Similarly, if you set out to name an online job-search site, a cartoon monster would not be the first thing to come to mind. But Monster .com now stands out above competitors like jobdig.com, jobonline.com, nationjob.com, and job-hunt.org. Those other site names, while more descriptive, are less memorable and blend together in the prospect’s mind.
“You’ll come up with lots of safe names by sticking with things that are likely to be associated with the product, but those names won’t make a big splash,” says Yamamoto Moss’s Lee Thomas. “That’s where the creative potential is. Going in unexpected directions is where the potential is to differentiate yourself.”
In 2000, Nametag was commissioned to name a new liquor product for Seagram (which has since merged with the U.K.–based wine and spirits giant Diageo). Captain Morgan, the company’s franchise brand, appealed primarily to men, and its market share was steadily eroding. Seagram wanted to introduce a coconut-flavored rum to take advantage of the trend toward flavored liquor. Nametag had to come up with a name that made customers feel they were buying a “vacation in a bottle.”
Levin and her creative team zeroed in on the captain’s vocation. “Captain Morgan’s a pirate, and the iconic image of a pirate always includes a parrot,” Levin says. “So we came up with the name Parrot Bay. It’s done screamingly well for them and is the cornerstone of their franchise now. And even non–coconut rum drinkers recognize the brand.”
Of course, Banana Republic, Monster.com, and Parrot Bay would have died on the vine without an intelligent—and expensive—branding campaign. “Almost any name can become familiar with unlimited spending behind it,” Lozito says. “That’s an important consideration when selecting a name—what will the marketing budget support?”
Still, even the biggest budget doesn’t make you bulletproof. When Google introduced Gmail recently, the online behemoth discovered that it couldn’t use the word “Gmail” in England and Germany, where the name was already taken.
“It just goes to show that even the big and mighty can stub their toe,” Lozito says. “And it makes you wonder—why didn’t they just Google it?”
