12 Naming 5: Be shocking

12

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—fi rst 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.

Shock worked for Branson. On the other hand, a provocative name can create trouble. BJ Cunningham and Boz Temple-Morris established the Enlightened Tobacco Company and launched their brand, Death Cigarettes in 1991. They used a skull and crossbones as their logo. They took to view that since smokers know that cigarettes can kill them, you might as well tell the truth about it.

Their approach was too uncomfortable for the mainstream cigarette manufacturers, who allegedly discouraged stockists from selling the small brand. Allegedly. The company fi nally closed in 1999.

You can still see the rather splendid countertop display at www.logax.com in their “Packaging & POS” section. It did get talked about, and Death was a well-known brand for a while, but in the end, it was too threatening for the market, and a little bit too honest for the competitors to bear.

In practice • Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Consider what they might think before you go on the shocking route. What is shocking now could become the norm in future as people accept the new meaning created by the brand name— but only if the brand lasts long enough. • Shocking with a hint of naughtiness tends to have an advantage over shocking and confrontational.