Hotix(TM) or Hiitox or maybe even Hotix-Pro(TM) – these product names have been flying across my screen all week. All pertaining to be the latest Swedish small wall heater plug-in the socket. All with the same photo image. Why would competitors have similar or distorted names I wondered?
I was first drawn to the cuteness and brevity of the name Hotix with the 2 little dots over the 0’s -that don’t easily transpose into a .com name.
Oscar Karlson, the Swedish engineer-cum-inventor, saw the niche for a personal space heater for those cold spots in rooms at home or work areas. These purport to create maximum heat for minimum cost and energy output.
On browsing further I found competitors with a descriptive, more mundane name of Magic Heater. Now, being one not to believe in magic I read no further down the product burbles.
However, when I first came across this name I thought this must be the next Asian gadget trying to infiltrate the Western markets. This assumption was based purely on the morphology of the suffix Ho. He/Ho/ are the romanced translation or evolution of many Chinese names (Wikipedia reckons in the region of 14 million plus). Whereas, Ha has its origins in Vietnamese idioms.
Following this line of thought I burrowed down further and removed the (H) = Otix.
What? This is a name of eardrops or even Otex and Otic to treat ear infections. If you add an Otix=(o) ; Otixo which is a workspace company for teams and projects with complex file overloads.
We can go on ad-infinitum about numerous evolutions of names and words for Company and products. Yet one thing Marketing and Branding Naming gurus do not want to create is one that is misleading, confusing or watered-down to merge into re-directed intentional or unintentional sales with their competitors.
So here we have what is called in the trade “Snap Products”. They don’t care who made it. They merely want a way /outlet to move high-level product volumes as quickly as possible. These advertisement and “Product Names” have been created as a category for TV or FaceBook bombardment.
All they want is a quick, quick sale! They don’t care if they tarnish the name or the design of the inventor. They are unscrupulous in avarice for high sales – but at what cost to the original brand name of Hotix?
Naming Alphabet Soup 101
(C) Rosie Reay
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