part 4. how not to name a brand : strategy failure equals naming failure

the nestle website lists 3 judging criteria:

• creativity : 40%
• suitability of the name to the Product Concept : 30%
• appetite appeal : 30%
  

unfortunately, the Product Concept write up in the website, in the "About-Me" portion is sorely lacking of meaningful information in developing a brand name. while some mention was done on the commercial that is shown as an intro to the website, all that was mentioned in the product description in the website were the 3 flavors without giving detailed descriptions of the flavors. mention of the promo in the product concept statement made the whole thing even more confusing if not misleading.

looking at the list of names submitted and listed as “finalists”, however, showed that its very possible the authors of the names ignored the list of criteria or they did not understand what they meant. specially at the start of the contest, most of the names submitted were mostly an attempt to be creative or unique but hardly took off from the criteria of “suitability to the product concept”.

this can explain why there was a profusion of names that included “summer” in them. while summer is an interesting idea, its use in the names submitted were inappropriate for an ice cream product. summer is all about heat, sweat and sun on the physical side; and youth, fun and active on the emotional side. from a physical side, summer as used in the names are contradictory to the essence of an ice cream product. an ice cream product should evoke cooling or cold-related sensations, not heat and discomfort.

the idea of summer was also nowhere in the website or criteria and yet many names using the word were submitted. this happened only because at the beginning of the contest, two names with summer got the two top votes. it appears other names with the use of summer or its counterpart “tropical” were submitted as copycat submissions to the two top voted names. aside from the weakness of summer/heat contradicting ice cream/cold, the use of the word may mislead people to think this product will only be available during the summer months. brand names first and foremost should be descriptive of the product. ”suitability to the product concept” should have gotten more weight and less on “creativity”.

but then again, the contest participant is left guessing what the ”product concept” is. we assume it is that part that is labeled ”About-Me” or the product description. but the ”about-me” or product description as already discussed was poorly written, lacking and confusing. in marketing terms, a “concept” is very different from a “description”. nestle is hoping the reader of the website will be able to figure those things out on their own.


to be continued…..

visit the nestle website: http://www.givemeaname.ph/