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NAMING 7: BE POETIC
As we were saying, a hundred years ago companies generally named themselves after their owners or their location. And although they might choose a snappier brand name for their products, they generally retained a practical descriptive approach. However early brand names did sometimes venture into the poetic, with elegant metaphors to summon up a vision of the ideal.
The idea There’s a delicate balance here. How can you describe what you do clearly yet add a touch of the idyllic to your brand identity? How about Robertson’s Golden Shred marmalade with its strips of orange peel, and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate? They’re such familiar brands in the UK that’s we have almost forgotten their meanings and the feelings that they were designed to evoke when they first appeared on jars and bars in 1996 and 1905. The current trend is to use short names, sometimes invented, that don’t already mean anything, rather than aim to associate with something that already exists, just in case it has negative associations somewhere around the world. Evocative names abound in fine perfumery, like Tauer Perfumes’ L’Air du Désert Marocain. The late lamented Keep It Fluffy, by B Never Too Busy to be Beautiful, and my favourite, Let Me Play The Lion, by Les Nez.
100 GREAT BRANDING IDEAS • 31
100 Great Branding Ideas 14dec.indd 31
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