We were thrilled to see one of our new names launch this week. Sezmi is, “the first complete TV 2.0 offering, that combines traditional TV content, movies and internet video in a single easy-to-use product.”

This was a fun project from the get-go. The product demo wowed us. Believe you me, Sezmi is amazing. It has the power to predict what you are likely to want to watch, and acts on that prediction. That way, when you’re ready to watch a new show, it’s already downloaded onto your 1TB Sezmi drive. No lengthy lag time waiting for the show to download.

Our client assigned us the exciting dual challenge of product naming and company naming, all-in-one. Relevant and unique domain names for companies aren’t so easy to come by these days, so we had our work cut out for us. But we used our special naming guru voodoo to come up with Sezmi. This name conveys the power that Sezmi affords the TV watcher. Sezmi’s tagline says it all: “TV that tunes into Mi!”

Sezmi afforded us another great opportunity to work with design agency Turner Duckworth. They created an amazing logo, and are also responsible for the industrial design application of “mi” on the remote. (You’ll see it when you buy your Sezmi.) Those Turner Duckworth folks are very clever.

For more coverage of Sezmi, click here and here. We’re looking forward to the day when there’s a Sezmi in every home. Tivo, your days are numbered!

On Monday Kickfire publicly launched, effectively lighting a fire under the feet of their MySQL query competitors. Kickfire’s product is a database appliance that revolutionizes the way queries are conducted. The small form-factor and industry-first SQL chip make Kickfire’s queries faster and simpler than current industry-standard systems. What’s more, the Kickfire database appliance is more economical than the competition, opening up the MySQL database market to small and medium businesses previously unable to afford expensive database systems.

We had a lot of fun exploring ways to communicate speed and ease-of-use for this high-tech brand. The interesting challenge in this case was to find a name that was appropriate as both a company name and a product name, while also having an available dot-com.

The Kickfire team did a great job taking the name we created and shaping it into a great brand. We think Arami Design created a cool company logo and implemented it quite beautifully throughout the Kickfire web site. Just check out the web site and flash demo, and you’ll see what I mean!

We had a lot of fun developing this new technology name. The client was great to work with and the technology is going to shake things up when it hits the market. We’d love to say more, but Ozmo Devices still hasn’t launched publicly. For now, we’re excited that their new name and the fantastic graphic identity will be helping Ozmo get some well-deserved attention.

We really enjoyed naming Vivaty, the newest 3D virtual world experience that launched today. The product is truly amazing, and we had a lot of fun exploring the creative naming directions inherent in such a rich technology. 

Vivaty is like Second Life, but better, much much better! It doesn’t require downloading clunky software onto your computer and therefore it isn’t as slow as molasses (ahem, Second Life). Instead, Vivaty is a lightweight application that can be seamlessly embedded in various web and social-networking sites like Facebook and Yahoo.

We got to see and play with a demo of the product while we were working on the naming project. And rest assured that I, Catchword’s resident social networking fiend, will be signing up for my beta Vivaty account ASAP!

Read the great NY Times article here, or read the PDF here.

In his column today, tech guru Walt Mossberg expresses high hopes for Dash. He has been using a beta version of Dash, and preliminarily he says it’s great. We’re so happy that Dash is getting well deserved accolades. It was a fun project, a great product, and a clever name (if we do say so ourselves).

Read the WSJ article, or read it as a PDF.

Our newest name has just been introduced. Meet Flybridge Capital Partners.

In conjunction with their announcement of a new $280 million fund, IDG Venture Boston has introduced an entirely new identity. Catchword worked with the partners of the firm to develop this new brand name. In the press release, the company had this to say, “As you may know, a flybridge is the open deck above the main bridge on a boat where you go to get a different and better perspective on the water in front of you.  It is a vantage point to better see the water, fish, rocks, land and more.  The name symbolizes who we are and what we do best - collaborate, partner, and provide guidance and perspective.”

We just love the solid reinforcement of their positioning through the brand name. As a naming firm, this is exactly the kind of fresh creative solution we aim to provide: Distinctive, but relevant.

Who’s next?

I came across a great brand today while reading engadget. The company is ZAP and they build electric cars. I think their name is brilliant. Zap conveys the electric aspect of their cars wonderfully. The logo then reemphasizes this message with a comic-inspired font treatment. Even the exclamation point in the logo fits into the theme (it’s a little lightning bolt). Very clever!

ZAP also stands for “Zero Air Polution.” So let me summarize: ZAP has a name that is suggestive of their unique point of differentiation AND that functions as a relevant acronym? Brilliant indeed.

Perhaps the most fun aspect of ZAP’s brand is its brand extensions, aka the vehicle names. Zapino is the name for ZAP’s line of mopeds and Zappy is their scaled down scooter. The car names range from the playful Obvio and Xebra, to the more intriguing and mysterious Alias. (The Alias even looks like it was plucked right out of a James Bond movie!)

I love everything about ZAP’s names. It’s refreshing to see a clever naming system that isn’t forced or trite. If only the bigger car companies could emulate ZAP’s ingenuity both in naming and product innovation.

I enjoyed Douglas Quenqua’s piece in Thursday’s NYT on the UNCF “name change”. Very interesting dilemma. (For those of you who don’t want to read the article, the United Negro College Fund just announced it was changing its name, at Landor’s suggestion, to UNCF.)

Of course, as a guy who runs a naming company I was particularly intrigued by the solution they chose. While I completely understand *why* they made the name change, I have to question their final decision. I liken it to the recent name change made by AARP (they also tried to avoid an awkward reference by reverting to their familiar initials).

I see two problems with this tactic. First, as is the case with AARP and “retired persons”, everybody knows what the “N” stands for. Just because they use the initials doesn’t mean they escape the reference. Landor’s last attempt at this ploy was to “rename” Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC. No one was fooled, and the company has recently gone back to the longer, less healthy sounding version of the name. It is amazing to me that people continue to pay Landor huge dollars to recommend such inane solutions.

Second, by switching to the initials, UNCF joins the litany of companies swimming in alphabet soup (NCR, ATT, WWE, etc.). While I don’t think a concocted “naming company name” like Accenture or Agilent would have been appropriate (also the work of Landor), I do think they could have found a name that has more warmth and distinction, while communicating some message of relevance (e.g., equality, support, guidance, etc.). Adopting the initials is a cop out, and may hamper UNCF’s ability to raise funds. They certainly have missed an opportunity to excite their audience. I understand they want to keep their heritage, but that heritage can be bridged to a new name (ask the folks at Altria). Now they sound just like any other big, corporate, enterprise with a cumbersome name. They’ve wasted a wonderful opportunity to instill new life, and new messages into their organization. To borrow their phrase, a name is a terrible thing to waste.

The article also references the struggle faced by the NAACP (maybe they can hire Landor to tell them that they should use their initials too). As a namer, all this name changing is a very poignant reminder not to tie a name to any current buzzword, technology, or (in the case of UNCF and NAACP), politically-correct reference. Names must be able to stand the test of time. What is politically correct today may not be tomorrow.

I almost forgot to mention this great coverage that one of our recent clients received in the New York Times. Check out Stuart Elliot’s write-up on our new name Daptiv. (For a PDF, click here.)

Enterprise IG’s recent rebranding to The Brand Union has created quite a stir in the naming and branding community. The general perception seems to range from “yawn” to “those idiots”. And really, who can argue? It’s just another “brand___” name in a sea of “brand___” competitors.

But to evaluate their choice, I think you really have to break it down into two components: the naming strategy and the naming execution. IMHO, the naming strategy actually makes sense. I’m all for coming up with distinctive names that stand out in the competitive landscape, but a company the size of BrandUnion, with the pedigree it has, doesn’t really need to stand out. Does IBM stand out? Does Southwest Airlines? How about General Motors? Folks who stand out just for the sake of standing out (um, does anyone remember MarchFirst?) often end up following the dodo bird.

The strategic issue this rebranding work is designed to solve is that Enterprise IG was spending too much energy convincing people it was a branding company. Their previous name was generic, irrelevant, and downright awkward. The new name, while not perfect, at least puts them in the right competitive set. The end result should be that the company can now spend less energy telling people it should be considered along with Interbrand and more energy telling people why it is better than Interbrand. Of course, we all know the real truth: Catchword is better than either firm, but that is for another blog entry …

However … and this is a really big “but” … the new identity certainly suffers from a few major execution problems. Consider the following issues that any good naming consultant would have pointed out:

1)Which is it, “THE Brand Union” or just “Brand Union”? The logo says “Brand Union” (at least I think so, it’s awfully hard to read — another ding against the execution) while the URL is “thebrandunion.com”. It looks as though “brandunion.com” is for sale — I’m shocked they haven’t tried to procure the easier and more intuitive domain. Regardless, it seems silly to launch BOTH names at the same time. Pick one and run with it. Changing names is confusing enough with out clouding the waters this way.

2) While I laud their effort to join the competitive set by using the word “brand” in their name, I would have expected something more from a firm of this stature. When we named our company, we explicitly ruled out names that included the word “brand” because the term was so cluttered and downright overused. The name development team at EIG/TBU could have placed the company in the right competitive set while still being more distinctive. The old name was generic, irrelevant and awkward. The new name is just generic. I guess two out of three ain’t bad.

3) If you’re going to use “brand”, at least pair it with something exciting. Union sounds so … Jimmy Hoffa. Not exactly a cutting edge creative association. Very blue collar. Very “soon to be on the missing persons list”. I wouldn’t even know where to start digging.

4) I’m not from New York, but even I’ve heard of Grand Union. Quite the retail hot spot in the Big Apple. Not a trademark issue, but certainly a mindshare issue. Maybe they don’t have any customers in New York. Riiiiight.

All in all, I’d give them a B+ on strategy and a C- on execution. Not exactly the best testimonial for the kind of work they are likely to provide their clients. But you didn’t hear it from me.