Terminal Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within successive words in prose or poetry. If the repeated sounds are consonants, in the middle of words, that's consonance. If assonance or consonance is the repetition of the first sound in successive words in a phrase, it's alliteration. When it occurs at the end of words or phrases, it's terminal assonance or consonance; a rhyme.
These literary devices are used in names, slogans, jingles, advertising pitches, and other branding efforts, because rhythmic sounds in language often make a phrase memorable. Sometimes, they're used with great effect; at other times, it seems they're used without rhyme or reason.
AdSlogans.com founder, Timothy R. V. Foster, writes in The Art and Science of the Advertising Slogan that alliteration can help make a slogan or other advertising message memorable. But, in a recent column in the Los Angeles Times titled Poetry of Popular Patter, Bob Barker complains that we're "awash in alliteration."
We are victims of anxious advertising executives and publicity-hungry politicians. Desperate to sell their messages quickly, they repeatedly load their slogans with words whose first sound repeats. They do this crudely and self-consciously, these villains, cheapening a subtly beautiful literary technique.
While we're speaking of anxious advertising executives and publicity-hungry politicians, it's worth noting, perhaps, that the word asinine is derived from the Latin genus, Equus Asinus, which is commonly called an ass.
A male donkey (jackass or jack) can be crossed with a female horse to produce a mule and a male horse crossed with a female donkey (jennet or jenny) to produce a hinny. These hybrids are almost always sterile due to the fact that horses have 64 chromosomes and donkeys have 62, producing offspring with 63 chromosomes.
Terminally asinine is something else entirely, in which the authors claim to have "made salient a largely unacknowledged and undifferentiated aspect of advertising language."
Posted by
abnu on Monday, May 31, 2004 @ 9:58 PM
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Isn't it nice when things just work? If you've seen Cog, the award-winning advert created by Wieden + Kennedy for Honda in the UK, you've been amazed by an incredible commercial. At two minutes long, the ad was deemed too long for attention deficit television audiences in America, but was so remarkable the commercial was broadcast as news.
Cog seems more like an award-winning movie trailer than a commercial. If pictures are worth a thousand words, high impact motion pictures like Cog can be powerful branding statements worth millions. And, as with Cog, often the less said the better. The only words spoken in the entire two minute advert is the understated question punctuating the film, "Isn't it nice when things just work?" The single word seen in the film is the brand name.
It's interesting, too, that the word "cog" is used for the title of this advert. A cog is the tooth on the rim of gear wheel, and it bears a physical connection to automobile mechanics in the efficient working of rack and pinion steering and the effective transmission of power from the engine to the wheels. In the film, the cog is the small piece of the mechanical puzzle that starts it all working.
A powerful word, "cog" evokes work--efficient and effective work. It implies integration in the works. A small but important connecting piece in the organization. And, its value-added goes to the extraordinary results achieved. It's in this sense that the word cog works, behind the scenes, as an effectve element of the branding of companies as different as Contract Office Group and Happy Cog Studios. Nowhere on those websites is there offered any explanation whatsoever of the name cog. Isn't it nice when names just work?
Posted by
abnu on Friday, May 28, 2004 @ 9:48 AM
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Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus: The motto of Harry Potter's Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry means, "Never tickle a sleeping dragon."
Potterania can be found on the new official J.K.Rowling website, which was just announced in time for the release of the new Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Rowling uses her new personal website to connect fans with the Harry Potter brand by offering a behind the scenes look at the series, and answering a lot of trivia questions.
Uber-villain Lord Voldemort is decidedly not Harry's actual father, despite rumors on various fan Web sites. "No, no, no, no, no," Rowling says. "You lot have been watching definitely too much 'Star Wars.'"
Posted by
abnu on Thursday, May 27, 2004 @ 8:26 AM
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Now I'm Nothing:NIN frontman Trent Reznor is suing his former manager, alleging fraud and breach of fiduciary duties and, according to news reports by MTV, is seeking the exclusive rights to the name Nine Inch Nails.
In his suit, Reznor alleges that he was convinced to sign a five-year management agreement in 1989, even though material information was not disclosed in the contract. He claims that Malm and Szekelyi registered the Nine Inch Nails copyright and took 50 percent ownership in merchandising, the Nothing Records label and earnings from other Reznor projects; that more than $3 million of Reznor's money was directed to jointly owned corporations without the musician's knowledge; and that Malm and Szekelyi used Reznor's money and company money for personal travel, entertainment and expenses.
When asked what the name Nine Inch Nails means, Trent said, "I don't know if you've ever tried to think of band names, but usually you think you have a great one and you look at it the next day and it's stupid. I had about 200 of those. nine inch nails lasted the two-week test, looked great in print, and could be abbreviated easily. It really doesn't have any literal meaning. It seemed kind of frightening. [In his best he-man voice] Tough and manly! It's a curse trying to come up with band names." Apparently, it's easier to find inspiration for the words of a song, e.g. Now I'm Nothing.
Posted by
abnu on Wednesday, May 26, 2004 @ 9:31 PM
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Building the Perfect Beast: Everything you've always wanted to know about naming companies or products but were afraid to ask. Igor has just completed The Igor Naming Guide, a document that combines many pages from the Igor website into one handy guide.
Posted by
Jay on Monday, May 24, 2004 @ 1:13 PM
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Feelin' Hot Hot Hot: Jason Love writes, "It's a little-known fact that the man who coined 'mind over matter' died of a Brazilian bikini wax."
Posted by
abnu on Sunday, May 23, 2004 @ 4:45 PM
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Still, more and more lawyers are aware of the importance of naming and branding. Take big name attorneys Johnnie Cochran and Willie Gary for examples. And Geragos takes on so many high profile cases that the name Geragos & Geragos is repeated over and over in the media and in the firm's name.
Seriously now, very few large law firms follow the old tradition of naming the firm by the surnames of all the partners. The trend is noted in an article on naming law firms, which reports:
...in the past few years, law firms have become more marketing-savvy and have realized that members of the public can't remember six or seven names -- particularly names that are difficult to parse and pronounce. So, sacrificing the egos of their partners, the firms have shortened their names to three or two names -- or, less common, one.
But at least one South Florida law firm says marketing be damned. It is keeping the longest name in the area -- Krupnick Campbell Malone Buser Slama Hancock McNelis Lieberman (sic) & McKee. And it won't be shortening that mouthful any time soon.
"We've talked about it," partner Walter "Skip" Campbell said. "But the guys have to have some name recognition and this is it."
Lisa A. McNelis is no longer in the partnership, although there is still some vestige of her name in the firm's web page title--not to mention countless publications that refer to that law firm by any number of previous partnership names.
As today's law firms grow or downsize, merge and emerge, keeping the letterhead, website, and collateral marketing materials current with the legal partnership name can be a regular challenge. And maintaining consistent brand awareness in a firm's marketplace can be frustrated by a naming strategy that is focussed on the partnership roster, and not on the firm's brand from the customer's point of view. For Krupnick Campbell Malone Buser Slama Hancock Liberman & McKee, a unique brand name and top level domain is available for registration, Krupnicks. That's probably a better branding opportunity than krupnicklaw.com, but it remains to be seen if all the partners might ever agree on a distinctive brand name for their firm.
Law firms that take a unique surname of a founder, and add an s to that name, create a brand built upon the law firm's tradition, and establish an identity that is distinctive yet consistent with how the firm is often well-known in the profession and the community: Torys, and Gowlings, and Mallesons, and Blakes for examples.
Business-minded lawyers name their law firms with their customers in mind--not to assuage the partners--and thereby protect their investments in the business. Better to have a partnership interest in a law firm with a strong brand than to have one's own name listed with many other partners on a "shingle" few customers can remember. The classic parody of traditional law firm naming is Jerry Seinfeld trying desperately to remember the name of the firm where the beautiful lawyer, Vanessa, works; repeating the mantra "Simon, Bennett, Robbins, Oppenheim & Taft" over and over.
Smart lawyers approach law firm naming from a customer-facing point of view, rather than a partnership perspective. Many leading law firms are building lasting brands with great individual names with respect to their own legal traditions, such as Skadden, and Osler, and Venable, and Stroock, each with a memorable domain name and a remarkable website.
Posted by
abnu on Saturday, May 22, 2004 @ 10:02 PM
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Accounting for taste: A new kind of accounting firm launched this week, a company that came to Igor for a fresh take on naming and branding their company in order to immediately differentiate themselves from the hoard of sound-alike accounting firms.
We were naming an accounting firm that also wanted a confrontationally quiet name, a name that was a self-effacing statement about the personality of accountants, yet elegant and dignified at the same time. That is why they chose Vanilla as their new name.
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and hubby Chris Martin, of Cold Play fame, rocked the gossip columns and shocked mainstream media with news of their baby's unusual first name, Apple.
Apple Blythe Alison Martin has traditional middle names, after the grandmothers, Blythe Danner and Alison Martin. So, not to offend either of the mothers-in-law by favoring one over the other, the kid is stuck with using the name Apple.
But why did they call her Apple? Was it a prenatal craving? Was the baby named after the computer company, the record label, or a wild night in New York City? Were they on drugs?!
Now, if you're a mother-to-be who thinks that naming the fruit of your womb Apple might be a good idea, it's time to visit I.N.C.H.
SNARK CHIMES IN: I have to say I strongly disagree with Abnu on this point. I think Apple is a great girl's name, and I have nothing but respect for Paltrow and Martin for choosing it. The fact that it has so many layers of meaning is one of its great strengths, but even more important is that the name is classy, poetic, fun, memorable and unique. Apple of my eye. The apple of seduction. An apple a day.... I realize ABNU prefers acronyms for names, but I think it's short-sighted if not insane to suggest that the couple must be on drugs or that anyone contemplating such a name is acting inhumanely.
Perhaps someone will create a thread on the Wordboard for this topic and others can weigh-in on the debate.
ABNU BITES BACK: Don't get me wrong, I think Apple is a great name for someone else's girl--especially a celebrity baby. We don't have enough to talk about, so, "What's the matter with Apple?"
Posted by
abnu on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 @ 7:54 PM
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Camp Perdition: While some called for the demolition of the Abu Ghraib prison, long a symbol of the brutal torture of Saddam Hussein's regime, the Secretary of Defense announced a "made in America" plan for erasing the memory of this facility's sordid past. Rebranding.
In an effort to redeem themselves through effective branding, the Pentagon has decided to name the prison Camp Redemption, at the suggestion of the Iraqi Governing Council. According to nonexistant government sources, the word "camp" evokes memories of happier times, and resolves conflicts with the International Red Cross, which inspects prisons and detention facilities.
A recent report in the Telegraph outlines the shift in interrogation policy, which raised concerns about the public perception of the effectivenes of the government's current branding procedures in Iraq.
Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who ran the prison at the time of Gen Miller's visit, says that Gen Miller told her he intended to "Gitmo-ize" Abu Ghraib, turning it into a hub of interrogation.
Gen Miller ordered that control of prisoners be handed over to military intelligence officers, aided by contract interrogators such as Stefanowicz. Low-level military police "grunts" were to be encouraged to "loosen up" prisoners before interrogation.
Brig Gen Karpinski said that the jail was not hers to hand over, since it was formally under the control of the Coalition Provisional Authority. After clearing the room of observers, Gen Miller was forthright in his response. "I don't care.
Rick Sanchez [General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of US troops in Iraq] said I could have whatever I want. Look, we can do this my way or we can do it the hard way."
General Miller, who was previously in charge of Camp Delta at Guantanamo, was relieved of command of the naming and branding team following branding experts' rejection of the suggestion to call that interrogation facility Camp Gitmo Info.
The Administration has commissioned a complete review of the naming and branding of all interrogation facilities under the control of the military, the CIA or civilian contractors in the hundreds of countries where the USA has a presence. A new firm of naming and branding professionals, said to be the only firm capable of handling a branding assignment of this magnitude, was awarded the naming contract without the usual government tender process because of the urgency of this rebranding as part of the war on terrorism. Halliburton Brands, perhaps best known for naming the USA Patriot Act, has agreed to complete the $8 Billion Dollar interrogation facility rebranding study before June 30, 2004.
Posted by
abnu on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 @ 5:54 AM
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Education on the Dot: The Internet holds great promise for the democratization of education, but institutions of higher learning have yet to realize its full potential.
Peter Smith, Founding President of California State University, Monterey Bay and author of a new book, The Quiet Crisis: How Higher Education Is Failing America, writes in the current issue of Educause Review:
The current record of higher education simply is not good enough for the world we live in today. We need to be more successful with more students to create the middle class of America’s future.
Information technology lies at the heart of this challenge. Arguments that question the value of IT to the academy or that lowball the opportunity costs of failing to harness technology to its full potential in higher education both reflect and fuel an arrogant, confident complacency that ignores the underlying dangers. The United States is headed for social, civic, and economic disaster if we are not successful in graduating a far higher percentage of our population (from high schools as well as colleges/universities) while bringing working Americans back to finish their degrees. We are failing to educate large numbers of students (of all ages) successfully because we are employing an out-of-date educational model that ignores the available knowledge and IT resources.
Professor Smith articulates the systemic problems of higher education:
Historically, higher education has controlled its world by controlling its workforce, its curriculum content, and its certification/reward structure. But this de facto structural monopoly of authority and responsibility has been shattered as new types of institutions hire new kinds of faculty, offer new academic models and degree programs in the workplace and on personal time, and harness new technologies to supplement and support learning anytime, anyplace.
In the future, learning will be different. The company that built the most recognized brand in commercial education, Sylvan, is betting its future on the untapped opportunities in higher education, having sold its well-established operations in K-12 extra-curricular learning, and the well-known Sylvan name and trademarks, to Educate Inc. (www.educate.com)
Commencing today, the company formerly known as Sylvan Learning Systems Inc. takes on a new identity, and embarks on a new direction in higher education with a brand new name--Laureate.
They plan to build brand awareness mainly by association because the 14 universities and institutions they've acquired since 1998 in the United States, Europe and Latin America -- and one they've recently opened in China -- have their own names. Registration materials and other information will include the tagline "a member of the Laureate International University Network."
The name Laureate isn't getting very high marks from experienced professionals in naming and branding. Undoubtedly, it's going to be a challenge to build a brand around a name that looks like a tough Scrabble hand, and requires a university education to spell. Still, the company should be given credit for its visionary new direction.
From a naming and branding point of view, though, The Open University and MERLOT and Educause are leading brands in online education whose names come easily to mind.
Posted by
abnu on Monday, May 17, 2004 @ 12:41 AM
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Marketing Wank: Last year, MarketingFix attempted to fix their own marketing and get Up2Speed, only to realize a few weeks later that they'd have to change their name again--to MarketingWonk.
Realizing the marketing value in poking fun at their own mistake, they were quick to issue a press release suggesting the top ten reasons for this naming and branding fiasco. And, following this notorious marketing fix and the humorous discussion that followed the press release, MarketingWank was registered by this wanker.
Anyway, the team at MarketingWonk seemed to know their new name would not be their last, even as they issued the press release, noting:
Together, we are Team MarketingWonk! (for the next few weeks, anyway), the single source for no-nonsense Internet marketing news, also offering consulting, research and related services.
Already, they've changed their name again--to MarketingVox.
Posted by
abnu on Saturday, May 15, 2004 @ 12:05 AM
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Commencement: "For those graduating this semester, the task of picking up their cap and gown may lead to the first realization that the knowledge they have gained and the experiences they have had at USC are truly ending," writes Karen A. Lefkowitz in the student newspaper of the University of Southern California, the Daily Trojan. (Isn't that the perfect name for a college newspaper?)
Anyways, Karen reflects on some of the movies that create a montage of the collective experiences of university life. Animal House, Rudy, Good Will Hunting, Legally Blonde, and Old School: "these films in one way or another have mimicked the experiences had on the USC campus," she writes.
"All the fun of college, none of the education" was the tagline of Old School. Speaking of which, Will Ferrell addressed the graduates at Harvard's commencement at the end of last year.
Posted by
abnu on Friday, May 14, 2004 @ 4:26 PM
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The Gods Must Be Crazy: Branding experts often draw upon an ancient lexicon of mythology and theology for the names of modern products. A typical example is the Venus razor by Gillette, named after the Roman goddess of love, who was called Aphrodite by the Greeks. Same goddess, two different names. One name works for a razor, the other makes no sense at all.
So, where should you go to find godly names and avoid godforsaken names? Traditional source books and encyclopedia of mythologies are written in a style as old as the gods themselves and are hard to read, especially for those unfamiliar with books. Godchecker, for the Internet generation, presents entertaining and informative stories of the gods, like this:
From the Bushongo in the Congo comes BUMBA, the African Creator God of Vomit. Yes, vomit.
In the beginning, all was dark. Then out of the darkness came BUMBA, a giant pale-skinned figure. He was not feeling well. In fact he had not been feeling well for millions of years. He was lonely, and the unbearable solitude was making him ill.
Racked with stomach pain, he vomited up the Sun. Light burst forth into the Universe - and he choked out the Moon. The stars came next and then, with a tremendous effort, he threw up the planet Earth. We do live in a very sick world.
This nauseating display was brought to a triumphant conclusion when, as an encore, he vomited forth nine animals, an assortment of humans, and a pile of diced carrots.
Exhausted from his labors, he sat and watched as the nine creatures multiplied. After a while, they had evolved into every living thing on Earth. Which goes to show that Creationism and Evolution are both right.
Godchecker is a highly recommended source of information for those studying ancient gods and goddesses for brand names--in search of The Holy Snail.
Posted by
abnu on Wednesday, May 12, 2004 @ 11:50 PM
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One Big Cockup: Since April Fools' Day this year, a new operator, National Express, has been running the railways in the East of England, encompasing four distinctly branded rail services: Anglia, Great Eastern, Stansted Express, and West Anglia. The Guardian reported the railways consolidation into one franchise quoting Phil White, chief executive of National Express, who said,
"This is the consolidation of four distinct services into one. It's one operator, one terminus, one vision and one unified management team."
It seemed like a good idea at the time to bring all these operations under one brand, so the company brandsmiths consulted with staff, customers, passenger groups and local authorities. They hired consultants who produced fancy new logos and livery, flashy presentations and well designed explanations, for the one name that got on the fast track as soon as someone too clever by half noticed that "one" is acronymic for Operated by National Express.
But the idea derailed as soon as it pulled into the stations, as the East Anglian Daily Times reported; the one word was so confusing.
A spokeswoman said: "Our customers have told us that they think some of our services are leaving or arriving a minute later than they actually are.
"They think, for example, that the Tannoy is saying 'The 7.21 service is leaving', when in fact it is saying 'The 7.20 One service is leaving'.
"To prevent any further confusion we have decided to drop the company name from station announcements.
"The announcer will now simply say 'The 7.20 service is leaving'. Customers will then be told when they get on the train 'Welcome to the One service to wherever'."
No one appears to be taking credit for this naming and branding cockup, but it reminds one of the work of the British branding outfit that thought Monday would be a good name for PwC Consulting.
Posted by
abnu on Monday, May 10, 2004 @ 7:38 PM
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Word Games: Here's a new game that will challenge the way you spill spell.
Posted by
abnu on Friday, May 07, 2004 @ 7:35 PM
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Occasional Swigs of BlackBerry Kool-Aid:Listen to David Kipen, book critic for The San Francisco Chronicle, review Alex Frankel's Word Craft: The Art of Turning Little Words into Big Business on NPR's "Day to Day" radio program. Kipen implies that Frankel, a Bay Area business journalist and "erstwhile corporate namer," may have been "spending too much time in board rooms breathing-in magic marker fumes" and drinking the kool-aid.
A less critical review of Word Craft is found at the Random House website, which gushes:
The book is filled with stories about how things get their names, but it's not just tales of business meetings and product launches. We meet the characters who populate the naming world, "information age neologists" like freelance namer Andrea Michaels, who plays professional Scrabble and competes on TV game shows when not brainstorming for corporate clients. And we learn about the civic unrest that erupted in Denver when the naming rights for Mile High Stadium were sold. Frankel laces his narrative with cultural and historical references and quotations from thinkers as diverse as Marianne Moore and Lawrence Lessig, all of which add a layer of richness and depth to this book's multithreaded and engaging stories.
Frankel must have thought this an especially good review, since he includes it in full on the new book's website, as well, along with links to other articles on naming and branding he has written in major publications. The book's website has a weblog de rigueur where the author might write something, too. And when you find a book blog, you're sure to find a Blogcritics book review. In the end, it's unclear from the reviews and the book cover art whether this book is titled Word Craft or Wordcraft.
Posted by
abnu on Thursday, May 06, 2004 @ 6:11 PM
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Wax Poetic:Crayola is judging a contest in which customers can suggest names for the colors of a new set of crayons representing each of the States of the U.S.A. By the way, do you know the origins of the names of all the States, their official symbols and mottoes?
And do you know the name of the anti-diva who was once a member of the trip-hop band, Wax Poetic?
Posted by
abnu on Wednesday, May 05, 2004 @ 9:05 PM
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The Spirit of Ecstasy: Today marks the 100th anniversary of the first meeting of Messrs. Rolls and Royce, and the beginning of a century of automotive branding. Rolls made cars. Royce made engines. Together, their Rolls Royce brand defined automotive excellence.
It was Royce, the engineer, who raised the standard for automotive manufacturing, and branding, according to this brand story.
He had firm views on the need for quality and a Victorian fancy for expressing his aims in stirring phrases: "Small things make perfection, but perfection is no small thing," declared Mr. Royce. "Whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble," he added. And one of his cannier observations in this vein was to note that "The quality remains long after the price is forgotten."
Today, the average net worth of a Rolls Royce customer is reported to be in excess of $30 Million.
The Spirit of Ecstasy is the name of the flying lady that ornaments the grill of every Rolls Royce; each model's name derived from the brand's signature "quiet ride" — Silver Ghost, Silver Cloud, Silver Spirit, Wraith, and Phantom.
Posted by
abnu on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 @ 12:46 PM
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