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Naming in Web 2.0

The names of Web 2.0 companies are just as well conceived as the businesses. From today’s London Times.

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There is no “t” in element

product naming company namesBut there is a “u” in stupid. And you know who you are. Starwood Hotels has announced that “Element” is the name of their new upscale extended-stay brand, and that the letter “t” has become too hot to handle. From USA Today:

There’s a long list of naming don’ts, says Starwood spokeswoman KC Kavanagh. You can’t use one that doesn’t play well overseas (the “T” in ELEMENT has to be curved, or else it could be perceived as a cross, which wouldn’t go over in Muslim countries). You don’t want a name that’s
“too flaky, too feminine.”

Will the branding nimrod who thinks we now have to change the alphabet because people can’t distinguish between a letter of the alphabet and a Christian symbol please step forward? Does this affect all temporary lodging literature, or just signage? How will hotels, motels and resorts address the notions of atriums, room rates, banquets, baths, buffets, check out times, reservations, continental breakfasts, guest relations, hospitality, valet services, late arrival policies, package tours, porters, room rates, pillow top mattresses, suites, twin beds, and vacant rooms?

Stupidity is viral, and especially potent when backed by research and a PowerPoint, so it will be interesting to see if Marriot, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental and Madarin Oriental follow suit.

But just in case, we were up all night curving all the “t”s on this blog.

Don’t laugh, “x”s, you’re little more than leaning crosses. Or as we like to say, a dead letter walking.

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mylo vs. ilo

mylo_product_naming
Like the Battle of Shiloh, there are no winners here. Sony’s new “must-have-what’s-the-point?-pricey” device is called mylo.

product namingilo is and has been Walmart’s consumer electronics brand name for the last couple of years. So what was Sony thinking?

They weren’t. They couldn’t have been.

This can be the work of only one man…

Blandor Says Blandor the Imponderable: “The strategy of using the name mylo to hitch a ride on Walmart’s stratospheric corporate brand equity and ilo’s reputation for low-end electronics was a no-brainer. The name mylo is a nachos grande way for Sony to quickly establish brand obfuscation in the glands, ducts, thyroids and manky bits of consumers.”

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One time airline

No, it’s not about Song.

It’s the television commercial from South African airline 1time.

That went wherever I did go

An email we received yesterday, published here with the author’s permission:

aloha,

just a quick question from a small independent game-dev house competing against the ones like EA, Ubisoft or MS.

what’s your first impression of ‘Stoked Rider’ as the franchise name for a series of video-games in outdoor-sports.
like Stoked Rider: Big Mountain Snowboarding
and then followed by like Stoked Rider: Downhill MTB, SR: Extreme Freeriding etc..

2002 Stoked Rider - freeware game ( more than 1.5mill units downloaded worldwide)
2006 Stoked Rider ft. Tommy Brunner ( first commercial game in this franchise, released in march but the name giving pro-boarder Tommy Brunner died in an avalanche 2 weeks after the game’s release)

2006 Stoked Rider: Big Mountain Snowboarding (to be released this winter season while still thinking of either keeping the name or dropping it)

thanks for the help in getting the best name for our venture
greetings from austria,

Michael Putz
mike@bongfish.com
Bongfish Interactive Entertainment
http://www.bongfish.com

Jump in and give Mr. Putz your thoughts on his name.

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If you like Piña Colitis

Looking to slow waaaay down but can’t quite bring yourself to cram a Cinnabon Carmel Pecanbon (1100 calories/56 grams of fat) down the old gullet? Have you developed a temporal sense of respect for yourself and are you thinking, “Hmm, an Auntie Anne’s Cinnamon Sugar pretzel might do the trick, and at only 400 calories and 9 grams of fat I might not need the motorized scooter on my next visit”?

Well, the corporate gurus at Cinnabon have anticipated the evolution of your thinking. Next time you’re livin’ large at the mall / airport, you won’t have to choose.

It’s the 754 calorie (you get to keep the scooter) Cinnabon CinnaPretzel:
product naming

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Of gems, chain mail, sentries, centuries, the Pentagon and BMWs

Landor strikes again:

company_namingLandor created the name Centigon, which rhymes with Pentagon and is coined from “sentry” suggesting protection and “century” hinting at heritage.

The “Diamond Shield” mark was inspired by the prestige and strength of a diamond, the world’s most impervious element, the personal protection and agility of chain mail armor and the mobility and performance of a luxury car. The mark is luminescent, prestigious, and communicates the important functionality of layers of protection.

“Aentagon, Bentagon Centagon, Dentagon, Eentagon, Fentagon, Gentagon, Hentagon, Lentagon, Jentagon, Kentagon, Lentagon, Mentagon, Nentagon, Oentagon, Qentagon, Rentagon, Sentagon, Tentagon, Uentagon, Ventagon, Wentagon, Xentagon, Yentagon, Zenatgon…hold on, I’ve got it!”

Seriously though, if you want to save a bundle on your next landoresque naming project, here’s a hot tip. Zentagon is clear for U.S trademark registration in any and all businesses.

But hold fast your beating colon, there’s more. Zentagon.com is available for registration as of right now.

SpiralFrog is partying like it’s 1999

SpiralFrog, the advertising supported (free) music downloading service that will launch in December, seems to be hellbent on repeating each and every mistake of the dotbomb era.

The first clue is the pointless name. Smushing together two random words to create a new compound word was a dotcom badge of stupiditity, a la FatBrain, FogDog, BlueMartini, RazorFish, RedHat, etc. The next step was to capitalize the second word in the compound: SpiralFrog. This late nineties affectation is called a “CamelCase” type treatment (it’s a hump thing, started by programmers). Third, and most importantly, give away your product in hopes of creating lots of traffic and ad revenue.

Any recent college grads willing to work for stock options, the love of foosball and free-flowing m&m’s? Financially speaking, “SpiralFrog” should prove to be a prophetic name choice.

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