1. What’s in a NAME?

2. “If I had a great name for a product, I’d build a business around it”
- Maurice Kanbar (Inventor)
Author of ‘SECRETS FROM AN INVENTORS NOTE BOOK’
“Was Dirty Dancing a successful movie, because it was a great film? No. The
title brought the people into the theatre. I doubt they would have come out if it
were called “Weekend at Catskills”

3. Categories of names…
• Names can be broadly categorized into the following:
• Source names:
– Ascribe a person or place in connection with them
• Descriptive names:
– Describe a characteristic, ingredient, purpose, function or appearance
• Suggestive names:
– They operate through connotation working, within the brain as a simile or a
metaphor
• Random names :
– Appear to have no connection with the referents

4. Source Names
• Ascribe a source or origin…
– Indian Airlines, Air India
– Canada Dry
– Salem
– Ford
– Godrej
– Tata
– Hewlet-Packard, Dell
‘Identify who founded or owns an enterprise, or where a product
may be found or what market territory it covers’
Ideal when the group has established credentials or the geographical location can add value

5. ESSARWAY

6. ESSARTEL

7. ESSARSPEAK

8. ESSARONE

9. WOW-ESSAR

10. Source
• ESSARWAY
• ESSARTEL
• WOWESSAR
• ESSARSPEAK
• ESSARONE
BSNL / TATA

11. Descriptive names
• Affirms some attribute by which the product, service or company wishes to
be known…
– General Motors
– Newsweek
– Radio city
– Big Bazar
– Coca-Cola
These names describe the product or service,
using straight forward language and words
Ideal for establishing strong associations with the
category

12. SPACETEL

13. ORBIT TELECOM

14. FLASH CELLULAR

15. TELEPATHY

16. EASYTEL

17. EXPRESS-CEL

18. Descriptive
• Spacetel
• Orbit Telecom
• Flash Cellular
• Telepathy
• Easytel
• Expres-cel
Aircel / Airtel

19. Suggestive Names
• They operate through connotation & allusion, working within the brain as a
simile, metaphor and cultural reference
• Examples..
– Eden: A brand of dried fruits
– Garrison: Brand of dead bolt locks (Military post)
– Sprint: Suggests speed
– Bible Bar: Has the seven foods from the promised land
– SUVs’: Explorer, Forester, Escape…
– Hush-Puppies

20. Pigeon

21. Vibe

22. Easy

23. Swing

24. Ozone

25. Matrix

26. Suggestive
• Pigeon
• Vibe
• Easy
• Swing
• Ozone
• Matrix
Idea / Reliance

27. While most of these options are workable, relevant and
effective at some level…
Our competitors seem to be in the same space…

28. Therefore…
• Will they help us stand out?
• Will they maximize our recall?
• Will they break through the clutter?
• Will they help us carve out a niche?
• Will they optimize our monies?

29. We are the Challenger Brand!!!

30. The power of thinking out of the circle
• Orange
• Yahoo!
• Google
• Apple
• Manhattan
• Virgin
• Mirchi/ Red
• Spice
• Pogo
• Yes Bank
• Onida Candy (14 inch TV for
youngsters)
• ShareKhan
• Oxygen (cellular service in Canada)

31. Our approach
• Out of the circle
• Do not describe but DISTINGUISH
• Young, friendly, hip
• Breaking Rules!!!!

32. Mercury

33. Heat

34. Gene

35. Protein

36. Fox

37. Buzz

38. Gipsy

39. Rain

40. Neon

41. Ozone

42. Boom

43. Tadka

44. Gupshup

45. Tassan

46. Maybe push the envelope even
more…
Distinguish ourselves even more ??

47. Hormone

48. Tiger

49. Josh

50. Next

51. Pulse

52. Ice

53. And even more cutting edge???

54. Kiss

55. Wink

56. Zone

57. Lips

58. Hug

59. 4Play

60. Adda

61. 69

63. The makings of a good name

64. • A good name delivers an idea, concept or benefit.
– Can’t believe it’s not butter, No more tears, Safari

65. • ‘Word names’ usually are superior to ‘name names’
– Orange v/s BPL or BSNL
– Budget v/s Avis
– Apple v/s Dell
– Sprint v/s MCI
‘Unless of course the name already has established positive values and heritage’

66. • Names work harder when they have tangible sensory referents
“Memory for picture/ sound is superior to memory for words”
• Kim R. Robertson, professor at Trinity University – Texas, has extensively studied
brand names as a marketing tool.
– Concrete names with tangible visual/ sound referents work better than abstract names
• Examples: Dove, Mustang, Rabbit, Apple V/S Pledge, Tempo, Premier etc.
• Ferrari, Zoom…

67. • A good name has the ability to uniquely distinguishes a company or service from
its competition
– Vergin, Go, Spice
– Java
– Apple
– Axe
– Google
– Manhattan
– Yes Bank
– Pogo, Aaj Tak
– Mirchi

68. • A good name is short crisp and concise…
– Chevrolet became Chevy
– FedEx
– Coke
– Jag
– Advil v/s Ibuprofin
Harvard psychologist, George Miller found that only seven pieces of information like, seven brands in
a category or seven digits in a phone number – could easily be held in short term memory, this may
be why consumers instinctively simplify names

69. • A good name bundles associations and is rich in implications
– Example: Viagra
• The older drug for in this category was called “VASOMAX”. The new wonder drug –
Viagra, combines ‘Vigor’ and ‘Niagara’ (Falls) and thus suggests vitality, strength and
natural force

70. An interesting trend

71. • New entrants in categories tend to break the clutter with
their names…
– HDFC, ICICI, HSBC, CitiBank, SBI…and then there is “Yes Bank”
– AI, IA, Jet Airways, Sahara… Go, Spice
– Star News, Zee News, BBC… Aaj Tak
– Credit cards… Manhattan

72. “Relevance to consumer is critical”

73. Re-visiting our consumer
• 18 – 25, male

74. Our approach
• Source – Leveraging the ESSAR legacy
• Making it young
• Specific to Mobile services

75. Random Names
• Appear to have no relation to the referents
– Yahoo!
• Jery Yang and David Filo first named the protal ‘David and Jerry’s Guide’.
Realising that it was pretty ungainly, they searched further. They began
looking for words beginning with ‘ya’ (the universal computing acronym for
‘yet another’) David Filo then stumbled upon Yahoo! And took it, also because
his father use to cal him ‘little yahoo’ when he was a boy.
– Apple:
• Steve Jobs, was visiting an orchard and concluded that the apple was the most
perfect fruit and he wanted his company to be perfect too. Apple capitalized on
being different from other computer makers, as fresh and uncomplicated as a
fruit
Orange