Why do corporate image and Name Identities die a slow death?
Globally speaking, every hour, around the clock, seven days a week, a major corporation is forced to change its name. Sometimes it’s good news, when there is new adventure in the air. But at times, and often, it’s very bad news, when a corporate name becomes a liability, a burden, injured in a trademark battle. When simply it is no longer capable of ringing the cash registers. Here are seven reasons why.
1. Your corporate name is identical or similar to thousands of others.
When a corporate name is heavily diluted and shared by hundreds and thousands of others in all kinds of businesses, then a name is simply lost in the crowd. Also, when a name is a borrowed word from a dictionary, making it a part of everyday lingo, it never achieves any distinction and despite extraordinary expenses in advertising and promotion, it simply dies out of exhaustion. Open any old business magazine and it will unfold like a cemetery of dead corporate names.
2. Your Name Is Too Old To Convey Today’s Dynamics.
Established as a great icon of a period, sometimes a name crawls out of history, reflecting the great human toil by the founding fathers but somehow not at all suitable for the current agile, cybernauts and the digital savvy human force of today, surrounded with emerging technologies and facing an explosive future. Corporate communication constantly struggles to shed the old image by promoting the future vision of the company and tries hard to appear young and futuristic. But, like a chronic, grumpy, old patient in a nursing home, these types of names struggle and slowly linger for decades but always fading away in the end. Any old publication will provide the proof in black and white.
3. The Spelling Of Your Corporate Name Requires A Higher IQ.
A large majority of corporate names are spelled creatively to fit a logo or to avoid a serious trademark problem. Here, common sense and the science of corporate nomenclature are abused at the risk of being too sexy and different. This twisted spelling only ensures obscurity. The mind continually rejects the corruption of a familiar word and refuses to remember specific alpha structures. After all, if a name can be spelled in four different ways, then you will only end up with 25% of the hits and profits. This type of creativity doesn’t help. These sparks of geniuses end up kindling fires and eventually causing serious damage.
4. You Spend More Money Explaining The Origin Of Your Corporate Name.
If a name cannot simply relate to the business and requires constant explanation of its obscure, yet cute, origin and how it fits overall to the business, then it becomes a daily routine for advertising to educate the universe of this dysfunctionality. The poor consumer, the lost end-user, and the over-burdened population of the world at large, doesn’t really care what the name means to you, rather simply what it means to them. Corporations and ad agencies thrive on getting awards for their creative efforts and advertising gimmicks for pushing their side of the story, while the consumer simply shuts off.
5. You Do Not Own A Trademark With An Identical Dot.Com.
If you do not legally own a corporate name then what’s the point of the exercise? Why bother at all? Every time your name is advertised it simply helps the industry at large and your competitors. Also, you don’t build any brand values and equities and your entire advertising and marketing dollar is wasted. A large majority of corporate names in business today are not globally trademarkable and most do not have identical dot.com domain.
6. Your Name Is Embarrassing In Certain Countries.
Globalization is a fact of life. A name must work like a marketing weapon, not only in your own country but also around the globe. There is no need to hide under the desk because the name is embarrassing or profane in a foreign language. A large majority of names today do not work efficiently on the international scene and cause an ongoing stress in gaining international recognition.
7. Name Is Too Long, Too Difficult, Too Complicated Or Too Boring.
When a name is too long it gets initialized. This unwanted process changes the entire meaning and lists the name in strange categories. When a name is too difficult, confusing or boring it becomes a different animal to different people. Strange name combinations, due to M&A, end up telling more than one story and causes confusion in the market place. Weird terminologies, alphanumeric structures, using upper or lower cases, dashes or slashes and other dingbat characters in a name will only ensure self-destruction.
Now there are only Two Options:
Firstly, that you already have a world class, unique, powerful, globally trademarkable name which is highly related to your specific business and it also has an identical dot.com. Congratulations – you can stop here. No need to go further. It’s Champagne time. Secondly, if not, you should seriously consider changing it fast, the sooner the better. Just remember, no amount of money spent will be able to save the name in the long run.
Eeny-Meeny-Miny-Mo, Catch a Name by the Toe:
Never, never, pick a name out of a hat. It’s a bad thing. If your naming challenge is simply based on a hit or miss process, then you are definitely not going forward. Remember, picking out of a hat can also happen more than once. One, when you and your staff pool up a large list of names and pick one out of sheer desperation. Two, when you ask an ad agency or a, so-called, world-class identity firm, who also internally with their staff, or externally with creative freelancers, go through an identical exercise, which ends up picking a name from a very large hat. Normally, the day before the press conference. Are you still holding an old magazine? The proof of embarrassing name announcements covers most centerfold ads.
Myths, Facts and Rules:
“We are out of names” is only a myth successfully established by advertising and logo shops. Thus leaving the clients with strange, weird, and often silly, names. Contrary to belief, there is no shortage of unique, powerful, one-of-a-kind, trademarkable, corporate names. What is short is successful, proven methodologies and highly reputable professionals with successful track records. So therefore, what you need is a professionally executed, naming strategy, guided by a Masters of Naming Architect. Ask your agency if they can produce such a professional with a track record, otherwise they are only picking names out of a hat. Naming is a serious black and white exercise and it should never be confused with color, design, logos and branding campaigns, which only become important after a name has been selected under the guidance of a naming architect.
Naseem Javed of http://www.naseemjaved.com, is a syndicated columnist, author of Naming for Power, Founder of ABC Namebank International, www.abcnamebank.com world-renowned lecturer, and an expert on corporate naming issues. Naseem is a committed follower of sobriety in corporate and communication strategies and a harsh critic of the “beer commercial” mentality on naming and the influence of voodoo branding on our culture. A hilarious speaker, he has a powerful message on why Global Name Identities are on fire.
