Pen Island - A Harmless Name, or is it?
By Jacky Tai
Principal Consultant, StrategiCom
17 May 2007

One of the most common complaints that I hear from my female friends when I was growing up was “Life is so unfair! Why is it that all the good men are taken?” I am sure some of you available ladies out there are saying the same thing.

Well, if you think that is a problem, wait till you try to find a good brand name! One of the most difficult things that my colleagues and I face is trying to find new brand names for clients because all the good names are already taken. So, we actually have to invent names but that is also not easy because we have 10 very strict rules of naming at StrategiCom which I will share with you in future articles.

Having a good brand name is very important because in the long term whatever unique selling proposition that you have today will be copied (and probably bettered) by your competitors. And in this age of hyper-competition, the long term could be only 6 months down the road. What differentiates you in the long term could be nothing more than your name. So, make sure you have a great name.

The following are some examples of brand names to avoid. Not because they are bad brand names to begin with but they mean something entirely different when you put them in a website address. Make sure you don’t have the same problem with your name.

Who Represents? is a company that helps you find the agents who represents various celebrities. Nice idea. But the website address is not so flattering. www.whorepresents.com sounds like a place where streetwalkers shop for presents.

Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views. Again, nothing wrong with the idea but for the longest time, the website address is www.expertsexchange.com and the first time I saw it, I thought it stood for Expert Sex Change. Yes, yes, yes. Maybe I have a dirty mind but when you have a URL like that you are asking for trouble. They have now changed it to www.experts-exchange.com, thank goodness.

Pen Island claims that it is the best place to go to for custom-made pens. Great idea. Unfortunate website address. www.penisland.net sounds like a sex toy shop.

Therapist Finder is a website that helps you look for a therapist. But if you just look at the website address – www.therapistfinder.com – you might think that’s the place where they list the names of convicted sex offenders.

I was also told there is the Italian Power Generator Company whose website (currently un- accessible) really jumps out and grabs you. Can you guess what it is? www.powergenitalia.com!
What do you think of the URL www.ipanywhere.com? Sounds like the people in that company will pee anywhere but ipAnywhere is actually a computer software site.

If you are a really fast designer, what do you call your company? Speed of Art sounds like a good name. And what would your website be like? www.speedofart.com of course. Does that still sound good?

Mole Station Native Nursery could have ended up with a really unfortunate website like www.molestationnursery.com and I think read somewhere that was what they used to be until they changed it to www.molerivernursery.com.

Be careful what name you use because it could end being a laughing stock. When we undertake naming projects for clients, we will test each name in all the major languages to make sure that they are neutral. It is a very tedious task but totally necessary because if you don’t get the name right the first time, it is usually an expensive affair to change it later.

If you have any questions or comments about this article, please e-mail me at jacky.tai@strategicom.com. I would be most happy to discuss them with you.