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Bare
Naked Brand Names
BY
NASEEM JAVED
President ABC Namebank
Last
century business names were colorfully dressed with uniquely stylized
lettering, colorful logos, slogans and contextual support. This century,
such 'stylized dependency' has been pushed over the cliff by
neo-socio-mobile-media-lingo. They're stripped and typed in black and
white text as soundbite-sized 'bare naked words', blending into chat
lines alongside abbreviations and numbing-mumbo-jumbo. The majority of
big name brands are losing their luster. Powerful imagery from the old
newspaper era of double sized full page ads are replaced by typed words
on small portable devices.
Can you identify the high maintenance big brand names on the following
social media chats?
...just
checked the wind at the mall, grand service but tag too high...
...I have no option but united, they would know where my real goodies
are...
... no matter what, for me prime is the way to go before I try orange or
wave...
...and then she gave me a rolex...
Highly distinct brand names like 'Rolex' or Panasonic are identifiable
in any typed conversation while diluted names like 'United' 'Premier'
'Orange', 'Wave' 'Wind' disappear in the bursts of text making no sense,
causing confusion and least building any distinct name identity.
Camouflaged brand names are only going to end up invisible.
Today, the socio-mobile-lingo-depository is the fastest growing and the
largest communication pool in the world. Tweeting, Facebooking,
MySpacing, YouSmiling, MeWatching, YouListening or Linkedining, alike
have transformed name brands into 'typed lingo'.
The largest majority of the last century names do not fit the next
generation digital platforms. If global socio-mobile marketing is
mandatory for high level results, names must pass a 'nudity-test': a
name must be inserted into an everyday social media conversation and
checked to see if it's still identifiable or lost within the text. If it
doesn't, it provides instant proof why cash registers aren't ringing and
what's killing all the potential sales.
Last century, when names with special styles of lettering appeared in
full page ads, there was no need to clarify the meaning or connection of
the name with the subject. 'United Furniture' with furniture arranged in
shape of the letters, 'United Logistics' stylized with a large cargo
ship or 'United Bank' with a monetary symbol and logo to create
distinction. Everybody understood what was what.
Today, with some 250,000 different businesses around the world already
using 'United' as a name brand, the typed word has to appear lost in the
depths of the English dictionary. The name values and visibility for
such style dependent names are dying on upstream and downstream social
media.
In this socio-mobile-marketplace only the very small percentage of
highly distinct names has a clear competitive advantage. Microsoft,
Rolex and Panasonic are easily identifiable in any sentence, in any
format without question.
Corporations are shy to face the nakedness of their own names. When the
management of 'United Logistics' sees their name brand, they are so
conditioned to first see the stylized logo, the slogan and the whole
package, with a globe replacing the 'o' in the 'logistics', a tiny plane
forming a circular line arching over the name and bold italic letters
telling the fast dynamics of the logistic trade. Now try searching
'united' as an example on social media; it will demonstrate the instant
erosion of a branded name identity.
Currently, studies show that the largest majority of business names are
based on dictionary or geographic words followed by surnames and
acronyms or initials. Less than 1% of business names are distinct and
unique. While global ad expenditures are touching $700 Billion,
why is this aspect of global naming complexity not on any syllabus at
any of the MBA programs in the world? The question remains; what is the
reason for this waste, and more importantly, who benefits from it?
After the massive success of social media, new domain name management
platforms will further kindle huge fires up the major global branding
and marketing services. A new stage is being set by ICANN the
International Corporation of Assigned names & Numbers and their gTLD
global top level domain name program, where name-centricity will drive
the digital branding explosion. What should the brand owners do? Strip
their business name clean of every support, attachment, and gimmick and
assess the risk of them being lost in the crowd of common language.
Without a professional name evaluation report the entire marketing and
branding budget may be questionable. A distinct name identity is what
separates a name from a word; the stripped down identity test will prove
this.
Naseem
Javed is
a widely recognized world-authority on image positioning, corporate nomenclature and
global naming complexities
image issue. Author of Naming for Power, Naseem founded ABC
Namebank some 30 years ago in Toronto and New York, and introduced The
Laws of Corporate Naming, a quarter century ago. He is currently helping
corporations on ICANN's new GTLD cyber-platforms and lecturing on global cyber- branding.
Naseem is also conducting series of exclusive webinars on how to achieve
iconic name status worldwide. His
website is: www.abcnamebank.com.
He can be reached @ nj@njabc.com
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