The naming and branding blog

Entries from December 2004

Wal-Mart’s iLo house brand

Posted: December 20th, 2004 by admin | Filed under: WTF, identity, product names| 532 Comments

Wall-Mart iLoA new Lo: Wal-Mart, whose prices are so low that a good portion of their employees receive food stamps to make ends meet, has come up with an additional way to make you feel good about shopping there. The mega retailer recently unveiled its new house brand of low-end electronic goods, named…wait for it…iLo.

And just in case anyone that buys an iLo TV or DVD player needs reminding what kind of low-rent consumers they have become, the aspirational iLo logo is prominently displayed on each and every device.

On the other end of the consumer electronic spectrum, Samsung just developed the world’s largest HDTV, a 102-inch plasma behemoth. That’s an eight-and-a-half foot diagonal picture folks, big enough for a life-size head-to-shoe representation of Shaquille O’Neal, even if those shoes are 17-inch pumps.

2.6.08: NOW THAT THERE ARE 532 COMMENTS ON THIS POST, COMMENTS HAVE BEEN DISABLED.

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Ford wants your help naming a car

Posted: December 17th, 2004 by admin | Filed under: industry insider| 8 Comments

Ford Focker: Jalopnik points to a very interesting post at The LA Car Blog: “Ford wants you to name their next car.” And there’s a lot more about naming and branding cars if you follow the links. This one’s a Humdinga.

Originally posted by Abnu to our sister site, Wordlab.

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Italianate car names

Posted: December 1st, 2004 by admin | Filed under: WTF| No Comments

MuranoSpaghetti Eastern: Looks like the automotive industry is finally pulling out of the twisted naming bender that smote our culture with names like Sentra, Maxima, Altima, Vitara, Aerio, Spectra and Optima.

In fact, the three automakers that brought you those morphemic constructions have all turned their naming compasses in the same unlikely direction: Italy. Primo was Kia with the “Sorento,” followed by the “Amanti” (Amanti is a glassworks in Murano, Italy, that specializes in Murano glass). Dopo came Nissan with the introduction of “Murano” (another glass act), that big-toe looking vehicle pictured above. Infine, Suzuki rounds out the field with the all-new “Verona.”

Can the Hummer “Mussolini” be far behind?

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