What’s in a name?
Case Histories:
Singapore Airline’s Introduction of Boeing’s stretched 747- Big Top
The problem was how to differentiate Singapore Airline’s newly acquired first Boeing stretched 747 from all the other stretched 747s that would eventually be delivered to other airlines in keeping with SIA’s brand strategy and creating a perceived competitive advantage for SIA by owning the new 747.
We wanted to give it a personality. We went from, “more room at the top to a top with more room,” clumsy at best. And although this naming exercise is a fuzzy-one to claim any ownership to, being a group effort, during the brainstorming session in the conference room of Batey Ads on High street in Singapore, I recall having said, “It looks Big.” And the rest became history. So goes the creative process at times.
Case Histories:
Singapore Airline’s Introduction of Boeing’s stretched 747- Big Top
The problem was how to differentiate Singapore Airline’s newly acquired first Boeing stretched 747 from all the other stretched 747s that would eventually be delivered to other airlines in keeping with SIA’s brand strategy and creating a perceived competitive advantage for SIA by owning the new 747.
We wanted to give it a personality. We went from, “more room at the top to a top with more room,” clumsy at best. And although this naming exercise is a fuzzy-one to claim any ownership to, being a group effort, during the brainstorming session in the conference room of Batey Ads on High street in Singapore, I recall having said, “It looks Big.” And the rest became history. So goes the creative process at times.
National Iron and Steel Mills- Natsteel
National Iron and Steel Mills of Singapore was facing increasing competition in its export markets and felt that its image was lacking a modern competitive advantage compared to its competitors like Japan Steel. We agreed that the company’s name hinted at the ‘Iron Age’ and proceeded to develop a new name and a new look for the company more in sync with the times.
I believe strongly in brand and name equities when developing new names, if only to lessen the adverse reaction of loyal stakeholders to change, so we kept the Nat in National, and in keeping with international common practices at the time, kept steel as the industry identifier. Hence, Natsteel was born. It was well received and served the company in changing its current customers’ and potential future customers’ perceptions and presented Natsteel as being a modern and contemporary manufacturer and provider of steel ‘out of the Iron Age.’
http://www.natsteel.com.sg/
Royal Foods-Mother’s Milk, and Thirty Plus
“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Alice.
Royal Foods of Taiwan wanted to broaden its product line building on its basic powdered infant formula and to develop a new health food body building powdered drink for men. Research showed that there was a market for such a product amongst men. Interestingly, the research also showed that women, who out numbered the men, were concerned with their skin. Research also showed that in terms of the perception of quality, Western products were perceived as being superior. Further. a common custom of beauty treatments using a “milk bath” for smoother skin was popular amongst Taiwanese women.
The other interesting element of Royal Food’s research showed an erosion of Royal Food’s primary brand by Western brands such as Nestlé’s, Baby Milk.
Taking the challenges as a whole we decided to rename and re-package the basic brand; Give it a more western and modern look using photography and not graphics as the competition was using. (Primarily because of legal packaging limitations prohibiting illustrations or photographs of infants on the labels of infant powdered milk products in Taiwan.)
Researching the packaging laws we discovered that we could use “parts” of children, such as a “hand” for instance.
Further research revealed the concern of Taiwanese mothers that formula milk was not as good as a mother’s milk.
Conclusion:
We took a creative risk and renamed the infant formula, Mother’s Milk, hopefully overcoming the negative image that formula milk was not as good as a mother’s milk. The package design showed an emotive picture of a child’s hand lovingly holding his mother’s hand.
The new health drink became 30+, positioned as a health drink supplement for smoother skin for women from a reputable baby formula brand manufacturer. Research also showed that if a Taiwanese woman is 25, she is worried about being thirty and if she is over forty she would rather be thirty, and that her skin quality is one of her major beauty concerns. The package design showed a photograph of an attractive fair skinned Caucasian woman.
Unfortunately, Royal Foods after paying incredibly substantial fees for the creative development never followed through with program.
National Iron and Steel Mills of Singapore was facing increasing competition in its export markets and felt that its image was lacking a modern competitive advantage compared to its competitors like Japan Steel. We agreed that the company’s name hinted at the ‘Iron Age’ and proceeded to develop a new name and a new look for the company more in sync with the times.
I believe strongly in brand and name equities when developing new names, if only to lessen the adverse reaction of loyal stakeholders to change, so we kept the Nat in National, and in keeping with international common practices at the time, kept steel as the industry identifier. Hence, Natsteel was born. It was well received and served the company in changing its current customers’ and potential future customers’ perceptions and presented Natsteel as being a modern and contemporary manufacturer and provider of steel ‘out of the Iron Age.’
http://www.natsteel.com.sg/
Royal Foods-Mother’s Milk, and Thirty Plus
“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Alice.
Royal Foods of Taiwan wanted to broaden its product line building on its basic powdered infant formula and to develop a new health food body building powdered drink for men. Research showed that there was a market for such a product amongst men. Interestingly, the research also showed that women, who out numbered the men, were concerned with their skin. Research also showed that in terms of the perception of quality, Western products were perceived as being superior. Further. a common custom of beauty treatments using a “milk bath” for smoother skin was popular amongst Taiwanese women.
The other interesting element of Royal Food’s research showed an erosion of Royal Food’s primary brand by Western brands such as Nestlé’s, Baby Milk.
Taking the challenges as a whole we decided to rename and re-package the basic brand; Give it a more western and modern look using photography and not graphics as the competition was using. (Primarily because of legal packaging limitations prohibiting illustrations or photographs of infants on the labels of infant powdered milk products in Taiwan.)
Researching the packaging laws we discovered that we could use “parts” of children, such as a “hand” for instance.
Further research revealed the concern of Taiwanese mothers that formula milk was not as good as a mother’s milk.
Conclusion:
We took a creative risk and renamed the infant formula, Mother’s Milk, hopefully overcoming the negative image that formula milk was not as good as a mother’s milk. The package design showed an emotive picture of a child’s hand lovingly holding his mother’s hand.
The new health drink became 30+, positioned as a health drink supplement for smoother skin for women from a reputable baby formula brand manufacturer. Research also showed that if a Taiwanese woman is 25, she is worried about being thirty and if she is over forty she would rather be thirty, and that her skin quality is one of her major beauty concerns. The package design showed a photograph of an attractive fair skinned Caucasian woman.
Unfortunately, Royal Foods after paying incredibly substantial fees for the creative development never followed through with program.
House of Tea Tang- The 1872 Clipper Tea Company
A success story.
House of Tea Tang was owned by an old established Sri Lankan Singapore family and based in Sri Lanka. House of Tea Tang primarily dealt in premium bulk tea sold to established Tea brands such as Twinnings and marketed a few local packaged brands.
This was discovered during a brand portfolio audit of the BP de Silva Group in Singapore.
The international market for tea was huge, comprising over a 2 billion dollar annual market a decade ago. The market for a premium tea with a high value brand added mark up was equally as huge.
The proposition to the BP de Silva Group was to create and develop their own line of premium branded teas and to market it initially through their already established marketing channels to establish the new brand.
The opportunity: Access to a lucrative global market with existing resources.
The problem: A new brand in an old, competitive, well established market.
The solution: A new, old looking brand (perhaps something you missed) calling upon the history of tea.
The answer: The 1872 Clipper Tea Company with packaging nostalgic of old English tea packaging.
http://www.clippertea.com.sg/
Malaysia Tin Company-Pacific Can
Same old story, an old name in a new world.
Malaysia Tin Company was in the business of making tin containers. Their name sounded more like a mining company. Nothing stays the same without change, and a newly appointed CEO wanted to make changes. Change always creates opportunities for branding.
He wanted a new company to take public and we helped him do that successfully.
We decided to rename the company and give it a new Corporate Identity System.
The rational for the new name was to identify the location of the company and to communicate what it did in a contemporary visual manner and tone of voice.
The symbol was an abstracted sheet of tin that had had tin lids punched out of it and we printed it in silver foil on the letterhead and using similar silver signage and developing a corporate palette of silver, white and blue.
A success story.
House of Tea Tang was owned by an old established Sri Lankan Singapore family and based in Sri Lanka. House of Tea Tang primarily dealt in premium bulk tea sold to established Tea brands such as Twinnings and marketed a few local packaged brands.
This was discovered during a brand portfolio audit of the BP de Silva Group in Singapore.
The international market for tea was huge, comprising over a 2 billion dollar annual market a decade ago. The market for a premium tea with a high value brand added mark up was equally as huge.
The proposition to the BP de Silva Group was to create and develop their own line of premium branded teas and to market it initially through their already established marketing channels to establish the new brand.
The opportunity: Access to a lucrative global market with existing resources.
The problem: A new brand in an old, competitive, well established market.
The solution: A new, old looking brand (perhaps something you missed) calling upon the history of tea.
The answer: The 1872 Clipper Tea Company with packaging nostalgic of old English tea packaging.
http://www.clippertea.com.sg/
Malaysia Tin Company-Pacific Can
Same old story, an old name in a new world.
Malaysia Tin Company was in the business of making tin containers. Their name sounded more like a mining company. Nothing stays the same without change, and a newly appointed CEO wanted to make changes. Change always creates opportunities for branding.
He wanted a new company to take public and we helped him do that successfully.
We decided to rename the company and give it a new Corporate Identity System.
The rational for the new name was to identify the location of the company and to communicate what it did in a contemporary visual manner and tone of voice.
The symbol was an abstracted sheet of tin that had had tin lids punched out of it and we printed it in silver foil on the letterhead and using similar silver signage and developing a corporate palette of silver, white and blue.
The new name was Pacific Can.
Sony- Walkman vs. Sound About
We lost this bout with Morita-san, the then president of Sony in Japan.
Morita-san had nursed a pet project and passion to develop a mobile music cassette tape player that he could listen to during his morning walks. He challenged his engineers to come up with such a device. And after a miniaturizing nightmare of tape technology… they did.
Pleased with his new toy, he brought it to Dentsu Tokyo to be christened and promoted.
I was one of the copywriters on the international team handed the challenge of naming the new product. It was a first. Taped music you could take with you anywhere. Your own portable personal sound system! A real WOW!
Hundreds of names were generated. One was chosen by the Dentsu creative review board. Mine!
The name was, Sound About.
The presentation was made at Sony Headquarters on a Wednesday at 3:00 pm in the Sony technological wonderland boardroom.
All alternatives were presented along with our final recommendation.
Morita-san listened politely and was silent at the end of our presentation.
The silence was awesome.
Then with a smile and rising he said, “I like to walk listening to music. We will call it, Walkman. “
The meeting was over.
( We all thought it was Japlish. We were wrong. English is always evolving. Along with i-phone and i-pod)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkman#History_and_design
Jenny’s Boutique- Arrogance Boutique
Jenny, a women’s clothing boutique owner, came to me and wanted to rejuvenate her boutique. She said it should have attitude with a capitol A. I took her literally.
The new name: Arrogance Boutique.
The symbol: A large Scarlet letter A.
A
Thank you N. H.
Mytown.net -a new local concierge service as a value added product/service for an energy provider.
This evolved out of a corporate environment where I was the author of the Advertising and Branding Strategy Paper and had generated new names for the service, unfortunately the paper is a proprietary company document and I cannot share it. Ultimately it was boring but effective in creating the new service.
Headlines:
A couple of all Time Favorites:
Who says Macintosh isn’t speaking to IBM? - Headline for introducing a new Mac-IBM interface product.
Unnatural Size. Natural Colour. -Headline for Sony’s introduction of the largest big screen color television in Europe. (Clio)
Heavy. -Headline for Sony’s lightweight headphones.
Tag lines:
I don’t know who wrote, Sony the One and Only, Only, I wish I had.
Regards,
Thayne
(So what have I done lately?) To be continued…
Sony- Walkman vs. Sound About
We lost this bout with Morita-san, the then president of Sony in Japan.
Morita-san had nursed a pet project and passion to develop a mobile music cassette tape player that he could listen to during his morning walks. He challenged his engineers to come up with such a device. And after a miniaturizing nightmare of tape technology… they did.
Pleased with his new toy, he brought it to Dentsu Tokyo to be christened and promoted.
I was one of the copywriters on the international team handed the challenge of naming the new product. It was a first. Taped music you could take with you anywhere. Your own portable personal sound system! A real WOW!
Hundreds of names were generated. One was chosen by the Dentsu creative review board. Mine!
The name was, Sound About.
The presentation was made at Sony Headquarters on a Wednesday at 3:00 pm in the Sony technological wonderland boardroom.
All alternatives were presented along with our final recommendation.
Morita-san listened politely and was silent at the end of our presentation.
The silence was awesome.
Then with a smile and rising he said, “I like to walk listening to music. We will call it, Walkman. “
The meeting was over.
( We all thought it was Japlish. We were wrong. English is always evolving. Along with i-phone and i-pod)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkman#History_and_design
Jenny’s Boutique- Arrogance Boutique
Jenny, a women’s clothing boutique owner, came to me and wanted to rejuvenate her boutique. She said it should have attitude with a capitol A. I took her literally.
The new name: Arrogance Boutique.
The symbol: A large Scarlet letter A.
A
Thank you N. H.
Mytown.net -a new local concierge service as a value added product/service for an energy provider.
This evolved out of a corporate environment where I was the author of the Advertising and Branding Strategy Paper and had generated new names for the service, unfortunately the paper is a proprietary company document and I cannot share it. Ultimately it was boring but effective in creating the new service.
Headlines:
A couple of all Time Favorites:
Who says Macintosh isn’t speaking to IBM? - Headline for introducing a new Mac-IBM interface product.
Unnatural Size. Natural Colour. -Headline for Sony’s introduction of the largest big screen color television in Europe. (Clio)
Heavy. -Headline for Sony’s lightweight headphones.
Tag lines:
I don’t know who wrote, Sony the One and Only, Only, I wish I had.
Regards,
Thayne
(So what have I done lately?) To be continued…
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