What you name a business, product, or service matters a lot. Shamwow is a much better name than “overpriced piece of cheap shit fabric.” I think it’s important to talk about this because you all run businesses which must have names. You create and sell products and services which must have names. For something as important to the busines of Barnes & Noble as its Kindle competitor, you’d think they would have done a better job with the name.
NOOKcolor?
Really?
This is a classic example of how perspective gets lost. The original product’s name was Nook. It had all the right connotations and meanings: like combination of New and Book. A nook is a cozy place to read, we think of comfort & warmth. All good so far.
Then a color version comes out, and someone at Barnes & Noble felt this really had to be highlighted because it’s a huge differentiator from Amazon’s Kindle. I get that. Who knows what they thought of along the way, but it seems to me there’s just not much you can do with it:
- Color Nook
- Nook Color
- C-Nook
- Nook-C
- Nook 2
You get the idea. It’s not easy and it’s not elegant. Really, NOOKcolor is as good as can be expected.
There are several huge problems with it, however:
- YOU CAN’T HARDLY PRONOUNCE IT. Seriously, I feel like I’m about to stutter every time I say the word. It’s just unbearably awkward, putting two hard “C” sounds like that back-to-back.
- STUPID MIXED CASE. Here’s a clue: don’t create a name that is a pain in the ass to write or spell. Nobody will get it right. You dilute and weaken your own brand by ensuring most people will screw up your name.
- Because the word color is in the name, now everyone’s headlines are potentially awkward: NOOKcolor now in… color… Hello, Department of Redundancy Department?
- And in the future when all ebook readers will be in color, finally, the name will be dated as well as super-awkward to write, read and pronounce.
I don’t think the word color was needed at all. Everybody on the planet writing about it would not fail to mention: HEY, IT’S IN COLOR. They could have commercials showing bland ol’ black & white Kindle next to HEY I’M IN COLOR, BITCHES! and it would have worked smashingly. The color aspect is so obvious it really doesn’t need to be in the name.
The Big Lesson & Some Tips
So what does this mean to you? I can think of several take-aways.
- Run any potential name by people who aren’t familiar with what you do, and gauge their reactions.
- Test names on your target market. Your best customers are often more than willing to help you create something they would find irresistible.
- Make sure you can easily say the name out loud.
- Make sure you can say it with a straight face, without the slightest hint of embarrassment.
- Make sure it’s easy to type.
- Check for unintended meanings or double entendres.
- Avoid puns, unless you’re opening a small-town hair salon. Then you are required by law to make your name a terrible pun.
- Try to include search keywords in the name if you can, but don’t make the name an exact match keyword phrase because that sounds lifeless and it looks like you’re trying to game Google instead of create a legitimate business/product/service.
If you can think of any tips or lessons learned (or have your own “bad name” stories), feel free to share in the comments!
As I looked closer, I found the new name could be interpreted in an even less flattering (like Chevy's Nova debacle in Latin America):
NOOKcolor = NO OK color (as in, “It's in color, but we were in such a rush to ship that we couldn't get them right and skin tones make people look like Martians.”)
Um, yeah.
Thanks for the tips to avoid doing this.
Yes! Nook should have been the defacto default name for the new colorized Nook. And the original version should have been Nook Classic! Or Nook Retro.
@TJList: The Nova story is a hoax. Check Snopes.com…
With that said, when Nookcolor (yes I know I didn't cap it right, just like ebook, email, etc.) has a browser, will BN.com (hello stupid URL) have a new name NOOKweb?
Good advice on naming strategy. But as for this product? I don't think buyers really care. People just call it the Nook. Buying the color one makes the only sense; otherwise it's just a Kindle. So people will just say, “You got the color one, right?” until B and N drops the basic one. We love ours (we each have one). B and N is sellin' them like hotcakes, with new apps a'comin'.
Everyone made fun of the iPad name, too, didn't they? For about 4 minutes.
Thank you for this. I saw a “NookColor” yesterday (eech, it's even awkward to type)…not impressed, and no reason to switch from my Kindle. I agree about the name, though. Not exactly imaginative, but not much to do with it. I remember when “Fructis” debuted its line of hair care products…it sounded too much like “F-this.”
Part of the other problem with the Fructis line is that nobody pronounced it
correctly, which made it sound even more vaguely obscene. Yay, American
literacy.
G'Day Michael,
I agree. The whole business of product/business naming is so important: far more so than many businesspeople think. One of the difficulties with naming is that we look at well established , reputable companies with dull names, e.g. Barnes & Noble, and forget that they've spent ages establishing that name and what it represents.
We figure that given time, “Martene and Noone Webmasters” will gain acceptance. It may; if you don't go out of business while you're waiting.
The name I'm most proud of is one a client and I came up with for his company. It was previously “John Smith Plumbing P/L” We renamed it “The Clean Plumber.” It has been sensationally successful. As your probably aware, the thing most householders hate about tradespersons is that they're never on time and leave a mess. Even If they are on time they still leave a mess.”The Clean Plumber” promises so much.
All the really great names promise something to the prospect in terms of what's important to the prospect.”Apple,” “Greyhound,” “Philadelphia Cream Cheese.” The latter is the only Kraft Cheese without “Kraft” in the title. I think it's still market leader in cream cheese. The product/business name must imply a promise to the prospect in terms that are important to them. If not in the name, the promise should be in the slogan.
Far and away the biggest supermarket chain in Australia is “Woolworths.” It's not a particular prepossessing name. But wait. Add the slogan and it becomes: “Woolworths , The Fresh Food People.” They own the word “fresh.” Useful for a supermarket chain.
Anyway, that's my two bob's worth. Have a great Christmas and….
make sure you have fun.
Regards
Leon
I agree with Leon, that it takes years to establish a name that doesn't say what the product is. Like Nike, McDonalds or Apple. But today you have to add search engines and domain names into the mix. There was this small store that I drove by all the time called Lindsey's, well I noticed it because that is my daughters name, but to this day I have no idea what they sold! I'm thinking something for woman, but hey that could be makeup, jewelry, linens, crystal, clothing, even chocolates. The bio line or slogan can help alot, but even Leon Woolworth's example isn't the best. OK so they are the fresh food people… That doesn't say hey I'm a grocery store, it says were in the food business. Are we selling can food, frozen, fresh, a store, a warehouse, a cannery or what? Why not have chosen Woolworth Food's, the little grocery store within a big supermarket.
Cute or Unique it great when your naming a band, but in today's world there is alot of competition out there, so why not beat them to the finish line with a name that tells all. You know kinda like the “Remark a Blogger”!
Great points. The name has clout if the people behind that name have been
putting effort over time into making the name mean something. You see this
online with people who are known more by their personal names instead of a
brand name, like Chris Brogan.
I'm pretty sure dog grooming services are subject to the same punning laws as hair salons. To wit, “LaundroMutt” in Cambridge, MA. That one I sorta like.
Ha! That one's pretty good, actually. One of those names all the other dog
groomers wish they'd thought of.
I have generally done my own naming and copywriting, but thought, huh, maybe a new set of eyes would help. With that in mind I hired a copywriter to name one of my online offerings. She came up with the “online profit rocket”.
1. I cannot easily say that out loud, let alone with a straight face
2. My clients tend to be entrepreneurs who are a little twisted and who would bastardize it into something that is dirty that would inevitably come out instead of “profit rocket”.
These are some great guidelines and ones that every online marketer should be aware of!
Profit Rocket is dirty enough as it is, LOL.
Besides, it sounds kinda
cheesy.
or better yet…
run a ppc campaign and see what the public responds to best in terms of click through rate and conversion
Absolutely! Works for book titles, why not anything else.