The brand manager’s dilemma: a rose by any other name

A rose by any other name, of course is the crux of all decisions made by any brand manager or marketing director: will it, would it, could it possibly smell as sweet?

Lend me your imagination for a moment or two and let’s just pretend that way back, it was decided to call a rose a slod. Doesn’t quite work does it? Exquisite, delicate, scented, luscious, romantic – a slod?

But what if those (branding specialists of their day?) doing the naming had labelled it instead a surve. Yes, actually that could work. Sweetly scented, beautifully formed, thorned, but desirable – a surve. Yes we could have lived and grown to love that couldn’t we?

So, what makes us respond to those two options in such different ways? Different letters and letter combinations create visual arrangements and sounds with their own emotions and connotations. So slod sounds like slog and slop – not very sweet or delicate words.

Would we feel the same about Romeo if he was called Fred? Would Juliet have stirred our emotions so deeply if she was an Ethel? And if not, why not? Which brings us back to our naming issue: what’s in a name?

What to call Fred and Ethel (apologies to any Fs or Es who may be reading this with hurt in their hearts – honestly, no wounding intended) is often a huge challenge for brand managers and marketing directors. What we’re talking about are cultural connotations and if Shakespeare, reflectively sucking the end of his quill seeking inspiration (and pondering like all writers on how long since his last glass of ale and could he possibly justify a small seafood snack) had come up with Fred and Ethel, would things have been very different?

When it comes to the all-important – in fact, vital – naming of a new company, brand or product, we at Grain take into consideration not just cultural programming and expectations but also how the name could carry itself across different countries and product extensions. Not to mention trademarking which is a profession (and perhaps another post) in its own right. So…what about Rose™?