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First Call for Silicon Valley Code Camp

Athol — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:55:09 +0000

Early days yet, but already close to a 1000 people have registered for the magic weekend only Silicon Valley can host: Code Camp. Two intense days of talks, all free, with the associated networking and demos of top software companies and their tool specialists. Plus one namer!

Click the graphic above to go directly to my sessions on starting a business quickly and on naming your software package.

49ers to wear denim!

Athol — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:16:33 +0000

Now that it is final that the San Francisco 49ers football team has sold the naming rights to Levi Strauss, I can’t but wonder what else Levi’s will do to get their $10 million a year money’s worth.

No, the naming rights by themselves are not worth all that money. Especially since so few games are played each year in a football stadium. So it is the total package and other promo opportunities that really make this a great buy. We look forward to seeing how Levi’s does it right. At least they won’t be confused with any other Levi’s… like the big mess up when Candlestick Park was called Monster Stadium. Paid for by Monster Cables (which so few people know) – with Monster.com laughing all the way to the awareness brand bank.

Other bloggers have speculated how to bring 501 into the equation as Levi’s is famous for their old 501 blue jeans – not that I have ever seen such a pair. My thought was it could be part of their address, but I see the next door training facility is already called 4949 Centennial Drive, so that won’t work. And the stadium is in the middle of the very long Tasman Drive, so unlikely to have a small number address there either. However, what about a short connecting road where the main stadium entrance is at 501 Blue Jeans Road?

PS Sure looking forward to seeing the Gold Rush girls in their denim shorts:)

Wavii becomes a Google company

Athol — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 03:31:51 +0000

Some clients, and other agencies, are surprised that Brighter Naming will still find a way to work with very small startups. And today we have a new example of why we do this as Wavii officially announced that they have been bought out by Google.

We enjoyed working with Adrian Aoun on this naming project when he barely had two brass nickels to rub together, but we were flattered he came to us for help even though his father is an eminent linguistics professor. I guess it was time for practical results, not academic theory .

Seriously though, congratulations to the team at Wavii (in Seattle, Washington) on becoming Googleites – which is why they can use this new color scheme on their soon to be historic logo. Hope you don’t all have to move to Mountain View, California – it is full already, even we got squeezed out.

Shorter Names don’t get lost in Nothing But Initials hell

Athol — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 14:48:01 +0000

Just when I was thinking about publishing my annual diatribe about how long names so easily get abbreviated to initials, and then you are lost in the morass of nothing but initials that are so hard and expensive to brand, I came across this footer from the home page of RioGrande:

RioGrande themselves would never think of watering down their brand to RGI say, but look at all their memberships and partners. Unless you are in their specific field I bet you haven’t a clue what these stand for, other than Verisign which you don’t have to decode.

Notice also that they are now a Berkshire Hathaway Company (Warren Buffet’s investment holding company). And long as the name is, no one even thinks of calling it BHC!

Abbreviations in names and logos are usually to fix problems with the original names. Initials are really hard to trademark and own as well. So don’t go there in the first place, and don’t allow anyone to abbreviate your trademark except lawyers in legal contracts.

Interesting names for home sites on the web

Athol — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:02:42 +0000

There are many real estate agencies across the USA, all of which have somehow found a name to use. Of course, most of these are fairly local geographically speaking, though they might even belong to one of the few national franchises. Every time we work with realtors, it seems the bias is towards very traditional and conservative names. We even joke about being the next SunCoast realtor for those in South East, or the next Sunset Homes for those on the West Coast.

So that made me ponder why the newer national online services for home buyers and remodellers have such interesting and unique names like Zillow, Houzz and Trulia. My guess is because all these are started by young high tech geeks trying to change the archaic old models of house hunting. Geeks..not realtors! People with a desire for a short new unique name that they can brand and trademark worldwide. And people with the confidence to do so without having to explain to family and friends why they did not call it Sunshine Home Values.

Let this be a lesson to all who are looking for new names. Properly coined words that sound like they belong in the dictionary, but are not, are your shortest route to creating a new, unique and defensible brand name, as this example so clearly illustrates.

The crowded skies of cloud names

Athol — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:36:52 +0000

Many years ago Mark Andreesen named one of his first startups after Netscape, LoudCloud. Awkward as this name was, he is such an industry pundit that it caused a run on Cloud domain names. Interestingly enough, even they weren’t comfortable with the name and in due course it was renamed Opsware before being sold to HP back in 2007.
Recently we have been thinking about how crowded it is becoming as Cloud based computing reaches a crescendo. This was confirmed for us at the recent Product Marketing Camp in Silicon Valley where more than one speaker said they had visited many a software client recently, all of which were providing undifferentiated cloud-based services. When I asked what was the next big fad that would drown out all this cloud noise, the audience chuckled mightily. And no one wanted to be reminded that LoudCloud went public back in 2001. So much for the speed of technology and the embracing of hot new ideas.
Naming consultants like us are still very happy to provide product names that position your systems and services in the cloud, but wouldn’t you be better off focusing on what your end-user customers want instead? Ideas like ubiquitous data everywhere, for example?

Strange Northern Names

Athol — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 03:39:16 +0000

What do the following names all have in common? [Hint: They have all been in the news this past week in connection with the same story]

Yentna
Skwentna
Finger Lake
Rainy Pass
Rohn
Nikolai
McGrath
Takotna
Ophir
Iditarod
Shageluk
Anvik
Grayling
Eagle Island
Kaltag
Unalakleet
Shaktoolik
Koyuk
Elim
White Mountain

Indian place names for L.A. area too – finally

Athol — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 18:38:51 +0000

In most of the USA, there are remnants and history from the native indian tribes that first populated the lands. Some have even become famous names like Yosemite and Shenandoah and Mojave. It seems to me though that the big exception to this has been Southern California where Indian names have seldom survived. Could this be because the land was later overrun by Mexico? (I mean before the Grapes of Wrath settlers came from the East, not the present Mexican evolution.)

Or could the problem be that the local tribes mostly came from the Tongva Nation lineage that had names like Sawayagna, Sehatgna, Tibgna, Moniikangna? Names we all struggle with since the constructs are hard to say. See the Tongva Nation Map. The exception to this name style is the old name for San Clemente Island: Kinkipar. According to my informants, many a Kinky Pair still visit the island:)

Anyway, kudus to the Santa Monica city council for finally confessing they don’t have any better ideas and so named their new fancy park Tongva Park. If that name sounds strange to you now, come back in a few years. Everyone will be treating it as just as common as any other new actor in town name.

Ambushed names are not to be supported

Athol — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:02:32 +0000

Lately I have been getting a lot of advertising about switching our company accounting to Fresh Books – probably because we are loyal QuickBooks users. However, companies that don’t have the gumption to come up without their own unique names, and instead try to ambush some of the brand equity of other famous names, will never have my support. It is anathema to the way I do business and the way I believe brands should be developed and it just makes me feel sick to the stomach.

That is also why I have never even tasted Powerade (now a Coca Cola line) even though I can no longer drink Gatorade (now a Pepsi brand) because of its excessive amount of sugar. Nor have I ever driven a Land Cruiser, even when I briefly worked in online sales for a Toyota dealer, though I pine for a new LandRover.

If a small local pizza shop calls themselves Hominoes, that may be fun and attract some attention that unfortunately Dominoes can not do much about, except to say that Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But this is not the route for major brands – shame on you all who do.

Project Peanut Butter does very, very good work

Athol — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 07:03:05 +0000

Usually at this time of the year I am launching out on my annual diatribe against stolen brand names, starting as usual with Skippy’s. Like in Skippy’s Peanut Butter. They have given back the domain name, they have stopped using the Skippy caricature, but they still have not licensed or given back the product name to the rightful family ownership. Without they name, of course, they are just another peanut butter. But this doesn’t mean they shouldn’t pay royalties or a licensing fee for the name. Doesn’t anyone in the big ownership company have a conscience somewhere?

Instead, what I would rather write about this year is the fact that some researchers have found that peanut butter and its ingredients are a great cure for malnutrition, especially in Africa. Since peanut butter sauces and spices are common in African cooking, this is especially fortuitous. Hershey Foods is donating a complete factory in Ghana to help Project Peanut Butter. Perhaps you can help in some small way too.