Background:

What happens when naming accidents happen? Like the few rare times when two competitors try to launch very similar products, at the same show, with exactly the same new name! By then it is even too late for our Emergency Naming Services. And lawyers can have a field day. Or management sensibilities can prevail.

Last year, paddle manufacturers Harmony and Werner both came to the same show to introduce a new paddle called Cascadia. People asked Joe Pullima, a VP at Watermark Sports (Harmony's parent), if they were going to fight it out. Instead he challenged Druce Furrer, Werner's President to a paddle off in one of the demo pools at the show. And lost the competition. So they renamed their paddle Tortuga (an interesting name in itself).

See all the product details today of Cascadia at WernerPaddles.com. Since the corporate brand name dominates, there is no visual identity for this name, and we therefore rate it a neutral 5 (since we don't know what number stands for not applicable).

Ref: This story was first reported by Brian Hindo in Business Week. Thank you Brian.