Brands, Guest posts

The Game of the Name - by Glyn Britton

July 2nd, 2008

Posted By admin

Hello, I’m Glyn. I work at Albion, a marketing agency who are working with TIML Golden Square to help develop and launch your new brand.

Yes, we’re the “overpaid marketing tossers” who get “paid to sit around” and “dream up ridiculous ideas”.

(Actually, we try hard not to be tossers, pay ourselves too much, sit around, or create stupid ideas. But this isn’t meant to be a post about us. If you want to know more, have a look at www.albionlondon.com).

Now, creating a new brand covers a huge range of different areas, but the one that always gets emotional is the name. And it’s understandable. This business has been called ‘Virgin Radio’ for 15 years. Imagine having to rename your son after 15 years of him being called Geoff. It’s difficult. He’s just a Geoff. It’s silly to start calling him something else. But that’s what we have to do here.

What’s clear to us though, from talking to people at One Golden Square / reading this blog / reading the VIP blogs, is that there is a very strong sense of identity and potential to this business. An identity that already transcends the Virgin Radio name. In fact it feels like the business is ready to move on from that name, that history, and move fast in a new direction. So ‘all’ we have to do is try and distill that sense and capture it in a name.

So how are we going to do that? Well, in our experience, the best brand names come from inside the organisation. That’s what happened with most of our clients – eBay, Skype, Innocent…

So we’d like to hear your ideas. Please fill in this form. Your ideas will come directly to me and Clive. I’m afraid we can’t be as open with this, as some pesky speculator will just go and register the domain names and trademarks – so please don’t post serious suggestions in the comments here; satire only.

Clive tells me they’ve already had some stonking ideas at TIML, and that some people at One Golden Square have already emailed great ideas too.

A few guidelines:

  • Think in names. Words aren’t enough. We know you’re ‘good’, ‘rock’, and ‘music’, but there’s nothing that’s going to make people’s hearts flutter there.
  • Try to think into the future and imagine the name in context. ‘iPod’ is a slightly naff name really - it’s all the other bits of the brand that give it context and make it great.
  • Try to find something unique and distinctive. This is the hard bit. There are a lot of radio stations in the world, so lots of the good existing words will already be trademarked. So:
    - Try thinking laterally. ‘Virgin’ doesn’t describe the music you play, but an attitude to business.
    - Invent words. ‘Skype’ was just made up, but feels like it could be real, and is redolent of sky and hype.
    - Mash words about. ‘Ocado’ loses the first few letters from avocado.

I’m afraid there’s no financial incentive if your name makes it, but you’ll be able to bask in the glory of having created the new name for the media story of 2008.

The decision won’t be made by committee, or by vote, as that will only lead to sludge! The TIML team will make the final call, based on their ambition for the business, as well as what suits it today.

They’ll be advised by the marketing professionals at One Golden Square, and us. This is one area where we won’t be asking listeners – as Geoff points out, they might not be able to make the kind of creative leaps we’re after.

Ultimately, wherever the best idea for the name comes from, we all need to embrace it, and get on with the more important work of making sure that everything else you do is brilliant – that’s what will make the new brand great. We’ll be trying to do our bit with the visual identity (logos, colours etc), and brand communications (ads).

(BTW, some other people have already had a go at the name).

Glyn

TAKE ME TO THE NAME FORM

6 Comments

  1. The Game of the Name - by Glyn Britton | Available Domains - Industry leading domain name news,
    July 2nd, 2008 at 1:07 pm:

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  2. Marty from new yawk,
    July 2nd, 2008 at 7:50 pm:

    I detect a bit of disdain for the listeners in your post. That’s contemptible in my estimation.

    You’ve suggested the name should come from inside the organization. I think that’s brilliant! So let’s go inside the organization. “Door Radio?” no, too bland.
    “Martin from Security Radio” nope, we can’t use that. Too expensive to launch a brand around one person. “Lift Radio” to help you through the ups and downs of your day. “Reception Area Radio” no, too limited. “Post Room Radio” again, too limited. “Stairway Radio” taking you to new heights daily.

    I guess you’re right, we listeners can’t make “creative leaps.”

    I feel truly blessed you’re here.


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  3. Marty from new yawk,
    July 3rd, 2008 at 4:12 am:

    One more thing, do you honestly believe anyone is going to take the time to complete your form for no financial incentive?

    Besides, you’re the marketing person. Presumably, you’re getting paid.

    It’s YOUR job to come up with the name.

    Hop to it!!!


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  4. Glyn Britton,
    July 3rd, 2008 at 7:45 am:

    Hi Martyfromnewyawk,

    I think I proved that I’m a tosser and this is an emotive subject!

    I honestly don’t have disdain for listeners, but I can see how it came across as that from my post. The points I was clumsily trying to make were:

    - We need to create a name for the future, not just today. And that depends on knowing what the future strategy is, which is obviously commercially sensitive.
    - The final decision on the name will be made by the TIML team and not by a the listeners in a phone vote (as had been suggested by a couple of people); we believe that if the decision was the result of a beauty contest, then we risked having to settle on a comfortable, likable medium rather than something edgy and potentially uncomfortable (which in the long run would build a stronger brand).
    - In doing this we hope to get to a great brand name that can sit alongisde names like Orange (rather than phones4u) and Skype (rather than VOIPbuster).

    By the way, thanks to all the people who have sent great suggestions through. If listeners want to contribute, they’ll be most welcome :-)


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  5. LP,
    July 3rd, 2008 at 10:47 am:

    An excellent - and amusing - blog from Nik Goodman reminds us what direction NOT to go in when deciding on a name for the new brand. I quote:

    “Of course the days of naming your station after a river are hopefully gone! Yes that’s right international readers… there are plenty of stations in the UK named after a local river!! As are the days of giving your station the Latin word for ‘undefeated’ which bore significance for William the Conqueror but isn’t that great as a radio brand. Come on down ‘Invicta FM’. We know who you are!”

    Read the full article here: http://nikgoodman.blogspot.com/2008/06/whats-your-name-again.html


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  6. Marty from new yawk,
    July 3rd, 2008 at 12:16 pm:

    Thank you for your reply.

    Frankly as a listener, I don’t care what you name the station. My only concern is that format remain unchanged and that the presenters on the station remain unchanged.

    I’m still not convinced that denying people a financial incentive on the “Name the Station” form is particularly a bright thing to do.

    In my opinion, the inherent parsimony reflects badly on the new ownership. I ask that the matter be subject to a “re-think.”


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