What's in a name? A few words of advice

A recent discussion with a vendor about the naming of an upcoming product release made me question: What's in a name? More importantly, how do you name a company/product for optimal -- and lasting -- market impact?

Well, there are a number of options: You could go the subtle route, but sometimes subtle is, well, just too unobtrusive to grab hold (e.g., NSI Software, which was recently renamed after its flagship product "Double-Take").

You can go with something clever (e.g., Sepaton spelled backwards is "no tapes"). You can even name your product or company after a pizza place or a child's imaginary friend (remember Z-force and Yotta Yotta?). Sometimes these strategies work (e.g., Sepaton); sometimes they don't (e.g., Z-force and Yotta Yotta).

Or you can be direct. EMC CLARiiON Disk Library comes to mind. Nothing fancy, not at all creative. Just call it as it is or what it does. It is disk emulating a tape library: Disk Library.

Granted, EMC is in a very different marketing situation than a lot of companies in the industry (they've simply got a lot more marketing muscle pull), but that doesn't take away from the fact that the company gets it: The most effective way to message a product or a brand is to be straightforward. If the product is a virtual tape library, call it one. There's more latitude when it comes to the naming of a company, but still the basic premise applies: A name that's too way out there will garner immediate market "interest" but will likely not grab lasting end-user attention.

So, when does it pay to step out of the box, so to speak, and dare to be different? I believe it makes sense when you are creating a new category or introducing some feature that doesn't already exist. But even in those situations, the category or product name should be reflective of what it is/does.

Fail to heed this advice and you're going to spend all day long explaining what your product or company does rather than building momentum – and, importantly, market share - around it.

Just look at the term virtualization. Does anyone really know what it is? Saying that you are a leader in virtualization is like saying that you have a degree in "biospazmicoptomy"; it sounds good but it means nothing to most people. Being direct is best.