It’s Sound Business–Pronounceable Names
My friend Bob gave me some unforgettable advice long ago.
than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
(Abraham Lincoln)
And so it goes with company names.
Marketers should never underestimate the Fear of Appearing Stupid. If a company name is unpronounceable, people will avoid pronouncing it. That cuts down on word-of-mouth and cuts into sales.
Here are some examples–I’m sure I’ve left out many. Please let us know if you can think of others!
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Provena Health. I always thought it was pronounced with a long “e”, like novena or hyena. Turns out, after hearing a radio ad, it’s “provenna”, like “henna”. Go figure. I’ll bet lots of people hear the radio ad think it’s a brand new company.
xpedx. This bewildering ensemble of letters is actually one of the world’s largest distributors of paper products and graphic supplies. In case you couldn’t guess, it’s pronounced ex-puh-decks. The company used to be called ResourceNet–equally cryptic but far more pronounceable. Note the tiny lettering of “xpedx” on the corporate site. Maybe they’re hoping nobody sees it.
Cingular. We all know it started with an “s” sound, but only because Cingular had a 9-figure advertising budget. At the beginning, I thought it was “Kingular”, more in line with their monopolistic ambitions. Thankfully they’ve morphed into the easily pronounceable AT&T.
Labatt. Is it “La-bat” or “La-bot”? Why risk sounding like an idiot when I can just as well order a Bud?
Mario Tracoci. Looks like an intestinal parasite; no way I’d attempt to pronounce it. I wanted to get my wife a gift certificate there for her birthday, but I was too embarrassed to ask anyone where a store was. I got her car wash certificates instead.
Nissan. Is the accent on the first syllable or the second? Beats me, and I’ve been listening to Nissan ads for–what? Twenty years? I even bought one–an Altima. And come to think of it, I couldn’t pronounce that, either. The tragedy is, Nissan used to be called Datsun. Easy to pronounce, easy to remember. They’ve been slipping downhill ever since the name change.
Chipotle. This name makes Taco Bell sound good. What is it? Cha-pote-lee? Chee-pottle? Your guess is as good as mine, which is why I always suggest we eat anywhere else.
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Life is full of petty frustrations. When people are in customer-mode, the last thing they want is more aggravation. Your company name should be clear and resonant–whether written on paper or riding on sound waves.
Other vexing company names? Please let us know!
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Great post. I hate words that I don’t know how to pronounce and it does seem crazy to build that fear of looking stupid into your business name.
Accenture is one that puzzles me. Where do you put the accent? And how do you say the last three letters without leaving your mouth in an odd shape?
Hi Joanna, Excellent observation about Accenture! I said it out loud a few times. It sounds like my voice is trailing off into space or I’m drunk. Thanks for stopping by Word Sell.
Personally I have no problem with Accenture’s pronunciation–the logo even contains a little stress marker to help us out–but I’ve always been amused by the way it parses to “axe-censure.” Not very friendly!
The name that drives me nuts–and I should mention here that I name companies and products for a living–is Avaya, the gigantic telecom company. (Named by Landor, which is almost equally huge.) Does that middle syllable rhyme with “die” or with “slay”? I once met the head of Landor’s verbal branding department and asked him that very question. And I can’t even remember his answer. That’s how confusing that name is.
Great post Brad. Names should be both easy to pronounce and mean something relevant. This certainly makes sense when branding companies, but also should be considered more often for web site names as well.
A name is such an important component of a company and/or brand image, one that is frequently overlooked. It’s either that or the marketers deserve to field the question, “What were you thinking!”