http://thebrandingblog.com information and strongly-held opinions concerning branding and positioning Thu, 08 May 2008 19:41:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en When evaluating brand name candidates, pay attention to the sound of them. There are two aspects to this admonition. I’ll tackle linguistics in this post and the other aspect in next week’s naming tip. We know certain letters and letter combinations can add power (the “plosives” like j, k, p, t), or ... http://thebrandingblog.com/branding/naming-tip-number-68-in-a-series/ I’m not one to follow fads. But I’ve noticed a trend that I think is beneficial for anyone naming a brand, particularly for business names. Watch what the web-based businesses are doing. I think they’re doing things right. The first thing is a very basic admonition: don’t use more than two words in ... http://thebrandingblog.com/name-creation/naming-tip-number-67-in-a-series/ This is a true story. A new logo created by one of England’s top design studios for the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), a department of Briton’s Treasury. It was approved by execs and managers and then introduced with fanfare and brand new pens and mousepads to the employees. Only ... http://thebrandingblog.com/branding/25000-logo-junked/ I’ve been doing a series of blogs about brands that make me scoff - that is, brands that are incredulous. Usually this incredibility comes from specific ad campaigns rather than from a brand platform. How do I know? Because they’re vacuous. Strong brands are built upon core values. ... http://thebrandingblog.com/brand-management/brands-that-make-you-scoff-%e2%80%93-subaru/ Alphabet soup, no. A well thought out acronym, possibly. Generally, I’m not opposed to acronyms. If we stick with the most stringent definition, “A word formed from the initial letters of a name” (NASA, RAM); or a more lenient definition, “A word formed by combining initial letters or parts of a ... http://thebrandingblog.com/name-creation/naming-tip-number-66-in-a-series/ Finding qualified help to name your brand can be tricky. It’s also the smart way to go unless you’ve had extensive naming experience. If you go to a graphics design firm or a PR firm you’re likely to get a reluctant “yes” to the question for help. But by and large they ... http://thebrandingblog.com/name-creation/naming-tips-number-65-in-a-series/ BtoB’s Daily News Alert brought us this bulletin today: Hanley Wood changes name of ‘Green Products and Technology’ to ‘EcoHome’ Washington, D.C.—Hanley Wood, a b-to-b media company that covers the housing and construction markets, has changed the name of its recently launched Green Products and Technology to EcoHome. The new name debuts ... http://thebrandingblog.com/b2b-branding/branding-a-trade-publication-most-do-a-poor-job/ Be sure to consider the associations, other than the one you intend, when evaluating brand names. Let’s say you’ve decided Mercury might be an ideal name for in-line skates. Mercury, the name of a Roman god who acted as a messenger , does connote speed. But from its ancient roots, ... http://thebrandingblog.com/name-creation/naming-tip-number-64-in-a-series/ This series on brands that make me scoff is going to be easy. Today I'm calling out Toyota and their bad Matrix model. I'm using "bad" in its original context - I don't mean it's, you know, good. So here's their tagline: Get in Touch with Your Dark Side. Just on the basis of ... http://thebrandingblog.com/branding/brands-that-make-me-scoff-toyota-matrix/ No one seems to be doing a great job at it. Holiday Inn used to be the brand leader in the category, but they’ve diversified and diluted their brand. At one point, Motel 6 was doing a proper job of differentiating themselves from competitors even though they relied too heavily on the ... http://thebrandingblog.com/branding/branding-a-motel-chain/