What Goes into Naming a Consumer Product?

[gene]

Ever wonder how companies come up with the names for their products? Why is it the Revelator and not the 100x? How important is the name? Does the name really affect the sales and market acceptance of a product one way or the other? People have wildly differing views on the topic, based on their own experiences and their perception of their own expertise.

Read: What Goes into Naming a Consumer Product?

What is your favorite product name in the audio industry? Please share below.

 

[shadyJ]

Hey Steve, great article.

Many years ago I was looking for PC parts to build a computer with. It was recommended to me to get a video display adapter that was named the 'Hercules Terminator Beast 99.' That always struck me as a rather aggressive name for a PC component- its just a circuit board! Anyway, learning the name of that video display adapter gave me nightmares for months afterward. I did not expect that surveying some of the available desktop PC component would be so emotionally traumatic.

Here is a picture of the packaging (warning- potential nightmare fuel!):

 

[GeneC]

I'm local to OPPO's Mt. View CA offices and while picking up my 83 for an SE up-grade a few years ago I asked them "why OPPO?" He said they used a company that speciallizes in finding un-used and un-offensive names world-wide. They furnished them with a list and they choose OPPO. Doesn't mean a thing, just sounded good. Or so he said.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Interesting tidbit...
Oppo is not pronounced Ah-Poe, but pronounced Oh-Poe. Caught me completely off guard when I called them up once and they answered the phone "Oh-Poe, how may I assist you?".

My side business was named because it was an available URL. As was my user name.

 

[Pogre]

One of my favorite speaker companies has a pretty blah name. SVS.

I think a cool name can help at first to catch an eye or ear, but when a company produces good product consistently the name (no matter what it is) becomes synonymous with high quality, lots of power, etc.. When I first starting shopping for a new sub I had no clue what a VTF-3 MK5 HD or an SVS was. Coulda been models of cars for all I knew. Now when I see VTF-3 MK5 HD or SVS it's almost like there's a halo glowing around the words for me.

 

[Bucknekked]

Names for products matter. We're not exactly sure why, but, they do.
Its a common phrase in marketing : "50% of our marketing dollars are wasted. We just don't know which 50%".

I would agree. If you think figuring out which piece of equipment is best, you should see the discussions that go on about what to name it.

 

[Swerd]

In the world of pharmaceuticals, naming a new product takes on great importance. There are always two names, a commercial name and a generic name. An example would be Avastin® (bevacizumab). The generic name, bevacizumab, indicates a monoclonal antibody directed against human vascular endothelial growth factor-A. The commercial name, Avastin®, is one company's name for it's patent-protected version of bevacizumab.

Any of these names cannot be previously used, so it can be trademarked or registered. This includes the languages of any other countries that have registered trademark or patent laws. The names also must not mean anything ugly or derogatory in any language. It might be alright in English, but what if it means "your mother swims after troop ships" in Swahili or Indonesian?

Think of the car, the Chevy Nova. In Spanish, no va means doesn't run. That couldn't help sales.

There are some name consulting companies that specialize in this business. I would guess that their best customers are big pharma.

As a result, you get some names that can be true tongue twisters. It can get very complex, and entertaining.

 

[killdozzer]

But let's not direct everything to offensiveness. There are some other dimensions.

Word of mouth can be a good source of income. Not something that is easily controlled, but can help if it's positive.

Having (for the discussion sake) two sub woofers of same quality, one named HrT-8X and another named Angel of Depth... When ever someone asks for a recommendation for sub, be honest, you'll say there's this "Angel of Depth" and there's this other one, ermmmm.. like... a few letters, it's like H, and then an M and some number, you'll have to look it up.

 

[Pogre]

But let's not direct everything to offensiveness. There are some other dimensions.

Word of mouth can be a good source of income. Not something that is easily controlled, but can help if it's positive.

Having (for the discussion sake) two sub woofers of same quality, one named HrT-8X and another named Angel of Depth... When ever someone asks for a recommendation for sub, be honest, you'll say there's this "Angel of Depth" and there's this other one, ermmmm.. like... a few letters, it's like H, and then an M and some number, you'll have to look it up.

That's sort of what I was getting at with the VTF-3 MK5 HD. It took me a week to memorize it!

That one is a bit of a mouthful. Without some advice here I probably would own a pair of Deftech Prosubs or one of their Supercubes. Those names are cooler and all the marketing language and customer reviews are pretty convincing for the uninitiated. I owned Deftech speakers and they aren't bad speakers, but their subs? Not so much. Because I liked the speakers tho, I was looking hard at them.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

Audi seems to have the simplest names for their products; A1, A3, A4 etc.

 

[DigitalDawn]

Back in the mid 1980's I was friends with one of the Sanyo PR folks. There was an internal company contest to come up with a name for a new line of audio components. We came up with what we thought was a great submission, but alas, "The Clown-Hat Series" was rejected.

Our other idea was for Sanyo to change its ad tag to: "Cheap and Built to Stay That Way."

 

[NINaudio]

Audi seems to have the simplest names for their products; A1, A3, A4 etc.

Don't worry, that is all changing soon...

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2017/08/audi-announces-new-confusing-naming-convention-for-its-models.html

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world/europe/boaty-mcboatface-what-you-get-when-you-let-the-internet-decide.html?mcubz=1

 

[Pogre]

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world/europe/boaty-mcboatface-what-you-get-when-you-let-the-internet-decide.html?mcubz=1

I read about that a while back! "Boaty McBoatface". That was a good one. I woulda ran with it.

 

[killdozzer]

Audi seems to have the simplest names for their products; A1, A3, A4 etc.

Simple as long as new models don't hit the market having the same code. Then it's all like;
- I have an Audi A4.
- Yes, but which one?
- New model.
- 2 years new or this years new?

Another angle - names that try to shape the reception of a product or service. Not just by sounding nice or different but actual PR contained in the name itself. Like Plug&Play. Whether it sounds good or not is beside the point, but the intention of having customers perceive it as something that will work as simple as that is the main focus of the name. This name was meant to repair the image of Microsoft products that never reached this level of: "just plug it in and it will work". The bad thing is, neither did Plug&Play labeled products. After this it only became more obvious that it never works.

"laptop" was also meant to shape the way you'll perceive the product, to envision the mode of use at the same time, although there's hardly anything more uncomfortable than using it in your lap. These are simply portable desktop personal computers.

It is not always the model name, or company's name, sometime it is just a type of a product like mouse.

There's a French movie called Amateur which is all about some sensitive data on a floppy disc. Throughout the movie characters say 10 time at least that it is not floppy and it is not shaped like a disc. This is when the profession decides on the name so it is sometimes unclear to the rest of us (floppy disc is encased in the hard plastic rectangular).