Gyazo is such an unusual name for an international handy software utility that the American product manager even made a little SoundCloud audio clip on how to pronounce it – gee ah zoh (with a hard g like in glee).
More importantly, the name proves an old adage of ours about naming: An unusual name cuts through the noise. There are many screen capture utility programs out there, most with English-like names that try to include screen or capture somehow. Typical, but not very smart. When you want to go viral you need a unique name that everyone can quickly share, be they in UK, Russia, Japan, Korea, Africa or wherever. A name that people can quickly pass along by word of mouse without any confusion with competitor product names. A name that works for their Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian and English audiences.
Gyazo already has its own YouTube channel, of which only one video is supplied by the developer of Gyazo. Sure is saving them from making lots of how to do it or use it pages in many languages. Don’t you love your faithful users when you suddenly get hot! Gyazo.com has gone from nowhere to a top 1500 site worldwide as hundreds of people tell their friends about its quick way to capture (or record) part of your screen and instantly share it with anyone or any group. And, of course, they use Facebook to get the latest Gyazo news out.
Apparently the developer had thought of changing the name for a more international audience, but the product manager (who has a fair bit of experience as a professional naming contractor too) correctly called that the initial spread of this utility would be via geeks – the exact audience that embraced computer games, where many of the titles are Japanese names and characters. This should be a lesson to young startups everywhere – be brave in naming and positioning of your products. It might just work and surely separate you from stodgy, big software houses.
(C) Copyright 2013 Brighter Naming ®
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