Name That Brand

Pollywog is relatively new to the brand-naming game, a Minneapolis firm founded just a little over a year ago by John Stucker and Devon Thomas Treadwell. But each came from a long career in marketing-communications and had plenty to contribute to Pollywog’s naming criteria. At the top of the list: A good name should have “instant meaning”—that is, it should be a real word or words that already exist in the vocabulary of the target audience, Stucker says.

He says “meaningless names”—invented words that borrow from Latin roots or glom together the head of one word and the tail of another—have been a trend for the past 30 years or so. But they provide nothing for designers or ad people to work with in a creative execution, and nothing for customers to connect with. “You have to spend a lot of money making that meaningless word mean something to people,” Stucker adds.

Here, Pollywog’s list of the top 10 brands that got it right in 2008.

Air
Apple has provided a terrific lesson in how to own an idea with a brand name by building the world’s thinnest, lightest laptop and naming it the “MacBook Air.” While other manufacturers may eventually engineer products with an even more delicate form factor, the MacBook Air will likely own the “thinnest and lightest” position in the mind of the audience for a long time to come. With its built-in fast Wi-Fi and Blue-tooth and only one USB 2.0 port for connectivity, this laptop is intended to be a completely wireless device—providing yet another layer of meaning to “Air.”

Chrome
Web developers have long used the term “chrome” to refer to the browser frame surrounding the content—the toolbars, address window, scrollbars, et cetera. Even if the general audience has never heard of “chrome” in a browser context, the word is rife with positive associations because of its automotive uses. “Shiny.” “New.” “Fancy.” “Smooth.” “Bright.” “Sparkling.” Why not try a browser that sounds so polished?

Sue
A magazine for women in litigation. This cleverly named lawyerly publication seems like another in the line of magazines titled with the first name of a founder or publisher: Jane, Rosie, George. Except, it’s not. The twist from proper noun to verb is simply delicious. And bravo to the publisher for embracing this potent word so often linked to negative stereotypes of attorneys.

Yammer
The success of the social networking site Twitter inspired the creation of Yammer, an instant messaging system designed for internal corporate communications. “Yammer” nicely connotes an incessant stream of chatter with an agenda-driven intensity.