{"id":191,"date":"2018-07-18T15:13:27","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T09:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marshmallow.in\/blog\/?p=191"},"modified":"2018-07-18T16:20:15","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T10:50:15","slug":"whats-in-a-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshmallow.in\/blog\/whats-in-a-name\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s in a name?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

A recent advertisement on the television grabbed my attention. It was the handsome Virat Kohli munching on some \u2018healthy\u2019 snacks. The brand name, \u2018Too Yumm\u2019. Really? I would have liked it if it was a positioning line for a brand, but if it is good for a brand name is a topic of debate.<\/p>\n

Names of brands really intrigue me. We come across so many brand names on a day-to-day basis, but do we ever wonder what goes behind naming these brands?<\/p>\n

After all, names affect the way customers perceive the brand. The names impact the way we think and feel about a particular brand. Name, being the first point of contact, is also one of the critical areas on which the customers form an opinion.<\/p>\n

Naming a brand is a big deal<\/a>. Ask any brand guru and they would vouch for the fact that conceiving names that customers will fall in love with is an \u2018incredibly tricky task\u2019. Tackling this challenge is not just difficult but can sometimes get damn frustrating.<\/p>\n

With so many factors that come into play \u2013 right from trademark issues, to language barriers, spellings, pronunciations, sound amongst others \u2013 naming a business is not easy-peasy; although, the name itself may look like a \u2018simple\u2019 one.\u00a0 Take for example Alphabet<\/a> (of which Google Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary) a simple, straight forward and extremely effective name.\u00a0 A famous brand guru rightly pointed out, \u201cThe name (Alphabet) is an idea, and it\u2019s a set of letters that forms the basis of all communications. The name encourages Wall Street investors to buy this stock as you\u2019re making an \u2018alpha-bet\u2019 \u2014 one that will outperform others \u2014 and lastly, it\u2019s a real dictionary word, which is a rare find these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since most dictionary words are taken, it\u2019s no wonder that brands form names by merging two words or editing a word to suit their preferences. Tanishq<\/a>, a jewellery brand from the house of TATA got its name by combining first two letters of word Tata with \u0928\u0937\u094d\u0915 (Nishk) meaning necklace or a gold coin in Sanskrit. The famous toy brand Lego also derived its name from Danish words ‘Leg Godt’, which means to ‘play well’.<\/p>\n

You will see also a different school of thought that goes behind naming a brand in these days of the internet \u2013 ones where they drop the vowel. Flickr, Tumblr and Scribd are some note-worthy examples. And then there are intentionally misspelled words \u2013 Google and Reddit.<\/p>\n

Blended words too are a norm – Wikipedia<\/a> (wiki + encyclopedia), Zillow (zillions + pillow), Hipmunk (hip + chipmunk), Pinterest (pin + interest), Instagram (instant + telegram). And some that sound like noises a baby would make \u2013 Etsy, Skype, Zynga.<\/p>\n

In the earlier days and a few today many brands have formed names from the names of the founders \u2013 Dabur<\/a> got its names from Founder Dr. S.K. Burman, widely popular as DAktar BURman, Adidas<\/a> was named after owner Adolf Dassler whose nickname was Adi. Adi Dassler became Adidas. Parle (derived from Vile Parle, Mumbai), Adobe (Derived from Adobe creek in California), Cisco (Derived from San FranCISCO) are some popular brands that have derived their names from places.<\/p>\n

Descriptive names and suggestive names are a popular choice as well. While many hit the home run with it, others don\u2019t. Nivea (which derives its name from Latin word niveus, meaning “snow-white”) is a beautiful name for a brand, but do you find White Tone Powder or Pretty 24 appealing? I bet not.<\/p>\n

There is a lot that goes into a name. Many brands like Xerox, Bisleri, Coke, have even become synonymous to the category. What\u2019s in a name? Logic I say!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent advertisement on the television grabbed my attention. It was the handsome Virat Kohli munching on some \u2018healthy\u2019 snacks. The brand name, \u2018Too Yumm\u2019. Really? I would have liked it if it was a positioning line for a brand, but if it is good for a brand name is a topic of debate. Names … Continue reading “What\u2019s in a name?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11,16,10],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-branding","tag-brand-consultancy","tag-brand-name","tag-branding-agency"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat\u2019s in a name? - Marshmallow Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marshmallow.in\/blog\/whats-in-a-name\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What\u2019s in a name?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Driving around Ahmedabad on a lazy Sunday evening, this shop in the neighbourhood really caught my attention - it\u2019s called \u2018Hermess\u2019 \u2013 a rip off on the famous international designer label Hermes with an additional S, if you didn\u2019t notice it! \u2013 But, I believe she made a complete \u2018mess\u2019 out of it. 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