Continued from page 1
The latter illustrates an important principle for building successful brand identity and product sales campaigns. A brand name that is appropriately non-traditional for its industry, product or service category will stand out in
marketplace and reduce cost of marketing, sales and promotion. Distinctive names can contribute to success of marketing promotion and brand identity initiatives because they are more apt to be remembered. Further, a distinctive name creates perception of a distinctive product or service, while an ordinary name implies that you’re just another competitor. For successful brand marketing, it’s important to be distinctive—and sound it!
Naming a new product presents a variety of traps to be avoided. Many firms add corporate name or an umbrella name from a successful sister offering to gain quicker market acceptance. Our experience suggests that borrowing whole or half names almost always creates unnecessary baggage. New products and services are handicapped from inception if they don’t have benefit of a name that helps them to create a differentiated brand identity and also alters prospects’ perceptions of competitive products. A new product or service deserves its own name—one that will enhance its advertising, public relations and other marketing communications efforts.
Politicians are very canny about leveraging power of a good name. Legislators routinely give their bills names such as “Fair Trade Act” or “Clean Air Bill” to minimize opposition. Special interest groups like “Right to Life” or “Mothers Against Drunk Driving” use their names to rally support. If you don’t create a name that works for your organization or its products or services, you might have to emulate AFLAC and invest millions by putting an educated duck on TV to build brand identity.
The naming process provides an excellent opportunity to put power of marketing to work for your products and services. For financial services marketing practitioners, naming can be important first step in development of financial marketing communications and sales initiatives that build sustainable brand identity and competitive advantage. The right name serves as springboard for implementation of effective financial promotion, advertising and branding strategies. The better name, more potential it offers for effective, lower-cost financial services marketing solutions that can help achieve marketplace success.
Copyright © 2005 Suasion Resources Inc. All rights reserved. For additional information, please visit us online at http://www.suasionresources.com.
Mr. Jay Nagdeman, the Founder and President of Suasion Resources, has recently been identified as "One of the financial industry's most innovative marketing minds” by Research Magazine. Mr. Nagdeman previously served as Director of Marketing in financial services firms and as a contributing editor for Barron’s. Prior to that, he taught at the business school of the University of Chicago.
