Awkward name of the week

At last year’s Silicon Valley Code Camp, Infragistics provided the registration lanyards as shown in the photo here. The novel idea of a zipper wasn’t obvious to all of us at the first go around. More importantly, we saluted them for doing such sponsorship because their marketing team have a daily problem promoting anything with such an awkward name. I am sure they picked the name because they thought it was descriptive of what they do – but it can’t be that descriptive if they still needed a descriptive tagline: Design / Develop / Experience.

This reminds me a lot of the companies that tried to use the word Intranet to emphasize what they were involved in. Sure this is a valid technical word. Doesn’t mean it works in naming. Any linguist can explain to you why it is so awkward and not even close to being on a par with Internet. Oh the joys of the English language. A small subtle change can have a major effect – especially on brand names.

Why couldn’t they just have chosen examples like Fragistics or Infrastics instead? Still just names. A little more intellectual perhaps. A million times easier and shorter to brand.  AND as of this writing, the .com domain names are all clear and available.

 PS SV Code Camp is looking for a new home this year, as the Foothill College Campus is no longer available. Please visit their site if you have any ideas or suggestions.

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