No, I’m not talking about Dallas. Nor am I referring to the hip hop rap MC of the same name. I’m talking about Differentiation. If you understand this Big D, then you will have a real key to building your business.

Full disclosure: I consider myself a disciple of Al Ries and Jack Trout. They are true “Marketing Gods” for their work in Positioning and Brand Development. I first read “Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind” in the early 80’s and have referred to it regularly since then.

I recently had two very different name development jobs that presented a wide spectrum of name potential. The names have been changed to protect the guilty, but the situations were real.

One client wanted a descriptive name for a product that would exist in a category of descriptive brand names. To exaggerate, the client wanted a “Fast Pain Relief” name in a category with brands like “Ultra Fast Pain Relief,” “Super Fast Pain Relief,” “Faster Than Everyone Else Relief,” etc.

Another client wanted a made up name that had no reference to the product or category. I’m talking about names like “Blue Elephant” for a pain relief product. Sometimes this naming strategy makes sense, but not in his product category. He had a real opportunity to become the market-defining product by choosing a name that helped consumers understand the benefits of using the product.

I always present a wide range of options for names because I want the client to see the possibilities. However, I always recommend an approach based on a strategic examination of the market in which the product competes, and that is where the Big D comes into play.

To help you in this task, consider using tools that can identify ways to differentiate. I recently discovered this highly visual approach…check it out and see if this could work for you:

 http://steveblank.com/2013/11/08/a-new-way-to-look-at-competitors/

 Sadly, my story about Differentiation in names has an unhappy ending. Neither of my clients chose to differentiate their products with names that would enable them to stand out in the crowd. “Mr. Descriptive Name” chose a descriptive name for his product, and “Mr. Wild Card” chose a wild card name. As a result, each of their products now has an uphill battle in marketing because the names they chose are not differentiated versus the competition. So choose wisely and think “Differentiation” when branding!

Back in the mid-2000s, A.G. Lafley (during his first tour of duty as CEO of P&G) championed the “First Moment of Truth” which represented the time when people are looking at the store shelf and trying to decide whether to buy the product.

Later, P&G emphasized the “Second Moment of Truth,” which is when people try the product at home, to rationalize why they spend oodles of money on Research & Development.

Google VP-U.S. Sales and Service Jim Lecinski jumped back in time to coin “ZMOT,” for the “Zero Moment of Truth,” which is the time when people research a purchase online before shopping for the product. By the way, if you have not read Jim’s book you must do so. It is a free download.

As a professional name developer I believe there is an even more important moment of truth. I call it the Minus One Moment of Truth™ and I believe it can help guide the choice of a name for your company, product or service.

What is the Minus One Moment of Truth? It is the very first time your prospective target customer hears of your company, product or service. If you are choosing a name for your company, product or service, please do the necessary research to understand the Minus One Moment of Truth for your key target customers, because understanding it will yield a lot of clues for your name choice (and your marketing).

For example, let’s say you are developing a new name for a plumbing service. You have done the research and discovered that the vast majority of new customers hear of your company through recommendations of other satisfied customers. In this case, your Minus One Moment of Truth is the instant that George tells Sam that his plumbing is leaking and Sam tells George that he should call “XYZ Plumbers” because they will do the work fast and won’t charge you an arm and a leg (or whatever your unique points of difference are). The conclusion from this example is your name had better be easy to remember because you are relying on Sam to convey the information to George and for George to remember it until he can contact the plumber.

How can things go wrong in this example? Well, what if George does not remember the exact name but remembers that the plumber was supposed to be inexpensive? He uses Google to search for inexpensive plumbers in his area and finds Affordable Plumbers, Discount Plumbers, Cheapskate Plumbers, and SaveMore Plumbers. Here is where failure in the Minus One Moment of Truth leads to a disaster in the Zero Moment of Truth. If George can’t remember the name from his first encounter with Sam, then XYZ Plumbers loses because Google will provide many alternatives. Clearly XYZ Plumbers needs a name that conveys its unique point of difference in a way that will make the Minus One Moment of Truth a memorable event.

Here is another example. Jenny is an artist who wants to rename her art business. She spends a lot of weekends at art fairs around the country and she also has an Etsy e-commerce store. What is her Minus One Moment of Truth? In looking at her business, she believes the Minus One Moment of Truth happens on her Etsy storefront as the Etsy store is her biggest sales volume generator. So she thinks that she needs a name that will search well and therefore she wants to include keywords that relate to her inventory. I’m not going to argue against that approach, but I will point out that she needs to understand the Minus One Moment of Truth for her business. Do the people who buy her product come from searches on Google or Etsy, or do they come from people who have met her in person at the art fairs? If the former, then yes by all means consider inclusion of relevant keywords. If the latter, keywords may not be that important because the Etsy sales are generated by people who met her in person. These people are likely to get her business card and be driven to her web presence by that connection, so perhaps the new business name can be something memorable about her as an artist.

I’m not suggesting that you should violate the fundamentals of developing a good name (and my “Top 5” fundamentals of name selection are shown below). But I am suggesting that you understand your target market and how they first hear of you and then apply these fundamentals:

Fundamentals of a Good Name:

1.  Is simple and concise (easy to pronounce, read and spell).

2.  Is legally available from a trademark standpoint and has domain name options.

3.  Is differentiated versus competition in the category.

4.  Is easy to remember.

5.  Delivers the idea or concept behind the product or conveys something real and specific about the product.

So don’t name your business, product or service without considering where your target customer first hears the name…the Minus One Moment of Truth!

So Apple is launching a new "lower cost" iPhone later this fall. They are planning to call it the iPhone 5C according to the Business Insider tech blog.

So what does the "C" stand for?

Apple claims it is for Color because this plastic backed phone will be available in a wide range of colors.

Consumers might interpret the "C" in a different way…C = Cheap?

What's your call? My 2 cents say Apple could be making a dumb decision…even if they prevail and advertise that "C = Color" the marketplace will call it C = Cheap. Or maybe C = Confused?

Not a smart decision by Apple.

Well, it hasn’t been long since we had the Royal Naming of the Royal Baby: George Alexander Louis. His Royal Highness Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge, to be exact.

Across the pond the Brits are touting the historical significance of the name, while here in America many people are laughing. And the fact that the name has a serious Seinfeld angle is only making it worse (George Louis Constanza was the character played by actor Jason Alexander, so this character has 3 out of 5 of the names).

Prince William and Duchess Kate did not just pull names out of a hat. They really worked hard to come up with names that had meaning, not unlike the way I work for my clients as a professional name developer. Personally, I think they made a great choice, but you have to keep these 3 important branding factors in mind:

1.  Cultural Factors – We are talking about possibly the future King of England, not a sitcom character. Americans might find the name amusing, but I am certain British Royalty could care. An important rule of name development is to make sure the name is relevant for the Target Audience you care about. Score: William/Kate 1 Everyone Else 0
2. Names With Deep Resonance – No fewer than six British kings have borne the name "George.”  In addition, its personal symbolism for Prince William made it an obvious pick for months in betting pools across the country. The last King George was George VI, Prince William's great-grandfather, whose valiant battle with a speech impediment when he inherited the throne after his brother's abdication was dramatized in the Oscar-winning film "The King's Speech." Picking a name with such deep resonance is hard to do but it looks like they did it, and the relevant Target Audience will remember the name because of it. Score: William/Kate 2 Everyone Else 0
3. The Power of the Master Brand – If you think anyone in the relevant Target Audience is going to call this kid George Alexander Louis, you are wrong. He will be known as Prince George. Sounds a lot better, eh? People in the US forgot that there was a powerful Master Brand operating here…Prince will precede the baby’s name forevermore. Game, set, match to William & Kate.

In conclusion, I believe that the Royal Family did a great job in picking the name of the Royal Baby.  What do you think?

One of my local stores has a huge selection of “As Seen on TV” products.  In reviewing their offerings, it occurred to me that the brand names are almost all descriptive & highly functional names that make it very clear what the product does. I’m talking about names like the “Furniture Fix™” chair and cushion support, the “Perfect Pancake™” cooking system, the “Perfect Fries™” French fry cutter and the “Wax Vac™” ear cleaner.

It’s possible that a simple, descriptive name may be all that is needed for a product that is usually accompanied by a long-format infomercial.  After all, you are going to demonstrate the product and show its benefits, enabling you to elaborate on the product’s premise over and over again, so why try to deliver a name that has deep and rich meaning?  All you really want to do is get people to pull out that credit card and pick up the phone!

Actually, the “branding” in “As Seen on TV” products is part of a trend in name development.  Many clients want highly functional names because they claim not to have the money to establish a name that is not obvious to the consumer.  That is one of the few pros of a descriptive name.

However, there are many more cons to using a descriptive name.  In general, the more functional the name, the more likely it genericizes the product and destroys the potential competitive advantages of the product.  How many variants of “fast” are there in the cleaning aisle?  How do you decide which one to buy?  It also makes trademark clearance a more difficult task.  Just try to get anything with “fast” registered for a cleaning product! And if you manage to get a descriptive name registered as a trademark, it will be a weak mark at best.

Not all “As Seen on TV” brands are taking the easy way out, though.  Consider “Poo~Pourri™,” the “Before You Go Bathroom Spray.” It’s not exactly a functional name, but I’m not buying it!

You might think fragrance houses would start with a fragrance then figure out a name. Actually, the name came first for Kate Spade. In a WSJ article, Deborah Lloyd, the president and creative director of the brand said, "We had the name before we had anything else." The name? Live Colorfully. Aligns with the bright handbags that Kate Spade designs. Here is the link to the article if you would like more details:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323372504578469340136934634.html

In 1967 The Doors wrote a song called “People Are Strange.” In the chorus, the lyrics include the phrase, “No one remembers your name when you’re strange.”  It seems like some current fashion labels think that advice no longer applies.

"If you are building a brand from scratch, you're going to get more reaction from something unexpected and strange," says Tom Julian in a New York Times piece by David Colman (2/7/13).  It seems as if fewer fashion designers are naming their lines after themselves and are launching lines of clothing with strange names. Consider what Shane Gabier and Chris Peters call their new line: Creatures of the Wind.  It's taken from a 1957 Johnny Mathis song. "We liked the moody atmosphere and the way that the song brings up different associations," says Shane.

David Colman’s article is titled “No One Forgets a Name When It’s Strange.” Apparently Mr. Colman is not a child of the 1960s. One of the first rules of naming is figure out a way to make it memorable. Strange does not equal memorable.

Consider Natsuko Kanno's line which is called 4 Corners of a Circle.  Apparently it is memorable for being hard to remember.  Publicist Erica Roseman says nearly everyone — even those who work on the line — mess it up. "It was '4 Circles in a Square,' '4 Corners of a City.' No one ever got it right."

Jean Godfrey June, the beauty and fashion news director at Lucky, thinks the quirky names can be a mixed blessing.  "It goes one way or the other, they charm or they repel … The offbeat name is a way to distinguish yourself and sound mysterious and underground-y. The trade-off is, purposely making yourself sound obscure can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy."

You’ve got that right, Jean!

The lesson here is that strange is not necessarily a good or a bad thing, but what is important is how the name relates to the target customer and the product itself. Strange for the sake of strange can be bad, but if the name makes the target customer curious about a product and willing to investigate it further, then strange can be good. This was validated in a study in The Journal of Consumer Research in 2005 where the investigators looked at differences in names for crayons. The findings indicate that consumers preferred “slightly ambiguous” names such as “Blue Haze” or “Alpine Snow” to plain descriptive names such as “Blue” or “White.” But their findings also indicated that names without some reference (e.g., calling a blue crayon “Fred”) were totally confusing to consumers.

Net, net, don’t assume that strange is necessarily good or bad. Like most things in life, the nuances are what make the difference between a great name and a confusing name.

As a professional name developer, I am constantly struck by the “creativity” of small business owners. Sometimes the owners think they are being cute or clever. Sometimes they are just being stupid. Here are just a few examples of bad restaurant names I discovered in 2012. Which do you think is the “Worst Restaurant Name of 2012?”

B.A.D. Sushi (http://badsushi.net) – Apparently the owners think their acronym for “Best And Delicious” sushi is clever. While bad sushi is certainly memorable, I don’t see it generating a lot of positive vibe.

Crapitto’s (http://www.crapittos.com) – OK, I know this is a family name. But no matter how proud you are, I don’t think anyone wants to go to Crapitto’s for that special dinner.

Lick-A-Chick (http://www.atyp.com/aklickachick) – OK, I dig the alliteration, but I’m pretty sure the owner is trying too hard to be clever.

Phat Phuc (http://www.phatphucnoodlebar.com) –   The name may translate as “Happy Buddha” in Vietnamese, but Americans might mistake this name of a London restaurant as meaning something derogatory.

Fu King Chinese (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fu-King-Chinese-Restaurant/123368567719721) – Yup. No mistaking what they sell here, eh?

Which name deserves the “Best Worst Name of 2012” award?

Well, why not? Why should hurricanes have all the fun? For reference, details are provided in the link below, but really how many details do you need? Ideas like this don’t require a lot of explanation!

The Weather Channel says naming the storms will result in clearer communication about the systems. Seriously? Telling me that “Brutus” (one of the actual names they plan to use) is dumping 3 feet of snow on Buffalo is clearer than just saying Buffalo is getting 3 feet of snow? What’s Brutus got to do with it? Some of the other names they plan to use are Athena, Caesar, Rocky and Zeus.

Obviously someone at The Weather Channel thinks they can drive interest/viewership by naming winter storms. Yes, it is no longer sufficient to have poor Jim Cantore standing in the sleet while a bus rolls by and swamps him with slush. We now need to know that “Brutus” did that to poor Jim. I am sure that will make him feel better.

I understand the fact that identifying things is basic human nature. Everything needs an identifying name. But giving a “human” name to a blizzard is going too far. Where do you draw the line on this one?

Will we start naming high pressure systems? They hang around generally produce lovely weather for a number of days. Personally, I think Athena (goddess of wisdom, courage, and inspiration) makes a better name for a high pressure system than for a winter storm!