The Politics of Names

“I am from there. I am from here.
I am not there and I am not here.
I have two names, which meet and part,
and I have two languages.
I forget which of them I dream in.” 
- Mahmoud Darwish

Spirited Away

Nomenclature is a tricky thing. The name lies at the beginning of all deeds and at the end of memory. It is sometimes the burden of infamy or the herald of conquest. Wars have been fought over names. Names are often mired in the quicksand of a person’s identity, or a person’s politics.

In Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, the witch Yubaba enslaves her servants at the bathhouse by stealing their names, and consequently giving them a new name. The simple act of renaming someone in a fantastical universe becomes a metaphor for bondage. Thus, the protagonist’s journey to gain freedom from the spirit world and release her parents from a spell that turned them into pigs, is connected closely with the theft of her name. It is her very identity – the one thing that Yubaba the witch cannot truly take away from her. The name is associated with memory, belief, nostalgia, conviction, and holding on to a different and more familiar reality.

NAME, NAME , NAME

The practice of using a brand name is the evolution of the ancient custom of branding one's belongings.

Name is the foundation of your brand. Once in the market, your brand name will greatly determine your position in the fight for consumers.  Far more than just a series of letters, a successful brand name can help your product survive for a long time if it is able to stand the test of time.

Also the historic approach of family names is increasingly taking time before they resonate with consumer for newly launched products, services or companies.

Powerful brand names can fire imagination, trigger an emotion, and be suggestive of an experience or attitude. Though names are only one ingredient, they have significant influence over how a brand is perceived.

It represents a mix of attributes - tangible and intangible - symbolized in a mark

THE RIGHT NAME

• The right name for your brand, does more than just identify.
• It speaks of the personality, the quality, the essence of your company and its products.
• The right name for your brand provides an umbrella under which products and services, divisions and subsidiaries can be a cohesive family.
• Most of all, the right name sets your company, your products and services apart from the rest. 

 

MUST PASS MUSTERS FOR NAMING

Visual : Every word has a visual feel. Even before it is designed to appear in a certain way. It evokes images. It stands for certain pictures. There are visual associations with it, which at times are universal.

Intonation : It means the pitch one uses to speak aloud a word sometimes can change its meaning. Our words must be easy on the tongue.

Phonetic/ Audio : It’s the way a word sounds. Certain words are harsh, some soft. Some sound alien, some have a very next-door feel to it.

Understanding : While preserving a sense of mystery and intrigue, it must not be complicated. It has to have meaning. It must generate curiosity, not debate.

Impact :This is our desired response in a way. It has to have the overall impact in a consumer’s mind, filling it with all the attributes discussed earlier. Design will of course enhance it but just the word must do its job at its own level.


 Article by
Priyanka Shah,
General Manager Strategy,
 DY Works

What's In a Name? Make the Right Decision While Selecting a Brand Name

A brand name is a very strong part of a brand’s identity. Its role is to make sure that the brand name ‘sticks’ and people find it hard to forget. Whether Haldiram or Jabong, DLF or RuPay , brand names have their own logic.

Types of brand names:

1. Lineage Based – these could come from the family name of the promoter (like Dabur) or based on location (like Canara Bank/ Bank of Baroda) 
2. Acronym – GVK, GMR, DLF, IBM are all acronyms where they mean little to people as full forms; but the acronyms have a lot of meaning imbued in them.
3. Nonsense Names – that stand out for their uniqueness. Jabong, Google, Xerox, Mirinda, Blackberry. These can be nonsense words or words that have no connection with the product    
4. Crafted Names – are created, and mean something even though they don't really. Names such as Accenture, Avantha, Flaavyo, Microsoft fit the bill here
5. Product Descriptors – these are brands names such as RuPay, SimCash, Fruit Plus, Meats & More, Funskool, Playboy etc
6. Association – Names by association such as Apple (from the apple falling on Newton’s head), Pedigree (dog food), American Express, Victoria’s Secret, Coach, Maruti (Hanuman – son of wind)
7. Product Experience/ Promise – Kurkure (the sound of the crunch), Seven Eleven (the timings of the store), Yippee, Skore are all derived from the benefits of the product.

At the end of the day, any name can become the face of the brand and have meaning accruing to it. Arrow, Oberoi, Skoda – the words don't connote much and yet they have become recognizable brands. Brands are a sum total of the experience they convey. Think of a name/ identity as the tag on a file. Contained in the file are our perceptions about the brand based on name and identity, packaging, the material used for packaging, the product or service, the quality and delivery of the product of service, the ambience, the environment, the type of décor, the communication, the associations, the brand ambassadors and the name/identity are what we recognize and in the same instant unlock all our perceptions built up about the brand.

But this takes time. Brands are built over years and new brands face the challenge of breaking through a cluttered landscape of competitors. A truly distinctive, smart and ‘clever’ name can become a memorable hook for the brand to form its associations on. 

The name matrix below is a useful guideline for choosing the type of name required.

 

By
Alpana Parida
President

 DY Works