Now Serving Tundra Slices and Coniferous Calzones! EcoPizza: Biome means Buona

EcoPizza, really? Why would anyone name a pizzeria EcoPizza? Personally, I have no ecological concerns about pizza. The intersection of flat, baked bread, savory tomato sauce, and layers of gooey mozzarella cheese, pizza is the love triangle that never gets confusing.

A small shop in Milan, Italy, EcoPizza is devoted to making fresh pizza from all-natural ingredients. "Buona & Sana," reads the tagline in Italian (that's "good & healthy" in English). Now, while I don't mind "buona & sana" as a slogan, how about "PuraPizza" for a shop name? If the owners are devoted to making a product from all-natural ingredients, I think the title should speak to pureness, genuineness, and simplicity. "Pure" is a good candidate to describe the nature of the pizzeria's product. The alliterative title "PuraPizza" rolls smoothly off the tongue and communicates the benefits of the product more clearly.

EcoPizza is a name-fail born of the Green and Organic Revolutions. While the goal of these movements - to push people to live healthier, more sustainable lives - is admirable, the lingo and prefix heyday of the words surrounding them is so over. The use and abuse of words like: "green", "eco", and "bio" are the bane of a namer's work! As such hackneyed terminology grows into everyday speech, opportunites to use these words for product differentiation wilt.

A final thought: The term "EcoPizza" should be used in only one instance - When a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle serves up a pizza pie, on a manhole over, topped with a two-headed fish from the Hudson River, baked in a conEd oven. "EcoPizza, Cowabunga!"

photo credit: me

Spinning the Spill: BP Brands the Nation’s Worst Environmental Disaster

When the Deepwater Horizon (not a bad name for an oil rig) exploded in April, one of the most far-reaching and, arguably, effective branding campaigns began in earnest.

Early on, if one Googled “Oil Spill,” the first result was:

“Info about the Gulf of Mexico Spill. Learn More about How BP is Helping.”

BP had quietly purchased Google keywords that related to the oil spill in order to insure that millions of people who searched for information about the spill would find “Info about the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill” and “Learn more about how BP is helping.”

A more appropriate name might have been “The BP Oil Spill Disaster” or “The BP Oil Debacle”, And as for BP helping, some would say BP had already helped enough.

Self-serving? Of course, Slick marketing? Excuse me for gushing ...You bet!

In order to distance itself from the disaster, BP made a point of naming it “the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill”, unlike Exxon/Valdez, a disaster named after the company that was actually responsible for it.

Ships hired by BP to lend a hand in the Gulf have been aspirationally named “Vessels of Opportunity.” The ecologically disastrous dispersant is brilliantly called “Corexit” ... not something straight out of a scifi thriller like, say, Agent X-22.

And who could forget the failed “Top Kill” and “Junkshot”, those gutsy, can-do names that could be featured in the next Bruce Willis flick.

“Blowout Preventer” is a descriptive and simple name, but, sadly, it never prevented anything.

“Top Hat 10” at this writing it is still being tested. Let’s hope it’s a good fit.

And if you Google “Oil Spill” right now, you will probably see:

Learn about BP’s Progress on the Gulf of Mexico Response Effort.

If BP’s safety measures were as effective as their branding and naming, the Gulf oil... I mean the BP Oil Debacle might never have happened.

Photo Credit: BP

Why ‘the Y’ Works

On Monday, the YMCA announced that it is shortening its name to ‘the Y.’ Given the 166-year heritage behind the Young Men’s Christian Association, some argue that the name change throws away valuable brand equity, including that gained from the enduring Village People single and its subsequent arm motions.

Oppositely, this strategic name shift doesn’t toss the brand’s heritage; it extracts the most valuable element, renovating the name for the modern context, retaining the equity that lies in the YMCA brand and building on it.

The brand’s name shift to ‘the Y’ exemplifies one of the core beliefs held by The Naming Group: the prefix “re-“—as in “rename” or “rebrand”—suggests starting from scratch, indeed squandering precious equity. This example supports our outlook that naming is more accurately a transition—a Brandsition, as we call it—from once-relevant elements to ones that fit the updated context and exhibit a timeless quality.

Formerly-known-as-the-YMCA chief marketing officer Kate Coleman hit the nail on the head by saying, “It’s a way of being warmer, more genuine, more welcoming when you call yourself what everyone else calls you.” What eloquence!

Other iconic brands prove Coleman’s premise. Coke, for example, retains the Americana heritage of its namesake Coca-Cola and lends the Coca-Cola brand some modernity and applicability to evolving generations. When Federal Express slimmed the brand name down to its epithet ‘FedEx’ in 2000, it adapted to the shorthand name used by the company’s customers yet preserved the brand identity. Let us also recall the recent buzz around Chevrolet and the sales and marketing VPs asking that employees refer to the automaker by its full name instead of ‘Chevy;’ most agree that avoiding the nickname that customers revere was going to be a bad move.

The key is in the tail end of Coleman’s statement: “what everyone else calls you.” Branding from the basis of a fabricated nickname will never have the same effect, as we are learning from Radio Shack’s new positioning, ‘The Shack.’ The company’s customers have never referred to it as the Shack, so instead of building an association between the name and the store the new name abandons the brand equity accrued over time.

The naming lesson learned is to choose critically when updating the title of an existing brand. The foremost goal must be to protect brand equity by creating a cognitive bridge between the ‘old’ and new. The Y has adapted a colloquial name—one that is already highly recognizable and used by its patrons—so, lucky for them, the bulk of the Brandsition work is done!

What the news means for the Village People? In a press release, the group stated, "We are deeply dismayed by today's announcement...while we admire the organization for the work they do, we still can’t help but wonder Y.” Two words: new single.

Is That a Cell Phone in Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

I have two eyes, a mouth, and people are always pushing my buttons. Who am I?

By design, the first to shout his answer to the riddle will be wrong. Reason being, the solution has no name—not one that can be enunciated, anyway.

Samsung recently announced a new low-level messaging phone, called the “ :) .” How the name is meant to be verbalized, we’re unsure; the Colon-parenthesis? The Smiley? The Happyface? For the remainder of this blog post, you make the call.

We can see the SNL skit unfolding now: customer, expressionless, approaches cell phone salesman and says, “Hi, I’m interested in the--,” [breaks into a closed smile]. Predictably, the salesman gives a questioning look that probes for more information; the two repeat this exchange several times with little progress. Enter Customer No. 2, a high-on-life, smile-flashing bottle of bubbles who is thinking about upgrading to the :) model, but the salesman insists that the store does not carry the Samsung :D. Customer No. 3 dips further into his depression when his request for the : / goes unmet, and Customer No. 4, heavily Botox-ed, is let down (though you could never know) when she hears that the : | is not in stock. By the conclusion of the spoof, all four customers leave carrying the cell phones they arrived with and the camera cuts to a zoom-out shot of the stockroom shelves lined amply with Samsung :) boxes. End scene.

Jokes aside, titling a product with a name made of punctuation marks has enough shortcomings to—sorry—wipe the smile off your face. From a naming perspective, the :) fails to meet The Naming Group’s core tenet: brand names must be timeless. Emoticons were presumably first conceived as recently as 1982, and given the rapidity of colloquial change there is a fair chance that the shorthand form of expression has already exceeded its half-life. We know that the slider-style phone is unlikely to be around forever, but the name in our opinion has already missed the emoticons-are-the-ish boat.

The :) cleverly sidesteps being judged on The Naming Group’s additional criteria. Traditionally, the team critiques names based on euphony and other mnemonic traits, neither of which the cell phone name possesses. Also integral to our list of great-name criteria is “stickiness,” which is a name’s ability to persist in consumers’ minds, enhancing recall and forging a connection between the name and the product itself. Lacking these imperative characteristics, the indistinct name fails to take advantage of a precious consumer touchpoint.

Regarding SEO, the good news for :) is that there’s no competition for keywords. The (really!) bad news? Typing “:)” into Google yields nothing more than this message: “Your search - :) – did not match any documents. Suggestions: Try different keywords.” What’s worse, entering the punctuation into the Find field on the Samsung website returns, “Sorry no results were found for “:).” Whoopsie!

We’re not here to pass judgment on whether the :) is a good cell phone choice from a capabilities standpoint. For all we know, it could be the key to mobile, uh, happiness. But how could Samsung have so horribly misnamed its new offering? Riddle us that!

A Rose By Any Other Name

In a sea of colored, semi-plastic squares, a single paint chip is a pretty poor brand ambassador for its maker. Each sampling along the colorful gradient that is the interior paint display possesses a hue, a texture, and a name. And then, a whole lot more.

As soon as a DIY-er encounters the chip’s shade, an unlimited collection of associations emerges in her mindspace. The vibrant yellow-orange that conjures memories of a Grand Canyon sunrise induces a fond sentiment. But when her pick turns out to be titled “Nacho Cheese,” the connotation may shift to something less alluring, like a part-time job back in junior high, when long, hot afternoons were spent working behind the ballpark concession counter.

Similarly, the shade adored for capturing the blue-gray of a smoothed pebble collected along the New England coast doesn’t have the same appeal for the shore house half-bath when it’s titled “Thunder Gray.” To the eye, the shade spoke to beach combing along the waves, but upon hearing the name it suddenly becomes a welcome mat for bad karma from the weather gods.

Here’s the point: since texture and color are characteristic of the product, the name remains a crucial touchpoint for guiding consumer associations and for rendering positive correlations. With naming each shade comes a hidden responsibility to depict the environment where the pigment might appear in nature, to designate the interior destination for the new hue, and to dictate the mood that the wall color may summon.

At The Naming Group, we happen to be in the market for a new coat of paint ourselves. Though they are both names that typify the shade we seek, “Tantalizing Teal” and “Caribbean Sea” fail to strike a nerve with the name fan-addicts at The Naming Group. While this blogger is pulling for “Mermaid Song,” I have a feeling other Group members will stick to their guns and vote for the clever, finely-coined title, “Turquish.”

Russian Apple Carts and Renaming Mitsubishi - PRESS PREVIEW DAY @ THE 2010 NEW YORK AUTO SHOW

Aaaaaand the Greatest Name Fail of the 2010 Auto Show and Worst Customer Service Awards both go to… Mitsubishi! Come on down!

Introducing Mitsubishi’s Zero Emission’s Vehicle, the “iMiev”. Before we go any further “miev” means stinky in German, not cool. Especially not in the auto making business when some of the strongest brands in the world are German. “iMiev” stands for Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle. The “i” that precedes “miev” stands for the “i” series of compact Mitsubishi cars in Japan, clearly a rip off from Apple’s branding. We even asked, “Wait, so does the ‘i’ stand for anything? Interactive? Anything at all?” Response, “Nope. Just an ‘i’.”
Although I was very impressed with the technology, unique design, and the enthusiastic pitch by the great Mitsubishi PR man, we’ll call him Ricky Real-Deal, the only triggers “i Miev” sparked in my head were, Apple and Russia. “Have you seen Apple’s new Russian scooter?” “You mean the iMiev, right?”

Ricky Real-Deal, told us openly, “I think the name sucks.” Thank you! An enthusiastic brand representative that is able to admit obvious fault while not jeopardizing his allegiance to the product and company. Big ups to you, Ricky. He then graciously passed us along to the PR rep so that we could get to talking.

Enter Linda Lame-o (name has been changed, but still fitting), who could barely finish a sentence without saying “um like” or “I don’t know.” Even worse, she was chilly, unkind, unhelpful and quite possibly the worst brand ambassador a company could hope for.

Linda, here is our card; you suck, you car name sucks, Ricky’s cool, stay green, and call us when your cerebral cortex returns from vacation.

Renaming help? How about Mitsubitchi?

Hybrid Bonanza - PRESS PREVIEW DAY @ THE 2010 NEW YORK AUTOSHOW

This year, the name of the game is green. Literally. Every automaker is pushing the green revolution at the 2010 NY Autoshow. At every press conference we attended, we saw CEO’s and Chief Designers talking about their focus on Hybrid engines, electric cars, the future of charge stations, and all things eco-fantastic. It will be interesting to see just how much “green walking” automakers do after so much “green talking.”

The main goal for businesses to invest in the green revolution, besides making a whole lot of green, is for the trend to evolve into a positive global lifestyle change. In order for the green revolution to grow from trend to standard, the country needs to develop the infrastructure in which the movement can take root. That means it needs to grow into everyday life in every household across the globe. People need charging stations in their communities and the ability to effectively charge their vehicles at home. At The Naming Group, we believe in the revolution and do what we can to live as verdantly as possible, but lawd’ve mercy, we also notice a need for some SERIOUS RENAMING in the sector.

How much longer are companies going to try to wedge the word “green” or “eco” in a brand name? Here is a great example of the green name burn out, the tagline for Lexus’ new luxury sport hybrid vehicle: “The darker side of green” Uhh, what? Isn’t the darker side of green, just forest green? Are you implying that your green car is a bad ass in performance? Better yet, is your car the bastard stepchild looking to sabotage the family’s eco-friendly dinner?

The one name we felt really succeeded in this environmentally-conscious arena is the name for Ford and Microsoft’s new joint venture “Hohm.” Hohm is an online application designed to help future owners of Ford Electric Vehicles to not only charge their cars but also manage the home electricity use. “Hohm” is a perfectly coined word – bringing together “home” and “ohm” – a unit of electrical resistance. This revolutionary online application gets the Double Golden Award in our book – a product with a name as great as its attributes.