I remember when I first got married and changed my name from Pam Reach to Pam Baker… the name didn’t feel like “me.” I said on more than one occasion that Pam Baker is someone who has a long blonde ponytail, bakes a lot of brownies, and is very “crafty.” At the time of our wedding I had short brown hair, was working 50 hours a week and dedicated to a very low caloric intake, and hadn’t done a “craft project” since I was eight years old.
A Better Match
I’ve have been Pam Baker for more than 21 years now — and after two children I’ve had to scoop my hair up into a ponytail at 5 am, bake a lot of brownies, and attempted to transform three houses into “homes” (this requires lots of craft projects and paint). So I feel like Pam Baker. Now.
A Success
As I watched the National Hockey League’s annual outdoor game yesterday, (broadcast nationally in the US, a true rarity) I was struck by what a great name they came up with for this once-a-year competition: the Winter Classic. Playing a professional game of hockey outdoors, once a year, with weeks of hype, is the NHL’s attempt to win over more fans by going back to the game’s “roots.” So when this marketing and promotional idea reached fruition a few years ago, someone at the NHL had to come up with the name for this game, and someone thought of “the Winter Classic.” The competition was exciting yesterday, the referees’ calls controversial, the rivalry between the teams and thousands of fans intense. And so this game really lived up to its name.
It left me wondering what some of the alternative names for this NHL outdoor game that the marketing and PR folks initially brainstormed; but I will never know. (Freezing Foes? Skating Beneath the Stars? Neither of those seem very good…) Were there any other names that came close to capturing the spirit of rivals skating and playing outdoors in front of larger, stadium-sized crowds? Did the name emerge after one or two years? Was the first outdoor game really a “classic”?
Naming Brainstorms
For the past two years in particular here at Marketing Partners we’ve been charged with brainstorming the names of all kinds of things — from products and organizations to focused promotional campaigns. It is always a thrill. It is never easy. One of our clients reminded us recently that a bad name could really sink a good project before it has a chance to catch fire. That’s true. But a name is what you make of it, isn’t it?
Obviously we like something “catchy”; and the name has to reflect the values, mission, personality and culture of the company or organization. In the case of a product, it can’t be too esoteric — you have to say what the product is, after all. But even that doesn’t hold true all the time, right? Way back when Kleenex was not synonymous with “facial tissue” — but it is today.
A rule of thumb for us marketers is to always provide multiple options. So the “naming” challenge is even greater — not only do we have to think of one decent name, but several. To further complicate things, another organization or product with a similar name can’t exist, not to mention we need the domain name (or some reasonable variation) to be available. As well as social media handles. And we can’t forget to check what an acronym of potential names would be, or if the name has a double meaning.
Given these constraints, it’s amazing we come up with multiple options at all. And it’s always interesting to hear a client’s feedback to the name alternatives we present. There’s something unexpected when a favorite emerges.
But name selection is just one piece of the puzzle. It is very gratifying when a name can “say it all” — it facilitates awareness and makes marketing so much easier. But a name can also be what you make of it. It is just one component after all — adding a unique and complementary logo design can take it so much further, and concise descriptions of the service or product can’t be forgotten either.
Favorites
Some of my favorite names (my old colleagues from McLaren/Hart will laugh when they see one of these) in the marketing scheme of things include:
1) SmartSource — this was the name selected for an internal marketing information database developed at one of my old employers. It said it all plus it uses alliteration.
2) WaWa — a Midatlantic chain of convenience stores, this name was derived from the Native American word for the Canada Goose that was found in the Delaware Valley (the company’s base) and is used in the company’s logo.
3) Twitter — A unique and made-up name, yet somehow “Twitter” and “Tweets” sound just right for this social media channel.
Do you have any favs? Or any names of campaigns or products that tanked? I’d love to hear them…
