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NAMING 5: BE SHOCKING
If and only if you know that your potential customers will be attracted rather than repelled by a brand identity that shocks, you might consider taking the risk. It will almost defi nitely get you talked about, but it could also get you banned.
The idea Virgin, the brand established by Sir Richard Branson, and extended in many interesting directions—some successful, some not—first appeared at Branson’s and Nik Powell’s small record shop in 1970, Virgin Records and Tapes, in Notting Hill . They set up their record company in 1972. Sir Richard says that they chose the name because they were all business virgins. Now, when the brand name Virgin is mentioned, we tend to think of Branson himself. It has a meaning that has developed beyond the original sense: A pure young woman or unspoiled territory. In the 1970s, in most of the UK, virgin was not a word that you’d say out loud in polite company. And to see it written on carrier bags, shop fronts and T-shirts really was deeply shocking. Carrier bags for 7-inch singles were branded “Virgin Single”. Daring young women would stick them up on their bedroom walls next to their Genesis posters. A girl I went to school with bought herself a Virgin T-shirt, and was instructed by the local headmaster not to walk anywhere near his junior school for fear of corrupting the pupils.
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100 Great Branding Ideas 14dec.indd 27
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