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Suggest You - Playing the Product Name Game
Next time you've got a bunch of senior managers in a room together, ask those who are eligible to retire within five years to leave the room. Then figure out how you're going to replace them.That's an exercise I've done with senior management in a client company. A full third of the senior people in that room were eligible to take their pension and go within five years.This is not just a problem in the executive suite. Check out the senior people in sales. Check out the team leaders for key craft functions, the people who usually came up through union apprentice programs.There are several definitions of the Baby Boom and they all vary a little. But you're safe if you assume that it's people born between 1946 and 1964. In America, that's about 79 million people.The oldest boomers hit sixty in 2006. In 2011 they'll start hitting sixty-five.
The second drawback to the fanciful name is that it takes a lot of marketing muscle to get the name into the customer's awareness. That means a l
It's absolutely essential that you find a way to differentiate your business in a meaningful way. I know I talk about this all the time, but it's that important.What if you interviewed a handful of clients and asked them this question: "What's the ONE word you would use that best describes what we do well?" Is it fast, attentive, welcoming, creative, cheap, cool, techie, smart, caring? One word is tough, but you need to get there. One simple word that sums up how you are different. If you can do that, and it's a word that means a lot to a lot, your marketing job will be significantly easier.Can't think of a word? If your business was a car, what type would it be? Why? What are the qualities you admire in people? What color is your business? What kind of music do you sound like? What kind of plant would you be? Why? (Sorry if I'm scaring some of you with this!)
Naming a product is about as close as you can get to having a root canal without going to the dentist. Even done well with an expert team, it's an exercise in pain, frustration, and disappointment.
Nevertheless, there are some things you should know about the process.
First of all, get a reality check on how important a product name really is. Some people tend to think that it's a life and death matter, others rate it as inconsequential, and the truth is probably somewhere in between. Having a great name is a definite asset. Having a poor name is a major liability. But in the area between, there is probably not much difference as to whether a product has a good name or a mediocre name.
Second, it is vital that you enlist the support of some legal experts, perhaps an on-staff paralegal or an attorney with expertise in trademark registration. They will tell you that you cannot trademark descriptive names. For instance, if you ran a chain of motels, you could not trademark the name Motel. By the same token, you can't call your new drug Cholesterol Pill or your new heart monitor Heart Monitor.
Fanciful names are best. Fanciful is a legal word for "made up." Pharmaceutical companies do this all of the time as they invent not only drugs but totally new words as product names. Viagra® is a made-up name; so is Aleve® and Tylenol® and Lipitor®. Some of these words sound so normal to our ears it's hard to believe that they were literally crafted, made up by somebody in marketing.
Legal eagles will tell you that fanciful names work best, mainly because fanciful names are easy to protect. After all, there is not likely to be a rush of people fighting to trademark some word you just concocted.
The drawback for fanciful names is that they sound dreadful at first and if you have some knee-jerk bosses or executives in your company, fanciful names almost always die the first time the boss hears them. Few bosses are good at naming products but most of them are pretty good at throwing out serviceable fanciful names. Keep in mind, all made-up names sound clumsy at first.
The second drawback to the fanciful name is that it takes a lot of marketing muscle to get the name into the customer's awareness. That means a l
There is a scene in a movie called “Facing the Giants” where the coach of a small high school has to inspire a team that hasn’t performed well and is used to failure. When the quarterback of the team indicates he doesn’t think they can win Friday’s game the coach pulls him aside for one of the most inspiring moments in the film.“Don’t you quit on me, Brock,” he commands the quarterback who is blindfolded and made to crawl on the football field with another player on his back. “Don’t you quit.”Foot by agonizing foot Brock moves across the football field thinking he was only going 20 yards. In the end the player collapses in the end zone. His fellow teammates stand in awe of the punishment it took to reach a goal Brock never would have believed possible.The coach gets down to Brock’s level and says, “I need you. This team needs you, Brock. If you quit then we
Nevertheless, there are some things you should know about the process.
First of all, get a reality check on how important a product name really is. Some people tend to think that it's a life and death matter, others rate it as inconsequential, and the truth is probably somewhere in between. Having a great name is a definite asset. Having a poor name is a major liability. But in the area between, there is probably not much difference as to whether a product has a good name or a mediocre name.
Second, it is vital that you enlist the support of some legal experts, perhaps an on-staff paralegal or an attorney with expertise in trademark registration. They will tell you that you cannot trademark descriptive names. For instance, if you ran a chain of motels, you could not trademark the name Motel. By the same token, you can't call your new drug Cholesterol Pill or your new heart monitor Heart Monitor.
Fanciful names are best. Fanciful is a legal word for "made up." Pharmaceutical companies do this all of the time as they invent not only drugs but totally new words as product names. Viagra® is a made-up name; so is Aleve® and Tylenol® and Lipitor®. Some of these words sound so normal to our ears it's hard to believe that they were literally crafted, made up by somebody in marketing.
Legal eagles will tell you that fanciful names work best, mainly because fanciful names are easy to protect. After all, there is not likely to be a rush of people fighting to trademark some word you just concocted.
The drawback for fanciful names is that they sound dreadful at first and if you have some knee-jerk bosses or executives in your company, fanciful names almost always die the first time the boss hears them. Few bosses are good at naming products but most of them are pretty good at throwing out serviceable fanciful names. Keep in mind, all made-up names sound clumsy at first.
The second drawback to the fanciful name is that it takes a lot of marketing muscle to get the name into the customer's awareness. That means a l
Have you ever come back from vacation, or from a business trip of more than a few days, to find an overstuffed e-mailbox containing a blow-by-blow account of everything that happened while you were away? E-mail overload at its worst!You know the kind of thing I mean: long e-mail threads with contributions from everyone in the department, each copying everyone else and many leading off into side threads and involving even more people. You have to read the whole thing just to know what's going on, and to see whether there's something you need to do.This is a common problem, and one that comes up often in my consulting and training engagements. So I'm recommending a new way of keeping everyone in the loop --- without deluging them with e-mail.The answer is a departmental blog. Now don't stop reading --- I know it may seem a bit radical, but bear with me and yo
Fanciful names are best. Fanciful is a legal word for "made up." Pharmaceutical companies do this all of the time as they invent not only drugs but totally new words as product names. Viagra® is a made-up name; so is Aleve® and Tylenol® and Lipitor®. Some of these words sound so normal to our ears it's hard to believe that they were literally crafted, made up by somebody in marketing.
Legal eagles will tell you that fanciful names work best, mainly because fanciful names are easy to protect. After all, there is not likely to be a rush of people fighting to trademark some word you just concocted.
The drawback for fanciful names is that they sound dreadful at first and if you have some knee-jerk bosses or executives in your company, fanciful names almost always die the first time the boss hears them. Few bosses are good at naming products but most of them are pretty good at throwing out serviceable fanciful names. Keep in mind, all made-up names sound clumsy at first.
The second drawback to the fanciful name is that it takes a lot of marketing muscle to get the name into the customer's awareness. That means a l
The online community is definitely a large market place that you cannot ignore, especially if you have an internet business. There are thousands if not millions of consumers that you can tap in the internet.At the same time, the internet also poses a quite different challenge. The easy access that internet provides also gives you as much competition as you can imagine. It is too crowded and congested.Having a website is not enough to make your business running and able to compete. You must take other alternatives to give way for the online community to access your website at any rate or chance possible.You have to expose your website. Make it known. It has to be visible. It has to be frequently targeted by consumers and surfers.Invest in marketing your internet site. There are basically two options available to you, the SEO and PPC. These two are pr
Legal eagles will tell you that fanciful names work best, mainly because fanciful names are easy to protect. After all, there is not likely to be a rush of people fighting to trademark some word you just concocted.
The drawback for fanciful names is that they sound dreadful at first and if you have some knee-jerk bosses or executives in your company, fanciful names almost always die the first time the boss hears them. Few bosses are good at naming products but most of them are pretty good at throwing out serviceable fanciful names. Keep in mind, all made-up names sound clumsy at first.
The second drawback to the fanciful name is that it takes a lot of marketing muscle to get the name into the customer's awareness. That means a l
Basic business writing (letters, memos, emails) today is supposed to be informal and conversational. "Write more like you talk" is the advice frequently given by business writing experts. Many of the grammar rules that we learned in school either no longer apply or have been altered to fit the times. American English is based on common usage, which means that even if something is done incorrectly according to the rules, if it's done often enough and by enough people, it becomes acceptable, much to the chagrin of most high school English teachers.One rule that is “on the cusp” regards the word alright, a nonstandard form of the words all right. American Heritage dictionary defines all right as an adjective: acceptable, correct, average or fairly healthy, and as an adverb: adequately, yes or without a doubt.The usage note on the Am
The second drawback to the fanciful name is that it takes a lot of marketing muscle to get the name into the customer's awareness. That means a lot of ads, a lot of promotional materials, a lot of literature. You are literally teaching your customers a new word and most adults resist efforts at educating them.
Sometimes marketing people will try to invent a word that has associations with other words. For instance, words like gem, jewel, ace, expert, accurate, precise, rapid, quick are all words that carry connotations that you might want to appropriate. Some product names use intriguing but seemingly distant real words to make a powerful name (the Mustang from Ford was that kind of name) or you can dissect various positive words and paste together something that sounds familiar but is, in fact, made up (Microsoft's name is a combination of terms to form a new word that was instantly familiar-sounding). SlimFast® is not a real word, but it's recognizable to us in terms of its parts.
When reaching for names with associations, don't reach too far. Many marketing people are bright individuals and they may ponder a name for hours and come up with an association that they expect a busy customer to make instantly. For instance, if you name your product ChessPlayer because buying your product would be a strategic move for smart "masters" of your industry, don't count on your customer making the leap. Customers live in the same lightning-fast world you do and don't have times to ponder the hidden meanings of product names. The truth is that sound marketing principles would turn that around!
Make lists of lots of viable names. Some brainstorming sessions start off with rules that say no name will be rejected and no suggestion is to be hooted at. While you don't want to discourage people, there are some names that deserve to be hooted off the list right at the beginning. On the other hand, let any name with any shred of potential stand on the list. From that major list, cull the duds, and arrive at what you and your legal advisor determine is a workable number of names.
The next step in the game is a legal process. Next, the lawyers have to search the databases for possib
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