brain, Tickle your Mate, Real Friends Tickle.
And of course, on top of all that the name had to be available from both a trademark
and a domain name perspective. After carefully considering every possibility in every
known language, it became clear that Tickle was the perfect name.
http://www.tickle.com
NEWS – May 23, 2004: According to the Center For Media Research, Tickle
Matchmaking has become the top online personals destination.
To see the full spectrum of names in this sector, check out the Social Network Names Taxonomy chart,
above, which we created as part of the competitive analysis phase of this project.
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Have you ever seen an online ad appear for “Discount Airline Fares” while reading an
article about a plane crash? How about an ad for scuba lessons served up next to a
news account of a shark attack? It’s because ad placement software works solely on
keyword recognition. Or that’s the way it has worked until now.
Textwise hired Igor to create the name for its revolutionary new online advertising
technology that can actually tell the difference between good and bad contextual
matches, and that name is Shinola. From the company's website:
Until now, reliable semantic analysis always came at the expense of scalability.
Shinola is the first and only product placement technology that is accurate
enough to capture semantic meaning, fast enough to power real-time
applications, automated enough to maintain in dynamic environments, and
scalable enough to handle web-sized problems.
Its immortality in colloquial English comes from its use in such alliterative phrases
as [He] doesn't know shit from Shinola. Implied is that shit and Shinola, while
superficially similar, are quite different in effect when applied to shoes or
carelessly stepped in. One who fails to distinguish one from the other is therefore
notably unwise or of substandard mental ability. The phrase is famously uttered,
and demonstrated, in the 1979 Carl Reiner film, The Jerk, starring Steve Martin.
Similar meaning can be found in the expression, He doesn't know his ass from
his elbow, or the variant, He doesn't know his ass from a hole in the wall/ground.
When naming a groundbreaking product that has the potential to completely change
how an industry operates, anything short of a strongly evocative name that also maps
directly to the core product function would detract from the brand's power. The
advertising-centric metaphor of shoe polish and putting a shine on a product provides
additional layers of depth and consumer connectivity. Our client wanted a viral, self-
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propelling name that would minimize the need for an advertising and P.R. budget, and
they got one.
The brand positioning dictated that MWC's new name would have to create the
opportunity for the company to take ownership of the conversation in their industry, to
support the idea that MWC was a refreshing change from all the other CME providers –
a true thought leader. The name also had to be warm, human, distinctive, eye-catching,
memorable, and yet map back to medicine and the core service of continuing medical
education. It also needed to work outside of the medical sector. And of course it needed
to be a metaphor for all the company's brand positioning messages.
Antidote has it all. It is positive, proactive and works on several levels for both the CME
audience and future audiences. Antidote is, as the tagline we created says, "The cure
for the common CME," meaning that Antidote is unique and remarkable in the world of
CME providers. Antidote is also the remedy for medical professionals who dread the
thought of compulsory CME. Further, because Antidote literally conveys "cure" and
"remedy," it is an aspiration shared by all medical professionals – indeed a big benefit of
CME is to learn about new cures and treatments.
While Antidote is a common medical term, it is also loaded with intrigue and imagery,
from Shakespeare to Agatha Christie to Harry Potter, making it a powerful name for
those both within and outside of the medical profession, and a deep well for marketing
and advertising going forward.
http://www.antidotecme.com
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Real estate development company ECD Co. hired Igor to name a new upscale urban
business hotel opening in 2009 at the historic corner of State and Lake in downtown
Chicago. The qualities of keen perception, sagacity, intelligence and humor invoked by
the word "wit" perfectly fit the positioning of this new hotel experience, which Igor
dubbed theWit:
Scheduled to open in May, 2009, theWit will offer guests a hotel experience
unlike any other in Chicago.
Join us for drinks at the rooftop garden lounge – it's going to be very cool.
http://www.ecdco.com/statelake.htm
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SalesGene has created a revolutionary new sales platform and needed an equally
revolutionary name for it. Igor created the name Landslide for this new sales support
platform,
…the industry's first product to address the work style needs of individual
salespeople. Built for salespeople by salespeople, Landslide combines software,
collaboration and a live administrative assistant to support the activities and
habits of individual salespeople helping maximize their time, drive action and
generate results.
http://www.mylandslide.com
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Hasbro needed a name for their kid-targeted web destination, serving up online games,
programs and activities across various consumer segments and brands.
The name had to appeal to a range of kids, from 4-8 year-old boys and girls to Tweens
aged 9-12, but still work for the secondary audience of Preschoolers aged 2-4 surfing
the 'Net with mom or dad. Igor created Monkeybar as the perfect name to communicate
a place for kids to come and monkey around.
Texas Pension Consultants engaged Igor to help them name and brand their new
financial services company. The new company will offer business services such as
payroll, pension and human resource management to businesses of all sizes.
One of the key positioning points the name had to capture is "the freedom to focus on
your core business." The name also needed to be fresh and different, yet fall within the
parameters of the types of names associated with the financial services sector. That's
right, the name had to be both intuitive and interesting, a pretty tall order.
Financial companies are most often identified by names that conjure nature, stability, or
longevity. July is much more than the name of the month that Julius Caesar named after
himself. It is the one name that covers all the established financial services cues, is
fresh and different, and infers -- rather than shouts -- "Freedom," making it infinitely
engaging.
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Igor has worked on a number of technology and medical / healthcare industry projects
recently, and one of the most gratifying was naming a new advanced-technology
hearing aid and audio products company. The brand positioning we developed with the
client required a name that would help the company own the idea of sound, carry some
excitement, and imply a bit of the ol’ European / Germanic hi-tech audio expertise brand
equity.
There was only one name that could capture all three of these core ideas, and that
name is Zounds. From the Zounds website:
Zounds™ designs, manufactures, and markets high performance hearing aids for
use with mild, moderate, and moderate/severe hearing impairments. The
Company's technology enables break-throughs in product performance, price,
purchase process, distribution channels, and marketing.
Zounds was founded by Sam Thomasson, who has a hearing impaired daughter.
When he would hug his daughter as a young girl, her hearing aids would squeal,
causing pain to her. For years, he promised himself and his daughter that he
would develop a hearing aid that would address these and other related hearing
aid issues. Zounds' breakthrough technology is the fulfillment of a father's
promise to his daughter, and intends to be a wonderful gift to others globally with
hearing impairments.
From William Shakespeare, King John, act II, scene 1, line 466:
Batman: Obviously! That’s the puzzle. "Z" is the most enigmatic letter in
the alphabet, old chum. Think of the words that begin with "Z": zigzag,
zither, zodiac…
Robin: Zounds!
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Again on the Simpsons (1999) in a quote by the minor character Professor John
Fink:
Zounds will launch its first revolutionary products in mid-2006, with a tagline also
created by Igor: "Be. Hear. Now.", which plays off of the well-known mantra, "be here
now."
http://www.zoundshearing.com/
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MGM Grand Las Vegas hired Igor to name its new three-tower high-rise luxury hotel.
These new towers are on the MGM Grand property, but have separate check-in and
guest services, representing a new standard of luxury in Las Vegas hotels, and the
ultimate that MGM Grand has to offer:
The Signature at MGM Grand will offer the perfect combination of energy and
escape. Not a single luxury has been overlooked. 24-hour Concierge services
and gourmet in-suite dining will meet your every need. Fine linen, Jacuzzi tubs
and pillow-top beds will comfort you. And private balconies will take your breath
away. That is, if the energy below hasn't done that already.
http://www.signaturemgmgrand.com/
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Soldier Vision, a defense contractor that develops vision systems for soldiers, police
officers and firefighters, came to Igor for help with a name change. While their initial
product was vision enhancing equipment for soldiers, it became clear that their
customer base and product range was expanding beyond both the military and the field
of "vision". The old name was just too descriptive and limiting.
At the core of their positioning, they provide simple interfaces to complex technology
with a minimalist design. The result is an ultra high-tech system that works with the
operator in an intuitive, visceral, organic and primal way on an atavistic level.
Clearly, Primordial was the only word that could capture all of those ideas in an
interesting, never-been-done way, and provide the company with clear separation from
their competitors in the defense contracting industry. Primordial is also a great
counterweight to "hi-tech", the distance between the two being as big as it gets, making
the pairing of concepts compelling and engaging.
Beyond the intuitive and visceral connotations so key to their brand positioning,
Primordial also brings lots of other meanings and ideas to the table. Dictionary
definitions such as –
– all play into the brand positioning and give the company plenty of marketing and
advertising ammunition to draw from for decades to come.
Primordial is also one of those words that is fun to say, and the sum total of its qualities
make it a very powerful and evocative name.
http://www.primordial.com/
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Anybody can make a pretty website, but Veneer goes deeper, focusing first on the
visual and interactive foundation of a brand, then mastering all the geeky details that
make their beautifully designed websites actually work.
So when the founders of Veneer, who we've known and worked with for years,
approached us with their plan for a symbiotic relationship, we agreed, as long as we got
to name them. As we worked through the naming process, they kept coming back to
their core strength of building great websites and interactive projects from deep within,
through the creation of clean, intelligent code. What better way to create a conversation
between front-end design and back-end power, between surface and depth, between
form and function, than with the name Veneer? Because great design is more than just
a pretty picture, and the beautiful surface is only as strong as the underlying structure
that supports it.
Plus, Veneer is a cool, mysterious, playful name that no designers outside the simulated
wood grain industry seemed to recognize the value of.
Visit Veneer's website to see some of their high-end design projects, which only scratch
the surface of what they've done. Get in touch with them and they'll show you a lot
more. It's deep.
http://www.veneerstudio.com/
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The new hotels cater to intra-regional leisure travelers throughout the Middle East.
However, the brand needed to accommodate business travelers and long-haul
international travelers to the region, primarily from Europe, Asia and India. The chosen
name, The Address, captures the sense of spectacular location advantage, that this is
where it's happening, this is the place to be. From The Address website:
The Address Hotels + Resorts is the new definition of global luxe life. Where cool
meets warmth. Style meets luxury and discerning travellers choose to stay and
meet time and time again. The Address is vibrant and real. It's business and
pleasure. It's a simple and sophisticated environment that comes to life with the
presence of the people it attracts.
The first The Address hotel has launched in Dubai: The Address, Downtown Burj Dubai
-- http://www.theaddress.com/en/hotel/downtown-burj-dubai-1-2 . The next two hotels
under the brand will open in Dubai in 2009: The Address, Dubai Mall --
http://www.theaddress.com/en/hotel/dubai-mall-1-1 ; and The Address, Dubai Marina --
http://www.theaddress.com/en/hotel/dubai-marina-2-1. Over the next ten years, "the
hotel company plans to unveil more properties in key cities and tourist destinations in
the Middle East and North Africa region, the Indian Subcontinent, Asia, Europe and
America."
http://www.theaddress.com/
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Zeno of Elea, of course, was the famous Ancient Greek philosopher (circa 495-430 BC)
who formulated paradoxes that defended the belief that motion and change are illusory.
Notes Wikipedia:
Zeno is a unique new advertising display medium that delivers moving ads to moving
people. Still frames from short video clips move optically with the viewer, following and
responding individually to each and every viewer, without the use of any electronics or
moving parts. Zeno is a uniquely personal interactive experience, coming soon to a
public space near you, worldwide.
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Advertisers or ad agencies supply Zeno with a short video clip, which Zeno converts to
an encoded, 2D poster using their own proprietary software. The poster is inserted into
the display, and as viewers walk by, in any direction, their motion animates the video
clip.
The "motion", of course, is just an illusion, created in the viewer's mind while moving
past the display box and looking through a special glass window through which the
encoded ad print is seen. The image above is but a representation of three discreet
"frames" of the advertisement, as a still photograph cannot capture the experience of
viewing a Zeno advertisement. The motion is illusory. A paradox. A Zeno box.
http://www.zenoglobal.com/
The name 'Radius' maps directly to the tagline and advances the concept of the
company as elementally essential and scientifically elegant, with an efficient, expanding
drug discovery pipeline in osteoporosis and women's health. It is also, of course, one of
the major bones of the human skeleton.
'Radius' also helps to position the company as distinctly different from the mass of
biopharma companies with anonymous, invented names, and completes the circle that
begins with initial drug discovery efforts and ends with improving patient's lives. In short,
the name fits the company to a "".
http://www.radiuspharm.com/
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Igor has worked with DuPont on a variety of crop protection naming projects. The first to
launch is our name for DuPont's novel, low environmental-impact insecticide with the
chemical name DuPont™ Rynaxypyr™:
Igor developed a coherent naming architecture and created multiple Rynaxypyr™ brand
names for different global markets, including the brand Prevathon™ for Asian rice and
vegetable growers:
Filipino vegetable and rice farmers are the first to enjoy the breakthrough benefits
of DuPont™ Prevathon™ insect control powered by Rynaxypyr™. Prevathon™
provides fast-acting and long-lasting control of important insect pests with a low
environmental impact. Prevathon™ is registered for use in the Philippines on
eggplant, cabbage, string beans and rice.
The name Prevathon conveys the key product attributes of "prevention" and "long
lasting" in a way that is easily understand across diverse global markets.
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What's the perfect name for an adult entertainment production company, especially one
that caters to the macho world of gay adult entertainment? Bait & Tackle it is!
The production company formerly known as PineTree Digital hired Igor to create a new
name that captured the lively spirit, sense of fun and irreverence of this brand. They
plan to eventually branch out to produce adult entertainment for all persuasions and
include video content that focuses a little more on the "entertainment" side of the
equation and a little less on the "adult".
In the meantime, however, you'll never look at fishing supply stores in quite the same
way.
The new name had to work specifically in the UK and Germany, as well as across the
whole of the European IT community that the company serves. Igor created the name
Firebrand with the ethos of the company in mind. The definition of a concept of an idea
or person that challenges outmoded beliefs and methods suits the way Firebrand
Training delivers industry-leading training as well as embodying its approach to the
industry.
http://www.firebrandtraining.co.uk/
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The Smartware Group contacted Igor when it learned that, thanks to a trademark
conflict, it could not continue to use the name "Smart Maintenance" for its flagship
CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) software product.
Smartware has long known that they have a great and loyal customer base, a powerful-
yet-easy to use product, and a great helpdesk, making their product the best in its class.
What they were missing is the ability to stand out from the pack of other products in the
market place with sound-alike names such as Super-Maintenance, Maintenance Boss,
etc. So this became a perfect opportunity to change the name.
Igor created the name Bigfoot to replace the Smart Maintenance brand to convey the
depth and breadth of the product over all aspects of a company's maintenance
management and to immediately differentiate this powerful software platform from its
competitors.
http://www.bigfootcmms.com/
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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), notes Wikipedia, "is a chronic, systemic autoimmune disorder
that causes the immune system to attack the joints, where it causes inflammation
(arthritis) and destruction. It can also damage some organs, such as the lungs and skin.
It can be a disabling and painful condition, which can lead to substantial loss of
functioning and mobility." And there is, as yet, no cure.
After considering many Evocative and Experiential names the mapped to concepts of
momentum, movement, and the amplifying attributes of the network effect, Igor and
RiGen settled on the name Crescendo as the company's new name to perfectly convey
the sense of power, momentum building, and the upwelling of hope and joy that is the
great promise of their new approach to solving the scourge of rheumatoid arthritis and
other rheumatologic disorders. Crescendo says it best on their website:
http://www.crescendobio.com/
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Fontana Lithograph/Affiliated Graphics was the name of one of the biggest, most
respected and innovative printing shops in the Washington D.C. area. Since 1948 they
have been the go-to print production firm on the east coast for clients from around the
world.
The strategy behind Fontana's choice of a new name dictated a finely nuanced, pitch-
perfect result. The new name's most basic task was to eliminate the distractions
inherent in their one company being known by two distinctly different names, Fontana
and Affiliated Graphics. Simple enough.
Things got really interesting when the client told us that they wanted to define an
entirely new business segment, Corporate Print Collateral Consulting, while retaining
their core identity as printers. Also critically important was that the new name not
suggest that they were muscling-in on the territory of their client base that includes
advertising agencies, branding consultants, and graphic design shops. Further, this
family-owned business had recently been passed from the founding generation to the
younger one, and it was important not to pick a name that suggested radical change
was afoot, given their solid, sixty-year reputation in the printing business.
Corporate Print Collateral Consulting is all about managing and strategizing the printed
collateral that a large enterprise produces to establish their image. Mosaic is the one
name capable of conveying the idea of arranging many visual pieces into the most
effective presentation possible, while at the same time capturing the idea of printing and
walking the razor's edge between all of Mosaic's communication concerns.
http://www.mosaicprint.com
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Aucent Corporation engaged Igor to rename and reposition their company and to name
three new products. Aucent's core business is XBRL business reporting and financial
data analysis. XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is the new standard to
prepare and analyze financial information.
Our client needed a name that would carry three ideas: 1) permanently attaching XBRL
tags to financial data; 2) generating a compelling financial picture of a customer's
business; and 3) support an interesting animal icon in an engaging way. They did not
want a random visual icon a la the Linux penguin or a linear one like the literal animal
print patterns Apple uses to market its Panther, Jaguar and Tiger Operating systems.
The company's new name, Rivet, covers all three bases of the brand positioning and
more:
While the majority of Rivet's competitors are positioned merely as companies or service
providers, Rivet has the potential to become a strong, memorable, and top-of-mind
brand. The opportunity here is to build a solid brand, create pathways for brand
recognition, and lay the groundwork for brand loyalty. Just by having a well-defined
brand, a key differentiator from the competition is already in place. But we have to look
to the future as well, when new XBRL-related brands are likely to compete more
aggressively for brand attention with Rivet, once Rivet demonstrates to the marketplace
- through its name, branding and the quality of its products - the value of a brand.
The first of three new product names we created for Rivet, Dragon Tag, is now
available.
http://www.rivetsoftware.com
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Dragon Tag is the first of three products named by Igor for Rivet, a company we also
named. The Dragon Tag product is software which enables the user to tag financial
data with XBRL by clicking and dragging from Excel spreadsheets. Drag and Tag =
Dragon Tag.
As with their company name, the client was in the market for a name that inferred a
benefit, was memorable, and came complete with an iconic visual.
http://www.rivetsoftware.com
Igor created the names 'Echelon' and 'Origin' for Hitachi Medical Systems' next
generation magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine and the operating software that
controls it. Hitachi has a great reputation for reliability and customer support, and they
were looking for easy to remember names that positioned the products to stress their
excellent image quality, speed and performance, along with efficient, easy operation,
reliability and strong ROI.
'Echelon', with its various meanings – a successive troop formation, a hierarchical level
of authority – maps well to both the physical nature of the machine (repeated scans of
areas of the human body) and to its important place in the hierarchy of diagnostic tools
available to the physician.
'Origin', Echelon's operating software, speaks to its primacy as the beginning of the MRI
process, of being integral to the analysis of the MR images, and the "origin" of the
diagnosis that leads to healing the patient.
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http://www.hitachimedical.com/contentindex.asp?ID=971
http://www.hitachimedical.com/specifications.asp?ID=973
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It was clear early in the process that a descriptive name ("...Wireless") or a dot-com-ish
invention would not work to position this company above and beyond the pack in the
crowded telecommunications sector; indeed, only a clear, bold, evocative name,
instantly recognizable and loaded with layers of meaning, would suffice. SEVEN
emerged as the perfect name.
We worked directly with SEVEN's founder and CEO, Bill Nguyen, who explained the
appeal of the name we created in The New York Times Sunday Magazine:
Seven's abstract, slightly mystical quality, Nguyen reasoned, was the essence of its
appeal. "It has so many different connotations," he says. "Seven Wonders of the World,
seven days of the week, on the seventh day God rested. It's the number of perfection,
the good-luck number. There's also a data language in the telecom industry called SS7,
which the companies we deal with will appreciate."
System SEVEN is available today from the following mobile operators worldwide:
Seven: http://www.seven.com
News: SEVEN Wins Network Magazine's 2003 Product of the Year Award
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Just Plain Better. When we were hired to create a name for a new accounting firm, we
were fortunate to have a client with a unique story to tell. A recent Rockefeller
Corporation study which asked, "Why do customers leave their accountants?," revealed
great dissatisfaction with this industry among consumers:
Notice that "price" and "quality" are absent from the results; customers made decisions
on what accounting firm to hire based predominately on how they were treated (i.e.
service). This new company wanted to change all that, to create a new kind of
accounting experience for small to medium-sized companies that threw out the old
rules, such as the dreaded "billable hour," and focused on customer service and
satisfaction. Their plan to do this included having fixed monthly prices for varying levels
of service, so their customers would never be surprised by their bill; unlimited support,
so customers could contact them any time by phone, email or in person to discuss their
account without ever paying a penny extra for it; and finally offering a superior online
accounting experience that gives customers and their accountants 24/7 access to the
customer's account, so businesses would be better able to make intelligent financial
decisions because they would always have the latest financial numbers at their
fingertips.
The challenge for Igor was to create a name for a brand new kind of accounting
experience, a name that's as distinctive within the accounting and business service
industries as the company's business model is. As the brand positioning developed, we
realized that the company needed a great name that not only worked on many levels,
but also one that was warm, human, sensual and evocative, all the better to counter the
prevailing names in the accounting industry. The bulk of names in the industry are cold,
calculating, inhuman, remote, mechanical, stodgy, soulless and devoid of charm.
Our client also wanted a confrontationally quiet name, a name that was a self-effacing
statement about the personality of accountants, yet elegant and dignified at the same
time. We found the perfect name in Vanilla, which demonstrates the above brand
attributes so that the company never has to explain them.
For the Vanilla project, we also developed the company's website, adopting the clean,
spare design of our own site to reinforce the elegant simplicity of the Vanilla accounting
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model. This phase of the project included implementing the sophisticated Movable Type
blogging software, allowing the company to post topical accounting news and insights in
a variety of categories, positioning the firm to become synonymous with "The
Accounting Blog" and own the conversation within the accounting industry.
Keep your eye on Vanilla -- this is a company with a great story to tell, and soon the
accounting industry will be playing catch-up, scrambling to deal with a unique new
name, brand proposition, and business model that in May 2004 infiltrated an industry
that has been fiercely resistant to change, for the benefit of customers who have had to
put up with tired old business practices for far too long simply because "that's the way
it's always been done." Well, no longer. Vanilla - just plain better.
http://www.vanilla-accounting.com
To see the full spectrum of names in this sector, check out the Accounting and Business Services name
taxonomy chart, above, which we created as part of the competitive analysis phase of this project.
Historically, every business sector begins life with a tightly-drawn nomenclature box,
departure from which is seen as foolhardy. Eventually, however, a company ventures
outside of the comfort zone, is hugely rewarded, and the rest follow. Well-known
examples of industry-changing company names include Virgin (Airline industry), Fannie
Mae (Financial), Apple (Computers/Technology) and Yahoo (Web). The breakout
usually happens when the messaging gets stale and ineffectual and/or when negative
baggage in an industry reaches critical mass.
The medical / biotech / pharmaceutical space is one of the last holdouts, but two sides
of the triangle have recently given way.
A couple of years ago the medical device manufacturer Medtronic introduced a vacuum
cardiac stabilizer called "Octopus," an evocative, intuitive name that referenced the
arms and suction elements of the device. The announcement of the name brought
laughter and derisive comments from competitors in the industry. At the time, Guidant's
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The Octopus name began showing up in lectures and in quotes from surgeons in
articles, even when the Guidant Axius was the product being referenced. In just a few
short years, Octopus has become the default name for all similar cardiac stabilizers,
much like FedEx, Kleenex, Xerox, etc. became synonymous with their products. Without
employing a huge marketing budget, Medtronic captured the hearts and minds of their
target audience and made it impossible for anyone to steal them back, no matter how
many advertising dollars were thrown at the problem. The long-standing wisdom (fear)
that a surgical device needed a "serious sounding" name to appeal to surgeons had
been laid to waste. Medtronic has proven that, contrary to popular belief, surgeons are
human. Shocking.
Guidant was not only determined not to let this happen again, they wanted a name that
would be a category-killer for the new product they were soon to release. Our
assignment was to come up with a name that would achieve common, default usage. A
name that would, pardon the pun, spread virally. And thus "Heartstring" was born, and
did just that.
The Heartstring is a coiled string that is used in place of a clamp when making a graft to
the aorta during heart surgery. Besides being descriptive, we chose Heartstring
because it has a secondary emotional context, and because when the procedure is
complete the surgeon simply "tugs on the Heartstring" to uncoil and remove it from the
aorta. Since the name had three points of connectivity with the audience, we knew the
chances were great of it attaining the Holy Grail of default usage. And indeed it has.
The second leg of the triangle, Biotech / Pharmaceutical company names, began to
quiver recently with the advent of names like Guava, Nektar, Blue Heron, Cypress and
Orchid. These companies are using their names to distance themselves from the
negative baggage that exists in their industry in the same way that Merck and ADM are
spending hundreds of millions of dollars to assure the public that they are not cold and
uncaring, and are working with nature rather than against it, a la Frankenfood.
It's only a matter of time until the names of drugs begin to reflect the understanding that
the right name can be a cost-effective, market dominating force.
While names like Prozac and Vicadin are interchangeable, as are Claritin and Zoloft,
other names like Viagra and Wellbutrin have begun to shift the trend with abstractly
inferential benefit imagery. Look for this trend to accelerate as every combination of "X"
and "Z" names saturate the marketplace with sound-alike morphemic mouthfuls.
http://www.guidant.com/products/ProductTemplates/CS/heartstring.shtml
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One of the funniest shows on television is The Office. It originated on the BBC in
England, but is now available in the states on BBC America. This is not the watered-
down, focus-grouped dry heave that you've come to expect out of Burbank. The Office
is a faux documentary depicting life in the office of Wernham Hogg paper supply
merchants, situated in the small town of Slough near London.
We created a viral marketing campaign to increase the brand awareness of this Golden
Globe nominated TV show around the world. Using a combination of search engine
positioning and getting influential bloggers to write about the show and link to it, we
helped put The Office on the map in the United States in advance of the 2004 Golden
Globe Awards.
The show went on to win both of the Golden Globes it was nominated for.
http://www.bbcamerica.com/genre/comedy_games/the_office/the_office.jsp
Cisco Systems needed a name for a product they describe as "Your shortcut through
the IP Communications decision-making process."
The name to needed to convey ease of use and infer the success of the user. The Igor-
supplied product name, "Fast Track" elegantly accomplished both objectives.
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CLIENT WORK
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