Idea Architecture

What is in a name?

Today, I tried the new search engine which is being positioned as a competitor to Google. Its called ‘Cuil‘ and is supposed to be a word which sounds like ‘Cool’ or more so ‘Kewl’. I was disappointed.

The first thing I tried searching on Cuil was my name; ‘Anand V Rao’ and unlike Google which shows search results which lead to my blogs, Cuil came up with links about somebody’s husband who had a name like mine. I am still very much single. You can call me a narcissist that the first thing I searched for was my name and when I did not find it, found the website disappointing. But hey, I am not the only one. Others also have seem to have done the same thing and have had the same results. 

This brings me to the point I wanted to make about the importance of names and more specifically to the ‘Brand Value’ they represent. A name or a trademark is something which identifies a particular entity and is amongst the most important factors which is associated with it. It has been long discussed in scientific journals dealing with neuroscience that the brain works by forming association. Recognition or cognition is a faculty which we possess and the brain performs this function by forming associations with other memories and the process of recognition happens. Hence a name or a trademark is something which helps us humans create an association with the product, service or experience and helps us recognize it.

This is something which is very clear to the marketing community. In order for them to make a sale, it is necessary that the entity being sold is recognized and hence the requirement of a name. And since the marketing goal is to make this sale increase, it is required that the product be ‘recognized’ better than any other product. Hence the creation of brand identities. I came across this wonderful website called Brand Tags which is essentially a project which tries to find out what people associate a particular brand with. For instance, the website asks its viewers to mention what is the first thing that comes to their mind when they see the name/trademark of a brand. It then displays the results in a cloud format, with the most commonly associated words appearing big. For Ikea, the most common associations are furniture, cheap and Swedish. So Ikea as a brand has succeeded in making people associate their brand with furniture that is cheap. So unsurprisingly, around the world the best choice for people’s need for cheap furniture is satisfied by Ikea.

The power of the brand name is something which most marketing students and professionals are taught early in their careers. An interesting example of this is mentioned about the rise and fall of the brand names in the pharma industry. In an article for the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Magazine, author John Fidelino asks,

Whats in a name? Sometimes the health of the corporate balance sheet

The article is an interesting read about how the pharma industry products have moved from having names which only doctors understood (Anafranil, Ritalin) to what people can understand, thereby creating the essential ‘association to recognition’ connection with the pills. The article talks about the new and emerging trends in the way medicines are named in the post Viagra era – Viagra being one of the most successful brand names.

Trend 1: The Pharma 2.0 name

In lieu of creating “phashion” names, some manufacturers have returned to the scientific underpinnings of their molecules as their source for inspiration – but with a new twist. Rather than the generic-sounding, chemical type name of the past, the new names make the molecules sound provocative and rather sexy. GSK’s breast cancer treatment, Tykerb (generic name lapatinib), for example, plays off its classification as a tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Pfizer’s Sutent, used to treat certain cancers of the kidney and digestive system,encodes its own generic name, sunitinib. Their short and quick rhythms evoke a sense of power, while their unusual choice of letters cuts through the copious aspirational names. These “pharma 2.0” names do not intend to make you feel comfortable about the science; they make you appreciate the science. By embracing the molecule, they inspire confidence in the compound’s ability to address a physiological need, while by expressing the molecule unconventionally, the names represent the promise of pharmaceuticals. The pharma 2.0 style allows the industry to project a sophisticated, technology-based image, more appropriate for the innovations it offers.

Trend 2: The scientific story name

In the past, if manufacturers weren’t referencing its chemical background, they would name a product according to its indication. This would help orient people as to what they were prescribing the drug for. But the name of the drug would be a constant reminder to the patient of the affliction (e.g., Arthrotec for rheumatoid arthritis, Cancidas for candida infection, Hepsera for Hepatitis B). While past efforts to overcome stigma resulted in the aspirational name, more recent names side-step the condition and the treatment benefit altogether, focusing instead on how the product works. For example, Pfizer’s Selzentry or Celsentri (generic name maraviroc) speaks to how the drug works to block HIV from entering human cells (viz. cell sentry). Unlike the pharma 2.0 style, scientific story names are more familiar sounding. They leverage real language, but in service of expressing the drug’s mechanism.

Trend 3: The anti-pharma name

Given its battered reputation, some manufacturers have abandoned linking to the industry altogether. These companies are creating names that don’t so much seek to differentiate, as to annihilate any benchmark for comparison, and in that way subvert the credibility question. They do this primarily by co-opting naming constructs from other product categories. Novartis’ Exforge (generic names amlodipine and valsartan), for example, parallels the naming of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to result in a brand that sounds able to tackle high blood pressure like an all-terrain vehicle can wrangle a mountain. Anesiva’s Zingo, a needle-free injection system for administering lidocaine powder, is named with a light touch that makes it sound like child’s play ­–– appropriate for a rapid local analgesic for kids. By reflecting other product categories these names telegraph emotional experiences without articulating an aspirational promise

It is very interesting to see how the pharma brand names have evolved to help conumers associate with them. I did a small survey of some Indian pharma brands to see if this was prevalent here too. An example is the case of cough syrup. The famous Benadryl is still famous today, but new brands like Koflet are also making inroads into the consumer mindset. Products like Dettol which gets its ‘ol’ from its chemical composition parachlorometaxylenol is now facing competiton from hand hygiene products like PureHands.

The name, therefore has a lot to do with the entity. On a different genre, interstingly, according to the Brand Tags website, what people associate with the word ‘Virgin’ the most is Richard Branson!

I am sure Mr. Branson would be most pleased with the success of his brand, but I am sure he would not want the brand name to cease to exist after his passing. It may be time for him to find something else people associate with the word ‘Virgin’ other than him, that is just as flamboyant as him. I wonder what or who that could be?