Juliet:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet” (II, 1-2)

We look to Shakespeare as the authority on all things related to the most excellent use of the English language. The bard was both poet and playwright, crafting language that created characters that have lasted half a millenium. And yet, in “Romeo and Juliet” he has Juliet diminish the most fundamental act of language — naming. True, the flower came before its name, yet its name embodies — with sound and later meaning — all that we come to associate with the name “rose.”

Naming

So, when an organization seeks a name for itself or its product, to whom should it look to create a name? Where do we find modern-day Shakespeares who can craft language to meet the many needs of modern-day name?

Understanding brand, what builds brand and how the name must truly embody the brand is critical to naming success. At Go East, we believe branding provides differentiation, which promises business success. A name is the core of differentiation execution. Taking a too-cautious approach to naming risks developing a name that refuses to stick in the mind of your customer. Living too much in the past can create a name that doesn’t work for future growth. And creating a name that is so different that there is no context, no point of reference, or is just too weird risks alienating the people you want to engage.

Finding the perfect name requires a balance of art and science. We believe naming is a craft that combines strategy and poetry, semantics and sound. There are so many considerations needed to create a relevant name it is imperative that businesses partner with agencies that have a robust naming processes that take all aspects into consideration. Our process, based on the best industry practices, allows us to flex our linguistic skills within our brand-building context to meet our clients’ business needs. We provide clients with a fresh perspective that considers all the angles — trademarking, digital needs, visual and verbal impact. And we help our clients to look forward to their business vision and ensure that the name can withstand the test of time.

I wouldn’t go so far as to go head-to-head with Shakespeare, but I will name a rose a rose when it makes sense for the brand.

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Naming is a complex business, perhaps that’s why the blogosphere is chockablock with sound advice and clever anecdotes on how to come up with one. At Go East, we find the Do Nots are just as edifying — and sometimes more surprising — than the Dos.

Here are a few favorites.

Do NOT:
1. Go for bland

There are plenty of highly successful companies with straight-up functional names out there, but if you are just starting out — especially in a category with a lot of competition — the more memorable and engaging the name, the more differentiating. And the easier to find.

According to “Protecting Your Brand Online,” a Hitwise report, 86 percent of all searches are for names and brands. If your product or company name is too generic, your audience is going to have a tough time sorting through the mess it turns up in a Google search — and they may not find you.

The same goes for true yet tried words. Google “innovative” and you’ll see what I mean.

2. Invent meaningless names

On the flip side, it doesn’t always pay to go with a wholly invented name. Last year, Microsoft took a beating from pretty much everybody for naming its new search engine Bing, which everyone agreed meant nothing to anyone. Why is that bad? Because endowing a name with meaning can cost millions of dollars. To boot, ruthless bloggers pointed out, the name could be an acronym for “But it’s not Google!”

Microsoft marketing execs told the New York Times they hoped the name would evoke the sound associated with Aha! moments and that it would encourage people to “verb it up” ala Google … so Bing it!

3. Name by committee

As Phil Davis of Entrepreneur.com points out, you can only pick one name, so you risk alienating the very people you are trying to involve. And, in the process of trying to find something crowd pleasing, you are likely to land on a very bland sort of name that suffers from problem number one. Davis recommends only involving a small number of people who can put the company first and their egos second — we’d add collaborative people who are comfortable with change.

4. Worry too much about the URL

We’ve all heard someone say they chose their company name because “the domain name was available,” but are URLs as important today? Given the statistics above, it seems like consumers are less likely to try to type your company name and www. into a browser window, and more likely to look for it in a search engine.

In that case, it might be more important to choose a memorable name that is relevant to your brand and easy to spell — and to ensure that you have awesome search engine optimization.

5. Neglect to review meaning

Everyone knows about the Chevrolet Nova: allegedly the similarity of “Nova” to No Va, Spanish for “no go,” caused the car to sell poorly in Spanish-speaking countries, so the company was forced to rename it.

This is actually a myth; the car apparently sold well in Venezuela and Mexico. Yet it is still a good reminder that those pitfalls exist and that it is important to have someone review your name choice for foreign and other contextual language issues.

Like all things creative, naming can be a highly subjective endeavor, so what sounds bland or meaningless to one ear may ring evocative in another. And that’s why, of all these NO NOs, I will always come back to number three. With a strong team, you can set personal preferences aside, work through that subjectivity, and choose a name that is right for your organization, company or product.

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Ever heard the term “virtual launch” when referring to a product launch? It’s a term I enjoy using which essentially means, “Let’s not load the sales reps down with a huge three-ring binder full of printed sales sheets, price sheets, brochures, FAQs, etc. It’s too heavy, too cumbersome and frankly, it really positions a company as old-school vs. innovative and modern. Instead, let’s be fresh and relevant and deliver the important information on an interactive USB drive or DVD – allowing the rep to navigate through the contents like a Web site to find important customer presentation materials, downloadable brochures, demonstration videos, etc. The rep will look organized and modern and the buyer will appreciate the efficiency.”

Ummm … OK, maybe you won’t find that definition at Dictionary.com. But, nonetheless, the definition stands.

When launching a new product, many teams look to their sales reps to determine what tools they need to sell the new product. It’s important to remember, though, while a sales rep’s job is to sell the product to the buyer, it’s not their job to advise on the business or communications strategy to do so. The insight a sales rep may be able to provide about their selling challenges will be quite helpful, but as marketers, we shouldn’t be settling for same-old, same-old. The rep’s job isn’t to think about how to launch the product better; as marketers, that’s our job and we can do it by reading between the lines and probing for deeper interpretations.

As you embark on your 2010 product launch calendar, think about including your agency in interviewing your sales reps to find out what the best tools could be. My suspicion is that after interpreting the feedback, 90 percent of the time, the groundwork will be laid for more interactive tools and less bulky binders. Would you agree?

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It seems every time I turn around I’m reading or hearing something about how “everything” is going online or mobile. It appears that if your brand is not online or mobile – in an engaging way – you’re losing out. Well, this may have some truth to it, but that doesn’t mean print solutions aren’t still valid.

Consider this:

• 70% of companies have renewed a relationship with a customer using direct mail
• Consumers receiving a printed catalog are two times more likely to purchase online than those who don’t receive a catalog
• 75% of consumers say they’ve made a purchase as a result of direct mail
• Worried about seeming wasteful? In 2007, 45.2 million tons of paper were recovered from recycling – that’s 57% of all paper and paperboard products

At Go East when we’re working on a project – to be distributed online or  via “old-fashioned” paper – we work hard to balance print and interactive strategies. Campaigns need to be integrated, but not redundant. They need to be impactful and they need to be targeted.

Don’t abandon one for the other or you won’t be able to capitalize on the biggest opportunities!

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Living the brand is an ongoing aspect of full brand management. To live the brand is to strengthen it and to make brand management a part of your culture. How do we at Go East recommend you manage and live your brand?

Assess and align areas that are inconsistent with the brand. Look at all the places where your brand touches people externally: memos, email sign-offs, outgoing voice mail messages and information communicated through your social media strategy. Examine processes and procedures and change those that are inconsistent with your brand position. Identify areas where decisions impacting the brand can be improved.

To intensify brand management throughout the organization, establish principles and guidelines for when, where and how to apply the brand. Create accountability for decisions that affect consumers’ perceptions of the brand. Remind your staff about brand principles and ways to reinforce and build the brand so everyone feels responsible and engaged in brand-building activities. For example, everyone at Go East recently created their own statements about how they live the brand. We all wore the statements, like nametags, throughout the day and talked with others about our part in living the brand.

To monitor the results of your efforts, conduct audits of consumer perceptions. It’s the only way to truly know if you are having the impact you are trying to achieve. Are the attributes that your customers identify the ones you want? Share the findings with staff members so they can celebrate the success of their efforts or hone in on areas that need improvement. Constantly refine your indicators of success and measure again.

To make living the brand fun and rewarding, we at Go East recognize employees who are doing an outstanding job of living the brand. We share examples and celebrate successes. We acknowledge “brand moments” formally by thanking individuals for contributions to building the brand.

It is through all of these efforts that, eventually, managing your brand becomes less work and more a way of life.

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In a recent survey, 75 percent of U.S. employees indicated that they do not think their company’s mission statement reflects the way the company does business.

What’s the disconnect? Why do companies “talk the talk” but not “walk the walk”? Perhaps they don’t understand the value of internal brand building. Maybe they’ve never even heard of internal brand building. Consider this a mini primer:

What is internal brand building? It’s actually quite simple. Brand building is the same whether it’s external or internal: It’s generating awareness, excitement and goodwill about your brand. Internally, though, it should be taken a step further: Employees should not only know the brand and be excited about it — they should also live the brand. Consider this: How can you say your company’s brand personality is “friendly” when your employees are afraid of their boss? That scary boss isn’t “living the brand.”

Why is internal brand building important? Given the above example, what do you think your employees are saying about your company when they’re out in the real world? How do you think your customers perceive you if your employees show fear — whether consciously or unconsciously? If you and your employees are not living the brand — you are actively eroding all external brand-building efforts.

Whose role is it to build the brand internally? In a word: everyone’s. But someone has to lead. That leadership should come from the top down. And it shouldn’t be a one-time campaign. This means nurturing an everyday, ongoing culture that needs to be developed, refined, flexible and true to your brand.

Living the brand is not hard. Consider these three tips when you’re outlining your marketing efforts:

• Budgets should be allocated to internal brand building
• There should be buy-in at the top
• At Go East, we make internal brand building recommendations to our clients when appropriate — and all agencies should

My final thought: Internal brand building is valuable because the payoff is happy employees who are more dedicated to the company and passionate advocates for the brand. That’s something every company needs!

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If that’s the question, then it seems the response in this economy should be, “I’d do almost anything. … Tell me more!”

I’d be happy to. (more…)

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Last year during the holidays, social media sites like Facebook experienced huge bumps in traffic. People are off work, away from home, and are — sometimes — bored. So they head to social networks. According to Mashable, last year during Christmas, social networking sites saw huge surges in traffic. On Christmas Day 2008, Twitter saw 35 tweets per minute, You Tube saw 600,000 videos tagged “Christmas,” and (according to Google) over 60,000,000 blog posts mentioned Christmas.

So what’s a good social media plan to get in front of all those eyeballs? At Go East, we are looking at the three most obvious places to make your mark this holiday.

Social Media Holiday Plan, 2009

1. Get your hashtags ready and tweet this holiday season. It will be important to get your brand out there by offering holiday specials or expressions of good will. Twitter is great for trending what people will want for Christmas, as well as seeing who is already out there tweeting about their holiday offerings.

2. People will connect on Facebook over the holidays. That’s just a fact. Long-distance family and friends will go there first to find out who did what and who got what over Christmas break. It makes sense for brands to be there. How can brands successfully integrate on FB? Right now, it is up for grabs. A quick search shows 500 Christmas applications on FB, none of which are all that compelling. However, Coca Cola already has over 58,000 fans on its Christmas advert page. That’s a wide open field of opportunities for the next “elf yourself,” and FB is the place for people to have fun with your brand this holiday.

3. Flickr now offers sponsored groups. Some, like Kodak’s “What’s our story?” group, make an obvious photography connection. Others, like the “Western Union Yes!”, start to meld social sharing and cause marketing. Now things are starting to get interesting! Imagine the possibilities for images and brands that visually bring the holidays to life. Asking group members to show how they use a product during the holidays, with the most “favorited” photo winning, is an obvious way to connect with Flickr’s users.

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