The Origin of Brands Blog

Great Product, Lousy Brand

 

 

Just because you have a great idea and make a great product (or deliver a great service) doesn’t mean you will build a powerful brand and enjoy great success. This sad truth sometimes becomes personal when a product I love makes egregious branding errors. In fact, it really makes my blood boil.

 

I am an avid walker. I love walking in New York City going up the avenues and through the park. I love walking in Paris to the Eiffel Tower and through the Tullieries. I love hiking in the mountains of Austria and around the volcanoes in Maui.

 

I am also into fitness and new exercise trends and gadgets. I have all sorts of wobble boards, weighted balls, body bars, ankle weights, abdominal wheels and yoga mats. I also have an elliptical machine, Rollerblades,  an inversion table and now MBT shoes.

 

I love my MBT shoes, but their branding stinks.

 

The point of a brand name is to get into the mind of the consumer. The better your name, the easier it is to get into the mind. Think BlackBerry.

 

The point of a category name is to define the niche your brand occupies in the mind. Ideally you want to be first in a new category. This will give you credibility, authenticity and instant leadership. Think Red Bull and energy drink. If you aren’t first, then you want to be the opposite of the competition. Think Monster, the 16-oz energy drink and the No.2 brand.

 

The point of a tagline (or positioning statement) is to give consumers a verbal message to share with one another. The test of a good tagline goes like this: If somebody asks you why you bought the brand will the tagline explain it? Does it use words consumers would use? Does it even make any sense?

 

Why did you buy Barilla pasta? Because it is “Italy’s #1 pasta.”

 

Why did you buy a Toyota? Because they are “moving forward?”

 

While I can see the Barilla conversation happening. I could never see the Toyota one happening. Don’t Toyotas go in reverse anymore?

 

MBT fails on all three counts.

 

 

The name: MBT.

 

Launching a brand with meaningless initials is the kiss of death. While companies like IBM and GE might be known by their initials, they actually stand for International Business Machines and General Electric. They can get away with the shorthand because they are leaders and have been around forever, IBM has been around for 84 years and GE 116 years. When you are that old and that established, you can use initials. Note: neither company ever changed their name to the initials.

 

Nobody knows what MBT stands for. When nobody knows your name, you can’t use initials. It just makes a bad name worse. Initials are much more difficult to remember than a name and initials communicate nothing about your brand.

 

What MBT stands for is Masai Barefoot Technology. Of course the full name is no good either. I doubt any tribe in Kenya would be running around in $250 shoes. And the shoes are so big and so klutzy-looking that calling them “barefoot technology” is non-sensical even if it is true. The research might say they re-create the positive effects of walking barefoot, but they don’t give that impression at first glance. And perception is everything.

 

Furthermore, they don’t even own mbt.com! The brand’s website is swissmasaius.com. If you have a bad name, at least you should own the bad name website.

 

What MBT needs is a name like Crocs. Simple, different, memorable and a name alludes to the product. If Crocs were called PSTs (Plastic Shoe Technology), they would never have become the billion-dollar brand they are today.

 

 

The category: What is the category? Nobody knows.

 

MBT calls itself “physiological footwear.” Huh? What is that? Nobody is going to use that as a category name. What kind of physiological footwear do you wear? I don’t think so.

A category name should contain simple words and be easy to understand. And don’t trademark it. If you want to get big, you need your category to get big. And for your category to get big, you need competition.  As long as you are the leading brand, having a flock of followers behind you is a good thing.

 

What are some good category names: energy drink, sports drink, energy bar, expensive coffee, wireless email, safe car, packaged salad, performance underwear, natural cosmetics, organic groceries. Of course, the brands that dominates these categories are the brands that introduced the category (Red Bull, Gatorade, PowerBar, Starbucks, BlackBerry, Volvo, Fresh Express, Under Armour, The Body Shop and Whole Foods.)

 

In this emerging shoe category there are several brands and several words floating around to describe them. There is no consistency and no one idea to describe the category that makes sense to consumers. This is going to be devastating to MBT. Some call them “rolly shoes.” I call them “rockers.” Others call them wobbly or balance shoes. The names are all over the place.

 

Another company makes a flip-flop version called FitFlop which it says has “patent-pending micro-wobbleboard technology.” Walking with wobble boards on my feet doesn’t seem like a safe idea. Nor a good branding idea.

 

All this chaos undermines the potential of the category because nobody understands it or knows what to call it. While MBT has avid fans like me, they don’t have a clear message for the general public or the media to spread the word.

 

In addition to the confusion over the category name, there is confusion over the benefit of the shoes. MBT’s benefits range from the ridiculous “cellulite removal” to the relatively tame “improved posture.”

 

A brand should have one clear benefit. The benefit like the category name should be simple, specific, understandable and believable. For MBT is could be: “Makes every walk a workout.” Or “Get 30% more workout in every step.” The more crazy the benefit the less believable it is.

 

For Amazon.com the benefit was “30% off all books.” For iPod the benefit was “1,000 songs.” For Papa John’s Pizza the benefit is “better ingredients, better pizza.”

 

 

The tagline: First problem, MBT has two. Second problem, neither is any good.

 

Brands should have one tagline and use it everywhere: websites, advertising, letterheads, business cards etc. Having a brand tagline “physiological footwear” and an advertising tagline “the anti-shoe” makes no sense. Two taglines are not better than one.

 

Obviously the agency for MBT took one look at the current brand tagline and said we can’t use that!

 

 

So they came up with “The anti-shoe.” The anti-shoe? MBTs are the biggest, ugliest shoes ever made! How can they ever be known as the anti-shoe? Answer: they can’t.

 

But they can be known as the ultimate workout shoe. Every step, every day is a workout.

 

The thing I like most about MBT shoes is that they are so different looking. Every single time I wear them people notice these shoes and stop me to comment on MBTs. They are like the lime in the top of the Corona bottle. You can’t miss the difference.

 

Geox is a fantastic shoe brand known as “breathable shoes,” but the difference is unnoticeable. Unless you look at the bottom of somebody’s feet, there is no way to see the holes that allow the shoes to breathe.

 

When people see MBTs, they can’t help but to ask: What are they? What do they do? Do they work? Where did I get them? When this happens it pains me because the brand is missing a big opportunity. My answers to these questions are weak because the brand is weak. The terrible name, a shaky position and unnamed category leave me with a difficult story to tell about them. Without word of mouth no brand can thrive.

 

If you are single, you might get a pair of MBT shoes. For some reason guys at the gym see these shoes as the perfect excuse to come and talk to me. One guy said “At first I thought you had the funny shoes because one leg was shorter than the other.” Guess he thought that was a funny line.

 

MBT has got to be careful because FitFlop is moving in. They have a memorable and descriptive name along with a cleaver tagline "It's the flip-flop with the gym built in."

 

MBT shoes are a great product but a lousy brand. Such a shame.

Need a boost this holiday season?

Despite my attempts to deny it, the holidays are upon us. Christmas is 19 days away. The sad truth is that the true meaning of Christmas has given way to extreme consumerism. Santa may just as well be saying “buy, buy, buy” instead of “ho, ho, ho.”

But my cynicism of Christmas has softened with the arrival of my children. Seeing their little eyes light up with the wonder of Santa and the excitement of seeing far away relatives has allowed me to view the holidays with the purity that only young children experience.

Children don’t feel the stresses of the holidays with all the shopping, debt, bloat and overwhelming chores, they simply enjoy the goodness of it all. And the one thing that is most important about any holiday is that it brings people together. Families, friends and co-workers make the time to get together and to celebrate.

Getting together usually involves eating. And eating usually involves sitting. And sitting usually involves, if you are too old for a highchair and too little to reach the table, a booster seat.

Children between the ages of 2 and 5 are a difficult breed. They are stuck in the mushy middle between being a baby and being a kid. They want to do everything themselves. They repeatedly say no, even if they mean yes. They constantly imitate parents and older siblings. They simply long to be just like everybody else. And while they might refuse to give up on their diapers, binkies or bottles they desperately want cellphones, car keys, and chairs just like you and me.

Most successful entrepreneurs are pissed off people that get motivated. They become pissed when they recognize the inherent flaw of a conventional solution and are motivated enough to do something about it. A combination that has brought many great brands to the masses.

A pissed off entrepreneur had brought to market a brand that I would like to spotlight today. The story of Amir Levin and Kaboost shows how a new brand benefited from doing the opposite, having the right name and being first in a new category.

Amir Levin is only 33 years old and doesn’t even have any kids of his own, but he could spot an opportunity when he saw one. While at a family gathering, Amir was frustrated by seeing his little cousins refusing to sit in booster chairs. They didn’t want to be different and would prefer to suffer by sitting on their knees than be in a baby chair. Instead of thinking, tough luck kids, he did something about it and Kaboost was born.

Booster seats all follow a simple formula, design something to put on the chair to boost the child. When I was little they used phone books, but since then thousands of booster chair ideas have been brought to market. But no one ever thought about turning the whole idea on its head. Until Amir.

Doing the opposite it a powerful strategy for many reasons. It creates a new category, differentiates you from competition and gives you PR potential. When you do the opposite it is instantly newsworthy.

So what did Amir do? Instead of just boosting the child like every other chair, Amir boosted the chair. Brilliant! Now kids can really sit just like everybody else. And they don’t feel like they are in the baby seat anymore.

Many a good idea has died right there. A better idea does not ensure success. Without a proper branding strategy good ideas wither, die or are stolen. Bad names, horrible packaging, lousy publicity, dysfunctional distribution can all bring a new brand down. And new brands are much more vulnerable to branding mistakes than established brands. So entrepreneurs have to pay special attention to adhering to the laws of branding.

Here are some of the basics principles Kaboost followed:

1. The strategy: Do the opposite.

Kaboost is not a better booster seat. Kaboost is the opposite of a conventional booster seat. Conventional boosters only boost the child. Kaboost boosts the chair and the child. The benefit is that the child can sit at the table just like everybody else. A big deal for little ones.

2. The name: Kaboost.

The name is where many new brands make their biggest branding mistake. Giving your brand a generic, descriptive name might help explain who you are in the short term but it lays a weak foundation in the mind for the long term. Generic names leave you much more vulnerable to established companies stealing your idea and preempting your position in the mind with their might.

For an entrepreneur with limited funds the most ideal brand name is one that is suggestive of the category. This way you get to have some of your cake and eat it too. You hint at what you are but have a unique brand name.

Kaboost is a name that does just that. A generic name could have killed it. And a far out name would have met with more resistance and been more difficult to establish in the mind.

3. The verbalization of the message: Your child can sit like you.

New brands don’t take off without word of mouth. And word of mouth is depended upon your message being easily verbalized, remembered and passed along. Again many new brands fall down on this point. They might have a great idea and the right brand name but they cannot put into words why they are so great. Or they give too many reasons for why they are so great, also a pitfall.

To succeed a brand needs one simple idea verbalized in a memorable way. Dyson, the first vacuum cleaner that doesn’t lose suction, is a brilliant verbalization and created a powerful new brand in the mind.

TiVo has been tripped up by not having a good verbalization of its brand. TiVo has never clearly verbalized its position. And while they have avid fans (myself included,) they have not made the huge inroads in market share many expected. I believe the lack of a verbalization is one reason why. TiVo also made a huge mistake running too much advertising too soon. Of course, blowing investment capital upfront on advertising was the downfall of many dot.com brand busts as well.

4. The package as a marketing tool.

Don’t overlook the ability of the package to build your brand in the mind. The package should be treated with great importance in the brand building process. The package is the front line of your marketing campaign, it is your last chance to seal the deal. PR gets them to notice your brand and the box gets them to buy your brand.

That said the box design should be simple and focused. The name and position should be prominently displayed. Dyson was one of the first brands to really use the box as a marketing tool. Typically vacuums came in generic brown boxes. Dyson used every side to sell the story of the brand.

The Kaboost box is fantastic, you can see that plainly.

5. The PR.

Kaboost is a newsworthy brand. In order to be newsworthy you have to be different. Being the first chair booster is much more effective for getting PR than introducing a better booster. And PR is the way you build brands. There are also several different PR angles to the Kaboost story. Amir has been on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch to discuss how young entrepreneurs turn ideas into companies. Kaboost has been featured in the New York Times as a new and noteworthy product. One news outlet called booster seats so passé, now that Kaboost has arrived.

For anyone who is now sold on the product, Kaboost is now available at Babies R Us

Thanks to Kaboost, my little one will be sitting at our table this holiday season just like me, his Dad and his big brother. Kaboost has granted my terrible two at least one minor victory in his war of independence. And any day there is a battle Mom can avoid is a good day for all of us on the home front.

Halloween Tricks and Treats

Happy Halloween!

In honor of Halloween, I thought I would follow up last week’s post on great restaurant branding with some of the scariest restaurant branding ideas I’ve recently come across.

1. The worst restaurant name.

Humuhumunukunukuapua’s, located at the Grand Wailea Resort in Maui, Hawaii.

This terribly long and totally unpronounceable name is the worst I’ve ever seen. The restaurant has a nice view, good food and benefites from being in a popular hotel, but what a missed branding opportunity. Never underestimate the power of a good name.

My husband and I referred to it as the huma-huma restaurant. I was too embarrassed to call for reservations or tell anyone where we ate because I had no idea how to pronounce it. Not a good idea for generating word of mouth.

The name means Hawaiian Triggerfish. Triggerfish would have been a whole lot better.

2. The worst line-extension restaurant.

It is a mistake is thinking that a popular brand in one category will translate into another.

Tommy Bahama, the hot men’s resort ware brand has gone bananas. I saw a Tommy Bahama restaurant in Maui. And see advertisements from Tommy Bahama Rum almost daily in the New York Times.

What are they thinking? Obviously they must be drinking too much of the rum. Just because a brand is successful doesn’t give you carte blanc to take it anywhere.

It is one thing for a famous restaurant to sell t-shirts, it is quite another for a famous shirt maker to sell cheeseburgers.

3. The worst menu addition.

When you build a powerful brand by focusing on a core attribute it is best to stick to that attribute. It is unwise to introduce menu items that are the opposite of your position.

Subway owns fresh and healthy sandwiches in the mind. Jared’s weight loss and the new fresh fit menu reinforce that position in the mind.

So what do they do next? They recently introduced personal deep-dish pizzas! How unhealthy could you get? No much in my opinion. Let’s hope Jared doesn’t go on a pizza diet.

4. The worst company naming strategy.

Luckily this one is just a ghost story. Using current marketing thinking at most companies today, you can see how Darden, founder of The Red Lobster chain, could have named their other restaurants:

Italian Lobster, Steak & Lobster, Bahama Lobster, Lobster Grill and Healthy Lobster.

Instead Darden went with Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Capital Grille and Seasons 52 to give each its own brand identity. Good move.

Think the fake names were funny? Well think again, it is a strategy countless companies continue to use. Because most companies prefer to launch line extensions than new brands.

It is exactly what Toys R Us did. They launched Kids R Us and Babies R Us. A strategy that has left the company in trouble. Even though the Babies R Us concept has taken off, it has succeeded in spite of its lousy line extension name because it was first in a new category. And its success has come at the price of Kids R Us being shut down and Toys R Us losing its toy leadership position to Wal-Mart.

5. The worst steal.

Everybody has watched with envy the success Starbucks has had in coffee. Starbucks has single handedly elevated the lowly .50 cup of joe to a $3 experience and obsession.

Instead of launching their own brands early on before Starbucks was firmly established, they waited and now everybody is jumping on the upscale coffee bandwagon.

McDonald’s is serving “premium” coffee along with lattes and espressos. Wendy’s is launching a Javaccino’s menu in an effort to become a beverage destination. On the Javaccino’s menu: Rainforest select sustainable coffee, iced pomegranate green tea and confused turtle Frosty-chinos.

6. The worst Halloween candy idea.

Snickers Marathon energy bars. Sounds like a great idea, take the best-selling candy bar and make it into an energy bar. Because really, what is an energy bar anyway, but lousy tasting candy bar.

The Snickers brand is known for great taste so they will rule the energy bar market. Right?

Wrong. These treats are unlikely to trick any kids or adults. There is nothing wrong with the bars, but there is everything wrong with the brand. Or should I say brands. Snickers Marathon bars come in many different varieties including: energy, nutrition, multi-grain, low-carb and protein. Just to totally confuse you.

Snickers is a candy bar, they would have been better off telling people to just enjoy a Snickers. One bar only has 273 calories and almost 5 grams of protein, not much difference from the Marathon bar. Selling energy bars undermines the candy. It tells people the candy is bad, when in fact they are not much different.

* Snickers: 273 calories, 14 g fat, 33 g carb, 5 g protein.
* Snickers Marathon: 210 calories, 8 g fat, 26 g carb, 14 g protein.

Snickers satisfies because it tastes great. Snickers Marathon is a poor tasting substitute. Remember you taste in your mind not your mouth. A Snickers energy bar is never going to taste good up there. Want energy? Grab a PowerBar.

Halloween warning:

On Halloween, kids play dress-up, act silly and scare people by catching them off-guard.

None of these are strategies you should use for marketing. Dressing up as something you aren’t, acting silly and scaring people are all bad branding ideas.

So Marketers, leave Halloween to the kids and keep your brand true, authentic and focused. No tricks allowed.

Building a new restaurant brand.

Seasons 52: A case study.

A new restaurant brand has hit the market, Seasons 52, and it looks likely to become the next big thing in white table cloth dining. The first Seasons 52 opened in February 2003 in Orlando, Florida. Last year, two Seasons 52 restaurants opened here in Metro Atlanta.

The Seasons 52 brand is red-hot. Thousands of restaurant brands are launched each year. Most fail. Not usually because of lousy food, but because of lousy branding.

Why is Seasons 52 likely to be a winner? And how can you use the lessons learned for your brand? Read on for my six reasons why.

1. The narrow position.

Most brands want to attract as many potential customers as possible, so they position themselves as broadly as possible. This is the biggest mistake you can make in branding.

Brands are built by having a narrow focus. With restaurants, one signature dish can often build a brand. The dish doesn’t have to be the only thing on the menu, but many times it wouldn’t hurt. Think Chipolte and burritos.

What is Seasons 52’s narrow position? A lighter, healthier approach to dining.

2. The opposite.

Most high-end restaurants serve rich, high-calorie food usually in large portions. Many French people are horrified by how much food is served in a typical U.S. French restaurant.

If you’re watching your waistline, like most Americans are or should be, eating out is tough. You can be a special request nag with all sorts of demands for no sauce, only steam cooking, no potatoes and half your dinner in a doggy bag. But that is no fun and usually leaves you with a tatesless dinner.

Or you can treat dining at one of these restaurants as your cheat day. But that limits how often you visit and how healthy they feel after visiting. One meal can undo a weeks worth of good intensions.

Seasons 52 did the opposite. A high-end restaurant serving fresh, healthy food in reasonable portions.

3. The name.

Having a name that locks your position in the mind is very effective in building a brand. Subway and Submarine sandwiches. Blockbuster and video rentals. Olive Garden and Italian food.

Using a word out of context to reinforce your position can be powerful. It links your brand name with your position in the mind. It helps people remember who you are and what you stand for. And it helps with word-of-mouth by making your concept easier to describe.

The Seasons 52 link is not obvious at first but once you hear it you will not forget it.

Seasons 52 offers the freshest foods of the season by changing its menu four times a year. The name also plays off the Four Seasons restaurant, a New York landmark in high-end dining.

It would be even better if they changed the menu every week or 52 times a year. This would best reflect and reinforce the name and give people a reason to keep coming back week after week without getting bored.

4. The difference.

It is not enough to just say you are “healthy,” You need to do something to dramatize your position.

Seasons 52 has a unique element that sets it apart from every other white-table-cloth restaurant. Every item on the menu is less than 475 calories.

Wow! That is a bold move. And also brilliant because it clearly states the brand’s position. No stars on the menu for the diet food. Everything on the menu deserves a star because it is healthy and low in calories.

Seasons 52 backs up its health claim by talking about how they grill or roast everything over an open flame. Making it low in fat and high in flavor.

5. The PR.

New brands need news value. PR is necessary to builds brands because it drives word-of-mouth. “Healthy” is the buzz word of the day. Magazines, television shows and websites are looking for healthy food stories.

Most restaurants just talk about their delicious food and great atmospheres. There is nothing new or news-worthy about being delicious. Delicious is also very subjective.

Less than 475 calories for everything on the menu is specific and news-worthy. No one can argue about that. And it is definitely new and different.

6. The steal.

Not all successful brands are built on a totally new idea. Many just borrow what has worked in one category and use it in another.

PowerBar was an energy bar. So Red Bull launched an energy drink.

Healthy is certainly not a new idea in food. Subway built one of the leading fast-food restaurant chains by focusing on health. Fresh and healthy. The low-fat sandwiches and Jared’s weight-loss from eating at Subway brilliantly reinforced this position.

Seasons 52 is doing at the high end what Subway did at the low end.

The most successful branders are not always the ones who conjure up the new ideas but the ones who can recognize a good idea and use it to build a brand.

Seasons 52 has the position, the difference, the PR potential all working in its favor to build a potentially powerful global brand. Darden, the owners of Red Lobster and Olive Garden, have done it again with their latest brand, Seasons 52.

What's in a name?

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare wrote:

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
without that title.”

Sorry Shakespeare, but you are terribly wrong on this one.

What’s in a name? Everything.

A rose by another name would not smell as sweet and Romeo by some other name not so perfect a love.

While we all want to believe that names don’t matter, that what really matters is the strength of our character and the quality of our product. The reality is that names matter enormously.

Most actors in Hollywood don’t use their birth name. Marion Morrison would never make a good cowboy, but John Wayne certainly did. Or how about artist Andrew Warhola? His 15 minutes of fame was only accomplished with the name Andy Warhol.

A name is the beginning of your journey into the mind of the consumer. And a good name will help that process. A good name will help position your brand. A good name will help consumers to perceive that your product is better.

A bad name usually blocks you from ever entering the mind at all.

Having a better brand is not about actual differences in people, products or services. Having a better brand is about having a better brand perception in the mind. The mind is not like Consumer Reports; the mind is heavily influenced by name, brand, PR and word of mouth.

One of the most tempting and logical but ultimately disastrous naming strategies is using a generic descriptive name. While you think you are giving your brand an advantage by describing exactly who you are and what you do. You aren’t able to build a powerful brand. Generic names are filed in the mind in the lowercase. To have power, brands need to be filed in the uppercase.

Seattle’s Best Coffee, might tell people that you have a high-end coffee shop from the Pacific Northwest. But when I ask people what Seattle’s best coffee is the answer is always the same: Starbucks.

Seattle’s Best Coffee is not a name it is a position. Positioning statements do not make good brand names.

Look at what has happened in the high-definition DVD business. There are two competing formats. Blu-ray and HD DVD.

Blu-ray is a beautiful name. Simple, unique, futuristic.

HD DVD is a terrible name. Generic, boring, descriptive.

So it is not surprising to me that in the first quarter 70% of the high-definition discs bought were Blu-ray compared to only 30% for HD DVD.

Building a brand is like picking up a girl in a bar. To be successful you have to have a little mystery and intrigue. You have to stand apart from the crowd. You have to be authentic. You have to have credentials. And you have to have a good name. Romeo works for me.

Brand names that need to go.

While on vacation in Colorado celebrating the thanksgiving holiday with family I came across what could be the craziest brand name I have seen in a long time. I could not believe my eyes as we drove by a gas station called Kum & Go. Yes, that is right. I took a photo to prove it. Please feel free to insert your own bad joke here. I immediately thought of a joke regarding a nickname for a cute college boy back in the day. Perhaps the station could name its mini-mart Booty Call? Wouldn’t that be cute?

Now I get the obvious respectable reason for the name, but understanding the connotations consumers would jump to should also be considered. I don’t think I am the only one with a dirty mind and active imagination. Gas stations all sell the same gas so the only difference is the location, the color and the brand name. Without a product to differentiate itself, a gas station needs to consider color and name very carefully.

BP is not a powerful name. BP are meaningless initials since most people in the U.S. don’t know that they stands for British Petroleum. But BP is a powerful brand because of its green color. BP makes fantastic use of a strong singular color that is the opposite of the competition. Actually it would be even stronger if they eliminated the yellow from the logo.

Most gas stations use a combination of red and blue. Red and blue are appealing and eye catching colors but a singular unique color is much more powerful in building your brand in the mind.

Look at Coca-Cola and the color red. Coca-cola’s singular use of red has made an indeleable mark in the mind of consumers worldwide, so much so that the company’s nickname is Big Red.

Pepsi on the other hand for many years used a beautiful combination of blue, white and red for its logo, but as a result it did not create a very visible brand in the market or in the mind.

Today, Pepsi has wised up and gone blue. Pepsi-Cola now owns blue and has created much more visibility for its brand. Finally consumers are able to distinguish Pepsi signs, machines and packages in the marketplace.

Name and color are two extremely important marketing decisions which should not be taken lightly or humorously.

Two honorable mentions for crazy and unappetizing branding moves:

1. Hormel Natural Choice deli products. That’s right the makers of SPAM, the king of artificial and fabricated meat products is now serving up all natural meats and refrigerated entrees. No matter how good the stuff is it will never get away from that tin can stink.

2. Special K protein water. “Kellogg has megabrand ambitions for Special K”, declared a recent AdAge article. There is always a point when a brand extension reaches insanity. And this one is special indeed. I can see eating a Special K cereal bar (a category name which was wisely chosen to give cereal brands a fighting chance.) But water and cereal simply don’t mix.

The 9 keys to naming success.

The single most important marketing decision a company can make it what to name a brand. A brand’s power lies in its ability to grab a position in the mind of the consumer. With a poor brand name you make the job of getting into the mind that much harder. With a great brand name you can help your brand down the road to success.

It’s not that a brand with a poor name won’t ever succeed. Many do. If you price something cheap enough, it will move in spite of a dreadful name. Hyundai, for example, sold 400,221 vehicles in the U.S. last year. But did you ever hear someone say, “Eat your heart out, I just got myself a 2004 Hyundai?” Is Hyundai a powerful brand? I think not.

Some powerful brand names include: Lexus, Red Bull, Google and Starbucks. The 9 keys that follow will help you pick the best name possible for your brand. Don’t expect a name to meet all the nine requirements but if it covers more than a few you’ll know you have a winner.

Key #1: Short.

In general, the shorter the better. The longer and more complicated a name the more difficult it is to remember. The Internet has made this an even more important issue, since a website is the first place many people go to find out more about a brand. With a website address the less typing the less likely there is for error.

Some examples of short names: Tide, Apple, Crest, Nike, Gap, TiVo, Rolex.

Some examples of names that are too long: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Deloitte & Touche, Bausch & Lomb, TIAA-CREF.

Key #2: Simple.

Simple is not the same as short. Simplicity has to do with the alphabetical construction of a brand name. A simple word uses only a few letter of the alphabet and arranges them in a combination that repeat itself.

Schwab is a short name (six letters), but it is not a simple name because it uses six letters of the alphabet. This is one of the reasons it is not particularity easy to spell. Mississippi is a long name (11 letters), but it is also a simple name because it only uses four letters of the alphabet. Which is why most people can spell Mississippi.

Some simple brand names: Coca-Cola, Nissan, Google, Hennessy.

Key #3: Suggestive of the category.

A generic name is not as powerful as a proper name. But a name that is suggestive of the category can help consumers identity what your brand stand for. One way to achieve this is by shortening the generic for the category. You create a proper name that is short and easy to remember. Soy milk became the brand name Silk. Vanilla cookies became the brand name Nilla.

Another way is by using a word out of context that suggests the category.

Some suggestive names: Blockbuster Video, Curves, Roller Blade, SnackWell’s, Palm, PlayStation.

Key #4: Unique.

A totally unique name can only be created from scratch, but it can be an effective way to create one. The best unique names also follow some of the other rules, like being short, simple, and speakable.

Some great and unique brand names: Lexus, Xerox, Kodak, Kleenex, Sony, Kinko’s.

Key #5: Alliterative.

Why do you think children move their lips when they read? They are converting the visual symbols represented by the letters and words into sounds that can be processed by their brains. The mind works with the sound of words, not with their shapes. Which is why the sound of a brand name is much more important than how it looks. And why funny capitalizations and punctuations do not make good brand names.

Since the mind works with the sound of words, it is very helpful to rhyme something to help people remember it. (Loose lips sink ships, If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit.)

Some alliterative names: Gold’s Gym, Dunkin’ Donuts, Jelly Belly, Weight Watchers, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Volvo, BlackBerry, Grey Goose.

Key #6: Speakable.

Word of mouth is the most effective medium for building a brand. Having friends, family, neighbors, or co-workers tell you about a new brand is much more powerful than any advertisement you might be exposed to. But how do you get the first mouth moving? You first have to give the mouth something to work with. Hopefully a brand name that is easy to say and remember. Then you use PR to get the first mouth moving. A name that is difficult to pronunce is a recipe for disaster.

Some speakable brand names: Target, Subway, Polo, iPod, Wonderbra.

Some unspeakable brand names: Chipolte, Isaac Mizrahi, Hoechst, Dasani, HSBC.

Key #7: Spellable.
An easy-to-say name usually translates into an easy to spell name. But not always. Using a combination of letters & numbers, upper & lowercase or the addition of symbols can make a name difficult to spell. And in the age of the internet, if your customers don’t spell your name perfectly, they will be unable to reach your website. The postal service is rather forgiving when delivering mail with a misspelling in the name. But the internet is a different story.

Some easy to spell names: Target, Amazon, Old Navy.

Some difficult to spell names: Daewoo, Hyundai, Abercrombie & Fitch.

Key #8: Shocking.

The best brand names usually have an element of shock or surprise. A shocking name gets attention and is more memorable. Of course, you have to be careful that your name doesn’t go overboard and is so shocking that it offends people. In this connection, the clothing company FCUK (French Connection United Kingdom) comes to mind.

Some great shocking names: DieHard, Yahoo, Monster, Woot, Virgin, Yellow Tail, Red Bull, Starbucks.

Key #9: Personalized.

Personalizing your brand name enhances the publicity potential of your brand. A famous founder/CEO/spokesperson is extremely beneficial. Remember it is PR that builds brands. And with a personalized brand name the PR links directly to the brand.

Some great personalized brand names: Dell, Orville Redenbacher, Newman’s Own, Atkins, Papa John’s Pizza, Craigslist.com, Disney.