Slowing U.S. Economy Prompts Trend To Simplicity.

Out with irreverence, in with practicality. Product and company names destined to grab consumer mindshare and investor confidence will be more descriptive and less frivolous in the coming year, says Catchword, a leading naming and branding firm. With the economy slowing, companies will focus increasingly on building equity in corporate and umbrella brands, while looking to back-to-basics naming metaphors and styles to address ongoing trademark challenges.

“The high-flying economic boom of the late 90’s bred names like YAHOO!, MobShop, Blue Martini, and Loudcloud, which conveyed the adventurous, anything-is-possible spirit of the times,” says Burt Alper, Catchword’s Strategy Director. “With their implied creativity and new-economy savvy, these names had enough sass to inspire consumer and investor excitement.”

However, the movement from sassy to sensible is underway, says Alper, citing a list of young U.S. firms bearing names that are descriptive of their core business: StorageWay (storage service utility for Internet-related businesses), RadioFrame (wireless firm developing a platform for converging mobile voice and data), SupplyScience (web-based inventory management services), JetBlue (economy-priced air carrier), and University Planet (higher education software). “These names are excellent examples of `what’s in’ in today’s naming environment,” adds Alper.

Even some established companies that tried to update their image have reconsidered, he said, noting the recent reversion of Impiric, an international marketing communications firm, to its original name, Wunderman. Attributing a loss of brand value to last year’s name change, the firm returned to the name of its founder on June 1.

eGoodbye

On the way out are color names (e.g., RedEnvelope, Blue Martini); irreverent, overly “hip” names (e.g., Loudcloud, Fatbrain); names with Internet-referencing word parts, like Web, com, net, cyber, inter, e, i, and my (e.g., iVillage, Cybergold); and the ubiquitous “-ent/-ant” names (e.g., Sapient, Viant, Lucent).

“The downturn in dot-com fortunes has cast a pall on names overly associated with e-business,” says Alper. “With the new .biz top-level domain launching this fall, some companies may try to brand with this suffix to help users find them on the Internet. This could prove to be shortsighted, since no one knows how widely accepted the .biz TLD will be accepted.”

Hola, Bonjour

On the way in are names based on non-English words (e.g., Andale, Cambira, Zanova), as the U.S. gradually becomes an ethnic-majority country. The sharp rise in the Hispanic population, in particular, will prompt the creation of more Hispanic-sounding or derived names. Other non-English names will take advantage of the particular cachet of other native cultures — for example, Scandinavian languages for clarity of design, Brazilian Portuguese for vivacity, Polynesian for naturalness. “Non-English words and derivations often also have the advantage of being highly defendable trademarks,” notes Alper.

In, too, are compounds (e.g., EarthLink, SpotLife) — still popular, after a number of years –which offer an almost infinite number of combinations. “A touch of poetry or surprise often results when two unrelated words are placed in juxtaposition,” says Alper. “Since naming professionals continue to grapple with the problem of finding fresh, interesting and trademarkable names, the compound alternative is a good one.”

Also very in, and expected to endure, are blended names (e.g., Petopia, from pet and utopia; Alventive, from all and inventive), shortened real words (e.g., Cysive, from decisive/incisive; Intel and Teligent from intelligent), names coined from real words (e.g., Attenza, from attentive; Delinea, from delineate), and words with unusual spellings (e.g., Cingular, Thinque). All of these names have the advantages of being more meaningful, evocative, and available (from a trademark and domain perspective) than descriptive names.

Under the Brand Umbrella

With costs to trademark, market, and protect new brand names skyrocketing, Catchword says companies will rely increasingly on brand extensions and umbrella names, using more descriptive terminology at the product level. “Cisco, Oracle, and Siebel Systems are prominent examples of companies that focus most of their marketing efforts on the corporate name,” Alper says. “You don’t hear Cisco talking about its ‘XYZ’ product. They put their marketing strength behind Cisco.”

Developments in individual industries will have an effect on product branding, too. In pharmaceuticals, for example, the increase in direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising will produce fewer elusive drug names (e.g., Celebrex, Vioxx). “We believe that forthcoming pharmaceutical names will attempt to communicate either the condition or the symptoms that the product is meant to treat,” says Alper. “Names like Alluna, an herbal sleep aid, and Claritin, an allergy medication, are easier to remember for both patient and physician.”

U.S. automotive manufacturers, Catchword believes, will follow the lead of their European — and now, Japanese — counterparts, and begin branding with more letter/number combinations. Adhering to the trend in brand simplification, they will begin to imitate the BMW 318, the Acura 3.2 TL and the Jaguar XJ12. “In addition to conveying precision and quality, these names are less expensive to maintain and allow for easier differentiation across models,” Alper says.

Also Expected

As marketers are forced to search ever further afield to find available names, Catchword also predicts we’ll see:

– Names derived from great works of literature (e.g., Starbucks, from the name of the coffee-loving first mate in Moby Dick; Reardon Steel Technologies from the character and company in Atlas Shrugged);

– Names borrowed from songs and poems (e.g. Ruby Tuesday, a restaurant chain named after a song by the Rolling Stones);

– Letter/number combinations (e.g., Live365.com, an Internet radio network);

– Names referencing nature and the environment, including plants and animals (e.g., Peregrine Systems, Springbok Technologies);

– Names relating to freedom and mobility (e.g., MobileSpring), accompanying the boom in wireless; and

– Names relating to light and vision (e.g., Digital Lightwave, Light Connect), accompanying the growth in fiber-optics.

“Basic principals of naming and branding require that a name add value. Too often, in the last several years, creating `cool’ names that would stand out in the marketplace became the only rationale for a name choice,” says Alper. “The current return to simplicity is a signal that branding’s silly season has run its course.”

For more information at http://www.catch-word.com