Ford recently announced that it is relaunching the Fiesta as a worldwide brand (see article). I love this naming strategy, but it doesn’t always work. Ford’s justification is two-fold: the name already has some existing equity (albeit, not all positive) and by using one name in multiple markets, they can trim down their marketing expense.

But from a naming consultant’s perspective, they got lucky. Fiesta is one of those words that has near-global awareness. The Spanish word (meaning festival or celebration, from the Latin festum/festa  meaning “feast”) has transcended borders and is now commonly understood by native English speakers (as well as speakers of dozens of other languages). Because the car is targeted at new car buyers (typically a younger demographic), the idea of a celebration ties in nicely with the broader marketing message for the car (again, across geographic borders).

Creating names with such international consistency is tough. Just ask the folks at VW. Can anyone spell Tuoreg? Taureg? Touareg? Or ask the folks at Buick. Who knew that Lacrosse was a Canadian slang term for masturbation? If they had done the linguistic research we offer our clients, they would have known before they launched.

Some of you may want to include the infamous “Nova” in this mix. However, let us dispel the myth once more. Yes,  when literally translated, “no va” would mean “doesn’t go” in Spanish. Yet the car is still sold (quite successfully) in Spanish-speaking countries. This is possible because people don’t usually parse brand names this way. I love the counter-example offered by Snopes.com: would anyone think twice about buying a dinette set that used the brand “Notable”? (Get it?)

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Kudos to Ford for coming up with (and now relaunching) a brand name that sends the right message to a global audience. If any of you readers out there are looking for a new brand name that functions equally well in multiple international markets, Catchword can help.

Amazing how popular the topic of baby naming has gotten in the last few months. Here’s the latest entry from the New York Times.

One of my “golden rules of naming” is that parents shouldn’t tell their friends what names they are considering before they name the baby. (You tend to get mostly negative feedback pre-birth and nothing but positive feedback post-birth.) The NYT reporter John Tierney aptly points out that parents considering names like “Ima Hogg” or “Helen Troy” should probably check with a few friends first (maybe even your favorite naming company).

You don’t need a license to have a kid, but maybe you should be forced to get approval for the name you *think* you want to assign to your child. The poor kid named “Favre” certainly would agree (see earlier post).
I say again: leave creative naming to the professionals.

I was shocked to learn about a Florida couple who named their twin boys Brett and Favre (see article). These folks must not have read my golden rules of baby naming (see earlier blog posts). Naming is not about *you* it is about what (or who) you are naming (in this case, the babies). What may seem like a harmless and funny gag today will probably result in years of therapy for these poor kids.

Grow up people. Name responsibly. Show a little respect for your kids, and remember that they must live with the name you give them for the rest of their lives.

There are times in product naming when delicacy has no place. Or is a lost cause at best. When you’re dealing with pet turds, for instance. At least, so decided the makers of the joyfully graphic DooDoo Voodoo, an earth-friendly pet odor and stain remover. I salute their gumption (while holding my nose); in this case, graphic works. I’m just relieved their classified ad in Utne magazine didn’t include a photo.

Network Solutions has been served with a class action suit. The suit claims that the NSI has forced customers into buying domains from the company rather than through potentially cheaper avenues, in effect netting the company millions of dollars. This make me happy, since I’ve always viewed NSI/Verisign as a government-sponsored monopoly that gets away with murder. Recently they were busted (in the colloquial “you got caught on tape” sense) for domain front-running. This is the practice of reserving domains that had been searched for availability at the NSI site: You’d type in some domain name, it would come up as available, and then (unbeknownst to you) NSI would register it. If you then tried to register it anywhere but at NSI, it would be listed as unavailable. They claimed that they were doing this to protect their “customers” from becoming victims of front-running by other registrars…yeah, and if you believe that, I have some very nice lakefront property in Florida for ya.

So now they’re being sued for this. I’m very curious to see how the suit plays out, as they have a long history of abusing and overcharging their customers (I’ll have a rant about that in an upcoming blog entry). They seem to have been caught red-handed here. On the other (red) hand, they’re the 500 lb gorilla that no one seems to be able to subdue. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Domain name availability is a huge issue for us as a naming firm. I can’t tell you how many great company names have been struck from lists merely because the domain is not available - or worse, how many times clients’ hearts have been broken because a domain acquisition deal fell through. I’m pretty good at brokering domain deals, but even I can’t strongarm those domain barons in the Cayman Islands, who populate the Interwebs with clickthrough sites.

We all know the difference between white-collar and blue-collar jobs. But recently I’ve been hearing a lot more about green-collar jobs. I found myself wondering where the term green-collar came from? And, what other colorful collars exist?

Laurel first heard about green-collar jobs on NPR a few weeks ago. I heard John Edwards mention them during his campaign in 2007. In actuality, the term has been used since the late 1970s to refer to jobs in both the environmental and agricultural sectors.

The term green-collar steps away from the traditional metaphor for colorful collars. Blue-collar refers to the actual blue color of industrial uniforms. And white-collar refers to the white business shirts worn by office-types. Whereas green does not directly reference the color of the shirt, as much as the industry itself. How dare the color green brazenly flaunt the rules of this color-scheme, you may ask? Well, hold your criticism-of-the-green for a moment. As it turns out, green was not the first color to break the rules.

Pink-collar was a term originated in the early 1970s to refer to the female-dominated work roles of the time (secretary, waitress, receptionist, etc.). Gold-collar refers to someone with more than a high school education, but without a full college degree who is over-qualified for the job they hold. And grey-collar refers to jobs that require both blue-collar and white-collar responsibilities (and occasionally the post-retirement aged workforce). Pink, gold, grey, and green all deviate from the rules of the blue/white collar scheme Now you can say your apologies to the color green for being so quick to judge…

What I want to know is: In an uber-patriotic country like ours where blue and white are already represented, where’s the red-collar? Maybe red-collar can refer to government jobs. Or is red already too tainted by it’s McCarthy-era ties to communism? What about the creative job market (musicians, artisans, etc.)? Shouldn’t they get a jazzy, eccentric color? Like indigo, perhaps. Or maybe they should be identified by their stereotypical black turtlenecks, hence black-collar. And, should the gay and lesbian workforce claim the rainbow-collar?

I think the collar-system needs more collar-colors. As my own wardrobe would suggest, I’m a big fan of lots of colorful shirts and collars:

Chips are awesome. I love chips. Salty, crispy, with the fat fried right in. Rarely buy the baked variety, or anything reduced in fat. If I’m chippin’, I’m chunkin. That’s what I say. So you can just imagine my frustration when the entrance to the carb aisle at Kings was blocked by a sample table covered in, oh my goodness, BAKED VEGGIE CHIPS. Wholly healthy, batman! My first instinct was to egg the table and the cheery representative, grab the nearest bag of Fatitos, and make a run for the check-out. But then something caught my eye – the brand name: Flat Earth. Flat Earth? Yeah, Flat Earth - that’s pretty cool. I slowly put down my carton of extra large, inched toward the table with that “I’m not looking for a free lunch, I really am just curious” look, and sampled a few of the flat, earthly treats. Actually quite good. Course I’m not in the business of reviewing snacks, I’m in the naming business, and I thought this one was worth highlighting. I really love the way it communicates both the style of the chip (flats) and its healthful formulation (specifically, a 1/2 portion of fruits or veges in every once, depending on the chip). Not easy to find a memorable way to tie those two messages together, but using the familiar flat earth theory is pretty effective. Seems “Earth” and every other term suggesting an organic, healthful product, has been used. Kudos to the folks at Flat Earth for finding and adopting a name for their brand that makes sense for the product, is distinct from other “Earth” names, and is also highly memorable.

I’m a big fan of Richard Wiseman’s Quirkology site - it’s all about psychology and perception and why human beings are so weird. And it’s fun! These are the people who brought you the World’s Funniest Joke and the amazing Color Changing Card Trick video (you really have to watch this one). Their research into jokes, lying, observation, etc. is all based on experiments conducted with average people all over the world.

The latest experiment is about names - personal names, and what they mean to their owners:

Does your first name influence your life? To help find out, Prof Richard Wiseman has teamed up with The Edinburgh International Science Festival to carry out a unique experiment.

It’s a set of six simple questions about your own name, and how you would react and judge people based only on their names. I just took it and I was surprised by my own biases and preconceptions - I had to think hard about why I assigned certain personality traits to certain names. For me, some are certainly based on personal experience (Katie will always be more intelligent than Caroline), but for others - who knows? Why do I think Jack is luckier than Andrew? Note that the experiment is run out of the UK, so there’s a slight leaning toward British names, in my opinion. I did sign up to get the results of the experiment when it’s done.

Go here to take the Name Experiment. It’s fun! It’s science! It Quirkology!

A friend of mine told me about a new fortified water for dogs. The name? “Fortifido”. Duh. Leaving behind the fact that someone actually took the time to create, and then brand, this stuff, I have to say I think the name is great. Distinctive, but relevant and fun. And I bet the .com domain name was free too.

Catchword has not (yet) had the opportunity to name any pet products. We did name Petopia, but that company has gone to the great dog-park in the sky.

Do dogs bark when they see brand names they like? Wouldn’t you just love to observe the market research around this name? “So what associations come to mind when you hear the name ‘fortifido’?”

“Woof”

A naming consultant’s new best friend.

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.