Especially in the automotive sector, there are many examples of such naming slip-ups. Remember the Nissan pajero? The Japanese were hugely surprised that this wonderful off-road car was not popular in Spanish-speaking countries. But who would want to drive a car called a ‘jerk’, because pajero is just jerk in Spanish. A great brand like Rolls-Royce also had a slip-up. This time on the German market. At one time it called one of its models Silver Mist, which in English can mean ‘silver mist’. But in German, ‘mist’ is the term for a ‘pile of dung’. Would any German millionaire be interested in driving a ‘Silver Dung Pile’? The company has rebranded and replaced Silver Mist with Silver Shadow.
Principles of good naming
As you can see, the basic principle of naming is good research, especially if your company, product or service will cross borders. It is then necessary to get an idea of local colloquial speech, which, as you can see, can cause even the biggest ones to be compromised.
There are a few other basic rules for creating names. One of them concerns not succumbing to fads. It’s a bit like naming children. Some time ago, the popularity rankings were conquered by Jessica and Bryany. In marketing, on the other hand, for a while the top names were those with the formant -ex or -pol. Today, many owners of these companies regret this, but it is difficult to completely change the image with the name after several decades. The more modern competition, however, benefits from this.
What name to choose for your business?
The name should be short, preferably two to three syllables, easy to say and write down and, above all, distinctive, unique. We recently helped create a new brand on the market, a guesthouse with a chalet atmosphere in Wisła. What appealed most to us and the owner was the name NECH TO SZLAK. It perversely alludes to a popular phrase and at the same time strictly defines the character of the facility.
For another of our clients (a shopping centre), we were looking for a name for a newly created promotional newspaper. We proposed the simple title W PUNKT. It is quite universal, but at the same time emphasises that whatever you find in the newspaper (in the shopping centre) is a hit.
There are many good examples of names. They are, for example, the KROKUS POKUS flower shop in Kraków, the HONOTU pizzeria in Łeba, the ŚLĄSKA PROHIBICJA restaurant in Katowice’s Nikiszowiec or the ADACTA tax law firm in Wrocław, and many, many others. It is important that the name of your company or product is also in this group, and not at the other extreme, among them: LARWA funeral parlor in Biłgoraj, STOLEC butcher’s shop in Ząbkowice Śląskie or ANALMED medical analysis laboratory in Prudnik.
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