Out of the Box

The Mixed Blessing of Naming

By Menachem Lubinsky on March 02 2009

Naming a building, a sports arena or any other major public institution is considered by many marketers as the ultimate method of branding. The exposure of the name to large numbers of people is the ultimate goal for a product or institution. But marketers have recently debated whether the naming blessing can in fact turn into a negative. What happens if a bank has its name on a major institution only to be faced by financial turmoil and eventual takeover. Or what happens if a building carries the name of an individual who ultimately is not held in the highest esteem by the public?

The marketers will no doubt say that the naming is still worth the risks, provided that they are the normal risks of financial turmoil. They will counsel that the upside of the branding might cancel out the possible negatives of something turning sour. There has been much written about naming, not only of buildings but even for items that are sold in a retail store or in a restaurant. Many foods are indeed known by the name of the state in which they are produced (i.e. Omaha Steaks, which is the name of a large company). Once again, the evidence is clear: naming works.

A local store in Florida named interior decorating items by the streets in the community. He sold the La Salle sofa, the Lincoln coffee table and so forth. The owners of the store swore that the naming of the items had increased sales by as much as 50%. In Israel, some costume Jewelry is named after regions like Galilee or cities like Eilat. In Italy, glassware is routinely named after regions and so forth.

The interesting thing about naming is that it is a relatively inexpensive marketing vehicle that can be utilized by retailers with small budgets. Of course, ideally a retailer or any business for that matter would want to profile the names in advertising, but it works very well even in point of sale marketing.

Real estate tycoon Donald Trump uses naming extensively to brand his hotels and other holdings. The same was true for the late Harry Helmsley, who built his empire around his name as did the famed Conrad Hilton. The latter in fact wrote that he solved two problems with the naming of his hotels: the branding and the personal touch, leading customers to believe that he was personally hosting them.

The world of charity knows naming well, recognizing that some people will donate large sums of money to perpetuate their names or those of their families. Some marketers say that even such a gesture often leads to the branding of their businesses, as is the case with many tycoons who invested in naming hospitals and other major public institutions.

In recent years, municipal governments woke up to the idea that naming could be a source of major revenue. A plan in New York City, for example, called for the naming of subway stations. One City Councilman had even proposed naming sanitation trucks and bus shelters. In Europe, many train stations are already named after businesses.

It is only a matter of time that municipal governments will begin to offer the naming opportunities for parks, schools, and even government buildings. Businesses will no doubt be interested because of research that shows that the exposure from such naming can be far greater than conventional advertising or other means of promotion.

Marketers say that once naming becomes more popular, the calls for public scrutiny will grow. Candidates for naming will be put through the grinder to assure that they are good models for citizens. One marketer wondered if environmentalists will oppose a name because a company did not have clean bill of health on environmental issues.

Of course, that kind of scrutiny will not be required to name a steak the “Cohen Steak” or a suit the “Klein suit.” Even diamond giant DeBeers has been trying for years to get the public to call its diamonds by the DeBeers name. It at one point tried to get its sight holders to do the work for them by committing advertising dollars to promote their association with DeBeers. They already owned one of the all time slogan winners with “Diamonds are Forever” and needed only to add the DeBeers name to its diamonds to brand their name before their primary customers.

The evidence is clear that naming is more than an exercise in bragging rights or for some an ego trip. It actually translates to sales and profits, which makes it more than a luxury exercise. No wonder that Congress these days wants to make sure that taxpayer dollars are not being used to brand a bank that is being bailed out since that may be considered an abuse of the naming privilege. The reason is that Congress wants naming to be more than a branding exercise. It wants the name to be a model name in behavior and fiscal responsibility.

I think that naming will become increasingly popular in years to come, especially in the post recession era (yes, this too will end). The next time you wonder, “what’s in name?” the answer is quite simple: money.

Out of the Box is a collection of strategic marketing articles that Lubicom has published on various topics, trends and ideas in the marketing world. The articles have been published in the Hamodia weekly newspaper circulated on three continents to a readership of well over 100,000.

The name, "Out of the Box" is a term used frequently in business nowadays to describe creative thinking that is not the norm. It is meant to help a business pull away from the pack or separate oneself from the competition. It is to some extent fraught with risk, simply because it is not the run of the mill thinking, but it is at the same time the key to reaching the next opportunity.