TippingSprung Fields Second BrandNaming Survey Survey in Collaboration...

Results from TippingSprung's second survey of brand names, produced in collaboration with marketing newsweekly Brandweek, revealed the top brand names in 10 key categories. Major trends in brand naming were also uncovered. The survey focused on names and products released within the prior 18 months.

"Selecting a strong name is one of the first steps marketers take when building a brand," says Martyn Tipping, president of branding consultancy TippingSprung, LLC. "And it's also one of the most challenging, given the difficulty of finding a name that is legally available as a trademark."

THE TOP BRAND NAMES

A total of 1,331 senior marketing and branding professionals responded to the survey. They chose the following as the top brand names:

- Best new name for a low-cost airline. Over half the respondents (51.9%) liked go!, a discount Hawaiian airline. Its brevity, simplicity, and direct call to action seem to be the most likely reasons for the name's popularity in the survey. Clickair was a distant second with 18%.

- Best new spirits or cocktail-mix name. Spykes came in first with 33% of survey respondents, followed by vanilla liquor, Kajmir (24.9%). (The Spykes name may in fact have been too clever for its own good in the marketplace, the survey sponsors observe: Anheuser-Busch withdrew the product from the market shortly after its announcement, after critics complained that it was too appealing to under-age drinkers.)

- Best name for a spin-off or startup. Nike's Tailwind was the clear favorite with 71% of the vote. Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market came in a distant second with 12%.

- Which evolutionary name change is most overdue Almost 30% of respondents felt that the name change from 1800Mattress to 1800Mattress.com was most overdue. Masterfoods' rebranding of itself as Mars came in second with 23.4%.

- Most consumer-friendly new drug name. The menopause drug Enjuvia took first place (25% of votes), with Reconcile, an anti-anxiety treatment for dogs a close second (21.9%). Exubera, a brand of inhaled insulin, came in third (18%).

- Best cell phone/PDA name that fits product form. In this category, focusing on the trend of cell phones to be named after the product's shape or other design features, BlackBerry Pearl was the clear winner with 37% of the vote, followed by Motorola's PEBL with 16.3%.

- Cleverest ice-cream flavor. In a category dominated by puns and others plays on words, this year's winner was Ben & Jerry's Bohemian Raspberry (28%), trailed by another flavor from the same firm, Karamel Sutra (26%).

- Which new reality show would you check out based solely on its title Nearly 38% of respondents gave their vote to "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader." Second place was won by "So You Think You Can Dance" with 14% of the vote.

- Best new hotel brand. Aloft, a new hotel brand from Starwood, was the clear favorite with 49% of the vote. Element, another Starwood brand, came in second with 27%.

- Best new fragrance name. CK IN2U from Calvin Klein was selected as the best new fragrance name by 34% of respondents, perhaps reflecting its text-message-like allure. The category included a number of other strong finalists, including Jilt, Zestini, Flowerbomb, and Fleur du Mle.

- Worst new fragrance name. Ultraviolet Man Summer Pop from Paco Rabanne had the dubious distinction of coming in first in this category (35% of votes) followed by Intimately Beckham for Him (31.4%) and Perfect Man Alternative (16.6%).

What would you have called Apple's iPhone

Given the popularity of evocative names such as Blackberry Pearl, Motorola PEBL, and Nokia L'Amour, TippingSprung wondered whether respondents would have liked to see a more fanciful name for Apple's iPhone. About one-fifth of respondents felt the iPhone name was the ideal choice, but others among the marketing professionals responding were happy to suggest alternative names, including: MacBerry, AppleSeed, Cameo, CorePhone, Eve, iCall, iMo, VoicePod, Tell, Simpo, and Pi.

What name would you give to the world's first truly green car

The survey sponsors also asked what name they might devise for the world's first truly green car, given the initial forays into the market of Toyota (with the hybrid Prius), Citroen (with the C-Matisse concept car), and Saab's BioPower. Suggestions included: G-Machine, Viro, Hybra, Muir, Footprint, Algae, Rezume, Bluewind, Cumulus, Seabreeze, EarthShip, Econix, Jade, Leaf, Lightfoot, Orb, Verde, and Tournesol.

TRENDS IN BRAND NAMING

TippingSprung sees the following as important trends in naming, based on the types of names appearing in the survey as well as the votes of the responding marketing professionals.

1) Marketers play it safe.

With real-word names like go!, Fresh & Easy, and Spykes earning top grades in the survey, marketers gave their votes predominantly to the names that communicated most simply and directly with consumers. This result is somewhat counterintuitive, since many branding professionals, and even more corporate IP departments, generally advise against the more simple and straightforward names, as they are generally more difficult to protect as trademarks. At the same time, the respondents' votes may reflect their longing to use such straightforward names, in the midst of a more constraining trademark-protection environment.

2) Spelling rules are made to be broken.

One trick that marketers use with increased frequency is slightly misspelling a name to make it more distinctive and ownable. Spykes, PEBL, Amp'd Mobile, and Joost TV are all examples of this naming trend. And as text messaging gains popularity, it seems that spelling rules will become even more flexible, as illustrated by the high votes garnered by Calvin Klein's CK IN2U fragrance.

3) Transparency rules.

Mars, Crayola, and Macy's are examples of a growing trend for companies to adopt their leading brand as their corporate name (rebranded from Masterfoods, Binney & Smith, and Federated respectively). This makes sense to employees, consumers, and investors, and is likely to lead to greater marketing efficiencies over time.

4) Regulatory rules make it easier to name a drug for dogs than for humans.

In the realm of pharmaceuticals, soft-sounding names with feminine endings (typically "a") continue to appeal to consumers. Names like Enjuvia, Exubera, and Acomplia all have positive, easily recognizable roots - rejuvenation, exuberance, accomplishment. Of the pharmaceutical names included in the survey, it is interesting to note that the most simple, easy to remember name is Reconcile, an anti-anxiety drug for dogs from the makers of Prozac. (This may reflect somewhat more lenient regulatory requirements in the non-human drug space, note the survey sponsors.)

Background and Methodology of the Report

The naming survey was conducted by TippingSprung, an international brand consultancy based in Manhattan. "We noticed that few regular surveys focus on trends in brand naming," said Robert Sprung, TippingSprung's CEO. "Given the challenges that marketers face in coming up with names that are both memorable and protectible, we wanted to see which brand names attracted the attention of marketing decision-makers and which trends we might spot."

Consulting with a panel of branding experts, TippingSprung designed a brand-naming survey to help answer the key questions: Which names are most popular Which are most effective What are some of the major trends in brand naming today

The 2007 survey, carried out in collaboration with Brandweek magazine, was sent to branding and marketing professionals. The 1,331 respondents came from a cross-section of companies including CitiGroup, Disney, Toyota, Unilever, General Mills, Clorox, Accenture, Kraft, and PepsiCo.

The survey was sent electronically the last week of May 2007, and results were collected through June 12, 2007. A full survey report is available from TippingSprung by calling Robert Sprung at 212.268.4800, ext. 201.

TippingSprung (www.tippingsprung.com) is a New York-based branding company with key practices in brand strategy, naming, design, licensing, and nonprofit consulting.

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