A Google search for naming consultants serves up both of the following “sponsored links”. The first is from a group of naming consultants that named their company, “Strategic Name Development”, abbreviated in the ad as “SND”:
SND Name Consulting
Exceptional names. Guaranteed.
Strategic and linguistically sound.
www.namedevelopment.com
Underneath Strategic Name Development’s ad is an ad by competitor Namebase (displayed in rotation, so hit refresh if you don’t see it), which asks:
Name Too Descriptive?
Strategic Name Development
Namebase Naming Agency
www.namebase.com
No, it’s nothing nefarious by Namebase. There is no trademark infringement here. Namebase is free to use its competitors “name” in its ad in this fashion, because strategic name development is a generic phrase. Yes, Namebase’s ad is diluting the brand equity of Strategic Name Development’s name, and may be confusing folks looking for Strategic Name Development (the company, not the service), who then click on Namebase’s ad thinking they have found Strategic Name Development (again, the company). But it’s more likely that people who click on Namebase’s ad have found just what they were looking for, strategic name development (the service, not the company this time).
It’s possible that this part of the ad is a competitive jab by Namebase at Strategic Name Development: “Name Too Descriptive? Strategic Name Development”. But probably not. Namebase is not in the best position to play the “Name too descriptive?” card.
[ More posts about naming consultants | More blogs about strategic name development ]
1 response so far ↓
1 sirjesse // Jan 5, 2007 at 10:31 am
You have provided some usefull information on strategic nameing, and it is great resource like you have said, and I agree with you. There is one other resource that that I have found that contains some verry usefull information on the topic of strategic nameing, it is a site that has been set up by a Jason Ryan Isaksen. Have you ever heard of his site? If it would be o-k, I would like to be able to post a link to his site on your web page, or would that be breaking the rules in any way? I think that everyone who visits your web site would greatly benefit from reading through what he has to say. Jason Ryan Isaksen has some helpfull and obviously educated insight on strategic nameing to share with anyone who is interested. Have you ever heard of Jason Ryan Isaksen or his articles?
Sirjesse
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