Microsoft Comes Up With A Great Name–Bing

I was very pleasantly surprised to read in today’s New York Times about–not the new search engine from Microsoft–but its choice of a name.  Bing. Naming is one of the very hardest things to do in branding, which I have obviously mentioned before, and I think this one is a winner.

Early commentary on AdAge is negative, but it’s more about Microsoft the evil empire, than it is about anything else. I’m just taking a moment to revel in a real word that is clearly the result of an actual creative brief! Bravo to Microsoft’s marketing team as well as their agency, Interbrand. What is not known is whether or not this is the same team that came up with the original name, the unfortunate “Kumo“. (If so, well, congratulations on a good recovery.)

Clearly, I have not seen the brief, but can infer some of the criteria:

Short, Memorable, “Verb-able”, Evokes a sound, Easily pronounced, Upbeat (?)

For all I know, it took 18 months of torture to come up with the solution. But it doesn’t look that way. It’s a completely non-tortured, non-coined word. It’s a fun word, which is a departure for the massively literal Microsoft.

And yes, of course, the actual product must now deliver on a rather delicious promise that suggests “aha”, “eureka”, etc. But right now, it’s delightful to recognize some very very nice work. 

 

Bank as Ally? A Novel Concept

GMAC announced that it has changed its name to Ally Bank. As someone who has been involved in corporate naming, I have no interest in quibbling over whether or not it is a good or bad name. Naming is notoriously difficult. If the naming team did it right, there would have been specific criteria around the name type, a clear target audience, and, presumably, testing.

Ally is a decent, in fact, a strong word. The meaning is nice. It’s a little uncomfortable at first, because it’s similar to a woman’s name (pronounced all-ey) and of course the weight loss medicine alli. But it seems to have been “clean” in trademark screening and they were able to obtain the domain: http://www.ally.com.  A simple domain like that is rare indeed. And there is a bank in the Phillipines, Allied Bank, which uses the tag-line, “Your ally. Your bank.” Legal wrangling must have occurred over that one.

The corporate color is a refreshing shade of purple, and the identity is simple, modern, but somewhat sterile and impersonal. The swooshy things don’t do much for me. But they seem to be trying to avoid the usual happy, smiley, diversity-centric Getty images that we see in bank branches, websites and ATM’s.

 

This new bank is doing and saying all the right things: big print, limited product array, differentiation from “traditional” banks, simple interface, etc. And I applaud the company for this.

Ally Bank is different from other banks right now, though, and it’s an important difference: as far as I can tell, Ally is currently in the business of only taking deposits. They are way overextended on the credit side from their heritage product–car loans. I have worked in banking, and believe me, it is much easier to be open, friendly and transparent about deposits than it is about lending money, which requires deep scrutiny of an individual’s creditworthiness. And significant documentation (even if the print is large).  And an ability to say no. And an ability to repossess. Icky stuff. In other words, when it comes to lending, a bank cannot always be an ally. 

I’m not trying to be jaded or negative or skeptical. I just have a memory of another fresh face that was going to reinvent banking by being friendly, open, convenient, and available to all. That bank was called WaMu. We know how that story ended. Let’s hope for a better outcome here.

Cheap and Cheerful Is Just the Ticket!

 

I had a little time to kill yesterday at Grand Central Terminal. I headed toward the bookstore–generally my favorite place to waste time–when I was stopped in my tracks by a storefront I hadn’t seen before.

The company is Pylones, a French-based retailer. As far as I can tell, they bring new meaning to anthropomorphism. 

For example:

 

Tweezers!

OR:

A Grater!

Imagine these, and hundreds of other, colorful objects, artfully arranged on tables, walls, cubbies, piled in pyramids and so on. The music was bouncy, playful. Every shopper in the store was smiling. I noted that some packaging identified Pylones as an “editeur d’objects”. What a perfect description.

In addition to being different, special and fun, almost everything in the shop was inexpensive. Many items were under $10. 

All in all, a delightful branded experience. Lighthearted is good! After so much seriousness, we are greatly in need of a happy moment or two.