The Making of a Name: The Inside Story of the Brands We Buy

Rating:
Summary: Words matter.
Review: In an overcommunicated world, the words we choose to name things are very important if you want to catch fire with a market and be remembered by consumers. This book is enormously helpful to anyone bringing out a new product or service. It is also extremely entertaining to read -- a winner on every count.

Rating:
Summary: A passionate, intelligent guide to those names we buy
Review: The book provides a thorough introduction to the evolution and significance of brand names. It's an easy read for those of us without degrees in linguistics and covers a great deal of ground. I particularly liked the anecdotes liberally spread throughout.

Of particular interest to me was a chapter devoted to global brand names. While I would have liked to see more attention devoted to this topic - since most brand names created today should first be given a "global analysis" - I found some wonderful anecdotes in the chapter. Here are a few:

"Standardizing the taste is one thing. Standardizing the marketing is another." Even though Heineken is kept standard globally, its marketing is widely tailored to each market. For example, in Asia beer is marketed as a sophisticated, almost feminine, product while brewers in Australia position it as quite the opposite.

Nestle succeeds globally because it creates products specific to local markets. For example, it offers an instant coffee specifically for India called Sunrise, blended with chicory to appeal to local taste buds. The company may have a dozen worldwide brands but has more than a hundred regional brands and more than 700 local brands.

Be careful when taking your brand name into new markets. Consider the challenges that these local brands would face if they were introduced into the US:

* Bimbo bread (Spain)
* Zit soft drinks (Greece)
* Pschitt soft drink (France)